by London Casey
Shit.
I crouched and started to move my hands around. Sticks, leaves, the ground. I had no idea what I was touching. Were there snakes? Were there spiders? What about bears? Deer? Mountain lions? Real lions…?
Okay, fine, there was no way a lion from Africa would be in the mountains.
But that’s when panic hit me, and I stopped thinking straight.
I dug, turned, dug, turned, dug.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I whispered. “No…come on…!”
I was shaking. Sweating. My stomach turning and kicking, wanting to throw up from all the booze.
Finally, my phone beeped and lit up.
I saw it. I saw the screen!
It was a few feet away. I had no idea how it got that far away from me.
I jumped forward and grabbed it.
A text message from Kim.
Party pooper! Bitch! You went to sleep?! Matt and Alex aren’t wearing shirts and Rachel just let me take a shot from between her tits! WAKE THEFUCK UP!!!!
I shook my head.
They all thought I was sleeping.
Nobody even came to check on me.
They didn’t know the tent was empty.
I stood up and looked around.
My plan had been to just walk in one direction. If I needed to get back, I’d go in the opposite direction. But I had gotten lost with each step I took. And now, after being on the ground, digging and spinning, I was fucked. Seriously fucked.
I could have called for Kim.
But why bother?
I wanted to go home.
I started to walk again.
I had nothing to lose now, did I?
Another ten minutes slipped by, and I found a small clearing.
And there was a stone bench.
I gasped when I saw it.
It looked like the perfect place to sit down and rest my head for a second.
Stumbling drunk, I made it to the bench and touched the bench. The smooth stone had a slight dampness to it.
I stretched my hand all the way across and slowly climbed on the bench. I pulled my hood up. I put my head to my arm and curled up a little.
Just to rest my head.
For a minute.
Everything was spinning.
My stomach felt sick.
My heart hurt.
Just for a minute.
One…quick…minute…
He knocks on the door. Why would he knock on the door? It’s practically his apartment, too. I mean, we both agree it’s sort of dumb that he has an apartment in the city. It makes sense for his job, but we’re so far beyond that now, right? He’s set up and settled and ready for his career. So am I. It’s all right there in front of us. Twenty years of hard work, then we kick back and chill.
We’ll have kids by then. Maybe celebrating grandkids.
It’s all perfect.
It’s the way we talked about life.
I open the door and he’s standing there with his hands in his pockets. The first thing I think is that he’s fired. Which would totally be okay. It happens all the time to people.
“Thad…”
“We have to talk.”
Shit.
He fumbles over his words, reminding me about the potential for the west coast transfer his company mentioned a long time ago. That was part of the reason we had two apartments. We were thinking about buying a house, but we didn’t want to get trapped. Well, he didn’t want to get trapped.
“The transfer?” I ask.
“Sort of. It’s on the table. It’s more money.”
“That’s fine,” I say. “That’s why we didn’t buy a house, right?”
“That means…”
I hate to think about what happened when he traveled last. It had been a bad time for us. A confusing time. And Thad fucked up. He slipped up. Those were his words. Slipped up.
I could deal with it.
It was a one-time thing…
“Lara, this isn’t what you think,” Thad says. “I have to tell you something.”
“Tell me something?”
“I’m going to head out there. Like, right now.”
“I’ll go with you. We’ll pick out a place.” I turn and walk toward the kitchen. My brain still doesn’t get that Thad is outside in the hallway. He’s acting weird. Too weird. “I can find a job there. I can talk to Mark and see if he can transfer me. Oh, wow, this could be huge…”
I turn and smile.
I’m excited.
Thad stands there, looking worried.
He shakes his head.
“Lara…I’m going there alone…”
The dreams won’t stop. They never stop. They play over and over with the same scene, same people, same ending. It’s always me with my back to the door, sliding down, sitting on my ass, hugging my knees, crying. Thad outside the door, gently knocking, trying to talk to me.
What an asshole.
I tossed and turned on the bench, but I never fell off. Somehow, even drunk, I managed to keep myself from getting hurt.
I told myself to wake up. But I couldn’t wake up. I was trapped in that dream.
I felt myself shivering. I was cold. I was confused.
I coughed. But it wasn’t just a cough.
That’s when I felt hands touch me. A hand to my shoulder. Then to my hair.
“It’s okay,” a voice said.
A really rough and deep voice. A sexy voice.
“I’m right here,” the voice said.
I know I’m sick and unable to control myself. I still haven’t opened my eyes, though.
When I was done being sick, I started to groan. I felt like I was dying. Cold and dying, alone and lost in the woods.
I felt hands touch me again. This time a hand grabbing under my legs. The other hand to my neck. And then I was in the air. Floating. Flying.
Being carried.
“Thad?” I whispered.
I grabbed for him. Except…his shoulders were huge. They were really round, really big, really strong. My right hand reached for his face. There was hair. A beard. And his chest…it was rock hard. Built like stone.
Like that stone bench.
Where I was sleeping.
