Page 79 of Hiding Secrets

“I wasn’t asking, big guy.” Marcus chuckles at him.

“Marcus, you aren’t taking her off the property.”

“Watch me.” Marcus shuts his visor and takes off down the driveway. I hear Hunter scream something behind us, but with the mixture of the motor and the gravel, I can’t make out what he is saying.

“Marcus. He is right, what if someone finds me?”

“No one is gonna find you, he is being overprotective of his new toy.”

“I’m not his toy.”

“Aren’t you?”

I roll my eyes at his asshole remarks, scared but excited to see the woods again, away from the place I have been calling home.

***

The drive doesn’t last long as he pulls onto a thin dirt road, a makeshift road at that. It looks like it only exists because someone has been down this way one too many times. Was it Marcus or someone else who had found it? Who knows.

Marcus pulls up to a small clearing, parking the bike and helping me off of it. Taking my helmet off for me and setting it on the back of the bike before removing his own.

“Alright.” he claps his hands together, “Here we are.”

“And here is?”

“The woods.”

I tilt my head at him with a not-so-amused look on my face, “Who is captain obvious now?”

“When someone is protecting themselves, they are usually taken by surprise, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Well, we are here for the element of surprise.”

“We came here together.”

“Yes, but you are about to lose me, and I am about to hunt you down.”

“You’re gonna hunt me?”

“Yes, princess. The goal is to get you to jump into action.”

“Okay, so…”

He grabs my shoulders, turning me to face away from him into the woods, “So start running, I’ll give you a fifteen-minute head start.”

“What if you can’t find me? What if I get lost out there?”

“I’ll find you, stop worrying.”

“But what if you can’t?”

“Elliott. It’s my job to hunt people down, I’ll find you. Now go.” He pushes me forward and I stumble on my boots.

I shoot him a glare over my shoulder, but all he does is lean on his bike and shoo me away with his hands.

I face the dense woods again and start to run, not looking back. I know if I do, I’ll start to panic that I’m too far away, or about to get lost.

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