Read Online The Drop by Jeff Ross - Free Book Online

noise. I had just unbuckled my board and was picking it up to step into the woodshed when Hope caught an edge and went flying off in the wrong direction. I almost yelled at her, but stopped myself just in time. She spun around and then tried to dig in her toe edge, but nothing seemed to be working for her. She shot way out, cut back in and slammed straight into the door of the cabin.
    I froze.
    â€œWhat was that?” someone inside said. There was the sound of scuffling. I looked around the corner of the cabin and saw Hope sprawled out on the ground, struggling under the weight of her backpack. She looked up and saw me. The door to the cabin opened, and she waved at me to hide. I grabbed my board, took two big steps through the snow and opened the door to the woodshed.
    â€œWho are you?” a man’s voice said from the front of the cabin.
    â€œWhere is Bryce?” Hope yelled. There was a long pause. I stepped inside the woodshed. It was warm, and light leaked through from the main cabin.
    â€œYou’re here to save your little boyfriend, are you?”
    â€œHe’s not my boyfriend,” Hope replied. “What have you done with him?”
    There was another pause, then the man’s voice again. “Oh, you’ll see, little girl. Come on, get up.” It sounded like Hope put up a bit of a struggle. The man grunted a couple of times, and Hope screamed. Someone else was called to help, and soon there was silence again.
    The woodshed was big enough to move around in, but not much more than that. The wood was piled about two feet from the back wall. I slid my board in behind the pile and sat down beside it. If anyone came, I could get in behind the pile. It smelled damp and heavy. I leaned my head against the wall.
    â€œYeah, a girl,” I heard someone say. The voice was close. Whoever was speaking must have been putting wood in the stove. “I don’t know. I’ll take the sock out of her mouth and ask her.” There was a muffled response. “Hope. Hahahaha, yeah, her name’s Hope.” I couldn’t hear anyone else speaking, so the man must have been talking on a satellite phone. “I know. I guess we can leave her here.” There was another long pause. I put my ear to the wall. “Okay. I don’t like it, but I guess we have to do what we have to do.” I heard the door of the woodstove slam shut. Then the man’s voice faded away until I couldn’t hear him at all.
    Now what was I supposed to do? If I went crashing into the cabin, I’d be in the same boat as Bryce and Hope. But if I sat out here, who knew what would happen to them. I looked at my watch. It was almost nine o’clock. The sun was down, and the air was crystal clear and thin. I watched my breath form a cloud before me in the flickering light that leaked from the cabin.
    Okay, I thought, they can’t possibly be going anywhere until morning. What I need to do is sleep. My job here is to be well rested. Have an active mind. Be able to focus. And in the morning, something will come to me.
    I looked at the woodchip-covered ground. Something scurried in the corner. I decided it was worth the risk to get my sleeping bag out. I unrolled it on the floor and was about to climb inside when I had a second thought. Wouldn’t it suck if someone came in here and I was asleep on the floor in plain view? I pushed my pack behind the wood pile and slid my sleeping bag in after it. Then I climbed inside and closed my eyes. This was going to be one of the worst nights of my life.

chapter fourteen
    I hardly slept that night, though I guess I must have drifted off eventually. I was awakened by a log falling on my legs. I almost yelled. Then I remembered where I was.
    Through the woodpile, I could see a tall man in a North Face jacket bundling logs into his bent arm. A cigarette jutted out from one side of his mouth, and he was squinting against the smoke. He dropped the logs, swore and