Ruby Falls by Nicole James Read Free Book Online Page A

then.”
     
    After lunch, Steve and Summer headed out in his pickup. He made a left out of his driveway and turned to her. “So, you came from this direction. Do you remember how far you walked?”
    She nodded through the windshield to the rise in the distance. “I came out of the woods somewhere up there. I walked maybe twenty minutes before I ever came to the crest of that hill and could see this valley.”
    “Okay.” He drove them up into the hills. When they crested the top and entered the denser wooded forest, he slowed down and looked over at her. “Look familiar?”
    She was glancing around. “I don’t know. It all looks so different in the bright afternoon sun. Maybe if you pull over and we walk it?”
    “Sure.” He pulled to the shoulder and parked. They climbed out.
    She pointed to the opposite side of the road. “I walked along that side.”
    He nodded and they crossed the deserted road. They headed uphill. As they walked, Summer kept stopping and turning around and studying her surroundings. Steve waited patiently each time. His eyes also searching the area for anything suspicious. Steve kept track of the amount of time they’d walked. When it was getting close to the amount of time she’d said she’d thought she’d walked, he stopped them. “This is how far you might have walked in twenty minutes.”
    She looked around and pointed across the road. “I came out of the woods on that side, before I crossed to this side. But…I don’t know, Steve. It all just looks like woods.”
    “Come on.” He crossed the road and she followed him. He entered the forest, keeping his eyes open for anything, a dropped sweater, a broken branch, something. “When you came to…how far back in the woods were you? Can you remember?”
    She shook her head. “I don’t know. I ran for a while, but I think I tired pretty quickly. I…I just can’t remember. I was so scared and not thinking clearly. My head was hurting so badly.”
    “Do you remember anything that might stand out? A fallen tree, or a boulder, or a ravine? Something like that?”
    She tried to think of anything like that and shook her head.
    They searched for a long while. Steve finally stopped and looked over at her. “I think we should probably head back to the road, before we get lost back in here.”
    Summer rubbed her upper arms and nodded. “It’s giving me the creeps being back in these woods and I’m more than ready to get out of them.”
    When they made it back to the truck and Steve was starting it up, he turned to her and suggested, “I don’t want to frighten you, honey, but…”
    “But what?” she prodded when he paused and looked out the driver’s window. “Steve, what?”
    Being out in those woods, he couldn’t think of one plausible reason for her to have been out there, at least not in the area they had searched, if that was even the exact location. There was nothing up there. What could she have possibly been doing back in those woods? It’s not an area people hike, it wasn’t hunting season, there’s nothing up there to be sightseeing, no waterfall or cavern. And she wasn’t dressed for any of that. He turned reluctantly back to her. “Is it possible that someone brought you up here, dragged you out in the woods to…”
    “To what?”
    “To rape you, or kill you, but somehow you managed to get away.”
    She turned from him to stare out the windshield and swallowed, “I do remember the unexplainable feeling of fear I had that night when my instincts were telling me to run.” She glanced around at the darkening woods. “Can we get out of here?”
    “Absolutely.” He pulled onto the road and accelerated.
    They were down into the valley before she turned to him and quietly clarified, “I wasn’t raped.”
    Steve glanced over at her. He hadn’t been ready for that. “Babe-”
    “I just want you to know that.”
    He nodded. He didn’t know what to do with that. “Alright.”
    “I’m sorry. This makes you