Page 45 of Chasing Paradise

Fuck.

No.

I needed to focus.

She was scrambling my brain.

“What is it?”

“You don’t see that?” she asked, throwing out an arm to point at an old fallen tree.

It took me a second. Because, honestly, I didn’t think she’d be freaking out about a bug.

“The beetle?”

“If beetles took anabolic steroids or were the result of some sort of failed government experiment, sure, ‘the beetle.’”

“It’s a Titan beetle.”

“No way that thing hatched from an egg. He just emerged in the forest one day, fully formed, briefcase in hand. He’s got a social security number, a mortgage, and a 401k. He probably has an ex-wife and kids he bitches don’t call him enough. Oh, shit, he’s looking at me. Take him,” she demanded, scrambling behind me and pushing me forward.

“They’re harmless.” I was barely managing to keep a laugh in as she ducked down to peek out from behind me.

“He wants to eat me. I can tell.”

“Can you blame him?”

“Be serious.” Violet grumbled, then let out a shriek as the beetle took a few steps in our general direction.

To be fair, Titan beetles were fucking enormous. If I picked it up, it would cover my whole hand. But it was abeetle.

“We should have brought one of those bug zapper things in with us. I think if we tried to step on him, it would hurt us more than him.”

“We’re not gonna kill him. He’s just living his life. Eating the dead wood.”

“Sure, that’s what he wants you to think. Until you lay down to sleep and wake up to him eating your intestines.”

“In this scenario of yours, I slept hard enough for him to chew through my whole outer stomach?”

“Maybe you ate some… hallucinogenic mushroom or something.”

“Didyoueat a hallucinogenic mushroom?” I asked, turning around to face her, lips stretched wide because, well, she was being ridiculous. “You alright? Got a fever?” I asked, pressing my inner wrist to her flushed and sweaty forehead, but finding her just the normal kind of heated from exertion.

“It is not crazy to be freaked out by a beetle that you could put a saddle on and ride.”

There was no stopping the laugh that bubbled up and burst out, making me throw my head back and let it roll through me. I hadn’t realized just how tense I’d been until she helped me release some of it.

It’d started on the last leg of the car ride as the weight pressed down on me. If I was wrong, my life as I knew it was over. I’d have to live my life hiding from the law, looking over my shoulder, praying no one ever found me. I’d have tobea different person, like my new fake passport claimed. I’d need to lie to everyone I tried to make connections with moving forward.

If I was right, well, I still had a hell of a mess to try to clean up ahead of me.

And it all hinged on finding this damn eco-resort location.

“It’s not funny.”

“Oh, duchess,” I said, throwing an arm around her shoulders and pulling her close to my side. “It’s hilarious. Are you afraid of household spiders too?”

“Depends,” she said as I led her past the beetle.

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