A/N: Thanks for everything, my readers. I hope you continue to enjoy! Rated T+ for language

_Chapter 24

Mac felt a little like Goldilocks. She knocked on the front door even though she was reasonably sure no one was home. Twisting at the doorknob, she was unsurprised to discover it locked. Stepping back, her eyes followed the rooftop of the cabin, wanting to see an above ground phone line coming into the top of the house, but there was nothing. That would have been too easy, she thought. Still optimistic, though, she hoped that since the place looked a bit like a wooden palace that the owners had installed an underground line, perhaps to avoid unsightly lines throughout nature. Maybe luck would throw them a bone.

Stepping off of the front step, Mac passed by Madison, who stood at the bottom of the stairs waiting to be told what to do. On second thought, she turned back to face her. "Start on this end and look for the utility box. Check all of the windows you can reach. See if any of them are unlocked. We might be able to get in that way. Go around the whole place until you meet me on the other side. I'll start on this end. Got it?"

They split up, Madison going around one side and Mac the other. There was a large stack of wood against the side of the cabin Mac went around. She bypassed that quickly, assuming that the owners would avoid a stack of wood against lines going into the wall of the cabin. She looked again. Actually, it was more like a lodge, huge and vast. Certainly they should be able to find a way in somehow. The huge window above her seemed to taunt her; all but begging her to try to jump up and into it. She cursed her five foot five frame and kept around the structure, eyes peeled for a ladder or another entry point.

She heard a cry of triumph from the other side of the cabin and she picked her pace up, going around the back and discovering Madison standing on a huge deck. The woman had found stairs leading up to it and was standing over the railing, motioning Mac to hurry up and come up to meet her.

"I found a double glass door. I think we can get in through it if we break the little window next to it." Madison's eyes were shining with excitement or relief, whichever didn't matter. She asked, "Did you find the boxes? I didn't see one."

Joining her on the deck, Mac looked around and spotted the utility box about five feet down from the double door. She pointed at it. "It's right there, Madison. But I'll forgive you missing it in exchange for finding the door. I think I can break into this one, especially since it's away from the driveway where no one might see us from the road." She stepped closer to look at the power box to see if there was a phone line box along with it, she squatted down and found it underneath the other box. Her adrenaline was kicking up a notch in exhilaration and she stood quickly up. "There should be a phone in there. Finally something is going my way."

Staring at the gate, Veronica's mind was jumbled with all the possibilities that could have occurred. The best news was that Mac was not inside of the Tennison's cabin. The worst was thinking that she could be snatched back up at any moment by the Tennison/Muldoon's goon named Ben. Ben, she thought, Sounds like a weenie. But she knew if Mac couldn't take the guy he must be built like a tank. Like the Mr. Happy Fists she met back in college. Except she had a feeling that this Ben dude would put that other guy to shame. Damnit, he'd already proven it by admitting he'd hit Mac. Mr. Happy Fists of yore only handed out makeup packets. Thinking about Mac's escape, however, made her smirk at how huge men always seemed to take for granted the small stature of some women. It always did her heart good to know when she could stick it to the muscled-man. And Mac just made a fool out of that one. Small women could be fast, agile and quick-witted when forced into a situation that required it. And men often times were caught off guard by that fact.

"What do we do?" Dick asked quietly, voice strained. "Where do we look?" He turned in his seat to stare at her. "What the hell is Madison doing running off with her? I thought she was the one that kidnapped her."

Veronica's eyes dropped down to where they had set the guns in their cases between them on the middle console. "We go in." She blew out a steadying breath. "Pink or black, Dick? I hear only real men wear pink."

He opened the top case and pulled out Mac's gun. "Maybe it'll give us luck. Pink it is." Dick was slipping the clip in place when Mac's phone lit up with an incoming call. He stared at it uncomprehendingly as it began a silent vibration, the call registering as Hansen, Oakley, UT, 435-555-9106.

Glancing at Veronica uncertainly, he picked the phone up in shock. Numbly, he tapped answer and put the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

"Dick!" Mac's voice came over the line in a rush, her tone high-pitched in urgency, "Oh, my God, Dick! Thank God you found my phone! I knew you would. Where are you at?"

