CHAPTER 11 – LOST
Sierra slowed to let Rick keep pace with her, and stopped altogether when they got back to their beach by the river. She dropped her phone, stamped on it, and threw it in the water, then put a finger to her lips. Rick moved close to her ear.
"What the hell?" he whispered.
"Someone had been there," she said quietly.
"How do you know? We were there for what, three seconds?"
"I just know. It was different. My stuff wasn't where I'd left it."
"You can't be sure."
"I'm sure enough. I felt something off. I have to trust my instincts."
"What are we going to do now?"
"Get away. When we're far enough out I'll call my boss and see what's going on."
"Get away how?"
"Good question. Can't use the gate, if they've been in they'll see... Are you a strong swimmer? And be honest, no macho stuff."
"I'm alright."
"Think you can swim across the river?"
Rick looked at it. It was pretty wide but the current didn't seem to strong.
"Yeah."
"Right. We're going to do that, and then head straight on – they'll think we'll go down the river, it makes more sense."
"If it makes more sense shouldn't we go down the river?"
"They'll catch us. Give me your gun in case it falls out."
Rick nodded and handed her the weapon. She put it in the bag, undid her holsters, and put her guns in too. They waded into the cold water, gasping as they tried to swim. Sierra held her bag above her head – Rick was stunned by her strength. They made it across and shivered on the bank. Sierra took out two towels and told Rick to get moving.
"It'll warm you up. Come on."
He shivered. "At least if we were caught we'd be warm."
"Only because hell is warm."
"We might have fought them off."
"I don't want to risk it, not when we don't have any kind of advantage."
They were walking quickly over the rough ground, heading into a forest. The trees would offer protection, but they would offer it to their enemies too. They needed to get to a road – they had to move faster.
Rick was completely lost – he had no idea what was going on. He was scared, it was dark, Sierra was clearly preoccupied, and for the first time since this had all started he wished more than anything that he could go home. He forced himself to keep quiet and keep moving; they were almost running, dodging in and out of the trees in the dim moonlight.
"Reminds me of horror movies," Rick panted to Sierra. She laughed.
"Me too. Come on. I think I hear a road."
"Come on, come on. You like telling me what to do, don't you?"
"I'm always in charge."
"Always on top too?"
"Only you, Castle, would ask that now."
"Why? We might be about to die, I want to know."
"You want to know that?"
"You won't tell me your name."
"Yes. Almost always."
"You're lying, you just said that to fit with the image."
"If we're still free in the morning I'll tell you the truth."
"Promise?"
"It'll be good incentive for you to shut up and do what I say."
Rick laughed and listened harder. He thought he could hear the road now as well. They continued to hurry through the forest, and the sound of cars got louder and louder. She wished she could check her GPS but she'd had to destroy the phone in case it was being tracked – which should have been impossible... They got to the road in another ten minutes.
"Now what?" Rick asked. At this hour, the majority of vehicles passing were trucks. Sierra smiled and shook a hand through her wet hair. She had dropped her towel somewhere in the forest. She adopted the usual hitch hiker pose, standing at the side of the road with her thumb up.
"Can you do a British accent?" she asked Rick as he adjusted the cap she'd given him.
"A bit of one," he said in an overly posh imitation of the Queen's English.
"Right. Don't say much then. But do that. I'm going to say we're on holiday."
Rick nodded just as a truck pulled over. A grubby, red-neck driver leered at Sierra.
"Where you headed?" he asked her. She batted her eyelashes.
"We're hitching across the US – on holiday. So anywhere's fine. Where are you going?"
"Virginia – Richmond."
"Wow, that would be amazing."
"It'll take about 6 hours. What's your name, darlin'?"
"Sally. This is Ryan. He doesn't say much," she added conspiratorially.
"Well jump in. Hurry up, I don't have all day," he said to Rick as he followed Sierra into the cab.
"I'm Clayton. Nice to meet you," the driver said as he pulled out onto the road again.
"Yeah, nice," Sierra said quietly. Rick watched as she played the part of the flirty tourist. He wondered if Clayton saw through it. He wondered if he would have seen through it if she'd been getting into his car.
"You're wet," Clayton observed.
"Moonlit swimming, you know?" Sierra said, looking sideways at him. Rick was pretending to sleep; his cap was covering almost his entire face.
"In April?"
"Well we're only here in April. Besides, it's colder in England."
"Right. How do you like the US then?"
"It's interesting. Nice. The people are great," she said, flashing a smile.
The journey passed much faster for Rick than for Sierra – he really did fall asleep, and she was left to entertain Clayton. When they eventually clambered out of the cab 6 hours later she was struggling not to yawn – she thought even flirty Sally would have been bored. He left them outside a motel but as soon as he was gone Sierra set about stealing another car. She had to break the window – she didn't have her kit with her. The alarm beeped but she disabled it within seconds – people probably wouldn't notice. She swept the glass off the seat and Rick thoughtfully put his towel on it for her. They got in and she drove off.
"Where are we going?"
"Don't know. Road trip I guess – once we're away from Richmond I'll try to call in from a payphone."
"And what will they say?"
"I don't know. I smashed my phone so they can't send me a location – we'll get plain old directions if we get anything – they might just say hide out. Or there might be a mole, and they'll trace the location of the phone call and tell the guys chasing us where we are."
"You sound so optimistic," he said sarcastically, looking at her angry expression.
"I haven't had a very good night – I'm sorry if I'm not in the best of moods."
"At least we're still alive. And you stole another car."
"Stealing a car is a good thing?"
"Sure. For some reason, I find it really hot."
