Page 29 of Threat of Danger
Surprise was the first emotion when the cabin finally came into view, confusion a close second.
Charred stone walls pointed at the sky. No roof, no door. A long-ago fire had eaten all that had been made of wood.
When did this happen?
She stared. Then a small noise had her whirling around. Her limbs froze. Her heart pounded. Her breath caught in her chest.
He was too close. As if he’d appeared out of nowhere.
No, Jess wanted to say, but her throat wouldn’t work.
Chapter Eight
“JUST ME,” DEREKcalled to Jess, because he’d caught that flash of fear in her eyes when she’d turned. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. Didn’t know you’d be here. I saw you earlier with Chuck.”
She watched him with open dismay. She clearly didn’t want to be here with him.
“Did Chuck tell you he’s been made president of the Taylorville Versquatchers?” he asked to lighten the mood. “Just in time. I hear there’s trouble brewing.”
Questions replaced the dismay in her eyes.
“Some are nature preservationists, but quite a few of them are hunters,” he said. “The preservationists accused the hunters of secretly planning to shoot a squatch if they come up on one in the woods.”
A startled sound escaped her. “There are factions in the Taylorville Sasquatch Club?”
He waited for a smile. It didn’t come.
He hated the tension in her shoulders, and the wary expression on her face. She used to have an insta-smile every time she saw him. He’d missed that too much, dammit.
He walked up to her.
The winter woods were silent, save a couple of crows calling back and forth in the distance. Winter sunlight glinted off bare branches. Snow covered the ground, but only an inch or two, a couple of days’ worth of old, hardened rime.
Jess turned back to the decimated cabin. “What happened here?”
The cabin looked like the carcass of a great mythical beast, the fallen and broken beams the beast’s enormous bare ribs.The ruinisa carcass, Derek thought.The carcass of our past.
“Your father set the place on fire.”
Her breath caught as she glanced at him. “When?”
“Maybe a year after you left. I was overseas. Dad told me.”
The stricken look on Jess’s face broke his damn heart. He wanted to take her into his arms more than he’d wanted anything in a long time, but he didn’t. “You shouldn’t be here.” He paused for a second. “It’s incredibly brave, but ...”
She shook her head in quick, violent jerks. “I’m glad I saw this.” She turned from him and went back to staring at the ruins. “It means he cared.”
He gentled his voice. “Of course he cared.”
“My mother doesn’t,” she said under her breath.
“She does.”
“She blames me. Always did. For being in the woods.” A bitter laugh escaped Jess, but she quickly bit it back. “Yet she doesn’t blame you.”
“I wish she would.”
Jess said nothing.
