Page 26 of Recurve Ridge

The scratches of fine twigs became deep rents in my shirt as I burst out of the trees, slamming my boots into the rocky ground.

Thump thump thump

Beneath the icy air wafting off the lake, I strained against the ropes shackling me too tightly to the fence posts I laid myself, unable to tear my hands from their bonds. My black-edged gaze seared small details into my mind. Flashes of flesh, metal wrist watches and signet rings, colored angles of tattoos that curled around their hands in a matching set as bloodied fists rained down on her broken body.

Suddenly those curves were fragile things that shattered with each steel-capped kick.

Pound pound pound

Thump thump thump

A dark, still mound, indiscernible from a matted heap of kelp, lay before me along the shoreline when they walked away. No word, no glance. No jeers or cries of satisfaction. A job complete, punishment extracted for a crime I didn’t understand.

She’d spoken out against a then-small local politician before we left the city, a passionate woman protecting others’ rights. We moved away without another thought, a proud new husband with a glowing wife who consumed my every waking moment. Cooking with her, finding new scenes for her to paint, watching her as I worked among the trees.

Jenny never looked back, never searched for me, but she knew they were holding me there the entire time.

I couldn’t reach her, but she didn’t face her end alone.

Alonewas where Robe found me less than an hour later, hanging from my ropes. Tears long shed crusted my cheeks, my throat raw. He untied me, bore my weight when I retched and reached for her. I lifted the first stone and the one after until we formed a cairn over her body. Robe worked alongside me in silence, and though he didn’t pray with me, he stood sentinel until I was done.

He waited while I’d vomited into the sink and grabbed the few things I needed to leave the life I cherished behind me forever in favor of the vengeance he promised. He said nothing, remained unmoving when I found the positive pregnancy test in the bathroom she hadn’t announced yet.

I cried anew, and still he waited.

Then, when my heart had released every iota of emotion within its confines, we walked in silence to the place my feet pound now. Laid a foundation for a new life in a place that bears as many scars upon its bare rocks as I do upon my soul. The cabin might feel rustic now, but it was far less stark than when we started. A few rough logs nailed together. Care factor came well after, once we established the status quo.

After I met Miller. Found Alan and Will.

When, day after day, he trained me.

Honed my body, sharpened my mind from the blunt instrument I’d been, unable to protect those I loved.

Mountain air now sucked into my wheezing lungs in shallow waves. I forced myself to return to Recurve Ridge, away from the ghost of my dead wife and the lake house. My own harsh steps reverberated through my bones, shaking my body to my core, but I refused to stop, ignoring the burning acid in muscles pushed too hard.

One more step, and another. I ignored the bleak, void presence of the compound opposite.

Until Mari said otherwise, we couldn’t risk attacking Gideon or show our faces, singular or otherwise. Until she named him, everything we thought we knew got filed undersuspicious, nothing more. Robe required proof before he went off half-cocked, while the rest of us seethed over unhealed scars, prepared to extract vengeance for hurts long past.

Besides, what was a small band of criminals capable of achieving against the expensive personal arsenal at his disposal courtesy of that once-small-time politician?

The moment Robe brought Mari into the cabin, he had unwittingly created a division between us. The broken man who hid behind a facade of manners and rules only some of us played by held himself to a high standard and was possessive as hell. If he claimed Mari, he wouldn’t want anyone else touching her—and that broke all our house rules about sharing what was ours.

Still, I figured he’d come around at some point. But right now, and for the first time in a decade, I didn’t have my feet in his back pocket. I made a mental note to get Alan to make me pom-poms so I could announce my siding with Team Mari.

Somehow, I didn’t think Robe would mind.

It would be interesting to see how the other boys interpreted that change.

I drew to a halt on an exposed rocky outcrop, soaking up the weak sun’s warmth. My shirt stuck to my skin that was coated in chilled sweat. Light glared out my vision, and I blinked away the kaleidoscope that splayed a brilliant array of color behind my eyes.

My sight cleared after a moment. I stared across the lush valley floor that arched upward in violent lines at either side. Recurve Ridge rose to the north, following the trail from which I’d burst out of the forest and leading deep into the dell where Robe had built the cabin. Opposite our hidden location as the crow flew, Gideon’s concrete palace had been eked out of stone like an irregular geode that slit the landscape, an open scar unable to heal. Exposed and unapologetic, his compound created an eyesore we couldn’t ignore. The gray behemoth marred the ridge’s natural beauty across the broken abyss from where I stood, separated only by thin, crisp air and a scattering of tarnished leaves lifted by the mountain’s breath.

A flicker drew my attention a second time. I knelt, letting damp mulch cool my hot palms as I scraped my fingers into the dirt beneath it. Never taking my eyes off the house, I raised my hand, rubbing the fine particles between my fingertips. The crumpled leaves filtered through the air, highlighting what hid in plain sight before they were whisked away on the brisk current of wind assaulting the barren rock face.

Twin lasers slashed the air in horizontal lines, drawing two identical dots on my chest.

I straightened, forcing my shoulders back, and stared in the direction of Gideon’s snipers. I might not have fought on the battlefield Miller and Robe had experienced, but I trained with them, and I trained like them. In no way would I insult the hours Robe spent sweating beside me by backing down.

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