Page 19 of Under an Endless Moon

“It’s nice to meet you, Raven. It sounds like you’re going to be staying here for a bit if that’s all right with you?”

“Okay,” she whispered.

“I have a little sister who is about your age.”

“Really?” She perked up, lifting her head and peeking out at him. There was no missing the fear that lingered in her dark eyes, but there was a light in them he was surprised to see there.

“Yeah, her name is Haddie. She’s ten.” Affection pulsed through him. He loved that little girl like mad. Worried about her ceaselessly. She wasn’t living the best life, either, since his mom was a pathetic piece of shit junkie.

Nah, he didn’t like much that Haddie lived with their mother, but he paid the bills and kept the refrigerator stocked and chased off any creeps his mom thought she was gonna drag home.

He saw to it that no one touched her. That she was safe.

“I’m only nine,” Raven said with a puff of disappointment.

“Well, that’s still pretty close.”

“Do you think she’d like me?”

Well, fuck.

“I bet she would. Maybe you can meet hersometime.”

“That would be nice.”

“Yeah, it would.”

A little dent furrowed her brow as she looked at him, timid again. “You’re really big like a bear.”

Soft amusement huffed from his nose, though in his words was a promise. “Might be as big as a bear, but that’s just so I can make sure no one can get in here. So, I can make sure it’s safe. And I promise you, no one will ever hurt you here. You don’t have to be afraid anymore.”

He stuck out his pinky finger, and she wavered for one second before she hooked hers with his, and he murmured, “Promise.”

SIX

OTTO

It was nearing eveningwhen I rolled my motorcycle to a stop in front of Cash’s cabin which was about twelve miles farther up the mountain than my place. I had the job to do tonight, and I needed the information he had to go along with it.

Our homes were on the opposite side of Moonlit Ridge. Sitting on the far south end of the lake where another range of mountains hugged the town in a deep valley.

Cash’s place was so secluded and remote that you couldn’t see it by road or air since it was two miles off the main drag and covered by the foliage of the deep, dense woods.

The road to get here was nothing but a bumpy dirt trail carved of tires, forever overgrown since there wasn’t a whole lot of traffic that took the winding path.

His cabin was as rugged as the man.

He was already sitting out on the porch, and he stood from the rocker with a file folder in his hands, his dog, Duke, right at his side.

He ambled down the four steps to the ground while Duke came bounding my way, wagging his golden tail in the air.

I swung off my bike and leaned down to give Duke a scratch behind his ears, though my attention was on Cash as he approached.Wavy brown hair and keen brown eyes and dressed more like a cowboy than a biker, though he sported just as much ink as the rest of us.

“Hey, man, how’s it goin’?” I asked.

“Decent,” he told me in his rough grumble. Dude was as surly as they came. More suspicious and suspecting than anyone I’d ever met. Probably had a lot to do with the fact he knew firsthand how to undercut. How easy it was to twist and manipulate.

As Sovereign Sanctum’s hacker, he could break into about anything and reconfigure it into whatever he wanted it to be.

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