Storm Season (6 page)

Tick-tock.

A haze rose from the ground as Jasper squinted into the night, his blurring vision further impaired by the darkness and the rain. He leaned out, his hands braced on the empty doorway, and identified what looked like the door in the mud beside the house. There were footprints near it, though coming or going he couldn’t tell without a closer look.

His need to know outweighed his fear of the storm. Taking a deep breath and bracing himself against the increased onslaught of the storm, Jasper stepped outside. One foot inched into the rain, then another. A third step brought his whole body clear of the building and a fourth took him to the edge of the tiny back stoop.

The wind howled as Jasper touched the first step with bloody toes, shifted his weight, and slid to sprawl in the mud. His elbow hit the bottom step as he landed and he cursed as he floundered in the mud, splattering the stoop and the dog that had come out to stand on it.

He was just gaining his feet when lightning crashed, hitting the pole on top of the house and making Jasper’s hair stand on end. The storm had arrived. Jasper only had time to glance at the footprints before another crash sent him scrambling inside, sliding backward as blood and mud-coated feet slipped on wet wood. He reached the doorway on hands and knees, Kyree running in front of him, barking loudly as she scampered through the mess on the kitchen floor.

Hail hit the tile as Jasper crossed into the living room, pushed the interior door shut behind him and sank to the floor. With the kitchen exposed, he needed to take the dog upstairs and wait out the storm in the safe room, but he lacked the energy to move. If the winds didn’t change direction, the kitchen should be relatively safe and the thin door at his back would protect them.

He wouldn’t think about what would happen if the wind shifted, blowing rain, sleet, and hail deep into the house and lashing against the thin wood separating the two rooms. He wouldn’t think about the possibility his guest was out in the cold and wet. He wouldn’t think about how long it would be until he could look for him or why he felt this frantic urge to find a man he was only just getting to know and barely understood. He wouldn’t think at all.

“
J
ASPER
!”

The door behind Jasper’s back rattled, jerking him awake. He knew that voice.

“Jasper! Can you hear me?” The door shook harder as the accompanying pounding increased in volume. “
Jasper
!”

His fuzzy brain registered he should say something to alert the person―Darius―he was there and could hear him. “Wha… mmm.” His mouth wasn’t quite on board with the plan.

“Jasper!” The pounding ceased but the door started to push against his back, slowly inching him forward. “Are you okay? Answer me!”

Answering didn’t seem like a good idea at the moment. If Jasper just stayed still and quiet, his eyes could drift closed and…. the door swung forward and pushed him several feet into the room. “Sleet!” His arms flailed, futilely attempting to maintain his balance as the door was pulled away from his body.

Rough hands caught him and yanked him upright. “Careful.”

“Carla?” He’d heard Darius before, but it was Carla who helped him gain his balance and then sat cross-legged on the floor in front of him. “I thought―”

A bottle was pushed into his hands and the voice he’d been expecting said, “Drink.”

“Never mind.” Jasper’s brain was obviously not where it needed to be.

“Drink,” Darius repeated, gesturing at the bottle in Jasper’s hand. “Then tell us what in the clear sky happened here.”

“That’s―” he started, but stopped when both his friends directed pointed looks at the bottle in his hands. Slowly, so as to not aggravate his aching muscles, he twisted the cap off and raised the bottle to his lips. It was cool, refreshing, and gone before he realized it.

Carla took the bottle from Jasper’s fingers and set it on the floor next to his knee. “Now talk.”

T
HE
door still lay in the yard, covered in mud and still wet from the rain. The door itself was unbroken, but the hinges had been cut with some tool Jasper couldn’t identify. The metal was warped to the point it looked almost melted, though it was cold to touch after hours out in the cold night air.

Two of the footprints Jasper had thought he’d seen the night before were gone, washed away by the storm, but Darius found one by the side of the stoop, protected from the worst of the storm by the house. It pointed in the direction Jasper had expected, and confirmed that his quick glance as he ran from the storm had been correct. There was no more time to waste.

“Jasper, wait.”

