Chapter 27 Cash
TWENTY-SEVEN
CASH
I took the winding road up the mountain faster than I normally would. The urge to get back to my cabin was overwhelming. A constant prod at my spirit that made me sure that something wasn’t quite right.
I texted Silas’s guy who gave me an all clear, but I couldn’t rest in it.
The engine roared as I took the sharp curves. My hands gripping the handlebars and the heavy metal vibrating beneath me.
Wind lashed across my face, and each turn tossed me deeper into disorder.
Could barely breathe by the time I made it up the mountain to the turn onto my property. I hit the brakes hard, and I peeled out as I whipped from the pavement and onto the dirt lane.
Night rained down, and the glow of the moon seeped through the branches and scattered milky light on the ground. I bounced and shook over the rugged terrain as I blew up the beaten path toward my cabin.
Silas’s guy was there, I kept telling myself. Not to mention the fact my house was beyond secure.
There was no chance anyone could get to them.
Still, I couldn’t shake the bedlam that convulsed inside me.
I weaved my way through the dense woods, dipping down hills and back up, before the road finally opened to my cabin.
A light glowed from the porch, though the rest of the windows inside were darkened.
A smidgeon of relief hit me when I saw Trevan leaned against the side of the porch. The red cherry from his cigarette burned bright as he brought it to his mouth.
I pulled up beside his motorcycle, kicked the stand, and killed my engine. I swung off at the same time as my attention swept the property.
The spires of the pines rustled in the slight breeze, hazy light raining down, the only sound the hoot of an owl and the faint rush of the river in the distance.
Trevan pushed from the porch and sauntered my way, his voice held low in the night. “Hey, brother. How’d it go?”
“Any movement?” I didn’t take the time to answer him.
He shook his head. “Nah. Been quiet all night. Lights went out in the house at about ten-thirty.”
“You check?”
“Did a sweep of the exterior of the house every fifteen minutes. Just like you instructed.” He grinned like I was ridiculous.
“Appreciate it,” I grunted.
“Anytime. You know we’d have your back even if you weren’t stepping up for us.” He lifted his chin to give his gratitude for what I did at Kent’s place.
“One less monster roaming the earth, the better.” Felt no shame in claiming it.
He let go of a low chuckle. “That’s the way we see it, though my gut tells me Kent isn’t gonna be pleased about it.”
In thought, his head drifted to the side. “Doubt much he’d show up here, though, as isolated as it is.” Then he grinned. “Besides, pretty sure it’s going to be Silas who gets pressed.”
His tongue swept his bottom lip, and something hard filled his voice. “Though I think that’s exactly what our Pres wants so he can finish the job.”
“Elena hurt?”
He barely shook his head. “Don’t really know. Silas has kept her hidden at the clubhouse. Locked up tight so no one will get to her. Refuses to let any one of us in there, either.”
“Hope she’s good.”
“Think she’s gonna be, thanks to you.”
Changing the subject, I jutted my chin at my cabin. “Thanks for being here.”
“Any time, man, any time.”
He looked around the forest, lifted his face to the sky as he took one last drag of his cigarette, before he stubbed it out with the toe of his boot. Smoke billowed around his head as he raked a hand through his longer hair. “I’ll let you get to it, whatever that is.”
Gravel crunched under his boots as he wound around me and swung onto his bike. The engine roared as he kicked it over. He gave me a salute before he backed out and started down the lane.
Far slower than I’d taken it on my way here.
I watched until the taillight disappeared in the foliage and the sound of the engine became a dull reverberation.
Hit with an urge I shouldn’t entertain or succumb to, I hurried up the porch steps, guts tangling with the need to see Daisy.
With it, a gust of wind blew through. The tops of the trees swayed and howled against the darkened swath of sky.
I wasn’t sure what I felt in the middle of it.
Something that slowed my steps and had me shifting around to peer into the nothingness.
A ridge of protectiveness sharpened my spine, and prickles of awareness lifted on my skin.
I’d been through enough in this life that I’d developed a sense.
This thing inside me that warned when there was trouble.
It crawled over me then like the scattering of a million bugs.
Throat growing tight, I pulled my gun from the holster hidden at my back, took it between two hands, and cocked it.
Drawn, I looked back at the house, a thirst so great to rush inside and see that they were whole and safe.
But I could feel evil crawl across my flesh from somewhere in the shadows. Wickedness that curled and snapped in the distance.
I had no other choice but to check it out.
I eased back down the steps and began to slink toward the line of trees where I felt it radiating from.
