I was lying on my back, the cool forest floor a welcome relief against my skin. The pain in my side was still there, a dull ache now, a phantom limb of the agony that had nearly claimed me.
But I was alive.
And I was... somewhere else.
My motorcycle was nowhere to be seen, nor was the car that had been so intent on my demise. It was as if the storm had swallowed them whole, spitting me out into this serene,silent wilderness. A twig snapped nearby, and my head whipped around, my ingrained alertness for survival kicking in.
Is it them?
Did they follow me here?
My hand instinctively went to where a weapon should have been, only to find empty air. I slowly pushed myself up, my body protesting with every movement. The forest was quiet, almost unnervingly so. The silence wasn’t the peaceful hush of nature; it was a heavy, expectant quiet, as if the very trees were holding their breath, waiting.
And then I heard it.
A faint sound that carried on the wind, a familiar worn, raspy voice.
“Didn’t I tell you never to bite off more than you can chew, boy?”
My eyes widened as a man I knew well walked out of the darkness and smiled. “Cat got ya tongue?”
“Old man Marshall!”
“In the flesh, boy.” The man smirked, taking a seat near the fire before adding, “Well, more flesh than you. Gotta say, boy, you really stirred up a hornet’s nest. ’Bout didn’t make it in time.”
Blinking, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I thought the old fucker was dead. One day he was teaching me to hunt, fish, fight, to survive on the land, then the next he was gone.
Poof! Almost as if he had never existed.
“Marshall,” I rasped, pushing myself fully upright. The pain in my side was a throbbing reminder, but the shock of seeing him alive eclipsed it. “What the hell? I thought... they said you were dead.”
Marshall let out a low chuckle, the sound rough like stones tumbling. “Dead men don’t teach young bucks how to handle a damn ambush, do they? Or how to survive a city that wantsto chew you up and spit you out. I’ve been watching, boy. Always watching.” He gestured to the small, crackling fire, its flames casting dancing shadows on his weathered face. “Seems you finally ran into a problem that your usual swagger couldn’t outrun.”
I stumbled toward the fire, the cold seeping back into my bones now that my adrenaline was fading. He was right, of course. For all my skills, for all my ability to disappear and reappear, the city had nearly claimed me. And Karlyn... the thought of her, of her needing me and me failing her, was a cold dread that settled deep in my gut. “They were close, Marshall. Too close. I wouldn’t have made it without...” I trailed off as a memory of a blinding flash and a phantom hand guiding me toward this place, this impossible forest, a jumbled mess. “How in the hell did you know where to find me?”
“Like I said, boy. Been watching you.”
“Why?”
The old man looked away and shrugged. “Just ’cause.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You told me once that a man who couldn’t look me in the eye was nothing but a coward. You a coward, Marshall?”
Marshall’s smile widened, a flash of white in the firelight. “A man who can’t look you in the eye, boy, is a man who has something to hide. I’ve got nothing to hide. I’m just an old man who likes to watch the world spin. You, on the other hand”—he tilted his head, his gaze sharp—“you’ve got secrets thick enough to choke on.” He waved a gnarled hand toward the woods. “And the way things were going, they were about to expose you and then go after your woman.”
“I don’t have a woman.”
Marshall growled low and dangerously. “Don’t fucking lie to me, boy. I fucking know about Karlyn Ingalls.”
I flinched at the mention of her name, the raw pain of my near failure a physical ache. He was right. The city had nearly swallowed me whole, and in doing so, it would have exposed me to the underworld and endangered Karlyn to the very dangers I’d sworn to protect her from.
The thought was a bitter pill.
“It’s not that simple,” I growled, my voice rough from disuse and the lingering taste of blood. “It’s not what you think.”
Marshall just chuckled, a deep, rumbling sound that seemed to echo the secrets of the forest. “Oh, I understand enough, boy. Thanks to that fucking pussy club of yours, the hunter has now become the hunted.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