Darius’s hand on his arm stopped Jasper, not his words. He glanced down at it, shook it off, and proceeded in the direction he’d been heading. There were places in the woods where shelter could be found. It was possible the people who had broken in―and Tobias―had survived the night. He hoped so. That way he could hurt them himself.

“Jasper.” This time both arms were grabbed, one by Darius, the other by Carla.

Jasper jerked, but his friends had a firm grip and he only succeeded in irritating his tender muscles. “Let me go.”

“No.” Darius tugged slightly, turning them back toward the house. “You can’t just run off after them.”

“Why not?” He’d told them exactly what happened. They had to understand why he needed to go, why time was of the essence. The people he was after already had a head start. The advantage granted by Jasper’s knowledge of the area was fading quickly. “The longer I wait, the harder it will be to find them.”

“Because,” Carla released her grip and slung an arm over Jasper’s shoulders, “you need to prepare first. You won’t get far in bare feet and pajama bottoms.”

She had a point. “I’ll change. Then I’m going.”

“You change, we’ll pack some supplies. Then we’ll
all
go.”

“Supplies?” Jasper was clearly failing at his attempts to think around the pounding in his skull, and failing even more at hiding it. “For what?”

Darius stopped just in front of the steps and put one hand on each of Jasper’s shoulders. “Jasper,” he said, speaking slowly and carefully as though Jasper were an idiot or a child, “you haven’t eaten. We don’t know how long we’ll be out there. We don’t know who we’re following or what they want. I’m not running into the woods without some way to mark the path and something to defend myself if we stumble onto an animal.”

“Or a crazy person,” Carla added with a grin that made her look like one of the referenced crazy people.

The joke made Jasper feel worse rather than better, but Carla’s expression was so maniacal he couldn’t help but chuckle. “All right,” he acquiesced, rubbing the back of his neck in a futile attempt to loosen the tense muscles. “I’ll change; you pack. Then we’re leaving.” There wasn’t time for any additional delays.

B
Y
MIDAFTERNOON
, Jasper was glad they’d taken the time to pack some supplies, and even gladder he’d dressed in warm clothes and left the pajama bottoms where they fell to the floor of the bedroom. The sky, when they could see it through the trees, was clear, but the wind was blowing strong and the air was crisp. They’d been out for hours, with Kyree leading most of the time, and Jasper, even with his knowledge of the woods around his house, was lost. They’d gone farther than he had explored, and they still hadn’t found the people who had invaded his house or the guest they’d taken from it.

He hitched his jacket up on his shoulders and wrapped his arms around his torso in a futile attempt to better protect himself from the chill wind. In the trees, they at least had some protection, but Kyree had led them to a clearing where there was nothing to stop the icy gusts. Shivering, he stepped back into the shelter of the trees.

Darius stopped next to Jasper while Carla followed Kyree across the open ground. “We’re going to have to turn back soon. We need daylight to find the markers I left.”

“We could find someplace to shelter for the night.” Even as he said it, Jasper knew it wasn’t a good idea. They had only prepared to be gone for the afternoon, none of them willing to brave the storms when there were other options, and if they did stay out, they might never find their way back. Darius had marked the trail cleverly, but the wind and rain were likely to destroy his work.

Darius squeezed Jasper’s shoulder. “You know we can’t.”

“Yeah.” Jasper looked at the sky, calculating the time and how early the storms were likely to start. “Another half-hour, okay? Then we’ll turn back.” He shrugged apologetically, feeling like mud for asking. His friends had already given up their day to help him search for someone none of them really knew. “I just keep thinking we’ll find something the next time the dog barks.”

“She seems to think she’s following something, but I don’t know what. I don’t think she’s a tracker.”

“I guess we’ll see when we find it.” Or not, as the chances of finding anything were diminishing rapidly. Jasper had to at least pretend to be optimistic though, so he focused on positive thoughts to counteract the aching muscles and pounding head that had only gotten worse as the day progressed.

Darius was kind enough to simply agree, nodding as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. “Yeah.”

