The Marked Star by Vicki Hinze

Author:Vicki Hinze [Hinze, Vicki]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Magnolia Leaf Press

At the door to the Lodge, Nick held up a hand, blocking Elle, but looked past her to Sam and Joe. “Locked and loaded?”

Both nodded, their weapons drawn.

Pulling out his own from its holster at the back of his waist, Nick looked at Elle. “Stay close to me and be as quiet as you can. Don’t call out to her. Don’t talk, and don’t make any unnecessary noise.”

Elle bobbed her head, signaling she understood, her eyes wide with fear.

Fear, he felt down deep in the pit of his stomach. “Any word, use A protocol. Let’s move.”

They went outside. In a series of silent hand signals, he motioned Sam to go left, toward the wood, then Joe to the right, around the house to the backside. He nodded toward the lake and bridge they’d crossed when coming in, and he and Elle moved in that direction.

On the far side of the helicopter pad, the grass gave way to natural ground, sandy and uneven. Elle slipped on a stump root.

Nick caught her elbow and kept her from falling. “You okay?” he silently mouthed.

She nodded that she was fine.

They moved on, winding down toward the water, the little rock-strewn creek. Water moved downstream at a lazy clip. Beyond a thicket of squat fat bushes, she snagged Nick’s shirt and tugged. He looked back at her, and Elle pointed.

Lizzie sat alone on the bank of the creek among downed branches, digging her bare toes in the sandy dirt. “What’s she staring at?” Nick whispered to Elle. He sent up a series of bird calls.

“I don’t know,” Elle whispered back, scanning the broader area but seeing no one. “The bird calls—A protocol?”

Nick nodded, but didn’t look at her. He too scanned a grid. Slowly, methodically, meticulously. Nothing stirred, no unusual sounds echoed over the water to him. And no strange scents assaulted his nose.

They crept toward Lizzie in stealth-mode, moving gingerly tree to tree, bush to bush, hunkering low to obscure them as much as possible. In the thicket, he paused and again opened his senses. The only sound was of the summer breeze. The water on the rocks. Lizzie humming, staring at something he couldn’t see. Nick stopped suddenly. “What’s she looking at?”

“I don’t know.” Elle whispered. “It’s in her hands, I think.”

A bird call sounded to his left. Moments later, another came from his right. Sam and Joe were in position. He looked to Elle and motioned that they were moving in.

“Lizzie?” Nick said, drawing near. “Are you hurt?”

“No.”

“What are you doing out here?” Elle asked. “You were supposed to be downstairs, not outside.”

Lizzie cupped her hand into a fist. “I saw the lady through the door. She tapped on the glass and waved for me to come.”

“The lady?” Worry streaked up Nick’s back. “What lady?”

“The one from the wreck.” Lizzie dusted the sand off her skirt. “The man was already here.”

“Here?” Nick’s worry meter shot off the charts. “At the creek?”

“Uh-huh.”

“What man are you talking about?”

Lizzie sighed. “The one from the wreck.”

“I didn’t see a man at the wreck.

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