The Camp (13 page)

“Is that
the direction you’re headed?” he asked.

“Not yet. No.
Someday soon? Maybe,” I replied sarcastically.

Steph walked over to us and looked like she was about to fall asleep standing up.

“How about you sleep first and we’ll both be on watch,” I offered, looking at Steph. I moved away from Liam and began organizing Steph’s sleeping bag and everything back on the cot.

She nodded
, and her lips twisted in a grateful gesture as she dove into the bag and pulled a pillow over her head.

The talking outside the tent turned to a light murmur as everyone situated themselves back into
their tents. It was after midnight, and it felt like it would be forever until the sun came back to us, which only created more urgency to find whoever was doing this later today. I didn’t want to face another night like tonight.

I crawled into my sleeping bag when Liam came over and sat next to me. The sleeping bag wasn’t
warming me up at all, and I began shivering as I looked over at him.

“We can zip our bags together,” he began. “That might warm you up.”

I nodded my head and gestured for him to grab his bag. I looked over at Steph who still had her head underneath the pillow, and I began worrying that I might end up like that as well, unable to cope.

Liam stood over me and reached out his hand. I grabbed it and he hauled me up
, allowing my sleeping bag to slump back to the floor.

“My god, your hands are like ice,” he said, quickly grabbing both
bags and zipping them together to make one large bag.

Since we were the ones on watch, we
decided to sit up and let the bag wrap around us. We leaned against one of the chests that housed the files and medicines, and my mind began to relax. The heat from Liam’s body warmed me up, allowing the shivering to slowly stop. I leaned my head on his upper arm and slid my hands around his.

“I’m so sorry I convinced you to stay up here,” Liam began. “I never imagined that—”

“It’s not your fault. I wanted to stay. The thought of never really having to see my stepfather again was what made me stay. I wanted to be here with you, but I also knew if I stayed here, I’d only see him and my mom long enough to grab my things and head to Oregon.”

“And here I thought I was the only reason,” he teased.

“Nope. You can stop letting it go to your head now,” I joked.

“Please don’t feel like you have to tell me, but
I’d like to know about what happened with your family,” he said.

I lifted my head and turned my bo
dy only slightly to look at him. The sleeping bag confined my movements more than I realized. His caramel eyes locked on mine, and I knew I’d be safe telling him some of the stuff from my family.

“
There are so many things, and I think over time they’ve just added up. When my mom first married Kroy, I was pretty young and didn’t go around their place much. But I remember the first time staying overnight, they locked me in the bedroom from the outside in. It may not seem like a big deal, but when you’re seven, and in a new place, it’s really scary. It didn’t matter what I said to him, he wouldn’t let me out of there. I had to go the bathroom, and even that didn’t matter. My mom never intervened, and in hindsight, I’m sure she knew, but she enjoyed tormenting me as well.”

Liam squeezed my hand gently.

“The next morning he finally unlocked the door, and of course things were a mess. He grabbed me and shoved me into the bathroom and told me to clean up. I remember crying for my father and my mom came into the bathroom, telling me I was spoiled, and now she knows why she never had me over. So much of it was a blur. I remember going to the refrigerator and anything I looked at had Kroy’s initials written on it, and they’d chase me away so I wouldn’t eat it. Little did I know when I landed there after my dad’s death the same issues would only be multiplied.”

“Did you tell your dad
when this first happened?” he asked softly.

I leaned my head back and groaned a little. “No and I should have. My dad knew something was up, but I don’t think he ever thought they were neglecting me
, and then the older I got, the less I saw them, and the more foolish I felt for not telling my dad in the first place. It started a really weird cycle. There was one time I went there because my mom was being super nice over the phone, begging me to come over, and I completely fell for it. I wanted her love so much, I’d believe anything.

When I got there it turned out Kroy had taken off
, and she just wanted someone to sob to and take care of the house for her. At thirteen, I would do anything for her to like me so I did whatever she told me. Unfortunately, Kroy came back while I was still there and told me if I ever told my father any of it, he’d make my life even more miserable, which at thirteen seemed terrifying. I realized I was just her fill-in until Kroy got back. The entire time I was there all she had me do was work. I cooked for her, cleaned for her, did the laundry, brought her all of the meals…” my voice broke off.

“I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

“She didn’t love me. I don’t think she ever did. The entire time I did do stuff for her, she’d still just scream and yell at me.” I sighed.

“One of the
parts I can kind of laugh about now was that when I’d go to eat something she’d tell me I couldn’t because it was Kroy’s, and he’d want it when he came back. It was really bizarre. Imagine opening up a fridge and having everything marked as Kroy’s butter or Kroy’s eggs. Seeing a thirty-five year old man, marking his own food and everything else in the house is really weird. They are just really crazy or delusional or something. Anyway, they took off and left me at the house. I kept thinking they were going to come back, but they didn’t. The next morning I realized I needed my dad to come get me, and of course I didn’t tell him. I made up some excuse for my mom being gone. I always wanted to believe she was a better person than she was.”

“She sounds like a really weak person,” Liam whispered.
“Pathetic, actually.”