Sleep.
Sleeping…
My body calmed itself just enough as I rested my head against his chest.
It wasn’t Thad.
So, who was it?
4
Unwanted Company
(OSIRIS)
I walked down the makeshift road after midnight. I wanted to blame Jerry’s wife’s meatloaf for that, but if I did, I would be lying to myself. It was just one of those things. One of those nights. They didn’t happen as much as they used to, but they still happened. A night where I felt like I had missed something and needed to go double check the most obvious spots. That being the bench and the willow tree.
I thought about destroying both of those things for a long time. They were both part of my property, right on the edge. The ridge began where my property ended. And on the opposite site of the makeshift road, that’s where my property ended too.
So, I walked.
I had seen some crazy stuff during my walks. I had encountered animals. But I had never found someone sleeping on the stone bench.
When I first saw the figure, I froze and blinked.
It wouldn’t have been the first time I saw her in the woods. But when I would blink, she would vanish. This time was different. This was a real person on the bench. Curled up, hood up on their hoodie, sleeping.
As I got closer, I turned on the small flashlight I had. It was a woman. Probably from that group of people. Looking back, I realized just how far this person wandered from the party. And how damn close they were to the edge of the ridge. If they took one step off that ridge…
My heart twisted and ached. It stole my breath for a few seconds.
I collected myself and looked down at her again. She started to twitch. Then shake. Her right leg kicked for a second,
then curled back up. She shook again and made a noise that told me one thing.
She was too drunk for her own good and was about to…
I stepped back as I heard the mess splash against the ground. She started to roll too far, so I put a hand to her shoulder to keep her from rolling off the bench and into her own puke.
“It’s okay,” I said to her.
Just to try and get her some comfort.
Her hair fell into her face, so I hurried to move that away so she didn’t make a mess of her hair.
“I’m right here,” I told her, hoping she’d open her eyes and realize just how bad she’d fucked up.
As fast as she started to get sick, she was done.
Then she said, “Thad…”
Who the fuck was that? The guy all over her at the campsite? The guy wasn’t smart enough to watch his woman as she drank herself silly and wandered away.
Then again, was I much better?
She quickly cuddled right back up like nothing had happened.
Glancing over my shoulder again, I couldn’t believe how far she had walked. Drunk. Stumbling. In the dark. She probably had a phone on her somewhere. All I could hope for was that her friends—or boyfriend—would find her missing and call her.
I couldn’t leave her there though. She wouldn’t freeze to death, not this time of year up on the mountains. She’d wake up cold, shivering, and wet from the dew, but nothing dangerous. The most dangerous part was her drinking. If she rolled to her back and got sick again…
I couldn’t believe what I was about to do.
I slipped a hand under her legs, my other hand to the back of her neck.
I lifted her up.
She grabbed my shoulders. My face. My beard. And then put her head to my chest, cuddling up and letting out a comfortable sigh.
I growled and gritted my teeth.
This was not my fucking problem to deal with.
I turned and looked into the blackness of the woods.
I had no choice—I had to take her home.
I put her down on the couch, and she didn’t move an inch. I got her a blanket, and she grabbed it and cuddled up tight, lightly groaning in what sounded like relief. I just stood there and stared down at her.
My lip curled as I thought about too much at once.
I probably just saved her life. In a way, I wished someone did…
I shook my head.
No, Syi, no.
I crouched down, and my knees popped. I watched her as she slept. I moved hair out of her face again and slid my fingers to her neck. She was alive. She was fine. She’d wake up in the morning with a hangover and freak out because she was in a stranger’s cabin in the woods. So, I’d have to have that conversation to calm her down and explain where she was, how she got there, and that no, I didn’t do anything to her.
Hopefully by then, her friends would be awake and looking for her.
I said her name in my head.
Lara.
It was a nice name. She was a pretty woman too. Whoever that guy was that was with her deserved a punch to the mouth. He let her slip away from his grasp and off into the woods. At least he’d get her back. What a lucky son of a bitch.
Some of us weren’t that lucky.
I caught myself touching her cheek, tracing invisible lines.
She let out a little purr and took a deep breath.
I felt a lump in my throat and a twisting feeling in my chest.
Lara, the first and only woman to ever spend a night in my cottage.
5
Where Am I?
(LARA)
I woke up on a couch I didn’t recognize to a smell I did recognize. Coffee was the reason I sat up suddenly. The rum was the reason I put my head back down. I put a pillow over my head as it throbbed. That’s when everything started to slowly come back to me.
Then I realized, again, that I was on a couch I didn’t recognize. I was supposed to be in a sleeping bag. In a tent. In the woods.
I tossed the pillow to the floor and sat up again. My stomach did a backflip. I took a deep breath. On the table in front of me was a glass of water. Two white pills next to that.
I looked back and didn’t see anyone.
I looked around the cabin.
It was a beautiful cabin. Definitely cozy and warm. It was so simple, yet it was so perfect. Not many decorations or anything in the place, but that was fine, because the wood was so rich. I was directly across from a big brick fireplace, but there was no fire lit. Just a stack of wood next to the hearth.
