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Sayyouwontletgo: Yes you did! Lol :)

Dare to be something more: Well you certainly catch on fast lol, don't worry everything will slowly start to unravel and the truth will come out! And as for why the name mason is brought up, those are typos lol so don't think too much about it x)

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Chapter 10

It was a bleak, drizzly afternoon in March of my junior year, and the Wrangler was in the shop with a blown gasket. My brother, Ian, had promised to hang around after school-I had Drama Club-and give me a ride home. After ten minutes of waiting, I left a distress call on his voice mail. After thirty minutes, my messages turned hostile. After an hour, the janitor kicked me out and locked up for the night.

Within seconds, my hair was plastered over my ears and my dress clung to my figure. Rain dripped off my eyelashes. My lips felt stiff with cold, and to keep them from freezing, I muttered every swear word I could think of, in every possible combination. I was going to punch Ian. The minute I got home, I was going to shove my fist into his nose, and I didn't care if it got me grounded from Korbie's party the following weekend.

Halfway home I kicked off my Black velvet dr. martens and hurled them furiously into the gutter. Ruined. I hoped Ian had eighty dollars sitting around, because that's how much they were going to cost him.

I was about to jaywalk across the street, when a black truck honked and I jumped back onto the curb. Beck Oliver rolled down the passenger window and hollered, "Get in!"

I threw my books in the backseat of his extended cab and boosted myself inside. I felt rivulets of water running down my thighs and pooling in the leather seat. When I glanced down, I could see skin peeking through the lavender fabric of my dress. I couldn't remember what color underwear I'd put on that morning. A mortifying thought struck me. Had my underwear been showing through my dress the whole walk home? I folded my hands self-consciously in my lap.

If Beck noticed, he had the decency not to comment. He grinned. "I ever tell you the story about the girl who tried to take a shower outside?"

I punched him in the shoulder. "Shut up."

He reached into the backseat, groping blindly. "I bet I can scrounge up some soap in my gym bag. . . ."

I giggled. "You are the dumbest boy ever, Beck Oliver."

"Dumb but chivalrous. Where to?"

"Home, so I can strangle Ian with my bare hands."

"A no-show?" Beck guessed.

"With a death wish."

Beck cranked the heat. "You should have called me."

I looked at him, perplexed. Beck was my best friend's older brother, but aside from that, we didn't have a relationship. I'd dreamed for years that he would see me in a new light, but the truth was, calling Beck for a ride would have been the same as calling any other guy at school.

"I guess I didn't think of that," I said, bewildered by his offer. He turned on the radio. Not loud and blaring; a steady melody to chase away the silence. I don't remember what we talked about the rest of the ride. I stared through the window, thinking, I'm in Beck Oliver's truck. Without Korbie. Just the two of us. And he's hitting on me. I couldn't wait to tell someone. And then it dawned on me. For the first time, I couldn't run straight to Korbie. She didn't want me flirting with her brother. She would brush it off, telling me he was just being nice. But he wasn't. He was hitting on me, and it was the most flattering thing that had ever happened to me.

Beck pulled into my driveway. "We should do this more often," he told me as I climbed out.

I smiled back, unsure. "Yeah. That would be nice."

I was about to shut the door when he said, "Hey, you forgot this," and he offered me a folded scrap of paper.

It wasn't until he'd backed onto the street that I thought to open the paper. If I'd ever wondered what his handwriting looked like, now I knew.

Call me.

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A loud bang at the patrol cabin door jolted me fully alert.

Ryder was kneeling beside me in an instant, muffing my cry of surprise with his hand. He raised his finger to his lips, signaling me not to make another sound.

Shaun moved swiftly into the room, gun drawn, aiming it at the shadowy silhouette showing through the cafe curtain over the window in the front door.

Another, harder rap sounded. "Anybody home?" a man's voice called out.

I wanted to scream, Help! I'm here! oh, God, please help! The words were right there, exploding inside me.

"Answer it," Shaun ordered in a gruff whisper. "Tell him you're fine. Tell him you're waiting out the storm. Get him out of here. One false move, Jade, and you're dead, both of you are."He clicked off the gun's safety for emphasis, the sound echoing in my ears as loud as the toll of a bell.

I walked to the door, each step stiff and weighted. I wiped my hands on my thighs. My face was bathed in sweat. Shaun crept along the outer kitchen wall, keeping the gun trained on me. At my sideways glance, he nodded, but it wasn't a sign of encouragement. He was reminding me that he meant every word.

I unlocked the door and cracked it enough to see out. "Hello?" The man wore a brown parka and cowboy hat, and seemed startled at the sight of me. He collected himself and said, "I'm Deputy Game Warden Jay Philliber. What are you doing here, miss?"

"Waiting out the storm."

"This is a park ranger patrol cabin. You don't have permission to be here. How did you get in?"

"I-the door was unlocked."

"Unlocked?" He sounded doubtful and tried to peer behind me. "Everything okay in there?"

"Yes," I said in a dry, papery voice.

He shifted to see around me. "I need you to fully open the door." In my head, I could hear myself saying, They have a gun, they're going to kill me.

