Page 84 of Rest In Knotty Pieces

I pull his hand up and draw two names on his hand.

He stares at me. “Rose and King?”

I nod.

“Don’t do it,” Rolly growls in an alpha command that I’m able to shrug off.

It’s all in the intention, and his command wasn’t specific enough. Not to stop me.

I run.

“MERLE!” Rolly roars, plunging after me.

But I throw myself across the boulders and down into the forest. I land heavily, but I’m not injured enough to let it stop me or even slow me down, and the one thing I can do better than anyone else is run.

Pix

Luckily, I’m faster and more observant than Rolly. I hit the ground just behind her, so when she runs, I don’t even think she knows I’m there.

Fuck, she’s fast.

I’m torn between being impressed and wanting to strangle her, but right when I’m about to catch up and flatten us to the ground, a bullet slams into the tree beside her.

She whirls, taking off in a different direction. I follow but more cautiously. The rain and darkness are making it hard to see anything.

They drive her up and out of the forest. I don’t even think she’s aware of it.

One bullet carefully placed at a time. A trap. The thought enrages me.

They aren’t trying to kill her, though, and that is the only reason I haven’t slipped into my murder mode.

Now that was information we didn’t have. They want her alive.

Why?

What is so important about her?

Her scent gets stronger and more stressed, and I realise she knows that she’s being driven.

Aware and is terrified.

What awaits her in the arms of these killers?

Merle sobs, and that sound almost breaks me, but I have no room to move, no space to fight, and I can’t see who is coming for her, so I stay back, waiting until she flings herself at another set of boulders and starts climbing.

Her pace is frantic. She climbs without skill but with a desperate edge that has her moving like lightning across the rocks. I find an alternate path and climb as fast as I can. Sage’s scent hits me, and a part of me relaxes.

She’s not alone.

She gets up and rushes into the forest, but a bullet from that direction stops her. She backs away, and now she really is trapped. There’s a long ledge of cliff, exposed to the skies, with nowhere for her to go. The way is blocked by forests filled with bad guys.

She has no idea exactly how bad the situation is. Precarious. Hanging on a knife’s edge. Exactly the kind of odds I love to beat.

I sneak up on the first idiot who thinks he can hurt what’s mine, finding him easily. He’s wearing black, but he forgot to hide the shiny ring on his belt, and that glimmer gave him away. Thunder crackles across the sky, and the rain falls in a sudden sheet. I slit his throat and leave him slumped with no idea his death had even come for him.

I love storms.

She’s still standing out there alone, looking helpless and terrified. I’m about to turn away when she straightens. It’s a strangely confident movement. I pause, watching her, trying to figure out what’s bugging me.