The smell of coffee hit me again.
I knew I needed to get up and figure out what happened to me last night. Part of me didn’t want to know. Then again…how did I go from a campsite to a cabin?
Was everyone else here with me?
Maybe it started to rain or something.
Or…wait…
The fire. The firewood.
That’s right. We had trouble starting a fire. Well, not me. I didn’t give a shit at the time. The guys didn’t bring enough firewood. But Alex had found some in the woods.
I leaned forward and rubbed my aching forehead.
“You should drink that water,” a deep voice said.
I jumped and jumped up to my feet from the couch. I turned and the room started to spin. I put my hands out for balance but found none. My eyes focused for a quick second, and I was looking at a tall and wide man. A lumberjack-looking guy with a scruffy beard and a black and white checkered flannel with the sleeves rolled up. His arms, shoulders, and chest filled the flannel to the max. My hands touched his chest for balance. Fucking rock-hard chest.
He grabbed my arms, an insane strength pouring off him.
“Hey, whoa,” he said. “You need to sit down, Lara.”
Oh, fuck.
He knew my name.
What else did he know about me?
My mind wondered if he and I…not that it would have been a bad thing. He was built like a monster, and he was sexy. Like no man I had ever seen in my life. Like he had never been anywhere but up in these woods.
He slowly lowered me to the couch. Such brute force, but I kind of liked it. He put me on my back, my head on a pillow. He hovered over me, leaving me wondering what he was going to do to me next.
I expected him to keep lowering himself down, but he didn’t. Instead, he moved away.
He pointed to the table. “Drink the water. Those pills are for your head. I’m sure you’re feeling it.”
“Wait,” I said. “How did you…where am I?”
“You’re in the woods, sugar,” he said. “Not far from where you’re supposed to be, but far enough away that you have me shocked. I’ll be right back with coffee.”
He knew I was camping? If so, where was everyone else?
I sat back up, slower this time. I looked around one more time. There was no sign of anyone else.
I reached for the water. I sipped it and looked at the pills.
What if this guy was some crazed killer and wanted to drug me?
I grabbed for the pills but didn’t take them. I slid them into my pocket, just in case.
He came back, as he said he would, carrying two coffee mugs. Big, black mugs.
“Here,” he said.
I looked at the coffee.
I looked up at him.
Fuck, he was tall. And big. Strong big. Super strong-big.
“Okay,” he said. He slowly sat down on the coffee table. I thought the thing was going to explode under him. He raised an eyebrow at me. “I’m not here to hurt you, sugar. You’re in my cabin. Don’t forget that. That’s coffee in the mug. With some sugar and milk. And the pills you stuffed in your pocket are not poisonous.”
I felt my face turn bright red. I reached into my pocket and took the pills out.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
“I’m just trying to help. Did your friends call you yet?”
Shit. My phone.
I reached for my phone in my pocket.
<
br /> The screen was black. I pressed the button and the little charger icon blinked.
“It’s dead,” I said. “Do you have a charger up here?”
“Up here?” he asked. “Like I’m living in the last century?”
“No, not like that. I didn’t mean…”
“Give me the phone,” he said.
When I handed him my phone, his hand brushed against mine. So rough and strong. Everything about him was rough and strong.
He plugged my phone in as I chugged the water and took the pills. My head was killing me. My mouth was bone-dry. I was hungry and wanted to throw up at the same time.
I then sipped the coffee, the warmth making me feel more alive by the second.
He just stood there, near my phone, looking at me.
“What do you remember?” he asked.
“Not much,” I said.
“I found you on a bench,” he said. “You…were throwing up.”
“Oh,” I said, embarrassment running through me.
“I don’t think you really get it, sugar,” he said. “Right behind that bench there’s a drop off. It goes down I don’t know how many hundreds of feet. You were ten, twenty feet away from killing yourself. Considering how far you walked…”
“How did you know?” I asked. “And how do you know my name? And that I was camping with friends?”
He curled his lip. He suddenly looked evil. So much so that I rose to my feet and moved my eyes left to right, looking for an escape route.
I heard the vibration of my phone next to him. There was finally enough of a charge that it turned on. But he was blocking my phone.
“Look, I saved you,” he said. He looked back. “Now why don’t you-”
I didn’t let him finish what he was going to say. I ran forward, toward the door. I expected him to jump and stop me, but he didn’t. I looked to my right and saw him just standing there, holding his coffee mug.
I grabbed for the doorknob but missed it. My goal was to open the door, run outside, and just start screaming for Kim and everyone else.
Instead, I missed the doorknob and slammed into the door.
Hard.
So hard that I let out a loud umph and stumbled back. My head throbbed even worse and I thought I was going to throw up. I hit the arm of the couch and started to go back even more. I fell back on the couch and rolled to the floor. I jumped up, slammed my side against the coffee table, and cried out in pain.
