Page 23 of Vengeful

I decided it was nothing more than a tree that fell because it was time. For all I knew it had been dead for ages and waiting to fall. Like I said, I'm no expert.

I stood and clambered over the trunk before dropping clear on the other side.

Something scurried away as my boots hit the ground. Whatever it was, it sounded small, and probably harmless. Unless it was a snake and I mistook slithering for scurrying. Either way, it headed away from me, which as far as I was concerned, was the right direction.

Remembering a fallen tree was a great place for snakes to make a home, I hurried on.

To go through everything I'd been through, only to die from a snake bite, would suck, to say the least. Definitely not my favourite kind of sucking. Or biting for that matter.

I peered through the trees, trying to locate the area with the massive rocks I saw the last time. I couldn't be that far from them. I knew when I reached that point, I was close to the end of the practice. I also knew I could take the easy way around this time, without one of the guys right on my tail.

I stopped to glance back. They couldn't be too far behind, but I saw no sign of any of them.

The only sounds—crickets and the occasional bird. No crunch of leaves. No snap of twigs. If I didn't know better, I'd think I was out here alone.

Don'tpanic, I told myself.They have to be close. If you called out, they'd call back. And then they'd worry you were calling for some terrible reason.

I didn't want them to think I was scared or anything like that. I wasn't. Much.

I continued on, my eyes ahead, searching for the rocks and the precipice beside them.

On the ever growing list of things that would suck, was falling down that precipice.

Hunter had said something about disposing of one of their rivals down there during their trials. I didn't like the idea of a one-way trip down a cliff, or the landing at the bottom of it.

I stepped forward slowly, bit by bit, eyes scanning. Where the fuck were the rocks? I checked my watch to make sure I was headed in the right direction. No, I was slightly off. I readjusted and moved through a set of young gum trees.

There. Up ahead, there were the rocks.

I smiled to myself. I was almost there.

I took another step and the earth disappeared under my feet.

CHAPTER 9

SLADE

I waited until the twins moved away before I headed into the bush. Neither of them were in a hurry, but they weren't making much effort to be quiet either. Admittedly, they'd be almost silent to most people. To me, they sounded like a pair of Brontosauruses walking through the undergrowth.

What? I was dinosaur obsessed as a kid and I never fully got over it. For a long time, I wanted to be a palaeontologist. That never happened, of course, but my fascination for the creatures remained.

Once the twins were more or less out of earshot, I was able to focus on listening as well as looking. Sometimes it wasn't what you saw that mattered but the things you heard or didn't hear. The absence of birds or cicadas in certain parts of the forest, for example.

On this occasion, the sounds were peculiar by not being unusual. If anyone came here recently, they knew how to keep a low profile. Nothing I saw suggested anyone passed in a long time. Not even anything as big as a kangaroo.

I was a good twenty or so metres away from Lila or either of the twins, drawn here by pure instinct. The same instinct thattold me not to go too far from her. For once, it wasn't about her magnetic personality, just…

I was twitchy after the mercenary attack, but today I was on edge. My skin tingled with the need to be vigilant, like every nerve stood on end. Something was up. What the fuck was it? What the hell had Samuel Bell done?

I'd like to suggest I was shocked at his response to his daughter, but I wasn't. Men like my father, and him were unbending when their children were concerned. They were absolutely determined what they were doing was for their own good. That someday, Lila would look back and appreciate the tough love.

For that reason, I wouldn't put it past him to anticipate her coming here today and pulling something.

If not him, then Chloe or fuck knows who else.

I just finished that thought when a faint crunch sounded from up ahead. I paused mid-step, the heel of my hand pressed against the trunk of the gum beside me. Slowly, I lowered my boot down beside the other one, careful not to make a crunch myself.

I lowered myself to a crouch and waited, watching, my eyes on the undergrowth ahead.

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