Page 254

The resort showed in the distance where it was situated on the mountainside overlooking the lake. Rustic and warm and inviting.

Doubted the guests there had a clue of the corruption that hovered just in the periphery.

It was our job to demolish it so they never had to know it existed.

We blew past and kept climbing, hugging the sharp curves that wound through the dense woods that grew heavier by the mile.

Two miles out, Silas slowed and swirled a finger in the air, indicating the spot where Cash had instructed we split up.

Half of our crew took the left onto a dirt road that led directly to the cabin, while the rest of us continued up the mountain. Slowing again about a mile up at what was little more than a foot-worn path.

My bike jostled over the rough terrain, tires sinking into the dampened earth as we traversed through the thick foliage under the cover of trees.

Silas held up another hand, this time a fist.

We all came to a stop behind him, and we killed our engines and kicked our stands. Our bikes gathered in a meadow a mile and a half out from the cabin.

Nerves scattered and rolled, like distant thunder that warned of an approaching storm.

Everyone swung off their bikes.

“This is it,” Silas grumbled, staring at the path that wove deeper up the mountain. “Cash warned it’s treacherous going up this way.”

At Silas’s signal, the other team would go in blazing through the front. We’d slink in covert, just in case there was an ambush waiting.

“What do you think these boots are for?” Brody drawled with a slight laugh.

Silas grunted. “Not for fuckin’ hiking, that’s for sure.”

“Oh, come on, brother. Is your ass getting too old that you can’t take a little trek? Reward of making it up that hill is fucking up this prick. Better than a Grammy, in my humble opinion.” Brody gestured at himself.

“Gonna do a whole lot more than fuck him up.” It was grit as the rage skidded through my being.

“Need him alive at least until we can get information out of him. Need to make sure he’s working alone. We can’t leave loose ends. Afterward, he’s yours.”

It was an abraded promise out of Silas.

If we could get this motherfucker alive, we needed to do it.

Then he’d pay.

Silas flicked on his flashlight and started up the overgrown trail, and the rest of us trudged along behind. It was an easy incline to begin with, but it soon turned rigorous.

A canopy of darkness covered us from above, and I flicked on my own flashlight as I hauled my ass through the thick underbrush.

Over dislodged rocks and camouflaged divots while my blood chugged and raced.

I clumped up a steep embankment, the position nearly having me on my hands and knees.

A shallow cavern was carved through the mountain on the other side, and a small stream babbled through at the base.

“This is some absurd shit,” Regan grumbled from behind me.

“Only thing ridiculous is that piece of shit is still breathing,” I said.

I started over the side of it, basically skied all the way down on the soles of my boots, sending rocks toppling.

When I made it to the bottom, I edged back, calculating how far I had to jump to make it over the stream.