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Like with the first two books, the pages are free of handwritten notes…until I get to Forseti, the god of justice.
CATFISH is scrawled on the page, along with Aiden4justice.
I glance up at the ceiling. “What are you trying to tell me?”
Jasper barks.
“Really?” I say to the ceiling. “You’re answering me through my dog?”
Jasper keeps barking, and it’s only then I notice he’s barking at the door.
“What’s wrong? You wanna go chase a squirrel?” I return the book to the shelf, grab his leash from the coffee table, and clip it on to his harness. I open the cabin door.
And the source of Jasper’s barking is immediately apparent.
A familiar dark-haired man with a scraggly beard and wearing camo pants and jacket is standing there, tall and solid like a hundred-year-old oak. But it’s the gun in his hand leveled at me that has my heart scrambling into my throat.
Always excited to make a new friend, Jasper jumps his paws on the man’s leg. He’s grown quite a bit in the past two months, but not enough to budge the mountain.
The man nudges him aside with his foot. The gun doesn’t sway so much as an inch. “Put him outside.” The man’s tone is lethal, uncompromising.
“He’s just a puppy. He’ll get lost.”
The man doesn’t say anything, which I translate to mean he doesn’t give a damn if I lose my dog.
“I said, put the fucking dog outside!” He steps aside, but not far enough for me to get past him.
Not that I’m deluding myself into believing I can escape. He’s not planning to let me go anywhere. Fear grips me in its evil clutches. I can taste its foul breath on my tongue.
I don’t speak or move. My body is frozen, turned to concrete. Incapable of even flinching.
“Put him outside or I’ll shoot him.”
That’s all I need to kick-start my body into action. I unclip the leash. “Okay, boy. Go chase squirrels.” And find someone to save me.
Jasper doesn’t need to be told twice. He barrels out the door, spotting his target as a cluster of fall leaves tumbles across the dirt in the strong wind.
The sky is darker now, the air heavy with the smell of the approaching storm.
The door shuts, barricading me from the rest of the world. My limbs are no longer frozen. An uncontrollable tremor travels through them, threatening to tumble me like a tower of cards. “Wh-what do you want? I-I don’t have anything valuable here?”
“Where is it?” The boom of his voice penetrates the tension-thick space.
“Where’s what?” I can barely get my vocal cords to form the words, and they come out like the rough squeak of a rusty hinge.
“Don’t play dumb! You know what I’m talking about.”
A flash of lightning momentarily brightens the room. With it comes the loud crack of someone ripping the sky in two. A bark comes from outside, the sound of a puppy who isn’t fond of thunder.
I step toward the door. The man scowls at me, murder frigid in his dark eyes, the gun still aimed at my chest. I freeze once more. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. I just came here to get away for a few days. I haven’t been here in more than ten years.”
The man studies me for a second, possibly gauging how much of what I said is true. “In there.” He points to the master bedroom.
I walk to the open doorway, conscious my phone is in my purse, which is in the box on the coffee table. But unless things have changed since I was last here, there are no cellular towers nearby, no Wi-Fi or phone lines.
I’m completely alone with no chance of calling for help.
He grabs my arm and shoves me so hard into the bedroom, I stumble. “Lie on the bed.”
