Disappearing into the walls.
“Do you know how many trees four acres can hold, Heiress?” Jameson asked jauntily. “Two hundred, in a healthy forest.”
“And in the Black Wood?” I prompted, taking first one step toward him, then another.
“At least twice that.”
It was like the library all over again. Like the keys. There had to be a shortcut, a trick we weren’t seeing.
“Here.” Jameson bent down, then placed a roll of glow-in-the-dark duct tape in my hand, letting his fingers brush mine as he did. “I’ve been marking off trees as I check them.”
I concentrated on his words—not his touch. Mostly. “There has got to be a better way,” I said, turning the duct tape over in my hands, my eyes finding their way to his once more.
Jameson’s lips twisted into a lazy, devil-may-care smirk. “Got any suggestions, Mystery Girl?”
Two days later, Jameson and I were still doing things the hard way, and we still hadn’t found anything. I could see him becoming more and more single-minded. Jameson Winchester Hawthorne would push until he hit a wall. I wasn’t sure what he would do to break through it this time, but every once in a while, I caught him looking at me in a way that made me think he had some ideas.
That was how he was looking at me now. “We aren’t the only ones searching for the next clue,” he said as dusk began to give way to darkness. “I saw Grayson with a map of the woods.”
“Thea’s tailing me,” I said, ripping off a piece of tape, hyperaware of the silence all around us. “The only way I can shake her is when she sees an opportunity to mess with Xander.”
Jameson brushed gently past me and marked off the next tree over. “Thea holds a grudge, and when she and Xander broke up, it was ugly.”
“They dated?” I slid past Jameson and searched the next tree, running my fingers over the bark. “Thea is practically your cousin.”
“Constantine is Zara’s second husband. The marriage is recent, and Xander’s always been a fan of loopholes.”
Nothing with the Hawthorne brothers was ever simple—including what Jameson and I were doing now. Since we’d worked our way to the center of the forest, the trees were spread farther apart. Up ahead, I could see a large open space—the only place in the Black Wood where grass was able to grow on the forest floor.
My back to Jameson, I moved to a new tree and began running my hands over the bark. Almost immediately, my fingers hit a groove.
“Jameson.” It wasn’t pitch-dark yet, but there was little enough light in the woods that I couldn’t entirely make out what I’d found until Jameson appeared beside me, shining an extra light. I ran my fingers slowly over the letters carved into the tree.
TOBIAS HAWTHORNE II
Unlike the first symbol we’d found, these letters weren’t smooth. The carving hadn’t been done with an even hand. The name looked like it had been carved by a child.
“The I’s at the end are a Roman numeral,” Jameson said, his voice going electric. “Tobias Hawthorne the Second.”
Toby, I thought, and then I heard acrack. A deafening echo followed, and the world exploded. Bark flying. My body thrown backward.
“Get down!” Jameson yelled.
I barely heard him. My brain couldn’t process what I was hearing, what had just happened.I’m bleeding.
Pain.
Jameson grabbed me and pulled me toward the ground. The next thing I knew, his body was over mine and the sound of a second gunshot rang out.
Gun. Someone’s shooting at us.There was a stabbing pain in my chest.I’ve been shot.
I heard footsteps beating against the forest floor, and then Oren yelled, “Stay down!” Weapon drawn, my bodyguard put himself between us and the shooter. A small eternity passed. Oren took off running in the direction the shots had come from, but I knew, with a prescience I couldn’t explain, that the shooter was gone.
“Are you okay, Avery?” Oren doubled back. “Jameson, is she okay?”
“She’s bleeding.” That was Jameson. He’d pulled back from my body and was looking down at me.
My chest throbbed, just below my collarbone, where I’d been hit.
