Page 10 of Wolf It Down, Knot Me Up

Grayson toasts me with the can and a grin. Asshole. He’s enjoying this too much.

“She’ll be pissed at all three of us if we blow the lumber quota too,” Wolf states, holding the cup out in my direction for a refill, unbothered as ever. “She’s selling this timber to keep the lodge’s lights on. Occupancy’s been shit all season as she develops the place, and right now we’re part of what’s keeping her upright.”

Grayson swigs the drink, and his grin turns sly. “Look at the bright side, though. Lucy falls for you, maybe she starts cooking. Ethan bitches every single time he feeds us. Yesterday he called my breakfast order a war crime with syrup.”

“You asked him to put six eggs inside a pancake,” I say.

He shrugs. “It was damn good and packed with protein.”

Wolf drains the second cup of coffee, hands it back, and hefts the axe and wedge bag over the side of the truck bed, steel ringing against steel. The breeze ruffles his dark hair, pushing the longer strands into his eyes.

“Seriously, though, for one second,” Grayson says. “As Wolf said, this could blow up in our faces.” He turns the can in his fingers. “Eve’s been good to us, and she took us in without blinking. We need her signature to close out the program clean, all three of us, and if this bite thing turns her against you, it splashes on Wolf and me too.” He stares at me straight. “I’m not doing six more months behind bars over this. I’d rather be out here, free. All of us need this. So we gotta find a way to fix this.”

“Yeah, I know. It’s been sitting on me all night, as I haven’t told her about the bite yet.” My hands start coiling the strap on the stump. “But it was a genuine mistake. I lost it completely. There I was, coming up from the bar, moving fast because she’d already gone into the woods, and at that stage, I assumed she was alone, so I was running. And this fox suddenly bolted across the trail in front of me as though the whole forest was on fire. Then I cleared the rise, and there was Lucy. I’ve seen the photos of her in Eve’s office, so I knew it was her, except she wasn’t alone. A man had his hand clamped around her arm, hauling her toward the hollow part of the woods. She was fighting him, digging her heels into the dirt and pulling back with everything she had. What was I supposed to do?”

“Not bite her,” he states the obvious.

I exhale loudly. “Fuck, I was ready to put that man in the ground. I can’t explain it.” I roll my neck.

Grayson’s quiet for a moment, then asks, “And the guy? Any idea who he was?”

“Never seen him before. Mid-thirties, thin, going bald at the temples, red bandanna at his throat.” I shrug. “I took him down fast and made a choice, because she hit her head. So I carried her and her bag to my car and drove to the hospital. When I went back up to deal with him, he was gone. The whole day was fucked up.”

Grayson crushes the empty can slowly in one fist. “All right. One problem at a time. You’ve spoken to Eve today, right?”

I nod. “Told her everything else that happened, that I screwed up with the timing, and she said something weird: The guy guiding Lucy through the woods called himself Roman.”

“What the fuck? That’s not a common name,” Wolf barks.

“Exactly my thought. So did someone pretend to be me? And more importantly, how the fuck did they know I was escorting her to the lodge yesterday?”

“I really want to know who the fake Roman is,” Grayson says.

“Me too. Because there’s the added complication that I attacked him first, and if he presses charges, knowing I’m here in the reintegration program, he could have me sent straight back. Eve said Lucy will explain that I was defending her if it comes to that, but she’s calling my parole officer, who’ll probably come out and grill me about the whole thing.” I exhale, trying to ease the pressure tightening around my ribs. “It’s just gotten fucking messy.”

“We’ve got this.” Grayson slaps my back hard enough to shove me forward a step. “We tell the truth, and in the meantime, keep your head down until we work out who the hell that bastard in the woods with Lucy was.”

Then he’s hauling my saw and the fuel cans onto the tailgate. He shouts at Wolf about whoever strapped yesterday’s load down crooked.

I screw the thermos shut. I’ve spent my whole life looking after other people. First, it was my mom and little sister after Dad died, and becoming the provider before I was old enough to know what that really meant. Then, yesterday felt no different. Now, the moment I saw Lucy, something deep inside me decided she was mine to protect.

I cinch the last strap and turn toward the cab, worry creeping steadily up my spine. But as Eve had said on the phone, I just have to be honest. I hadn’t done anything wrong. Well… except for the bite, but that had been an accident too.

The breeze comes up the trail off the creek, through half a mile of pine and thinning fog, and I swear on my father’s grave that it’s carrying her. Apples and honey, faint as woodsmoke from a far ridge, threading through all that green straight to me.

My heart kicks hard, and my cock throbs harder, both at once. I’m certain I’m screwed.

4

LUCY

“Okay, so on a scale of one to kidnapping,” I ask, holding onto the door handle while Grandma’s four-wheel drive bounces through a pothole, “how sure are we that this is still the right road? I remember it being shorter.”

Ethan laughs loudly. “I doubt you remember when you used to sit in the back with your nose in a book.” He swerves around a bend one-handed. “Trust the driver. Have I ever gotten you lost?”

“Yes. The mushroom adventure.”

“One time. And in my defense, chanterelles don’t grow where Google says they should. That was the whole reason we went out there. They are worth a fortune, and Eve wanted them for the risotto.”