“Hold on,” Aidan said, licking his lips nervously as he focused on the monitor, hit play, watched as Ashlyn narrowed her eyes on him as she began to follow him only to watch as his brother went back again, hit play and-
“Oh, fuck...” Aidan said as he zeroed in on the man sitting in an oversized chair off in the corner with a newspaper in his lap.
“What the hell’s going on?” Shayne asked as he watched his brother point at the man on the screen.
“That’s Caleb McClellan,” Aidan said as the realization slammed into him and when it did, Shayne was reaching for the flashlight off the desk.
“Let’s go,” Shayne bit out as he kept his gaze locked on the screen, watching as his gaze stayed locked on Ashlyn as she walked past him.
“Go get Tristan,” Aidan said, already moving to grab hold of him.
Within seconds, everything went black before he suddenly found himself standing on the side of the road. A few seconds later, he was standing in a field, a few seconds after that, he was standing in the middle of a parking lot, struggling not to vomit as his brother kept flashing him, bringing him as far as he could before he hit a barrier and had to stop. He kept going until they hit a wall of black fog and were bounced back to the playground that they last landed at.
“I can’t breach it,” Aidan said, shaking his head even as he tried to flash them to the tavern again only to get met with the same black fog, sending them back to the fucking playground.
“Get me as close as ye can,” Shayne snapped, gasping for air as he felt his brother grab hold of him again and found himselfstumbling into the familiar boulders marking the side of the road.
“Which way?” Shayne asked, forced to slap his hands against the boulder when his legs threatened to give out on him.
“Ye need ta wait,” Aidan said, moving to grab him when his legs gave out and dropped him to the ground.
“Which fucking way?” Shayne snapped, willing his fucking head to stop spinning as he turned the flashlight on that he had a death grip on and forced himself to his feet.
“That way,” Aidan said, pointing to his left.
Nodding numbly, Shayne forced his legs to take him past the boulders, down the small incline where he stumbled into a tree before he managed to make it to the well-worn path and forced himself to move. He stumbled for several minutes before he managed to move faster until he found himself running as fast as he could towards the tavern.
Five minutes later, he was stumbling into the small clearing behind the tavern and taking Robert by surprise, who was still fucking glaring at the tavern. Gasping for breath, Shayne said, “Where is he?”
“No one’s here,” Robert said as he gestured towards the tavern.
Shayne glanced at the tavern and took in the dark windows before he made his way past Robert and took in the parking lot to find it empty.
Shit!
“I’m going ta check the tavern,” Aidan said before he disappeared.
“Did ye see a woman with blonde hair come through here?” Shayne asked Robert as he slowly turned around, taking in everything from the woods to the pond to-
The waterfall.
He was already making his way across the lawn before his mind had a chance to register what he was seeing, light coming from behind the waterfall. Praying that it wasn’t just part of the fucking landscaping, Shayne quickly made his way along the shore and climbed onto the wet rocks that led to the waterfall pouring into the lake below.
As soon as he reached it, Shanye stepped through the waterfall only to find himself standing in front of a rock wall. He went to climb back down when he spotted the small opening on the other side of the waterfall. He carefully made his way across the small ledge before he slid inside the small opening only to feel his stomach drop when he saw it, black rocks lining the tunnel floor. He took in the small stream that led the way into the tunnel, washing over the rocks before it joined the water from the waterfall.
He followed the stream with his eyes, taking in the rock tunnel before his gaze was drawn to the line of lights secured to the rock ceiling that started twenty yards into the tunnel. Telling himself that it wasn’t too late, Shayne moved his ass, making his way down the tunnel, the sounds of his feet hitting the stream echoing throughout the tunnel.
A few minutes later, he came to another tunnel, this one leaving him with two options, go to his left towards the tavern or go to the right. He-
Barely managed to release a pained groan when he felt the knife slide through his back.
CHAPTER 31
“Iknow you’re awake,” came the amused murmur that had Ashlyn slowly opening her eyes to find a familiar-looking man hunched down in front of her.
For several moments, Ashlyn could only lie there, staring blankly at him as she willed her head to stop spinning and-
“Caleb McClellan,” she managed to get out, watching as his lips pulled up into a pleased smile.