"Where am I? Where the fuck are you?" He suddenly had visions of Mac sitting poolside, laughing up her sleeve at his and Veronica's quick assumption that she had been taken. He wished it were true. "We're at the cabin association's gate." His eyes connected with Veronica's. Never in his life had he felt so relieved. His heart was pounding out of his chest and he had a hollow feeling in his fingers as he kept the phone pressed to his ear.

Mac's voice was coming through in irregular bursts and he could tell that she was scared but controlled as she told him, "I don't know exactly where we are except that we are inside the association in one of the lower cabins. We're below the highest loop." Her voice broke. "Oh, I knew you would come."

"Fucking A," He told her softly. She was starting to sound like a panicked woman, so thinking to hopefully calm her down, he said, "Let me put you on speaker." Pulling the phone from his ear, he pressed the speaker option and then set it on his knee so that both he and Veronica could hear her. "Tell us everything."

Mac's voice filled the space of the car as she rushed her words, "We got out of the back of the SUV without Tree-trunk knowing and got into the woods, oh, Dick, if I wouldn't have had your knife, we would still be there, there's just no way, and we stayed away from the road but the forest was thick, I think Madison is pretty scratched up and she's got blisters on her feet from her shitty shoes and we found a wooden palace that actually had a phone first try and we broke in and now we're here in the dark and I don't where we are and if you can't get us I don't know if Tree-trunk is smart enough but they'll probably find us soon—"

"Slow down, Mac." Veronica loudly interrupted. "Are either of you injured other than scratches?" Dick was impressed with her authoritative air. She obviously had practice with it. "What the hell is Madison doing with you?"

There was silence on the other end. Dick felt a flare of impatient anxiety, wishing they were on camera phone, or better yet, that he was there in that wooden palace with her.

"Mac?" Veronica asked, slight terror lacing the question. "Mac?"

The call disconnected.

The phone in her hand went dead. Mac pulled it away from her ear to look the phone over, checking for a dead battery. Seeing nothing amiss, she turned back to the cradle to check the connection and saw Madison standing over it, fingers pushing down disconnecting the call. Anger flared through her. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Did you just call Dick Casablancas?" Madison's question came out on a choking breath. "What is he doing here and what are you doing, calling him?"

"Madison. We really do not have time to go through the why's of the situation. He's with Veronica and they found my phone. They're at the gate. We need to call them now and figure out how the hell to get out of this mess." She pushed the woman's fingers off of the phone's cradle and glared at her. "You can worry about your little juvenile reaction later, after he gets us off the mountain in one piece. Then we can go through everything, including why you're in this mess to begin with."

They had easily gotten into the huge cabin through the back door Madison had discovered. Mac had been able to use Dick's MacGyver knife to break-in without having to break a window or ruin anything. If they were careful, no one would ever know they had been in here. Besides maybe the phone bill.

When she had spied the phone sitting on the kitchen counter, Mac had nearly cried in gratitude. The owners had kept a landline, most likely for emergencies and Mac had never been more grateful for people with excess money. There might even be a computer somewhere, but as long as she could call out at this point that was all that mattered. She had run directly to the thing and found it in working condition.

Madison had entered the cabin with a look of relief on her face as well. She had gone to the sink and tried to turn the water on but nothing would come out of the faucet. Mac assumed there must be a switch outside that turned the water on to the inside. If she had time later she would deal with that, but at the moment she was consumed with calling for help. Right now she could pass on a shower. But the look on Madison's face had been comical. No water seemed to be the girl's undoing. She had turned the handles of the kitchen sink on and off and when no hint of water emerged, Madison grasped the faucet with both hands and shook it in frustration. She then kicked at the cabinets below the sink, yelling out in defeat, turning and sliding down to the ground in a ball of Madison mess. Crying and wailing. The girl wanted water.

