Chapter Twenty Eight
Dynamic Duos
Jameson Bishop
Kyle’s cabin sits at the edge of the compound, half-hidden by trees, the porch light flickering like it’s struggling to stay alive. David moves ahead of me, gun raised, shoulders tight. I follow close behind. Every instinct screaming that something is wrong.
David kicks the door open.
Kyle jerks awake on his cot, eyes wide, hands flying up in surrender. He looks terrified; young, exhausted, confused.
Not dangerous. Not calculating. Not a killer.
“What…what’s happening?” Kyle stammers. “Why do you have guns? What did I do?”
David storms in, gun aimed at Kyle’s chest. “Where were you tonight?”
Kyle’s voice cracks. “Sleeping! I swear…I swear, I didn’t do anything!”
I step between them, pushing David’s gun down.
“Kyle, listen to me. Did you have access to the investigation files? Did you move Beth’s body? Did you go near the caves?”
Kyle shakes his head so hard it looks painful. “No! I wasn’t part of the investigation! I don’t know anything about Beth. I didn’t even know she was missing!”
He’s telling the truth. I can see it. I can feel it.
He’s terrified. He’s innocent. He’s just a kid.
I turn toward David. “He didn’t do it. He wasn’t involved. He-”
I don’t finish.
Because David moves.
Fast.
Too fast.
The gunshot explodes through the cabin.
Kyle’s body jerks, collapses onto the cot, eyes still wide with shock. Blood spreads across his shirt, soaking into the thin mattress.
I shout, “DAVID…WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO?”
But David isn’t sad. He isn’t panicked. He isn’t horrified.
He’s calm.
Cold.
His breathing evens out. His shoulders relax. His eyes sharpen.
And then he turns the gun on me.
Everything inside me goes still.
“David,” I say quietly, “put the gun down.”
He smiles.
A small, chilling smile.
“You were right, Bishop,” he says. “It had to be someone on the inside.”
My pulse spikes.
“David,” I repeat, slower, softer, “put the gun down.”
He steps closer, gun steady, eyes locked on mine.
“There’s no one else left,” he says. “No one but you.”
The cabin feels smaller. The air feels thinner. The world feels like it’s tilting.
Kyle is dead. Shaw is dead. Beth is gone. Rachel is alone at the compound.
And David…. David was never panicked. Never grieving. Never scared.
He was hiding.
And now he’s pointing a gun at me.
David marches me through the trees at gunpoint, the barrel pressed between my shoulder blades hard enough to bruise.
“I was quite the game.” He tells me conversationally.
“Finding Shaw and putting him in the caves while you were busy fucking Rachel. Taking you to my cabin and showing you the evidence at every step along the way. You didn’t put it together until the very end, but even then I had you guessing.”
He’s awfully proud of himself.
Every step feels like a countdown. Kyle’s blood is still on the cabin floor. Shaw’s body is cooling somewhere behind us. And Rachel….
God. Rachel.
I don’t know if she’s safe. I don’t know if she’s alive.
I don’t know anything except that David is not who he pretended to be. And that he’s a gloater.
“Bringing in a body for you, leaving you clues, and the legend,” he barks a laugh. “All for you.”
The compound comes into view, lights flickering weakly through the dark. David pushes me forward faster.
“Move,” he snaps.
I do. Because if I don’t, he’ll shoot me in the back. And if I die out here, Rachel is alone with whatever he’s planning.
We reach the clearing.
And I see her.
Rachel is lying on the ground just outside the compound door, unconscious, her hair fanned across the dirt like she fell hard. My heart stops. I lunge toward her….
David jams the gun into my spine. “Don’t.”
But I’m already moving, already dropping to my knees beside her, already checking her pulse with shaking fingers.
She’s alive. Thank God. She’s alive.
But she’s not alone.
Beth is kneeling beside her.
Beth. Alive. Breathing and watching me with alert eyes.
Not terrified. Not injured. Not crawling for help.
She’s calm.
Her clothes are clean. Her hands steady.
“Beth,” I whisper, horror crawling up my throat, “what did you…”
She smiles.
A small, chilling smile.
And everything inside me goes cold.
David steps beside her, lowering the gun just enough to show he doesn’t need it pointed at me anymore. Not when Rachel is unconscious. Not when Beth is standing up.
