Page 10 of Red Hunt

6

MAX

Her whimper triggered something in me. Something not good. I’d heard it before. Pain. Fear. Despair.

I placed her away from me and took my hands off her as fast as I could, holding the unwelcomed memories her sound elicited at bay by concentrating on the young teenager in front of me. Did she hurt herself running into me? I did a quick visual inspection from head to toe, but she looked unharmed. Not hurt, but scared and cute as a button. Tiny, she couldn’t be over 5’5’’, slim, almost too slim from what I made out by the boniness of her shoulders. Her nondescript clothes hid the rest of her figure. It was just a fleeting thought. Because what captivated me most were her Caribbean-Sea-blue eyes, big as saucers, that contrasted nicely with her dark-chocolate-brown hair. Her hands still held two paper plates with the remnants of cake, most of which was slowly soaking through my T-shirt, while hers remained in pristine condition without a speck of cake.

On the clean side of the paper plate.

But then why did she look so shell-shocked? And why did it bother me so much? I smiled. Maybe that would change the shocked look on her face that made her eyes stand out and had her full lips vibrating with tension.

“Hey there, girly. You all right?” Yeah, not what I wanted to say.

“May I?” I held up the phone, then took her hand and slipped it into her palm.

She stared at me as if she’d seen a ghost, but then shook her head slightly. “I’m okay. Sorry for your T-shirt.”

I looked down at the cake giving a three-dimensional quality to the skull on my shirt. Not really job-interview appropriate, but I had been in Whitebrook to buy furniture when my new potential boss called. I took a sweep of mushed cake.

It tasted good. Sweet. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually eaten cake since sugar was the enemy. But maybe I should get one before heading home later this evening and eat it on the porch as a celebration—a new home, a new job, reunited with my brothers—screamed like celebration to me.

But first I had other things to take care of. What had started as my postponed job interview was turning into my first shift right away since the same stomach bug that had led to the cancellation the first time around had left the crew understaffed still.

Not that I minded chipping in. Nothing better than being useful. But with the mess on my shirt, I’d better hurry to grab a new one from my go-bag in my truck. I looked at my watch. Shit. Cutting it close.

“So sorry for running into you. I need to get changed, like right now, so if you’re fine”—I pointed with my thumb toward the exit—“I really need to get going.”

She bobbed her head, then abruptly turned around and walked away. I watched her for a few seconds, losing myself in her cute behind before I caught myself. Fuck. She was barely legal, if that. So now I was lusting after a teenager. What the hell was wrong with me? What kind of pervert was I becoming?

Well…the kind that hadn’t had a woman in obviously way too long. That kind. I shook my head while I made my way to my truck, still trying to get the young woman out of my head. It must have been her eyes. Those eyes…

7

MILLI

Oh shit.

That was the last thought reverberating through my head before I flew over the handle of my mountain bike and just barely missed a tree.

At least the deer I’d avoided colliding with chose to escape back to its own side of the road. Too late for me, though, because my evasion maneuver had me tumbling straight down the slope. At least I had missed hitting my head on those trees, had never lost consciousness, and managed to break my fall by holding on to this teeny-tiny sapling which bent but didn’t break. It felt like dangling from a string, but it was the only anchor I had since the ground beneath me was slipping with every move I made. If only my hand, which had started to cramp hours ago, wasn’t going completely numb.

At least I was conscious.

It was pitch black by now. My phone was in my backpack, which must be somewhere around. If I could just find some foothold. Sadly, nobody would miss me before tomorrow. Nobody was waiting for me at home or would even know I was gone.

My crew would wonder where I was, but since we’d all only ever met online and had never made the scary step into the real world, there was nothing they could do. I’d concealed my identity well.

With the things I did, the things I fought online, concealing my identity was important. Vitally important.

The downside? Here I was, battered and bruised, and nobody was coming to my rescue. And neither would anyone come by. In all the weeks I’d come up to the lodge, I’d never met a single human being. That was part of the appeal. Only not so much right now.

I tried to shift to a more comfortable position, if there was such a thing, since I was half-sitting, half-lying, trying to avoid another free-fall to God knows how far down. With darkness having settled fully upon me, the noises of whatever animals there were scurrying through the underbrush amplified, I was even more scared. Scared and hopeless and alone.

A place I knew all too well.

Then I heard a car approach. Could it be true? The road up the mountain ran in serpentines. I could see the headlights farther down and shouted for help.

But my screams went unheard. The truck was almost past the point where I dove off the road.

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