Mac had watched this little episode with interest for a few minutes. Shaking her head, she had turned her attention back to the phone and placed the call to her own number. She knew that if someone answered her own personal line that meant that help was on the way. Her second call after that would be 911. She was thinking to report a fire or some other huge emergency that would get an overwhelming response of firemen, policeman, and EMTs here to the association. With so many people milling about there would be a better chance of getting out of here alive.

But then while she was talking to Dick, Madison had chosen to disconnect the call. At present, Madison was staring wild-eyed at Mac. "Just tell me why he is here," she demanded.

Sensing Madison was worried, Mac answered quickly, "It's a really long story, but the gist is that we have been working on a case that involves him and it has tied into your case. It seems all of your boyfriends have a connection other than having dated you. Do you know something I need to know?"

"They hate him."

"Why? What did Dick ever do to them?"

"It's a long story, too, but if they know he's here, he'll be in more danger than we even are."

"What in the world does that mean?" Mac was incredulous. Madison was being so evasive. "What for?"

"They don't want him around."

Wishing she had more time to dig for information, Mac dialed her number again. "Listen, Madison, just leave this part up to me. Don't worry about your precious Dick and all the danger he supposedly is in. If we can get off this mountain alive, the FBI is involved now and he'll be fine. We're past Neptune and the Balboa County Sherriff's Department. Dick'll be fine."

The phone rang again, a shrill noise in the silent, tension-filled car. Dick answered, immediately pressing the speaker option and set the phone between them.

Veronica spoke first, "Mac?"

"Sorry about that," Mac rushed out, "Apparently, I've got a girl here worried about Dick's safety. Do you hear that, Dickster? Your ex thinks you're in danger."

Veronica could hear it: a hint of accusation in Mac's voice that maybe Madison and Dick were more than they seemed. Madison was nothing but a man-eater. And a little bit of a woman-eater, too. She destroyed everyone in her wake. She made men crumble with her prowess and made women flail in self-doubt and self-loathing. That had been Veronica's own experience, anyway. The whole experience in college had ruined a good—no great—thing because Veronica had allowed Madison to be the reason to ruin it. And now she could hear it in Mac's voice, the uncertainty and unsureness that signaled Mac's lack of belief that Dick cared.

Before Dick could say anything, Veronica, hoping to divert her friend's thoughts, asked, "Mac, why is Madison with you? We both thought that Madison," she stressed the name loudly, "was the one that took you."

"You really think that I couldn't kick that girl's ass?" Mac asked, and in the background they could hear a defiant cry of 'hey!' from Madison. "I'll explain later, but while I was in her room, a guy, huge, came and…" her voice wobbled, "the point is that we were both tied up in the back of an SUV, and I was able to cut us free with Dick's knife and we ended up in a cabin somewhere on this God forsaken mountain and I don't have a clue how to explain our coordinates." There was shuffling on her side of the call, deafening to the two in the car. They both cringed at the assault on their ears. "Madison!" They heard the muffled voice of Mac calling out to her companion. "Give it up—there is no water! I frakking do not have time to worry about your dirty damn feet! Get over it!" She returned to the phone. "Sorry. Princess over here is a little concerned about her blisters. She's tracking leaves and shit everywhere." She paused. "Is my bag still there? In the back with my gun? There's a tracer that you can connect to my phone and it would tell you the coordinates-"

Veronica paused in her looking. "We have the bag, Mac, I grabbed it when we left the hotel. But we don't need it, the caller ID shows the name of Hansen on this call and we have the map of the plot of land. Dick and I were just looking over it; we're in luck, the owner's names are on each cabin. We should be able to find it that way."

"Oh, yes! Yes, yes, yes!" Mac cried in relief.

Dick piped up, voice teasing, "Wow, Mackie, you should maybe reserve that for the bedroom. I like it."

"Dick!" Veronica hit him in the arm.

"The imminent danger must have past if you're in the mood for quips, Dick." Mac told him from the other end.

There was a slight change to Dick's voice when he said, "Sometimes the more imminent the sitch, Babe, the worse the quips. You'll get used to it. Promise."

"We'll see about that," she told him stiffly. "Have you found us yet?"

