Page 37 of Axel

Just when Arlo’s head was beginning to spin with outcomes, some good and some bad, he saw a very sobering sight indeed…

‘It can’t be… not again…’ Arlo whispered, looking slightly into the distance and seeing Harper and Kray parking their SUV. ‘How the hell did they find me?’

Arlo made himself as small as he possibly could while also retaining a safe position at the apex of the tree and the branch. He knew that Harper and Kray would be looking upward as well as along the ground, so it was vital for Arlo to keep as still and silent as he possibly could. It felt like a fifty-fifty shot at whether he would go undetected or not. Arlo’s two bullies might not have been the smartest soldiers ever, but they weren’t fools either…

‘Fuck. Where the hell is he hiding?’ Harper snarled, his booming voice carrying up toward Arlo as they drew closer to him.

‘Arlo? Can you hear me?’ Kray called out, a toxic tone in his voice that Arlo knew all too well. ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are!’

Arlo felt himself shiver.

Despite not having heard either of Harper or Kray’s voices for some time, hearing them now brought everything back in the worst way. For a brief moment, Arlo nearly lost his balance as he found himself mentally back in the worst moments of his experience of being bullied. It sucked. But Arlo was too determined and too focused on survival to allow the moment to get the better of him for too long.

Calm down, Arlo.

You’re a big boy.

You and Sass have got this…

Arlo quietly and calmly began to do his breathing exercises and felt himself gradually lose the sickening feeling of stress that had just come over him. And even better, it seemed like Harper and Kray had decided to turn back and try looking for him somewhere else.

‘Yes!’ Arlo whispered, doing his best to contain his excitement as the two men shook their heads and trudged back toward their SUV. ‘I won! I beat those meany ass-wipes.’

However just as Arlo was expecting to hear the SUV’s engine come to life, he felt his heart begin to thump inside his chest. Something was up. The two men weren’t getting inside, ready to leave. Instead, it looked like Harper and Kray were opening the trunk…

‘What… the…’ Arlo whispered, his eyes widening as he saw Harper taking out what appeared to be a shovel, and Kray picking up a chainsaw. ‘No… no… no… no… please no.’

Arlo knew what Harper and Kray were planning on doing.

And judging by their wicked, howling laughter the pair of them were looking forward to bringing Arlo back down to earth with a bang too.

‘Daddy…’ Arlo said, tears forming in his eyes. ‘Please find me, Daddy. I need you. I need you more than ever…’

Chapter 16

Axel

With his truck thundering along the road out of town, Axel had thrown all thoughts of speed limits out of the window. With Laser safely belted and tucked away in the rear, Axel was pushing his trusty truck to its limits – and fortunately the road was nice and clear to allow him to haul ass as quickly as possible.

In his rearview mirror, Axel was relieved to see Kipp’s truck swinging out from a side road and joining him.

‘Two daddies are better than one,’ Axel said, a sense of relief that he wasn’t doing this alone.

Despite the fact that he had managed to lose the SUV that was trailing him, Axel couldn’t say for sure that he wasn’t being tracked. After all, this was the military he was dealing with. There was every chance that the two sonsofbitches who were in town for Arlo had somehow discovered Arlo’s location. But Axel knew that while this might be true, he couldn’t dwell on it.

‘Kipp, you’re on speakerphone,’ Axel said, hollering into his phone. ‘We’re headed over to Sunset Forest.’

‘Eastern entrance?’ Kipp replied, his voice crackling somewhat through the weak phone signal.

‘That’s the one,’ Axel replied. ‘I can’t say for sure, but I’m thinking Arlo is in there. Maybe it’s a Daddy and boy thing. But that’s what my senses are telling me.’

‘That’s good enough for me,’ Kipp replied. ‘If you’ve got an item of his clothing, we’ll send the dogs chasing for him.’

‘I’ve got a sweater here, that should do it,’ Axel said, powering on down the road relentlessly and hoping that the Eagle Ridge Sheriff’s department wasn’t out with their speed traps that day.

‘Perfect,’ Kipp answered. ‘Don’t worry, we’ll find him.’

‘I know,’ Axel replied. ‘I just hope and pray we reach him before those other assholes do.’

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