"You're a weird one, I'll say that."
"Does 5am count as morning?"
"Probably."
"Then you probably have to tell me something."
"You seriously haven't forgotten that?"
"You haven't either."
"Alright. It depends on the guy."
"Depends how?"
"It just... depends. Some guys are on top guys. Some guys you can do either and you usually end up doing both. And then other things..."
"What am I?"
"What?"
"You heard."
You're a slam me against the wall, fuck my brains out guy. She grinned. "I'd definitely be on top."
"But you're a special case."
"Sophia was on top too."
"Not always."
"If you say so."
"I'm usually on top, okay?"
"Sure you are, Ricky."
"I'm manly, okay? Just because I'm a writer..."
Sierra laughed. "You look honestly upset."
"I am honestly upset. I know you can take me in a fight, but in the bedroom-"
"I believe you. I do," she said through her giggles.
"You don't. I'll show you. I'm great."
"Prove it."
Rick gaped. "What?"
She laughed more. "Not sex. I mean, prove you're a manly romancer. What would you say if this was a date?"
"You mean, to-get-you-into-bed?" he asked, putting on a silly voice.
"Yup. What do you say to the girls, Castle? When you're not falling off your bar stool..."
"Stop it."
"Okay, okay. Off you go."
"Have we met yet?"
"No. First date."
"Why are we in the car?"
"We're driving somewhere. Does it matter?"
"Why am I not driving?"
"Because it's not your car."
"It's not yours either."
"So far you've shown your date you like bickering."
"We don't bicker. We have banter."
"Whatever."
"Ooh that sounds hot in your accent. Okay. Date time. So – what's your name?"
"Sally. What's yours?"
"Sally? Sally's a slut though."
"She didn't sleep with him. Stop deviating."
"Fine. I'm Clayton."
"Lovely to meet you Clayton."
"Lovely to meet you too," he said staring at her chest.
"Eyes up, writer boy."
"Sally likes it when guys ogle her."
"Sally's a slut. Getting to be on top with a slut hardly even counts."
"Then you can't be Sally."
"Fine. I'm Nikki then."
"Like it. Okay, I'll stick to Rick."
"You want Nikki to stick to Rick?"
"Talking dirty huh? So, Nikki, where would you like to eat?"
"I like pizza."
"Tough, we're getting strawberry shakes."
Sierra laughed. "Fine. But you just lost the second date."
"We'll have to get it on tonight then."
"Is this what you're saying to Nikki?"
"Sure."
"She's about to stop the car."
"She's sexy when she's mad though. So sexy."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, the way her eyes narrow and her mouth hardens. Mmm."
"So where do you want to get those shakes?"
"Drive in. Then we can watch a movie somewhere."
"For you to feel her up in the back row?"
"Only if she starts something."
"Will she?"
"She loves strawberry shakes. There's no knowing what they might do to her."
"Right. Keep talking to her then. She's bored."
"Okay. Nikki, do you have a job?"
"Yes, I'm a stripper."
"What?"
"Nikki is kind of a stripper name. But I'm also a cop. I just strip for the extra cash."
"Oh..."
"What about you?"
"I'm, uh... I'm a writer."
"Ooh, what kind? Have you written anything I might have read?"
"I'm a crime novelist – Richard Castle."
"Nice!"
"You know my books?"
"I love them."
"Wait, is that Nikki or Sierra who loves them?"
"Nikki."
"I guess it doesn't really matter. Neither of them are real."
"True. Sierra's the one you're usually with though."
"I wish I knew you."
"If you did, you'd wish you didn't."
"I think you're wrong."
"You always will."
"Right. Or you could tell me."
Sierra sighed. "Look, master of love, even if I did tell you things about me like, I don't know, my real name, stuff I've done, whatever – that still wouldn't mean you knew me. Do you think that because I've read an extensive file on you I actually know you?"
"I think in the last couple of days you've gotten to know me pretty well."
"I know more about your personality than I did. But we all alter ourselves when we're with people – we want them to get a certain impression of us."
"Very philosophical. But in that case, no one knows anyone."
"Mm. Maybe that's what it is then," she said distantly, staring out of the broken window, thinking of Victor again.
"What's the matter?"
"Aside from the obvious?"
"No, it's not that. They've always been chasing us. You're sad like... more sad. Sad about something you can't fix."
"You're good at reading people. Yes, I am. My friend died."
"Victor?"
"How do you know?"
"I heard you on the phone, when we were in the motel."
"Oh. Good at eavesdropping too then. Yes, Victor."
"That's army code too. What was his real name?"
"Don't know. I wouldn't tell you if I did, but I never knew his name anyway."
"How long did you know him?"
"Eight years. We were partners fairly often."
"Did you love him?"
"What makes you ask that?"
"In your line of work lots of people must die. But you're so sad."
"No. I didn't love him. I liked him very much, and at one point I thought I might love him. But I realised I didn't. Not like that."
"You slept with him though?"
Sierra laughed in spite of her sadness. "How did you guess?"
"The way you talk about him. I'm sorry."
"Thanks. You'd have liked him, I think. He thought you were funny."
"But I never met him."
"He was driving the car that time."
"Oh..." Rick drifted off into silence, thinking about the pain Sierra must have been feeling about the death of her friend that she had hidden so well while they were at the safe house.
"I don't have many friends," she said into the silence. "Now I have even fewer."
"I'm your friend."
"Thanks, Castle. But you're not. Right now, you're my job."
He sensed her need to talk had evaporated as quickly as it had appeared, and joined her in staring at the dark road. Maybe she was just a lost cause.