"Not yet," Veronica replied, "If we come in to get you and you're saying that Madison is worried about Dick, I have three of you I have to get back out of this gate without someone noticing. What would be best is if we could meet you somewhere and see if there is another way out of this place." She motioned for Dick to keep looking over the plot of the mountainside that they both had been staring at between Mac's phone calls. "Is there a sign of any other way out?"

Mac interrupted his search by saying, "I'm calling 911 and telling them there's a fire up here. I don't know what else to do."

Veronica bit her lip. She paused. "Make the call. The Feds should be on their way up, I've been avoiding their calls but I left enough information at the room that they are most definitely on their way." She leaned forward in her seat to stare out the window. "And, hell, we've got company. We need to pull up a little further up the highway before Mr. Happy Fists sees us." She threw the SUV in reverse and crept slowly away from the gate that they were still sitting in front. She could see the telling gleam of lights shining through the trees at the lower part of the mountain's road. "He's almost to the pasture. If we go through the gate right now, he'll see us. Going further up the main road would be better."

"Mr. Happy Fists?" Dick asked, still scrutinizing the map of the association.

Twisting in her seat to look out the rear-window as she continued backing out, Veronica responded, "It's a technical term."

The connection to the outside world was not enough. Madison was driving her crazy, because she was being such a frakking girl. Didn't she get that they were life and death here, and a frakking broken nail could be agonized over later, like when life was easy again? Like, after they survived this? Like, she was turning into a Valley Girl, much to her annoyance. Madison was evidently bringing out the 09er whiner in her.

The thing was, Madison was reacting rather well, all things considered. Her feet were blistered; Mac could see the open sores and even the marks from where the rope had cut into her ankles. The leggings Madison wore hit mid-calf, and it wasn't just marks from the rope that were evident. Thrashing through brush had caused just as much injury. She had scratches and blood was oozing from some of the open cuts. Both of their hands were filthy; Mac had found a dish towel and had gone to work cleaning herself up as best she could, but Madison had mostly just stared forlornly at the sink until Mac had handed the towel over to her.

"Look, Madison, I bet if we find a bathroom in this place I would think there will be a first aid kit somewhere stocked standard. This place doesn't skimp. Let's get you cleaned up." It was getting darker outside, but Mac was reluctant to turn on any lights for fear of tipping off their pursuers. "If we can find it before it gets much darker, we can hold out for a while until help is closer. Veronica and Dick are barely ten minutes away, but Tree-trunk is out driving around looking for us. So we need to stay here, in the dark. And NO water, I'm sorry. I don't want to leave the safety of this cabin to go find the water spicket. I'm sorry."

The look Madison gave her was empty of emotion. She started down the hallway in search of a bathroom not saying anything. Mac watched her go. She turned back to the phone to dial 911 and make the emergency call, but she stilled when she heard a vehicle from not far off. It sounded like it was driving past their cabin's driveway though, so, keeping an eye out the front window, she reached for the phone to make the call.

They found it. Dick was staring at the map, staring at the little dot that represented the 'wooden palace' that Mac was keyed up in waiting for rescue. The Gil Hanson Family's Summer Cottage, it was labeled. And it couldn't be in a worse spot. It was, at least, not on the top loop near the Tennison's place, but it was still half-way up the mountain. The road that led to the Tennison's was the main road, but there was a lane, aptly named Grizzly Lane, that forked off that main road and around the other side of the mountain, and that was where five cabins sat, one being the Hanson's, where the Double M's were hiding out.

His finger ran back and forth over the map, searching for an alternate route out of the association. A sinking pit in his stomach made him turn to Veronica. "If they call 911, we're going to have a hell of a time getting out of here without the Tennison Mob seeing us. Tell me again how that's going to help us?"

They were still sitting on the shoulder of the highway where Veronica had pulled the car up and away from the association's gate and away from Mr. Happy Fist's eagle eye. She had turned the car around and was on the other side of the road, facing the direction they had originally come. They had both been searching the map for the Hanson property.

