by Rye Hart
Jarom gets quiet when we move into the trees. We aren’t losing daylight yet, but the clouds, while still white, are making things more overcast that I had expected. He keeps putting his hand on the small of my back and offering to help me over small things that I don’t need help traversing.
He’s getting a little peevish, which is a side of him that I’ve never seen. He stumbles and I catch his arm, but he shakes off my hand.
“Glad you’ll offer me help I don’t need, but you’ll ignore me about everything else,” he says.
“What are you talking about, Jarom?”
“I think we’re lost,” he says, ignoring my question. “I bet I’m the last person in the world you want to be stuck out here with, right?” He turns around and I’m reminded of how much bigger nearly every man in the world is than me.
“We’re not lost, we’re only five minutes away from the car. What is the matter with you?”
He doesn’t answer, but forges ahead, muttering to himself. I’m aware of how alone we are out here. The car is probably actually fifteen minutes behind us, and now the clouds are growing dark, not to mention that the sun will eventually set. I’m not feeling the reality of this story yet, although if a big hard fighter pops up out of nowhere, he’s certainly going to be better company than Jarom.
He turns around. “Am I really so bad? You know, the last time I liked a girl she laughed at me. I was as nice to her as I am to you, but every time I tried she laughed at me. But you know what? You ignoring me actually hurts worse. Her laughing at least meant that she noticed me.” Without another word, he turns around and stomped away again.
I check my phone. No service. “Jarom, I think I want to go back,” I say. “We’ll pick it up again tomorrow.”
A thunderclap shakes the ground. Then there’s a streak of lightning. And there it is, in the trees on the other side of Jarom. I almost sprint past him into the clearing beyond. I wait for another flash of light to show what I’m positive I saw.
There is a hand on my shoulder. Jarom.
“Why won’t you just give me a chance?” he yells.
I shake his hand off my shoulder and squint. There it is. A cabin in the distance, up on a knoll. Whatever is in there is probably going to be better than Jarom. If it starts raining, it’s going to be a hellacious downpour and it’s probably where we should head either way.
I start to walk, telling him about what I see. Then he grabs my poncho, hard, and drags me backwards.
That’s when I hear the monster bellowing in the trees.
CHAPTER FOUR: HUGH MADDOX
Like I said, the place has everything I need, except a woman. But this place isn’t going to be most women’s cup of tea.
That’s why I’m so damned astonished when I see the pretty young thing appears at the edge of the tree line, looking down at a map. At least, I think it’s a pretty young thing. They all move the same way. My eyes have always been sharp, but aren’t quite as good as they used to be. I take a pair of binoculars out of my tool belt and took a look.
Yep. Not even her hug poncho can hide a voluminous figure like that. That’s all it takes for me to start getting hard. Just a little twitch, but yowza, it’s like she’s pulling me towards her like some sort of alluring magnetic north.
And that, as fate would have it, is when the little dumbass steps out of the trees behind her and puts a hand on her shoulder in a way that looks too aggressive for my liking. I’ve done a lot, I’ve seen a lot, and I can handle a lot, but seeing a man put his hands on a woman against her will is not one of them.
I have to be sure before reacting. She shrugs her shoulder and he takes his hand away. Then he starts waving his arms wildly like he’s being attacked by hornets, gesticulating in a manner known only to men who feel like they’ve been wronged. I’ve got a sizable ego but I’m the first one to admit that the male ego can be a very silly and fragile thing.
No, she looks like she can handle herself. Most women can who are hot enough to be turning down the constant, inept advances of men. But what the hell are they doing out here? You get a feel for city people, and these two are absolutely out of their element, especially the guy, who’s wearing about one metric ton of camera gear around his neck.
She walks away from him and he follows her. Then he puts his hands on her poncho and pulls her backwards. Now we are in very different territory indeed.
Tightening my grip on the handle of my ax, I start walking towards them both. When I’m within a hundred feet I let out a bellow that they hear over the thunderclap.
The poor guy. He looks so terrified that it’s all I could do not to laugh.
Her, though? She’s a little harder to read. Her feelings, I mean. She looks like she was feeling something like relief mixed with fury.
“It’s you!” she says. “It’s him!” she says, turning to the guy with the cameras, who is now a nice shade of spectral white. From the look of him you would think I’m a cannibal come to collect his glossy pelt.
What does she mean, “It’s him?”
There is no way that these two ninnies are out here looking for me, is there?
“That’s got to be him!” she says, clasping her hands in front of her.
Damnation.
There’s a fine line between intimidation and inspiration. Whenever I see someone bigger, smarter, or richer than me, it doesn’t make me think, “Oh, I could never be like that.” I either don’t care what anyone else is doing or I use it as fuel.
These two aren’t like that. Well, the man definitely isn’t. I know that I look intimidating, particularly in this setting, which is pretty damned cinematic with the thunder and lightning and all. He is not going to be using my demeanor, size, or anything else as inspiration. In fact, he looks like a bug that expects to be crushed.