“She is.
I actually thought once she got the money from my dad that she might leave Kroy. I wanted to believe she was only in the relationship so she didn’t have to work, or whatever her fantasy was, and that she’d escape once she had a chance to have her own safety net. But I guessed wrong. The first thing she did was get plastic surgery and buy some new clothes. Anyways it goes on and on, and once I began living there as a teen, it just got worse. He enjoys telling me I killed my father. My mom tells me that I’m the reason my dad divorced her, and I caused her to become like she is. I’ve worked through a lot because I started talking to a therapist, but stuff still surfaces. It brings out a side of me that isn’t really me. I never feel angry unless I’m around them.” A lump began to form in the back of my throat, and I realized it wasn’t because of some of the stories I revealed. It was because I’ve never told anyone but my therapist before now. Granted I didn’t tell him everything, but it was a start and it felt freeing.

“I’d like to show him what’s up.” Liam kissed the
top of my head and pulled me closer.

“And I’d like to act like I’m a better person than that, but it would be kind of fun to watch.” I smiled and found myself drifting to sleep as Liam held me tightly.

C
hapter
F
ourteen

I woke up and Liam was already wide awake along with Steph, going through the campers’ files. His gaze met mine and held an intensity that caused something deep inside to be ignited. Sharing with him about my family last night opened me up in a way that I’d never dreamed.

“What are you up to?” I asked
, trying to shake off the feelings that wanted to take over. I looked over at Steph, and she had a flicker of energy running behind her eyes that I recognized from when I first met her. Maybe the sleep had helped.

“Just going over the files we’ve got on campers to see if there are any patterns or things that look
suspicious,” she replied, sighing and sliding more papers out of a folder.

She was still dressed in her sweats
, and her hair was completely a mess. Matching mine, I’m sure. Liam, of course, looked absolutely amazing and made me want to place a bag over my head. But if a relationship can begin in the woods when I looked like this more times than not, the odds might be in my favor.

“And?” I asked.

“Nothing at all that we can find,” Liam said, whistling as he blew out air.

I got out of the
sleeping bag and realizing how cold it was, quickly grabbed it to haul with me as I peered at what they were looking at.

“I think we’re dealing with someone outside of the camp. Unless it was Dan who planned something, but m
y gut doesn’t want to believe that,” Liam said. “And I’m not sure we should be going into the woods to find out either, but the groups we’re in should help keep us safe.”

“I hope it’s no one from here, like Dan or Justin. But it’s so odd because they know so much about our setup,” I said.

“True. But I don’t think anything that’s happened is something that a good casing of the place couldn’t provide, and then it wouldn’t have to be an insider,” he said, rubbing his fingers along his brow bone.

“Are we gonna go
check out that place you found Tom?” I asked.

Liam stood up from the table and stretched
, nodding. “I think we should. I doubt we’ll find anything there, but ya never know.”

“Okay,” I replied, glancing down at the table, noticing my own folder spread out.
I glanced up at Liam who caught my stare as it left my folder.

“You were just in the pile,” he said, before I even had a chance to speak. But the truth was I didn’t blame them, even if they had wanted to check over my file again.

“I understand,” I replied, pushing back the embarrassment for being here in the first place.

“Sorry,” he whispered once more.

“The thought of a shower is terrifying now, but I really need one. It’s like the only sense of reality I have now,” I said, attempting to lighten the mood.

“Wel
l, it’s daylight so I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Steph said, surprisingly dismissive of my fears. “Besides, I’ll stand on the front side, and Liam can stand on the back, and we’ll do the same for each other.”

She gathered the folders back up and slid them back in
to the cabinet.

“Let’s get going,”
she said.

After we were all showered and ready
, the camp was just starting to wake up, and within thirty minutes I knew we’d be on the trails searching for any sign of what had happened. Steph was back inside the yurt, and I motioned for Liam to meet me on the deck out front and he nodded.

Closing the door behind him, he rubbed his hands up and down my arms, in an attempt to warm me up.

“I think the goose bumps are a constant state now and have nothing to do with being cold.” I said, scrunching my nose at him. “Do you think Steph is okay?”

“She’s really flipping between being okay and not
, but I think that’s normal.”

I nodded. “
It’s hard to know what’s considered worrisome or not under the circumstances.”

He pursed his lips and nodded his head in agreement.

“I wanted to thank you for last night,” I said.

“I didn’t do anything.” H
e tilted his head slightly, his expression bewildered.

“You did more than you know. I’ve never spoken to
anyone about that stuff.”

“I know there’s more you’re not telling me and whenever you feel the need, I’
ll be here.” His thumb touched my lower lip, and I smiled, letting my gaze fall to the deck we were standing on. How did he know that?

“Thank you,” I murmured.
The craving for him was heating up the insides of my body, and as if he could read my mind, he reached for me.

“Emma,” he
breathed quietly but gruffly, as his fingers wrapped around my elbows. I looked at him through my lashes as his mouth parted only inches away from mine. “If we had met at another time and in a different place, I’d already have made you mine.”

A ripple of happiness shot through my body
, and a smile wrapped around my lips at his proclamation, and I didn’t even understand why. His hands slid down my arms, catching me by the hips. I felt Liam’s firm and powerful body press against me, and I wanted more.