They had turned the Mac Attack App back on, but there had been no sound that signaled the men returning to the cabin—or they weren't near enough to where it was planted for the thing to pick up any noise. That meant, Dick realized with sickening awareness, that they all were searching the woods at this very moment for the missing women.

Three men were searching diligently, and were they smart enough to realize that Mac would have broken into a cabin? That she would have found a phone? They at least didn't know about the bug and they didn't know about Veronica and Dick, the cavalry, waiting for the perfect moment to bust in there and bust the women out. They had that to their advantage at least.

Maybe Madison had played her blond card enough that the men would think that Mac was an idiot as well. That they would wander around on the mountain and lose their lives to the elements or big furry animals that ate stupid people for lunch. On second thought, maybe that's what would happen to the Tennison goons. Maybe they would go out hiking and get eaten by a grizzly bear. Were there even grizzlies in this part of the country? Maybe that lane was named that as a joke on those that didn't know better. Maybe to scare them away.

He shook his head to clear it. Wandering thoughts were getting him nowhere. He reiterated, "What good will the 911 call do?"

Veronica picked her phone up, referring to the number that had come up earlier on Mac's phone and dialed.

Mac's hand was just grasping the phone when it rang. She jumped, startled, but picked it up quickly. "Yes?"

"Don't make the call, not yet."

"O…kay," Mac answered slowly, "And why not?"

"We need a better plan. We found where you're at; you're up a dead end road, well, at least it looks that way on this map. There are only two other cabins up that road. We need to make sure we can get you out before you make the only exit stuffed full of people checking ID's and making a nuisance of our getaway." Veronica's voice came in loud and clear.

Mac could hear the stress in her friend's voice. "If I call saying there's an emergency on the top loop…"

"Well, yes, but we have to time it just right." There was a long pause on Veronica's end. "Is there any way you two can hike down closer to th—"

"I don't know how much further Madison can make it. The shoes she's wearing are like jellies, they've ripped her feet to shreds and we barely hiked at all. She'd almost be better barefoot."

Blowing out a disappointed sigh, Veronica conceded, "I figured as much but I had to try."

Mac looked around the room she stood in, thinking. "Maybe this place has hiking gear. We haven't even begun to explore. Madison is looking for a first aid kit." Suddenly, there was a noise outside, an engine. "I have to go. There's a car."

The line went dead. Veronica pulled the phone from her ear. "I don't care anymore, we're going in." She put the SUV in drive, turned off her head lights, and drove down the highway, turning left onto the association's road. "Get the guns ready and let's do this. If we see a vehicle, keep it cool. There are obviously more people up here than the sinister ones, so we can just make ourselves look like we have a purpose. We are on a lovely weekend getaway, you and me, Dick, heading to the Hanson's Summer Cottage for a little R and R."

"Never would I have thought you and me would be on a weekend getaway together for a little R and R."

"Just keep the act up. Mr. Happy Fists, as far as we know, knows nothing about what you look like. And you are pretty unoriginal from far away. Just another White American Blond."

"Born that way, and all that." He told her, snapping the clip into her gun and handing it to her. He did the same with Mac's and set it carefully on his lap, eyes alert.

There was a car pulling into the driveway. One glance told Mac it was the huge steroid-induced SUV from this afternoon, and she knew it was Patrick Muldoon. She ran down the hallway, mind-overloaded with whether she had locked the door behind them when they came in (she had, hadn't she?) and whether anything in the main room would look out of place.

Madison was in the bathroom, sitting in the dark, applying salve to her ankles. Mac picked the first aid kit up, stuffing it back into the open cabinet, taking the towel from earlier and holding it to herself. "Get up," she whispered, "We have company and we have got to hide."

Not taking another moment, Madison stood up, tube of medication still clasped in one hand, the other hand swiping for her shoes. Together they ran into the back of the cabin, eyes open for any place to hide.

Mr. Happy Fists must have decided that nothing of interest was at the gate because thankfully for them, he was long gone. Veronica swiped the key card in the machine for the gate to lift and then they were in. She glanced at Dick. He stared out the window purposely. He was intent on their mission.

