AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Holy crap,” said Tyler. “What did you stab him with?”
Michael met his eyes. “A rock.”
“And they think he was the same guy who bombed the restaurant?” said Hunter.
Michael shrugged. “I don’t know. But I think so.”
“Interesting.” He paused, and his expression said he was working through something in his head. “If he was the kind of guy to work from a distance with a bomb, I’m surprised he confronted you in the woods like that.”
“There was a lot of smoke and fire in the underbrush,” said Michael. “Poor visibility. He was shooting at us to begin with.”
“Huh.” Hunter picked at his food again.
“What?” said Tyler.
“I don’t know. I just think people tend to fall into two camps: those who prefer to be violent from a safe distance, and those who prefer to be an active participant. My dad and uncle were opposite sides of that coin. My dad had lots of experience in hand-to-hand combat. He wouldn’t work from a distance unless he had to. He thought violence should mean something. My uncle was a cop, and he’d been trained to take care of a situation from a distance, if he could. It was a safety thing: why engage with a bad guy if you don’t have to?”
“So what’s that all mean?” said Michael.
“I don’t know. Maybe nothing.” He paused. “But there wasn’t just one Guide last time, right?”
The question made Michael’s heart stop for a moment. “No. But why wouldn’t the other one step in to save the first?”
Hunter rolled that around for a long moment. “I don’t know. I can’t see any advantage to letting you leave if the first was going to kill you. Especially since the police have a body and a name and someone to investigate.”
“What was his name?” said Tyler.
“Warren Morris,” said Michael.
Tyler snorted. “He sounds like he should be preparing taxes, not walking around hunting people with a gun.”
“Maybe he does prepare taxes,” said Hunter. “He doesn’t have to be military. Guides come from all walks of life. Look at Becca’s dad. He works for the Department of Natural Resources. Not exactly the front lines of the militia.”
“So there could be another Guide in town,” said Tyler.
“Right,” said Hunter. “And it could be anyone.”
Not for the first time, Michael was glad that he didn’t know where his brothers had been taken. They were safe. Hidden.
Michael pushed his food away. He’d barely touched it, and he didn’t want it now. “There’s always a chance of a Guide being in town,” he said. “Nothing different about today.”
“You have a bigger target on your back,” said Tyler.
Michael scowled. “Nothing different about that either.”
His cell phone chimed. Michael tensed and fished it out of his pocket. Another message from Hannah.
I’m worried about you.
He didn’t respond. He hadn’t answered any of her texts since leaving his neighborhood with the fire marshal.
It was killing him.
But hearing those gunshots and knowing she was in the woods—he couldn’t take it. He couldn’t go through that again. He needed to end this. She’d never be safe while involved with him.
His thumbs hovered over the phone anyway. He wanted to reply. He wanted to invite her over. He wanted to spend one night away from fear and anger and worry, to just be a guy and a girl.
But that wasn’t possible for him.