She, on the other hand, is something else. She pulls back her hood and stares right into my eyes. “You’re who we’re looking for,” she says, which puts me on edge immediately. I’m no one’s business, and no one’s problem.
As annoyed as I am, I would rather look into her eyes than worry about what she’s saying. They are blue pools of fire. I can instantly sense that this woman—and she is a woman, my at-a-distance judgment was wrong, she’s not some svelte, squirrely little girl. Given by her demeanor, she has no idea of how stunning she is. I probably won’t be the one to tell her either, given that the clouds just burst and we’re all going to be drenched like fools within seconds. Once you get wet out here it’s tough to get warm.
She turns to the guy. “Get away from me, Jarom! Go home! I’ll do the assignment myself!”
What kind of name is Jarom? To look like this poor guy is one thing, but to be named Jarom as well? Jesus wept!
“I’m sorry,” he says, blubbering. “I love you.”
Oh brother. I would have been better off locking my door and popping the cork out of a bottle of whiskey. I actually don’t hate the idea of some company, but if company means soft city people, you can count my ass out. Once I know that this guy’s not actually going to push his luck with her – I’ll promptly make my exit.
“Who are you two?” I say.
“Samantha Washington,” she says. “You can call me Sam.”
“I don’t want to call you anything yet, except trespasser,” I say. “And who’s your confederate here?”
“That’s a word I don’t hear often,” she says with the hint of a smile. The absurdity of the situation is peaking, scaling with the growing intensity of the rain.
“Mind your own business,” says the guy.
“No, Jarom,” I say. “You don’t give me orders.”
“This is a private conversation,” he says, staring at his shoes.
“Do you live there?” says Sam.
“Jarom,” I say, “you are on my land. Shrieking and carrying on. I could have shot you if I wanted. Hell, I would be within my rights to smite you with this ax here.” I grip it until my knuckles turn white and shake it at him. He blanches bu
t she smiles behind her hand, I can tell.
“Conversations occurring here do not belong to you, they belong to me. And now, with heavy heart, I insist that you get on back to wherever you came from before I get ugly.”
“We can’t leave yet,” she says. “I mean, I can’t leave yet. He has to go.” She turns to him. “Jarom, I meant what I said. You have to go; I’m not doing this with you.”
“But it’s raining?”
I laugh so hard that it hurts. God, it feels good. It’s been a long time. It occurs to me that laughing is often something we do because of others. And not just that, when I see Sam smiling with me, trying not to laugh herself, even though she’s obviously rattled by whatever is going on with them, it occurs to me that laughing might even be something we do for other people. Maybe I can overlook the fact that she’s from the city, maybe. I feel like I would laugh all night to see her keep smiling.
“I’ll give you an exclusive, Sam,” I say. “But not him. He’s got to go. That is my one condition. You come up to the cabin with me, we’ll talk, and then you’ll be on your way when it’s dry enough to travel. Don’t worry. I’ll help you find your way back.”
“Deal,” she says.
“No,” says Jarom, stomping his foot, which causes a little bit of mud to splash onto his face.
“As for you, young Jarom,” I say, pointing right behind him, “You keep going in that direction and you’ll find your car. And I suggest finding a new name while you’re at it.”
When he hesitates I decide it’s time for a little showmanship. I raise the ax overhead and throw it with one hand. It lodges in a tree ten feet away with a satisfying thud.
Jarom runs so quickly that it makes me feel old. I used to be spry, but at least I’m not running from anyone like a raccoon with a pack of wolves after me.
When he’s gone, I look at Sam. “What makes you think there’s anything important out here?”
For an answer, she pulls her hood back up. The rain is spattering on her plastic poncho, beating a lulling rhythm into the night. “Let’s go,” she says. “I’m freezing and it’s a long story.”
After we walk for a couple of minutes she says something so quiet that I can’t hear it. “What’s that?” I say.
“I said thank you.”
It doesn’t take long to get to the cabin, although she’s winded by the incline by the time we get there. Not that I think women need callused hands, but I bet she doesn’t have any.
When I open the door and she steps across, something stirs inside me, and inside my pants. Good grief, it feels like I’m a teenage boy. Not the teenage insecurity, but the eagerness and the anticipation. There was a time when simply having a girl in my orbit felt like it bent gravity around me. How sad was this? There had never been a woman in this cabin. I had been here for years and this was the first time that the fairer sex had graced the gloomy little living room.
I watch her look around and wonder what she is thinking. An odd thing, to try to see my space through someone else’s eyes.
“Better or worse than you expected?” I say, setting down my tool belt and hanging up my coat. “Here, give me that poncho.” I take it from her and hang it up. She shakes her hair and a few droplets hit me. Then she takes off the coat she had underneath the jacket, revealing one of the most gorgeous bodies I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen my fair share.
It’s obvious all over again, from the way she moves and twists as she tries to figure out where she is damp—there was a thought to make my pulse race. She has no idea of how much grace and sensuality she packs into her frame. It feels like the room has gotten smaller.
“I’m not sure,” she says.
