Total pages in book: 38
Estimated words: 35154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 35154 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 176(@200wpm)___ 141(@250wpm)___ 117(@300wpm)
But, it was getting darker now, and the thought of her traipsing through these woods alone in the dark wasn’t something either of us wanted to even think about.
“Try her cell?”
Austin nodded, grabbing one of the untraceable burner phones we used up here and dialing her number. I could hear it ringing and ringing against his ear, before it hit her voicemail.
He scowled.
“Nothing.”
He tried again, and this time, it went right to voicemail.
“Shit,” my brother swore. “If she’s already heading back on the trail we showed her, she’ll be by the switchback trail by now.”
“Which gets zero cell reception,” I muttered, finishing his thought as he nodded. “Alright, fuck, let’s hit the trail and see if we can meet her.”
We headed into the woods, hitting the trail we’d shown Stella earlier that basically ran a direct line back to Katrina and Braun’s place. If she was on the way, we’d definitely bump into her on it.
“Hey, uh, I gotta ask you something.”
I glanced at Austin and instantly started to chuckle.
“What?” he frowned.
“Dude, twins.” I grinned at him. “Trust me, we’re thinking the same thing.”
He chuckled. “About her.”
“Of course.”
“And?”
I stopped mid-step and turned to my brother, looking him right in the eye.
“And the answer is no. No jealousy, man. Never. And certainly not with Stella.”
“It’s not just the immediate I see with her,” Austin said quietly.
“Me neither,” I growled back fiercely before I sighed again and shook my head. “Fuck. How the hell did that happen?”
He grinned. “So fast you mean?”
“Yeah.”
“I don’t know, Dallas, but I don’t care. She’s it.”
“Yeah,” I growled. “She is.”
“For both of us, it seems.”
“No jealousy.”
He shook his head, clapping me on the back. “Never. And there won’t be.”
We embraced, hugging each other fiercely before we turned and started down the path. We made it all of two steps before the rough, growling, deep fucking voice sliced through the silence behind us.
“I hope you two aren’t trying to hide.”
“Fuck!” Austin and I both jumped, my pulse roaring as we ducked out the way and whirled.
“Because I could hear you two a mile a-fuckin-way.”
There, standing behind us like the fucking mountain beast he was, was Axe.
I shot a quick look at my bro — goddamn this guy freaked us out. And I don’t say that lightly.
There were five of us living up on that mountain. Austin and I had come first, I think. Vlad, the Russian with his swank lodge up on Coffer’s Peak came around the same time. Braun came a bit later. Well, I guess there were seven of us now if you counted Katrina and Vlad’s girl Chloe.
So, we’d all been there a while. But Axe? No one knew how the fuck long he’d been there.
He was a monster — huge, bearded, with wild hair and serious tats covering his body. We were all men of the mountains, but Axe was a fucking caveman.
He slunk out from behind a tree, somehow completely silently even with his huge size.
“Fuck, Axe,” Austin muttered. “Didn’t know you were back.”
“Did you know I was gone?”
My brother and I glanced at each other. The guy had a point. Hell, I didn’t even know where Axe fucking lived. I assumed he had a roof somewhere, because the one thing he seemed to own besides a pair of jeans, boots, and a black t-shirt was a his motorcycle, which he’d take tearing down the mountain on the old logging roads before disappearing for, well, who knew how long.
“So, what can we do for—”
“I wanted to tell you both something.”
The words truly growled from Axe’s mouth, cutting me off.
“Yeah? What?”
Axe turned and narrowed his eyes at my brother’s tone, but he seemed to take a breath.
“A man is looking for you.”
A chill went down my spine.
“What?”
Austin swore. “What man?”
“I have no fucking idea,” Axe muttered roughly. “But he’s been asking in town for you two — seeing who’s seen you. He made it up towards Vlad’s place, but the Russian told him to fuck off.”
My jaw tensed. Fuck. Someone looking for us, here? That wasn’t good. That was the fucking opposite of good.
“What’s he want?”
Axe shot me a withering, cold look.
“Just thought I’d ask. Fuck, man.”
“I’d lay low,” Axe growled. He turned, and without another single word, started to melt back into the shadows of the woods.
“Hey, Axe.”
He froze, turning slightly at my words.
“You coming to Braun and Katrina’s thing tomorrow?”
He frowned deep, turning back to us. “Thing?”
“The wedding?”
He smiled thinly, his eyes flashing something I couldn’t even decipher before he turned again and faded into the woods. Austin and I stood there in silence for at least three full minutes before we slowly let our breaths out.
“That dude gives me the fucking creeps,” Austin growled.
I slowly shook my head.
“Who the fuck is looking for us, and how the hell did they find us here?”