The hint of possessiveness was a complete turn on
as his lips fell to mine. His fingers left my hips and coiled through my hair bringing me in closer. The sensation of his mouth searching mine, as he cradled my head in his hands created a sensation that ripped through me, and I didn’t want it to end.

My hands
caressed his neck, letting my fingers wrap around his hair as I kissed him harder. Everything about him was pulling me in deeper and deeper into his world regardless of where I was standing and what I was facing. His hands moved down my spine restlessly as we slowly broke free.

“You’re what I needed rig
ht now in my life,” I whispered.

He smiled and his eyes lit up as he interlocked his hand in mine. “Well let’s get this
worked out so we have a chance to see what we could really be.”

My heart fluttered as I thought about the possibility of spending my first year at college wit
h this perfect specimen of a man, and then it plummeted with the realization I may not even get there.

Marty was walking toward the deck, waving at us. “Are you guys ready to head out soon? I’ve got our group ready to go over by the campfire.”

“Yeah. My group will take the northern trail, and you guys can take the southern,” Liam said. “If there’s anything out of the ordinary, we’ve got those orange markers we can use. We’ll just hope that whoever is out there doesn’t pull out the stakes before we can all check it out together. We’ll grab Steph and meet you over there. ”

“
Sounds like a plan,” Marty said and turned toward the covered, stone fire pit.

I nodded
, dropping Liam’s hand and opening the yurt’s door to find the clear, vinyl window pulled out the back of the yurt. My eyes immediately fell to my pillow where another raven was placed. I leaned on the doorframe, and Liam watched as my legs buckled underneath me, scooping me up before I hit the ground.

“She’s not inside
and there’s another raven,” I said, my voice trembling. “We need to find her now.”

“Marty get everyone. Let’s go,” Liam
shouted.

He made sure I could stand and
went in the yurt and grabbed his rifle.

The sensation of
wanting to curl into a ball vanished quickly, knowing time wasn’t on our side. I ran inside the yurt and grabbed the machete and pepper spray and ran back outside. Liam was already behind the back of the yurt where the window was tossed on the ground. There was no sign of her. I saw a small trail leading back away through the woods, but it looked too narrow for anything larger than a rabbit.

Liam
started tracking something that I didn’t recognize in a different direction, and I followed closely behind him as the group began to congregate and stare at the window on the ground.

“Whoever
it was took her this way,” he yelled, taking off in the direction of the smokehouse.

“We should have a CL and three campers stay behind
,” he hollered, as he surged forward.

I
chased after him through the woods as fast as I could with tree limb after tree limb hitting and slapping my face raw. Images of Steph began flashing through my mind, and the guilt began flooding through me. It never occurred to me she was vulnerable in the yurt. I never should have asked Liam to come out on the deck.

Liam was hollering
Steph’s name as he dodged under the branches with ease. The crunching of everyone’s footsteps behind me gave way to heavy breathing as we continued at Liam’s frenzied pace. I ran until my lungs burned, and Liam was farther and farther away. My heart was pounding inside my chest, and I couldn’t go any longer, and I wasn’t alone. Dave, Vince, and Fulton slowed next to me, propping their hands on their knees gasping for air as the other CLs and campers continued by us. I turned to look down the trail, gauging how far we’d come as I tried to steady my breathing.

“Emma,” Liam
voice boomed through the air. “Stay where you are.”

I turned quickly
looking back up the trail to see Liam jogging down to me, shaking his head. He was holding something, but I couldn’t tell what it was. Everyone had stopped running and began walking back toward me, glancing nervously behind them.

We had reached th
e edge of the forest, which gave way to the rocky alpine that bordered the area we were staying in. My heart was still pounding, but it wasn’t because of the activity. Liam no longer had his rifle strapped onto his shoulder. Instead he was carrying it. His expression was grave as he reached me.

“Continue walking down the trail,” he said quietly.
“Remain calm.”

I glanced around and watched the CLs giving the same orders to the rest of us as we slowly began our
descent back down the trail.

“There’s
a mother brown bear with her two cubs, and she’s not the only family on the plateau,” Liam whispered, walking backward down the trail more than forward as he continued to scan our surroundings.

“Liam,
what’s in your hand,” I asked, my voice trembling.

He held it up for me
and that’s when I saw it. A tattered piece of Steph’s flannel shirt was intertwined among his fingertips.

“She’s not with the bears, is she?” I asked
, not wanting to know the answer as the lump was forming in the back of my throat.

“No. Not that I could see,” he replied
. His expression was stone, but I detected a slight tremble as he spoke about his cousin.

Our group began tightening up in formation as we hiked back down the trail. It had been cleared only the week before, but it still had several areas of brush that had to be dodged.
I didn’t understand what to make of anything any longer. Were we really just buying time before the inevitable?

Every so often one of the campers would slice some of the vegetation that was in the
way, and I’d tense up each time I heard the blade whoosh through the air.

“Are we gonna go back up that way? I asked.

He shook his head, and I caught my breath only momentarily before a shot rang into the air.