Page 5 of My Mountain Man Stalker
I shouldn’t notice. I shouldn’twant.
But I do.
Christ, I do.
She doesn’t speak as we hike. Just breathes quietly behind me, her gaze flicking left and right like she’s expecting something to jump out at her. She's got her hand near the waistband of her jeans. The gun. Probably loaded now. Probably pointed at my back in her mind a hundred times already.
Good.
She should be careful. I’m not a good man. I never was.
My cabin appears after an hour—camouflaged, low to the ground, tucked into the base of a ridge. You wouldn’t know it was there unless you were looking. Steel frame, wood siding, security glass. Solar backup. Buried satellite link. No connection to anything unless I want it.
I key in the passcode on the reinforced door and push it open. “Go in,” I say, stepping aside.
Wren hesitates. Then crosses the threshold.
She moves slow, eyes scanning. It's clean. Bare. Spartan. Wood stove. Hand-built furniture. Weapons tucked out of sight, but close enough to reach. One bed. No couch.
She notices.
Her brow lifts slightly, but she doesn’t comment.
I shut the door and bolt it behind us. The sound echoes.
“You live here?” she asks, voice quiet.
I nod. “For now.”
She sets her pack on the floor but doesn’t sit.
“How far are we from town?”
“Far enough they won’t find you.”
“And if they do?”
I meet her eyes. “They won’t leave.”
She flinches slightly at that. But I see something else flash across her face too. Relief.
“I need to know what you saw,” I say, crossing the room.
Her lips press into a line. “Do you already know?”
“I know who he is. I know what he’s into. But I don’t know what’s on that SD card. Not exactly.”
She watches me carefully. “You gonna take it from me?”
“No.” I pause. “I already took something from you the moment I let you see me. I won’t take more.”
Silence. Heavy.
She finally lowers herself onto the edge of the bed. Her shoulders sag.
“I didn’t mean to get involved,” she says, voice small. “I didn’t go looking for it. I just… found it.”
“And now they’ll burn the world to get it back.”