"Miss?"

A strange buzzing filled my ears. I was light-headed; his voice rolled through me like a slurred rumble, but I couldn't make out the words. I squinted at his mouth, trying to read them.

". . . get here?"

I licked my lips. "I'm waiting out the storm." Had I said that already? Out the corner of my eye, I saw Shaun wave the gun impatiently. It rattled my nerves further. I couldn't remember what I was supposed to say next.

". . . transportation?" the game warden asked.

I felt an overpowering urge to run. I pictured myself through the door, in the woods. I was so disoriented that for one moment, I thought I'd really done it.

"How did you get here?" he asked again, his eyes watching me carefully.

"I hiked."

"By yourself?"

Absurdly, I wondered if Beck was thinking about me right now. Had he slept last night? Had he found the Wrangler and set off into the forest, searching for Korbie and me? Was he worried about me? Of course he was. "Yes, by myself."

The game warden held up a grainy, enlarged black-and-white photograph. It was taken from a security video, and showed the inside of a Subway sandwich shop. There were two men in the photo. The cashier stood behind the counter, his palms raised to shoulder level. The man facing him, the man aiming the gun, was Shaun.

"Have you seen this man?"the game warden asked, tapping his finger against Shaun's blurry, two-dimensional profile.

"I-" Red lights popped behind my eyes. "No. He doesn't look familiar."

"Miss, you're not all right. I can see that plainly."He was taking off his hat. He was going to step inside. The hum in my ears rose to a deafening whine.

"I'm fine," I blurted. I looked around desperately. Shaun's eyes blazed into mine, hot with rage.

"Please stay outside," I said, panicking. I kneaded the heel of my hand into my forehead. I'd said the wrong thing.

The game warden brushed past me. At the same time, there was movement in the corner and Shaun was out in the open, gun drawn.

The game warden's face went white with fear.

"Kneel down." Shaun barked the order. "Hands on your head." The game warden obeyed, murmuring that Shaun should rethink, he was an officer of the law, they could talk this out, Shaun should hand over his weapon.

"Shut up," Shaun spat. "If you want to live, you'll do exactly as I say. How did you find us?"

The game warden tilted his head, giving Shaun a long, challenging look. At last he said, "I'm not out here alone, son. We've got the whole damn US Forest Service looking for you boys. Sure, we're slowed down by the storm, but so are you. And there's more of us. You aren't getting off this mountain. If you want to come out of this alive, you need to lower your weapon right now."

"Give me the gun, Shaun. Take Jade and start packing our things."

Ryder's icily calm voice cut through the tension like a whip. He stepped up to Shaun's shoulder and extended his hand expectantly.

"Stay out of this," Shaun growled, visibly tightening his grip on the gun. "If you want to make yourself useful, go to the window and figure out what he drove here in. I didn't hear a truck approach."

"Give me the gun," Ryder repeated, so softly his voice barely carried. Despite his quiet tone, it was laced with authority.

Clearly not wanting to give them the chance to plot secretly, the game warden spoke up. "You boys robbed a Subway sandwich shop and shot a police officer while trying to get away. You put a teenage girl in the hospital after you hit her and ran. You're lucky she's alive. You're lucky the officer you shot is also alive, but nobody in the criminal justice system is going to look kindly on it. Things aren't looking good for you, but they're gonna be a helluva lot worse if you don't lower your weapon immediately."

"I said shut up," Shaun barked.

"Who are you?" the game warden asked me. "How do you know these boys?"

"I'm Jade West," I said in a rush before Shaun could prevent me. "They're holding me hostage and forcing me to guide them to the highway." Finally! Law enforcement would know I was in trouble. They'd send a search party. Someone would tell my dad what had happened to me. I was so overcome with relief I nearly cried. And then my heart sank. This was possible only if the game warden got away. If Shaun didn't shoot him.

Shaun gave me a rake of his cold blue eyes. "You shouldn't have done that."

"If we tie him up, he won't be found for a day or two," Ryder reasoned with Shaun. "He'll live, but it will buy us time to get off the mountain."

"And if he escapes?"Shaun challenged, plowing a hand through his hair. His eyes were wide and wild, showing bloodshot whites around blue orbs. He squeezed his eyes shut, reopening them and blinking hard, like he was struggling to focus.

"Killing him isn't going to help," Ryder repeated in that same steely, authoritative tone.

Shaun squeezed the bridge of his nose. He wiped his free arm across his damp forehead. "You gotta stop ordering me around, Ace. I'm in charge. I make the decisions. I brought you along to do one job; stay focused on that."

"We've been working together for almost a year," said Ryder. "Think of everything I've done for you. I want what's best for you-for us. Now lower the gun. There's rope in the storage trunk on the back porch. If we tie him up, it buys us a day at least."

"We've already shot one cop. There's no turning back. We have to see this through, do whatever it takes."There was something irrational and frantic in the way Shaun's eyes darted back and forth, unfocused. After saying the words, he swallowed and nodded, like he was trying to convince himself this was his best option.

Ryder said more sternly, "We're going to leave him here and keep pushing toward the bottom of the mountain."