Not when the truth is finally out.
Two killers. Working together. Moving through the woods like ghosts. Staging bodies. Leaving clues. Watching us. Hunting us. Playing with us from the start.
Beth tilts her head. “You really thought Shaw did all this?”
David laughs…low, humorless. “Or Kyle.”
My stomach twists. “Why? Why any of this? Why kill them? Why stage it? Why….”
Beth’s smile widens.
“The hunt.”
The words hit like a blow. They’ve been hunting us.
David steps closer, gun still in hand. “People come out here thinking they’re safe. Thinking the woods are peaceful. Thinking they’re alone.”
Beth finishes for him. “But they’re not.”
The wolf costume. The sightings. The staged prints. The shredded clothes. The fear.
All smoke and mirrors. All distraction. All part of the game.
They were hunting. Covering their tracks. Throwing off the scent.
My pulse spikes. My vision narrows.
Rachel lies unconscious beside me, completely vulnerable, completely unaware of what she walked into.
And it’s my fault.
Beth crouches down, brushing a strand of hair from Rachel’s face with a tenderness that makes my skin crawl.
“She’s pretty,” Beth murmurs. “I can see why you like her.”
David’s grip tightens on the gun. “We’ll start with him,” he says. “Then her.”
Beth watches me carefully. For what I have no idea.
I can’t hear anything over the roar in my ears.
That’s why the couples were never found together. They hunted as a group, dividing them up.
David reaches to pull me up, but Im prepared. I twist hard, grabbing David’s wrist and forcing the gun upward. The shot cracks into the trees. David snarls, swinging at me, but I’m already driving my shoulder into his chest, knocking him backward.
Beth steps back, watching us with eerie calm, like she’s enjoying the show.
David fights like someone who’s done this before; fast, vicious, practiced. He slams his elbow into my ribs, knocking the breath out of me. I stumble, reaching for the gun; but David gets there first.
He raises it.
Points it at my chest.
Beth steps beside him, smiling. “You should’ve stayed out of the woods.”
I look at Rachel, unconscious, defenseless, and everything inside me ignites.
Not fear. Not panic.
Resolve.
David isn’t the only one who’s been hiding his true nature.
I drop hard, letting gravity take me. The gunshot cracks above my head as I hit the dirt, roll, and slam my shoulder into David’s legs. He goes down with a grunt, the gun skittering across the ground.
Beth gasps; surprised, not prepared.
Good. She’s not trained. I am.
David snarls, scrambling, trying to get leverage. I grab his wrist, twist, shove, anything to keep him off balance. He fights dirty; clawing, grabbing, swinging- but he’s sloppy. He’s used to hunting victims, not fighting someone who hits back.
The gun lies ten feet away. Too far for me. Too close for him.
Beth moves toward Rachel.
Rachel’s eyes snap open.
She wakes fast; trained reflexes firing before consciousness fully catches up. Beth lunges to subdue her, but Rachel twists, grabs Beth’s arm, and drives her knee upward. Beth collapses with a cry, shocked and furious.
Rachel is on her feet in seconds.
“Bishop!” she shouts.
David breaks free of my grip and dives for the gun.
I don’t think. I sprint.
Not for the gun. For Rachel.
I grab her arm, yank her with me, and we bolt for the trees.
Branches whip past us, the cold air burning my lungs, but I don’t slow. Rachel stumbles once and I pull her upright without breaking stride.
“We need high ground,” I say, breath tight. “A defensive position.”
She doesn’t argue. She trusts me. Even now.
Behind us, David screams in frustration. Beth curses. They’re coming. But the woods don’t scare me.
They never have.
Before the FBI, I was an Army Ranger. I lived in terrain like this. I trained in it. I survived in it.
A couple of forest rangers, amateurs playing predator, are no match for me on their best day.
Rachel keeps pace beside me, breathing hard but steady. “Where are we going?”
“Ridge line,” I say. “North side. Rocks, cover, elevation.”
She nods, trusting the plan instantly.
Good. We’ll need every advantage.
Because now I know exactly what David and Beth are.
Hunters.
And they think we’re prey.
They’re about to learn how wrong they are.
We hunt men for a living.