Page 82 of Silent Shadows

“By acting like an ass in the woods?”

“That’s rich coming from Cryptid Boy Scouts.”

The other two laugh behind him.

One adjusts the rifle strapped across his chest like he desperately wants everyone to notice he owns a weapon. And I hate that. I hate knowing he does have some power right now.

Power shouldn’t belong to the kind of people who mistake cruelty for confidence.

Miles takes one slow breath through his nose.

“You need to leave,” he says calmly.

“And if we don’t?”

There is no sound other than the wind blowing softly through the pines overhead. And suddenly I realize how isolated we are out here.

No roads nearby. No cell service. No witnesses.

Just six people in the middle of miles and miles of wilderness. Cold crawls down my spine.

Grant steps close, threatening.

“You think you own this territory?” he seethes. “You think because you play a wilderness scientist that people owe you respect?”

Miles doesn’t move. Doesn’t blink. Grant takes another step closer

“You’re nothing,” Grant hisses. “I heard your funding’s about to run out, too.”

Something flashes across Miles’s face.

Grant’s grin sharpens as he leans back. He almost got what he wanted. A reaction.

“You done now?” Miles asks.

“Not really.”

Grant’s eyes cut toward me again, raking over my body. Slow and deliberate.

“You should come ride with us instead, sweetheart,” he says. “At least we know how to handle ourselves out here.”

My entire body recoils instinctively.

Before I can answer, Miles steps fully between us.

“She’s not going anywhere with you.”

Grant laughs, backing up with his hands raised. “Jesus Christ. Relax.”

But the thing is, Miles isn’t overreacting. I can feel it. The threat sits underneath the conversation like a rattlesnake in tall grass.

Grant tilts his head slightly. “You know what your problem is, little Adler?”

Miles says nothing.

“You care too much.”

That lands. I see it land. Grant sees it too, which means he digs in further.