Her obliviousness to her appeal could only mean one thing: she hadn’t been with anyone who appreciated her. Beautiful women who have been with a few men are used to being worshipped. She sure as hell wasn’t getting what she needed from Jarom; although from their interaction there was no sense that they had ever had more going on than cavorting in the forest together.
“Sorry to disappoint you.” Although, if I disappointed her, maybe she’ll leave quicker. But it doesn’t seem like that’s what I want. Not yet.
“I’m not disappointed. She sits in a chair by the fireplace. “Can we light that? It’s been a long time since I’ve sat by a fire.” Then her eyes go wide and I can’t tell if it’s fear or confusion or both. She stands up and jogs across the small room, gaping at what she sees in the next room.
It was only a matter of time before she saw my dark secret, I suppose.
I toss some kindling into the fireplace, strike a match, and have a fire going in less than a minute. Then I follow her into the next room.
CHAPTER FIVE : SAM WASHINGTON
Outside of a library, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen so many books in one place. Although I suppose that makes this place a library. Books line the walls from floor to ceiling. The cabin is narrower than it looked like from the front, but much deeper. It’s more like a hallway than a nice square, but it makes for an impressive sight when covered in books.
And not just any books. It appears that my mysterious fighter—I’m already thinking of him as mine—is a history nut. And not just a history nut, but one that, from his collection, is far better versed than I. I’m intrigued. And jealous. I want all these books.
“How many do you have?” I say when he walks into the room. He looks like a larger—only slightly—and wetter version of Paul Bunyan. It’s like I ordered a lumberjack from one of the catalogs that Lacey was talking about. I’d never seen a man look so handsome, while also being rugged at the same time. Being from the city, there were very few men characterized as rugged, unless they were the poor brutes collecting coins at the train station. His moustache was dark and trimmed neatly above his mouth. His beard was dark and only slightly thick.
“How many what?”
“Books! History books!”
He folds his arms and laughs, deep within his chest. Before he can answer the rain comes down in such a torrent that it washes away anything we can say while standing so far apart. So he steps closer. He could reach out and touch me, which seems like the thing I want most, and what I am most afraid of.
Well, I said I wanted a real man. Or was it Lacey who said I wanted a real man? Either way, I had one here now.
“I stopped counting at three thousand,” he says.
“Have you read them all?”
He laughs again. “Afraid not, but as Umberto Eco said, who wants a library full of books they’ve already read?”
I can’t believe I’m thinking it, but this appears to be a man after my own dorky heart. “I don’t know Umberto Eco. I’ll put him on my list.”
“I love him. When he died last year I would have called in sick at work, if I still had a job, that is.” He smiles and turns to look at the books again.
I like the idea of him hearing that an author he loved died and then taking a day off from chopping wood or skinning rabbits or whatever he spent his time out here doing. It showed character.
Another sheet of rain slapped against the ceiling. “Let’s go back in by the fire,” he says.”
“Hey, I don’t even know your name,” I say when I sit in a chair across from his in front of the fire.
“You don’t.”
“I think I should.”
“I believe you. I’m not sure that’s going to happen. But if you think about it long enough, you’ll probably figure it out.”
Wait, what is he talking about? I realize that something about him has been nagging me since I showed up here. There is something familiar about him. Have we met? No, I would surely remember that.
He’s grinning, watching me try to place him.
“I’ll figure it out,” I say.
“I’ve no doubt.” He reaches behind him and when his hand emerges it’s holding a bottle of bourbon. He holds it out to me and raises his eyebrows.
“I shouldn’t,” I say. “I’m on a job.”
&n
bsp; “I’m not going to believe you until you tell me what the job is.”
Thunder crashes again and suddenly I’m worried for poor dumb Jarom, stumbling around in the dark. Surely he made it back to the car – I hope. He may have been a complete weirdo, but I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him.
“He’ll be fine,” says the lumberjack, as if he’s telepathic as well as enigmatic. He tips the bottle back and drinks two big swallows before offering it to me again. Oh, why not? I take the bottle from him and take as big a sip as I can handle. I feel like I’m in high school, trying to impress a boy at a party. Although it took far less than that to impress Owen. He thought it was the thrill of a lifetime when I showed him that I had a slightly double jointed thumb.
Might as well come clean. “I was sent out here from New York to research a story for my editor.”
“Let me guess. You don’t write for The New Yorker?” It would be a hook in someone else’s mouth, but he says it kindly, as if we’re both in on the joke.
“Ah, if only. No, I’m afraid not. Jarom and I are here at the bidding of The Inner Eye.”
He literally slaps his knee, which is something I thought people only did in books and movies. But there’s more. He throws back his head and roars with laughter, making the cabin seem smaller than before. “I knew that someone would find me eventually,” he says. “I suppose The Inner Eye is as fitting as anything. But what’s the story? What does your editor think she knows?”
How are we already talking so easily? I find that I can’t wait to confide in him, gossip with him, to share and laugh with this burly stranger.
“She says that people are talking about an ex MMA fighter who lives out here. Apparently he’s a recluse with a dark secret, or so my boss would like to believe.”
