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A horrifying collection of memories from what felt like a different lifetime. The Nash triplets stuck in a loop of helplessness, fear, and pain.
His feet dug into the dirt as he made physical distance from the home behind him. It had taken years for him, Madi, or Desmond to go back into the woods. To move between the trees without fear. Without worry.
Yet, sometimes, when Caleb thought about his father he couldn’t help but think about the man with the scar along his hand. Then, suddenly, Caleb was a child again. He’d hear Madi scream. Hear Desmond cry out in pain. He’d hear his own voice quaver in anger and fear.
Then Caleb would remember that, even though the memories felt so real sometimes, that’s all they were. Memories. Ones that had no place on the ranch at the end of Winding Road.
“But, how can it be over if the man with the scar is still out there?” asked Caleb’s inner voice. It was a question that always followed the memories, darkening them even further.
Today, though, Caleb refused to entertain them for long. He leaned into the beat of his music and focused on the comfort of routine.
The burn of exertion didn’t kick in until Caleb was passing the third mile marker. Scots pines lined either side of the dirty trail, their roots gnarled and reaching every few yards. Caleb had run the trail since he was fifteen and knew when to jump over or step around the ones that threatened to take a jogger by surprise. Just as he knew the exact spot to veer off the beaten path and forge over a less-known one to his favorite place across all of the ranch. The trees clustered closer but Caleb wove around them and kept going.
He heard the stream before he saw the water.
The trees thinned out and the ground dipped. Caleb jumped off a dirt ledge and slapped the trunk of a tree that had his initials carved into it. Rocks worn by erosion lined flowing water that was clear enough to see more rocks making up the bottom in the distance. It wasn’t a particularly wide waterway, neither was it that deep, but it was always cold.
Caleb was already thinking about stripping down, wading to the deepest point and dunking under for a quick refresher before he rounded the last line of trees. He stopped in his tracks. He wasn’t the only one who had been thinking the same thing.
A woman was already standing in the middle of the stream. Her back was turned to him but there was no denying the top layer of her clothes was somewhere else. Her raven-black hair was twisted up and showed smooth tanned skin, bare and reflected in the water just over her waist. Caleb couldn’t tell if she had any bottoms on but thought it ungentlemanly to find out. Though he wasn’t above admitting that, even from his limited view, there was an attractive curve to the woman. It brought out a feeling of curiosity that mingled with a more intimate excitement, but he wasn’t about to search out that feeling. Not when the woman had no idea she was being watched.
Caleb started to backtrack but whatever cool he’d had on the trail had been lost due to the new scenery. He missed his step and grunted as he tried to catch himself from falling. A splash of water was followed quickly by a gasp. Caleb’s palm bit into the smaller rocks on the shore. He managed to get his balance from them and went back to standing tall.
Now he was the one with an audience.
The woman had sunk down so far that the water was only an inch below her face. If that very same face hadn’t been scowling at him, as red as a cherry, Caleb might have taken an extra beat to appreciate the beauty of her sharp features, dimpled cheeks and dark brown eyes. As it was, he barely had the time to defend himself.
And even that he did poorly.
“Before you get any ideas,” he called, raising his hands in surrender. “I was on a run. I didn’t know anyone would be here.”
The woman, who he placed around late twenties, stayed red hot. Even her words had heat to them.
“Heck of a place for a run,” she yelled, motioning with one hand around them. The other he assumed was fastened across her chest.
Her implication that he was lying transferred some of that heat to Caleb. He crossed his own arms over his chest.
“I was running on the trail but decided to come and cool off,” he defended himself. “This is the deepest part of the stream.”