They waited in silence, Darius staring across the clearing at Carla, and Jasper rolling his head, attempting to loosen tight shoulder and neck muscles. He’d almost gotten a troublesome spot when Carla turned, waving frantically.

“Darius! Jasper!” She could barely be heard over the wind and distance. “Come over here! I think we found something!”

Jasper didn’t hesitate—he ignored the aches of his body as he ran full-tilt across the open ground, Darius at his heels. “What is it?” he asked as he skidded to a stop in front of Carla. He leaned forward and rested his hands on his knees as he attempted to catch his breath.

Carla held out a torn, black bandanna. “The dog found this. It hasn’t been here for long.”

She was right. It was ripped down the middle, but as Jasper examined it, he couldn’t find any other sign of prolonged exposure to the elements. The cloth was wet and dirty, but the fibers were tight, the unbroken edges still perfectly squared, and the stitching around the edges completely intact. It had clearly been purchased recently, and Jasper would have been surprised if it had been worn more than once or twice.

His stomach twisted as he fingered the edges of the cloth. They were on the right track, he could feel it. “Where was this?” He scanned the trees nearby as though he’d be able to pick out the rag’s former location by simply looking at the landscape.

“About six or seven yards in. It was snagged on a tree branch.” Carla started into the trees, but stopped after a few steps to look back over her shoulder. “Do you think it belonged to one of the men you saw last night?”

It was hard to remember. “Could be.” He shrugged. “I wasn’t really focused on what they were wearing. Green coats, I remember that, but not much else other than the tattoos.” The more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed this did belong to the people they were searching for. Black bandannas seemed amateurish, and the men who had broken in were definitely professionals.

“It was on this branch here.” Carla touched a fingertip to a branch just below eye level. “The dog was jumping up trying to get it.”

“Where’s the dog now?” Darius turned in a slow circle. “I don’t see her.”

“As soon as I touched the bandanna, she ran off. I tried to follow, but she lost me, and I thought Jasper should see this.”

“Sleet and snow!”

Jasper nodded his agreement to Darius’s curse, but privately, he was glad Kyree had disappeared. It had been at least ten minutes since he’d promised Darius they would turn back in a half-hour, and he had a feeling they’d need more than twenty minutes to complete their search of the area. They wouldn’t turn back without the dog.

At least, he amended as he watched Darius stalking deeper into the trees and calling Kyree’s name, he didn’t
think
they’d leave without the dog. They’d at least search for a little bit longer than twenty minutes. He hoped.

Jasper was about to start calling as well when Kyree came bounding through the trees, barking excitedly. She dashed right past Darius, who tried to snag a non-existent collar, and stopped at Jasper’s feet, her tail wagging and her ears perked up. She barked once, ran a few feet in the direction from which she’d come, stopped to look behind her, and ran back to sit at Jasper’s feet again.

“What is it, girl?” Jasper asked, crouching to scratch behind the dog’s ears. He was allowed to for only a moment before she barked again and repeated her earlier antics.

Carla sauntered up, her hands stuffed into her jacket. “I think she wants you to follow her.”

It was a brilliant idea. Jasper scratched Kyree’s ears one more time and then stood, ignoring the creaking of his knees. “Go on!” He pointed in the direction the dog seemed to want to go.

Kyree barked again and ran off. This time Jasper was right behind her, and after looking back to make sure he was following, she kept moving.

Darius and Carla joined them, and the four made their way over a tiny hillock to a creek bed swollen with the recent rains. It would get deeper before the wet season was over, but it was deep enough they wouldn’t be able to ford without getting wet―something they needed to avoid if possible. None of them wanted to make the long trek back to Jasper’s place in sopping clothes and biting wind.

Just as it looked as though Kyree was going to jump into the creek, she turned and headed alongside the narrow gorge to the base of another hill. Here she stopped and sat down, staring at a tree.

It took a moment to see it, but once Jasper had, the scrap of emerald cloth was glaringly obvious, a patch of bright green amongst dull browns and occasional oranges. His hand trembled as he pulled it from the branch. The purple stitching along one side left no room for doubt. “This is theirs. We’re on the right track.”