AllFreeNovel
Share Us
No one to answer her knock or appear in the glass panes that face the clearing.
Releasing an annoyed little huff, she steps forward and knocks again, immediately shifting to the side to peek in one of the front windows that flank the double doors.
Spying on me…
Just like the others.
This time, the snarl slips from my mouth and echoes across the space between us. The wind howls, carrying my rage to her, churning up loose grass and dying leaves that swirl around her on the porch.
Her head whips in my direction, her eyes widening even more as I step out from between the trees and into the moonlight.
It glints off the raised axe head, and her gaze darts to my constant companion.
She retreats, and her heel catches between two of the porch boards. “Shit!”
Stumbling to one knee, she reaches a shaky hand to attempt to free it as I advance toward the house, long strides eating up the ground quickly.
Grass gives way under my boots.
Leaves crunch.
My chest heaves with each sharp inhalation of crisp, chilly night air, but it doesn’t help ease the heat of ire boiling my blood.
The woman tugs at her shoe, frantically trying to free it from the small gap it’s wedged in, then glances up to gauge my approach. She scrambles away, kicking off the other heel, scanning around her like she’s looking for any means of escape. But now I’m almost at the car, and there’s no way she’s getting to it before I do.
I issue another deep warning growl as she continues to clamber backward across the porch. She makes it to the far end, the hip-high hand-hewn log railing preventing her from retreating any farther.
Panic wells in her eyes, along with glistening tears.
They won’t stop me, sweetheart.
Whatever crazy notion brought her up this mountain, she’s going to regret ever having it.
I climb the stairs one at a time slowly, keeping my gaze locked on hers.
Her shoulders press against the railing, with the rest of her body spread across the worn boards. Moonlight streams from behind her and to the left, highlighting half of her face.
Her dewy, flawless skin.
Her quivering, too-red lips that match the ridiculous shoes.
The wide jade doe eyes that rival those of the deer I usually shoot in this forest.
That innocent look and the silent plea have never stopped me before, and it isn’t about to tonight. She determined her fate the moment she turned up Barker Mountain.
Stopping a few steps from her bare feet, I scan the interloper from the honey curls surrounding her face, down over the swell of her breasts peeking out from the plunging neckline of her skin-tight black dress, then to that high hemline and the miles of skin down to her painted toes.
Something other than fury stirs deep inside me for the first time in more years than I can count, but I push it back where it belongs, buried deep in one more expertly dug grave with the rest of the things that only cause more problems and frustrations.
I flex my hand around the axe at my side, the familiar feel of the handle and its weight helping to ground me and preventing me from taking action before I get the answers I need from this woman. “Who the fuck are you?”
“I—” She opens and closes her mouth. “I—”
Her body shakes so badly that she struggles to get her feet under her to stand upright, gripping the railing behind her to keep herself stable. Head whipping side to side, she desperately searches for an escape route that doesn’t exist.
The house on one side.
Me in front.
