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“Do you have siblings?” I ask, always wanting to know more about him, but he’s quiet and doesn’t divulge much about himself. It’s like pulling strings to get anything out of him.
“I have an older brother, who has a wife, and two younger brothers.”
“How much younger?”
He looks back at me. “About a decade.”
I had figured Max was older than me, but I still can’t pinpoint his age. Looks like I’m going to have to be more specific. “How old are you?”
He lifts one brow and looks to be debating about answering. He turns around, continuing on our hike. Just when I think he isn’t going to answer, he says, “I’m almost forty.”
He looks good for his age. I study his ass and his muscular legs with appreciation.
“Anything else you want to know? We’re almost there.”
My lips purse and twist as I consider what else I want to know. “Where did you grow up?”
He snorts. “A pig farm, it was awful.”
“Is that why you like the outdoors?”
He ignores my question. “We’re here,” he announces. I look around us, and there’s no view. In the distance, there could be a cave of some sort. Maybe? Bush is all around us, looking like the rest of the forest we trampled through.
“Is this the turning back point? I thought…I don’t know what I thought,” I say, disappointed in the view while turning in a full circle, confused as to why we would come here.
When I face Max, he has a gun pointed at me. My heart leaps into my throat and I stare, stunned. It’s like my brain can’t comprehend what’s happening. I look from the gun to him, multiple times, as I stay perfectly frozen.
“This isn’t personal. If it makes you feel better, you were the highlight of the last few months of mine.”
I’ve only met him. Slowly, like my brain is just starting to claw its way out of cobwebs to get a better view, I realize he’s going to kill me. My heart hammers, a cold chill rakes over me as the atmosphere changes on a dime.
“Run.” His voice has lowered, deepening into a harsh breath.
My muscles don’t hesitate and I run into the bush, trying to get away. Twigs snap against me, scraping my skin as I go. The deeper I travel, the more my legs feel the lashing of the forest. I’m the only noise in the silence, and I keep expecting to hear the snap of a bullet, but it refuses to come. My chest tightens, my heartbeat erratic with each deep breath I’m forced to take. No steps crash behind me, but I refuse to look, too scared to see him on my heels.
Each breath I take is like tiny razors brushing down my throat with each deep gasp. My legs are on fire from the strain. I don’t know if I can keep going. I don’t even know if I’m going the right way. The only thing I know is that I’ve lost him.
I break back onto a trail, hunching over my legs, wheezing, hoping to get my breath under control. There’s ringing in my ears and my stomach wants to unleash onto the ground.
“You’re even more gorgeous scared.” Max’s deep voice has me squealing and trying to sprint off again, but his strong arm pulls me back, crushing me into his thick chest.
My heart jumps wildly and my mouth dries, but I refuse to go down without a fight. I thrust against him, my tears overflowing onto my cheeks. “Please, don’t kill me,” I beg, continuing to fight, but he’s too strong. My attempts to free myself do nothing but trap me against his muscular body.
“Sorry, darling. This is what I do best. It’s what my father trained me for.”
I kick as hard as I can but he doesn’t even flinch. How had I read him entirely wrong? I grew up with killers and bad men my whole life. I know the type. Panic grips my brain, his body warming the terror that has every hair standing on end.
I scream until my voice is hoarse and it crackles as I try to speak. “Please, let me go,” I plead with a low voice. Tears stream down like a tsunami wave. “I’m not ready to die. I want to live and fall in love. I’ll disappear, you’ll never see me again. Do you need money? My dad can pay you.” It all rushes out between hushed sobs.
He lets a manic laugh out of his throat. His whole body vibrates against mine as if I just said the funniest joke he’s ever heard.
“Your father? It was his club who ordered the hit.”
I stop struggling and go limp in his hold. “But why?” I already know. They think I killed my husband. “I didn’t do what they think.” Realization that I spent my last day on Earth hiking dawns on me. I wasted my last day.
“I know. I did.” His hot breath fans across my ear and I jerk in surprise, replaying what I think he said. I must have heard wrong. I thrash in his hold, but my violent struggles seem to be unnoticed as he puts little effort into keeping me in place.
“I’m the loose end.” Goosebumps pepper my skin. “If you let me go, no one will ever know you didn’t kill me.” I give it one more attempt to save my soul and try to kick him in the nuts and run. My body refuses to move in his tight grasp. “It would be like our private joke on them.”
