He grinned. “What was I doing?”

“Breaking into my car. Take it. Take everything. Even the car. The keys are in the backpack.”

“Take everything?” He cast a look at the other man.

She wanted to cry, but she couldn’t show her weakness. She pressed her arm against her side. The knife was still in her pocket.

“Let’s just go our own ways, okay?” she said. “I have no phone on me. I can’t call the police.” She half turned to walk away. “I’ll go. Take the car.”

The strawberry blond grabbed her arm.

She shrugged him off. Again, only because he allowed it. “Come on. Just let me go,” she said.

“I can’t let a woman go off alone into the woods,” he said. “That wouldn’t be right. You should know it’s not safe to be in a place like this all alone.”

It was worse than she thought. She forced a show of confidence through her dizzying terror.

“I’m not alone,” she said. “I’m a biologist doing research here, and some of my colleagues are meeting me soon. You should go before they arrive.”

“Uh-oh, her colleagues are coming,” he said to his friend.

The bearded man grinned.

“I think you’re lying to me,” the blond told Ellis. “Why would a biologist be sleeping all alone in the cold woods?”

“Biologists who study forest species sleep in the woods in all seasons.”

“What species do you study?”

“Hickory trees,” she said, because there was one just behind him.

“What about them do you study?”

She tried to give him a look that didn’t betray the quaking mess she was inside. “I’ve had enough of this,” she said as boldly as she could. She moved to walk around him, but he blocked her with his body.

“I said I wanted to hear more about the hickory trees,” he said. “Biology always was my favorite subject.”

His friend snickered, and when the blond looked at him and grinned, Ellis slid her hand into her pocket. She felt the handle of the knife.

The blond rubbed his hand down the front of his jeans. “I got a damn hickory tree down here just looking at you, girl. You’re the prettiest biologist I ever saw.”

He slanted his eyes at his grinning friend. Ellis could tell a signal had passed between them. She gripped the knife handle. She had to stay calm, be smart, but her brain was a frenetic rush of adrenaline screaming for her to run.

“How about we take a moment to study a few trees?” the red-blond said.

The men lunged at her. Ellis thrust the knife at the blond’s chest. He ducked and grabbed her arm. She punched him with her other arm and kicked at his groin. The bearded man jerked her away from the blond by her left arm. Something cracked in her wrist, but she felt no pain. She screamed and kicked and fought wildly.

But it ended as it always did. As it had for thousands of years. They had her trapped on the ground. The blond straddled her legs. The bearded man had her arms pinned over her head. Blood seeped fast out of one of her nostrils. Her lips tasted salty, were already swelling, and her right cheek throbbed.

The blond held up her antler-handle knife, making a show of studying it. “This is a nice hunting knife. An old one.” He looked into her eyes. “Do you know how to use this? Do you hunt?”

She looked away from his face.

“I’ll take that as a no,” he said. “You shouldn’t be playing around with weapons you don’t know how to use.” After a long pause, he said, “How about I give you a lesson?”

She closed her eyes. She wouldn’t watch. She couldn’t.

“I know all about what’s inside bodies. Deer, possums, people. I know where you can put a knife so it hurts bad but doesn’t kill. I don’t want you dead when we do this. But you have to pay for the stupidity of pulling a knife on a man who knows how to use it.”

He pushed up her shirt, baring her stomach, and jerked down the waist of her pants. He swirled the knife point on her left side.

She squeezed her eyes tight. She thought she’d die of fear. Was it possible? She wanted to. Or at least lose consciousness.

“Right here,” he said. “I can poke it here and miss all the vitals. It will only hurt. I promise. You won’t die.”

“Hey,” the bearded man said, “you’re not really going to—”

The blade stabbed into her. Hot. It felt hot. She screamed.

“Jesus Christ!” the bearded man said.

The blond laughed. “Don’t barf. At least not on her. I don’t want to deal with that when I’m on her.”

Ellis heard them, but their words didn’t register. She felt like she was in a dark room. A little room that had no air. Pain replaced the air, and she couldn’t breathe pain. She was dying. He’d said she wouldn’t die, but she had to be dying.

“Let her go,” the blond said.

She felt the weight of both men lift from her. Her hands now free, she instinctively reached for the knife handle protruding from her abdomen.

The blond grabbed her hands. “No, it stays. If you try to take it out, I’ll find a new spot for it. Just stay still and it won’t hurt as much.”

He was right. It didn’t hurt as much when she didn’t move.