The moon filtered down, enough that the sky wasn’t completely darkened, but the second I stepped beneath the canopy of the trees, the light became a hazy vapor. It made it difficult to see more than ten feet ahead.
The forest was dense, and the bushes and vines that grew from the damp floor seemed to come alive at this time of night.
The thin trunks of what felt like a million pines and the heavy, thick trunks of the oaks blurring together to obscure my vision further.
Everything seemed to move. The forest becoming animated.
Heart thumping like a bass drum, I eased deeper into its dusky depths, my ear tuned to every noise and movement and creak of the forest.
Nothing seemed out of place, but there was still something that drew me further.
A claw that hooked into my chest and lured me forward.
The need to protect that little family was so intense I could hardly breathe.
Those breaths were shallow and jagged as I increased my pace. A severity took me over as I hunted through the maze. The intensity growing with each step.
Urging.
Pressing.
I began to run.
Branches scraped my arms and whipped against my face, pinpricks of pain biting into my skin.
I shoved them away, my eyes racing and rushing as I attempted to discern where the cruel energy was coming from.
A brutal volatility that swilled in the air and whisked through the trees and sent my feet clambering through the forest.
Faster and faster.
Blood sloshed through my veins, and I kept an arm up to protect my face as I barreled through the fog.
I swore I heard the echo of footsteps somewhere in the nothingness.
I pushed myself harder, the oxygen growing heavy as I forced it in and out of my lungs, a frenzy taking over as I fought to find the beast that I knew was there.
A sick sixth sense that promised there would be violence.
Boots thundering below me, I weaved along the tortuous path. I ducked around an ancient oak tree then propelled myself over a large boulder that stood in my way.
There was no time to prepare myself for what hit me next.
No time to prepare for the pain that splintered across my chest.
No time to discern if it was a low-hanging branch or a fist or a weapon.
Only thing I knew was that I was knocked off my feet.
Tossed into the air.
Falling with nothing below me before I started to tumble down a steep ravine.
Grunts and moans ripped free as I toppled over stones and branches and downed trees. Body being battered with each rotation.
With a hard thud, I finally hit the ground far below.
Consciousness faded in and out as I lay face down in a bed of sticks and dried leaves.
The scent of the earth in my nose and a sharp stab of agony coming from my side.
“Fuck,” I groaned, trying to shove off the daze that held me hostage.
I managed to lift my head.
Dizziness swept through, and I squinted as I tried to process what the fuck had happened.
Reaching up, I touched my temple, flinched with the stabbing ache. I pulled my hand away. With the faint glow of the moon, I could see the blood that coated my fingers.
“Shit,” I mumbled, and I forced myself up onto my hands and knees.
Pain radiated wide as I gasped for breath, but somehow, I managed to push all the way to my feet.
I swallowed around the disorder, pulled in all the frayed edges, and forced myself to focus.
My gun had landed three feet away, and I dipped down and grabbed it, then I dug my phone from my pocket and turned on the light so I could figure out the best way out of the ravine.
It was an area that was rocky and difficult for climbing, and I hadn’t spent much time down here since it was difficult to get to. But I spotted a dry channel where water likely flowed during the rains.
Wincing from the pain in my side, I started to climb my way out of the steep gulley.
Grabbing onto branches as I went, I lumbered my way up to the ridge.
My heart clattered. Beating so loud I could feel the pulse of it in my ears. The rushing of adrenaline and the roar of fear.
I made it back to where I tripped, and my gaze dove back into the forest. I inclined my head as I listened for any indication that someone was there.
The foul energy was faint and drifting away.
But I swore that I could scent the last vestiges of wickedness riding on the air.
The fucker was running scared.
I stood there for the longest time until that sense had completely abated.
Wanting to chase it down.
Sniff it out.
Had to accept he was long gone now.
But I would find him. Whoever the fuck he was, I would find him.
Inhaling a shattered breath, I turned and hobbled my way back toward the cabin, my hand pressed to my side.
Only the pain became more pronounced as the adrenaline drained.
Choppy breaths heaved from my lungs as I broke out at the clearing, and my heart thrashed like a beast as the cabin came into view.
The need inside me nearly brought me to my knees and had me crawling.
A different energy pulling me forward.
A luminescence of beauty and grace and glittering light.
And there was nothing I could do but stumble up the porch steps.
Like some kind of prodigal who had found his way home.
I turned off the alarm then hurried through the locks so I could get to her.
Guess I should have known she’d be right there, standing on the other side, waiting for me in the shadows.
The most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.