Prologue
End of The Hunter
Ariana
The mountain seemed endless.
Twisting switchbacks.Narrow lanes hugged by cliffs on one side and shadowed trees on the other.Every curve looked like the one before it, sharp and unforgiving.I couldn’t be sure I was heading in the right direction.
I just knew I had to keep going.
The darkness out here was different.Not just night, but black.Like the earth had exhaled and blew out the stars.A sliver of moon hung behind me, barely enough to light the road.My eyes burned from staring so hard, the yellow and white lines blurring as fatigue clawed at me.
I had no idea how long I’d been driving.A few hours, maybe.My knuckles had gone pale around the steering wheel, my fingers aching from gripping it too tight.
The GPS on Henry’s phone had helped.The signal had been spotty, but it had flickered to life long enough to direct me down the mountain and onto a paved road.Not that I had a plan.I didn’t even know where I was going.
Only that it was away from him.
A loud ding cut through the Wrangler, jolting my already fried nerves.
I tore my eyes to the dashboard, looking for what caused that sound.The glowing icon mocked me.
Low fuel.
“Shit,” I muttered.
I hadn’t thought to check the fuel gauge when I escaped.Rookie mistake.I could only hope I’d find a gas station in the next fifty miles or all of this would have been for nothing.
I peered down the long expanse of road, as if a town might miraculously rise from the trees.But there was nothing.Just mile after mile of dense pine, shadowed hills, and silence so heavy it felt like the world had ended.
This was where Henry grew up?In this isolation?No wonder he was so…broken.
The thought came unbidden, and I shoved it down.I refused to feel sorry for him.Not after what he did.I didn’t care what demons he’d inherited from his father.He still made a deal with the fucking Bratva.
There was no coming back from that.
My shoulders ached by the time I finally spotted a flickering sign in the distance — an old gas station tucked beneath towering pine trees.A faded banner flapped beneath the overhang, barely legible through the grime.
But the lights were on.
Relief flooded me so fast I almost forgot to check my surroundings first.
Almost.
I cut the engine and scanned the lot.Not a single car.Just my own headlights reflecting off the glass door and an old pickup truck rusting near the side of the building.
I stepped into the night, the frigid air hitting me like a wall.I tugged Henry’s coat tighter and hurried across the lot.The bell above the door chimed when I entered.
It smelled like tobacco and stale coffee.Rows of snack food lined narrow shelves, and behind the counter stood a man who looked like he’d been carved from the very mountain I’d just escaped — gray beard, sun-worn skin, and an oversized flannel shirt with the cuffs rolled up.
“You lost?”he asked with a chuckle.
“What makes you say that?”I asked nervously.
“Ain’t too many folks come this way unless they’re hunting or hiding.And you don’t look like a hunter.”
I forced a polite smile.“Just passing through.”