"Look at the map again, Dick, help me make sure I don't miss the turn on Grizzly Lane. I don't remember even seeing it this morning."

The map was still sitting on his lap and he gazed down at it. A finger ran the length of the road drawn there. "I won't let you miss it."

They both found spots that no normal-sized person could fit in to hide. Madison had found a hope chest filled with blankets and she had thrown all but one under a bed and then crawled inside it, covering herself with the blanket she had kept. When it had closed, Mac had flung a silent prayer up that the woman wouldn't suffocate in there. Then Mac had kept with her search, finding in the bathroom connected to that bedroom a cupboard underneath a sink that Veronica would be proud of. She crammed herself in, knees digging into her cheeks. As her eyes adjusted, she found a can of Lysol that she figured if it came to that, she could spray it in her assailant's eyes; hopefully it would hurt enough for a quick getaway. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

Many minutes passed before she heard a banging on the front door, and a muffled voice saying, "Hello? Anyone home?"

In her haste, Mac hadn't paid much attention to which side of the cabin they were hidden in, only that they were hid. Hearing his voice so close brought terror bubbling back up and she felt the fear causing her fingers to shake as they wrapped tightly around the can of spray.

"Just wondering if you may have seen my wife and her friend," The voice called, getting closer yet. "They went for a hike a few hours ago and I'm getting a little worried about them." Mac could hear clomping outside, as if Patrick Muldoon was walking the perimeter of the cabin. He must be directly on the other side of the bathroom's wall, because she could hear him clearly now. "If you see them…" She heard a grunt and she wondered if maybe he had jumped up to look into the bathroom's window. There was a snapping of twigs and she knew he had moved on.

It would only be a matter of minutes and he would be on the top of that deck, and Mac would find out whether she had locked that back door back up. Again, she was so grateful for Dick's little knife. Without it, she would have had to break the window and then Patrick Muldoon would know for certain they were in there. She held her breath.

"Do you think we should really just drive straight up to this Hansen place?" Dick asked, disrupting Veronica's thoughts.

Following the road was easier this time up because she was more familiar, but she was still choosing to drive around twenty miles per hour. She had been searching the road ahead of them, trying to watch for oncoming vehicles and for now not one had been seen. It was helpful to have a backup brain asking questions that in her rush she might not think of. She glanced at him. "You think we'd lead them straight there?"

"You heard Mac, they're already there. We potentially could meet them on the road. Maybe we should park at a lower cabin and walk up through the trees. Surprise assault."

"When we turn on Grizzly Lane, how many cabins do we pass before we come to the Hansen's?"

"Two. They're smack dab in the middle."

He'd let himself in. There had been a rattle along with the breaking of glass and now she could hear him tromping through the kitchen. It helped to know she obviously had locked the door behind them. All Mac could think of now was that Madison better stay quiet and not freak out. Maybe he'd get bored or think that they hadn't been here.

She was also hoping that Veronica didn't suddenly come busting through the door. It was possible that her friends had rushed into the association to pull a white knight and they could easily be led straight into a trap. She breathed in through her nose and out her mouth, trying not to panic, trying not to obsess about how uncomfortable she felt as her thighs dug unnaturally into her ribcage.

Her mind traveled with him as he wandered through each room: the kitchen, where Madison had thrown her hissy fit about no water, the phone she'd called out on; the leaves that they'd surely tracked in. Down the hallway to the first bathroom, where Mac had stuffed the first aid kit into the cabinet haphazardly, but maybe Mr. Muldoon wouldn't open that cabinet. On further down to the first of three bedrooms, to the last, where Madison was scrunched tightly into a hope chest, through that room and into the bathroom where Mac herself was hidden in a cabinet. She felt hopeless.

There was a creak and a groan of floorboards and Mac knew all at once that he was near them, in the bedroom, looking in the closet and under the bed. His steps were closer still and she could sense him stepping into the bathroom, felt his shadow pass over her as he strode over to open the shower curtain. Her hand grasped tighter on the Lysol. She tried to shrink back as far into the cabinet as possible without making any sound and waited.