"Stop yelling at me, I can't think!" Shaun roared, rounding on Ryder and aiming the gun briefly at him before swerving back to point it at the game warden. More beads of sweat sprang onto Shaun's brow.

"No one's yelling," Ryder said quietly. "Lower the gun."

"This is my call," Shaun growled. "I'm calling the shots. And I say we cut loose ends."

A spark that was equal parts fear and understanding flared in Ryder's eyes. In one convulsive movement, he lunged for the gun. Shaun didn't appear to notice; his eyes were fixed on the game warden's kneeling form. Before Ryder was able to stop Shaun, a blast of noise exploded in my ears. The game warden's body sagged to the ground.

I was screaming. I heard the sound splitting my head, filling the room.

"How could you?" I cried. There was blood everywhere. I'd never seen so much blood. I turned away dizzily, afraid I'd pass out if I looked at it any longer. My whole body vibrated with shock. Shaun had shot him. Killed him. I had to get out. I couldn't worry about the storm-I had to run.

"What was that for?" Ryder's heated voice erupted at Shaun. Ryder looked shocked and sickened, and immediately crouched over the game warden's body, feeling his neck for a pulse. "He's dead."

"What was I supposed to do?" Shaun yelled back. "Jade didn't sell the story, and he was onto us. We did what we had to. We had to kill him."

"We?" Ryder repeated. "Are you hearing yourself? We didn't kill him. You killed him." His eyes burned with hot wrath and seemed to reflect his thoughts-I didn't sign up for this. He stared at Shaun with guarded, watchful disgust, and from that single searing look, I realized something. At one point, they had been two criminals with a common predicament and goal. Not anymore. As Shaun grew increasingly unstable and unpredictable, I felt Ryder peeling away. His desire to break from Shaun was written plainly on his face.

Shaun snatched the photograph of himself at the Subway shop and ripped it multiple times. He flung the pieces against the wall. Then he rifled through the game warden's pockets, taking out a small, curious-looking key and slipping it into his own coat pocket. "They're onto us. We have to keep moving," he said, suddenly speaking far more rationally, like shooting the game warden had released the tightly wound coil inside him. "They're gonna be crawling all over the mountain soon. Looks like he got here on a snowmobile. The wind is so loud, we somehow didn't hear the engine. He almost got us. But now we've got the snowmobile, and good thing-it will help us get over this damn snow faster. Grab one of his arms, Ace. We gotta hide the body."

"Give me the gun." Ryder held out his hand, his tone uncompromising.

Shaun shook his head. "Grab an arm. Hurry up. We gotta move."

"You're not thinking clearly anymore. Hand over the gun," Ryder repeated more forcefully.

"I just saved your butt. I'm thinking straight; you're the one who's letting the heat get to you. We gotta do what we gotta do. We never should've come to the outpost. We should've done what I said and kept walking toward the highway. From now on, I call the shots. Grab an arm."

Ryder glowered at him, but grabbed one of the game warden's limp arms. They dragged him out the front door, and before I knew what I was doing, I walked into the kitchen, took my coat off the back of the chair, and put it on. I opened the cupboard beneath the sink. My mind was in a fog, but the rest of my body acted with controlled deliberation, as if a switch had flipped and it had taken over. I ripped open the plastic bag and stuffed the pocketknife into my coat pocket.

I had to be ready to run. My chance was coming, I could feel it. I would find Beck in the forest. Even if I failed, I would rather freeze out there than stay here with Shaun.

When I straightened, Ryder and Shaun had rounded the outside corner of the cabin and were crossing in front of the window. At that moment, Ryder caught my eye. His gaze fell on my pocketed hand. He watched me for several thick beats, his sharp brown eyes assessing.

Ryder spoke to Shaun, and they set the body down. Right away, I knew Ryder was coming back. I walked to the far end of the kitchen, out of the view of the window, and fumbled the knife out of my pocket. I stuffed it the only safe place I could think of-down my pants.

Ryder crossed the threshold. "Take off your coat."

"What?"

He yanked on the zipper and wrenched the coat off himself. He searched through the pockets, both inside and out.

"What did you put in your pocket?"

"You're crazy," I stammered.

"I saw you hide something in your pocket."

"I'm cold. My hands are cold." If he felt them, he'd see it was the truth. My whole body felt frozen with fear.

He patted my arms, across the back of my torso, down my legs, and dug inside the elastic of my socks. "What are you hiding, Jade?"

"Nothing."

He glared down at me, his eyes shifting momentarily, suspiciously to my chest. My bra was one of only two places he hadn't checked. Immediately, he looked uncomfortable that he'd even had the thought, and averted his eyes.

"In the bathroom," he ordered. "Strip down and wrap a towel around yourself. You've got one minute. Then I'm coming in to search your clothes. Don't bother trying to stash anything in the vanity, the toilet, or down the drain-I'll search them too. I'll search the whole room."

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Hello sorry this one took some time lol

I went out for the weekend with some friends and I'm still recovering x)

Don't worry tho! I will post the next chapter in a bit :]

Please read and review and let me know what you think!

-Heedragongillian.