Night Hunt: A forced proximity search and rescue romantic suspense (Nightshade Book 3)

Prologue

“Do you think Mom will…”Willow’s voice faded as the hairs on the back of my neck began to stand on end.

It felt as though someone was watching us.

I eyed our surroundings. We were in a small clearing—my sister a mere ten yards away—surrounded by the dense forest while our parents were back at the campsite. They’d asked me to keep an eye out for bears.

Just as quick as the prickly sensation came, it left.

Nothing’s there, Aspen, I tell myself.

I shrugged the unsteady feeling off and turned back to the patch of blueberries and the pint-sized basket I was trying to fill.

Only a few minutes of peace existed before the distinct sound of a branch cracking underfoot had my head snapping in the direction where the sound had come from.

My sister was nowhere in sight.

“Willow?” I called out.

From the general direction I’d heard the snapping tree limbs come from came a muffle, but it was well past the trees and thus had me taking a step forward.

Voice shaky, I begged for a response as I breeched the treeline. “Willow?” That’s when I came face-to-face with what I thought at first to be a bear on two legs.

“She’s mine,” he rasped in a voice that seemed far too unused.

What shocked me was the absence of fear that had come from my sister.

“Mom!” I screamed. “Daddy…help!” I tried, knowing the point was moot, we were too far away for my family to hear.

“He’s my friend, Pen,” Willow’s eyes rolled, and then she giggled when the behemoth hitched her up onto his shoulders. “We’re going to go play in the woods, now.”

Bile rose from the pit of my stomach as panic set in. She was highly uneducated about stranger danger, having always gone everywhere with either myself or my parents.

“Put my sister down,” I growled, then made to approach them as my sister’s captor shook his head no and began backing away.

“Quiet,” he grumbled.

I snorted my affront and put my fists to my hips as I kept stepping toward them. “If you don’t put her down right now, you’ll be in big trouble, mister!”

Before he could do or say anything, I went on the attack.

“You let her go!” I hollered, kicking at his shins as my sister giggled at his jostling.

All it took for the grizzly man was one simple push and I found myself on the flat of my back, my head making contact with solid rock.

My vision blurred, but my ears worked fine, beyond the subtle tinnitus.

“Come on, sweetheart,” the thing rasped. “It’s time to go.”

“It’s time for my surprise?” she squealed.

I tried to blink past the stars.

“Sure is, little bit.”

Attempting to get back to my feet and fight for my sister’s freedom, I toppled back to the forest floor, too woozy to do battle.

My mouth opened to scream, shriek…to simply say something, but nothing came out as I watched the stranger saunter away with my little sister waving goodbye over his shoulder, while I continued to fight for my voice.

A high-pitched wail had me sitting up with a start.

Taking in my surroundings, I realized I was surrounded by the four walls of my small cottage bedroom.

The cry that had awoken me only seconds earlier had come from none other than myself.

My mattress dipped as Molly, my five-year-old Australian shepherd made her approach, nuzzling my hand against the edge of the bed with a pitiful whine. Her sad eyes met mine and her tongue gave my digits a quick lick.

“I’m alright, girl,” I whispered, my voice cracking from the abuse of my screams. “It was just another dream.” I ruffled the fur atop her head while breathing to calm my racing heart.

It had been twenty-five years since then, but my dreams revived the horror of my youth far too vividly.

Willow’s disappearance would always haunt me.