“Hey…” I lift my hand, then let it fall. She probably doesn’t want to be touched. “Slow down, Elle. Just breathe. I’ve got you. Go inside.”
She smiles tightly. “Yeah, okay. Thank you. I’ll go inside.”
I wait until she’s unlocked the back door, gone inside, and locked it again. Then I head to my pickup and take my rifle from the false compartment in the back.
Returning to the forest, I scan the trees as I go, watching for any movement. Keeping my senses on high alert, I scan the forest floor.
Just like in my military days. Just how they taught me.
The underbrush has been disturbed, snapped twigs in one direction… and a half-smoked cigarette. I bring my finger to the end. Still slightly warm.
There are people who roam these forests. Junkies and moonshiners, mostly decent people who’ve had a bad lot. But what if words gotten around that a woman and a little girl have moved into the neighborhood, alone? What if they’ve become a target?
I return to the house, knocking gently on the back door. Mira springs to her feet and gestures at the kitchen table. “Rhett, Sissy made you one.”
Steam curls from the third cup of hot cocoa.
Mira’s eyes widen when she realizes I’m holding a gun. “Whoa.”
Shit.
“I’ll stow this?—”
“No.” Without standing, Elle turns to me. She looks shellshocked, like she’s seen a ghost, like she’s relived something she’s trying with every fiber of her being to forget. “Keep it in here.”
I lay it against the wall, then join them at the table. Meeting Elle’s eyes, I nod to Mira.She might not need to hear this. But Elle looks at me stubbornly. She wants her little sister to hear the truth, I realize. Doesn’t want her to be clueless… and therefore vulnerable.
“There was definitely someone out there,” I say. “The ground was disturbed, and I found a half-lit cigarette.”
Elle makes a choking noise. “I didn’t see him holding a cigarette.”
“Did you recognize him?” I ask.
“Why do you say that?” She hisses
“Just the way you saidhim. It was familiar.”
“It can’t be,” she whispers under her breath. “Nuh-no. I don’t think.”
“You don’t think so?”
“I saidno, Rhett.”
“Okay,” I nod, sitting upright.
“Sor—”
“No more of that,” I cut in.
She laughs shakily, rubbing her forehead. “Maybe I’m losing my mind. But they would’ve told me, right? I mean, I changed my number. Kept getting spam calls. But they could’ve found my new number. Right?” She drops her eyes, looks at me, eyes clearing. “Ignore that. I don’t even know what I’m saying.”
But I do. She’s thinking about Lucian being released. His sentence was sickeningly short, but Marshall would’ve told me if there was an update like that.
“I bet the bad men would stay away if you had a big, strong boyfriend like Rhett,” Mira says, blowing on her cocoa.
I glance at her. The girl looks terrified, but she’s hiding it well. She’s easily the strongest kid I’ve ever met.
Elle makes a sound that’s half a sob, half a laugh. “The crazy part is, you’re probably right, sweetie. That’s how this world works. Men do anything they want, take anything they want, unless they think the thing they’re taking belongs toanotherman.”
