Mason froze beside me, his hand instinctively going to his pocket. “Do you want to be the one to tell Kreed you’re too scared to roam around in the woods after dark? Or to tell Kaylor?”
I shot him a ruthless glare. “Don’t bring Kaylor into this.”
“Isn’t she the whole reason we’re traipsing around out here instead of under the sheets with some hottie?” He raised his eyebrows, a smirk tugging at the corner of his mouth.
I scoffed, stepping over a rotted stump that crumbled under the pressure of my foot. “Is getting your dick sucked all you think about?”
“Yes,” he stated without a hint of shame.
I shook my head, exhaling hard. “I swear, if Brock and the Elite have us on a wild goose chase, I’ll?—”
“You’ll what?” Mason cut in, stopping to yank a burr off his jeans with an irritated hiss. “I’m pretty fucking confident aboutour ability to handle most jackasses in this town, but the Elite? They’d give us a run for our money. It wouldn’t be an easy fight.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, feeling the tension knotted there like rope. “Do we really think Silvia’s out here hiding? If she is, she’s dumber than rocks, and we deserve to find her.”
“It doesn’t matter what we think,” he replied, gesturing ahead with a sweep of his arm. “It’s a lead. We cross it off and move on.”
He wasn’t wrong, but if I took a guess, the only people out in these woods were homeless. Finding one of the guards would be helpful in our hunt for Silvia. She was a key player, and we needed her, but I seriously doubted we would find her holed up in a shack. From what I learned about Silvia, she had standards, and slumming it off the land wasn’t her style, but one of the guards…I could see them hiding off-grid until things cooled off. Unfortunately for them, we had unwavering determination. Giving up wasn’t in our genetic makeup. No matter how long it took, we’d get them. One by one. They’d pay for what they did.
“Should we split up?” I asked, my gaze drifting to a narrow deer path branching off to the left.
Mason glanced sideways. “Are you kidding? And leave me alone in these woods? Get fucked, Mad. We stick together.”
I snorted. “Now who’s scared of the dark?”
“We wouldn’t be out here like a pair of stalkers if you hadn’t gotten lured by the downward dog.”
I stopped walking, my sneakers grinding against the dirt. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“It’s a yoga pose.”
I groaned. “I don’t want to know how you know that.Andshe took me by surprise,” I defended.
“I bet,” he said, grinning widely. “So tell me…was it as hot as it looked when she tossed your ass to the ground?”
“You’re twisted.” I shoved past him, my shoulder brushing his.
“And you need to get laid.” He caught up easily, matching my stride. “She was nearly ready to jump you in the woods. Hell, she sort of did, now that I think about it.”
The memory surfaced again, those odd eyes locking on mine. I hadn’t noticed before, but I did then, with her face so close to mine, when I’d nearly lost my mind and kissed her. She had two different eye colors, a trait I’d never seen before. “Then you should’ve stayed out of sight.”
“I thought she might be into twins. Admit it, Mad. You’re into her. She’s hot.”
I snorted, the sound ringing hollow even to my own ears.
His brows furrowed as he came to a halt, his hand shooting out to grab my arm. “How many houses border this side of the woods?”
I pulled free, frowning. “I don’t know. Depends how far we’ve walked. I haven’t exactly been paying attention with you yapping in my ear.”
Mason lifted a hand, his finger pointing straight ahead between two thick oaks. “Look. There. Do you see that?”
I followed his line of sight, my eyes adjusting to the darkness. A faint glow cut through the trees. “Yeah. It looks like a light.”
“Let’s check it out, and then we get the hell out of here.”
Agreed.
We moved toward the light, the trees thinning and eventually giving way to a narrow stretch of open ground. Summer cicadas buzzed all around us, their constant drone vibrating through the air. A cottage finally came into view. Most of the house was dark, windows black and empty, but a single light burned on the second floor, bleeding through the half-drawn curtains.
