Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 37111 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37111 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 148(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
I closed my eyes. I still shivered, but I didn’t feel as cold as before. Maybe the temperature was rising a little? I looked up into the driving rain that pelted down on my face. Other than being cold, it was peaceful out here. I mean, the thunder was loud and the lightning abrupt, but there was no one telling me what I had to do with my life. No one telling me I had to marry someone I didn’t know and was more than a little afraid of. No one telling me I wasn’t good enough or smart enough or pretty enough. No one was telling me they didn’t want me.
The earth wanted me. Nature. It had made that abundantly clear by dropping a tree limb on me. If I was going to die, at least I was with someone who wanted me.
* * *
Deadeye
When the weather turned, it turned in a fucking hurry. Data had been right. This was as bad a storm in autumn as I’d ever seen. I wasn’t too worried, though. I’d found her tracks, and Sword and I had hit the woods, Goose right with us but shadowing us from a distance. He would be looking out for anything we missed in our hurry. Since Sword was with me, that left Bohannon on Cain. As president of Bones, he wasn’t left unguarded when there was a questionable threat. Given the fact Chloe had run and the possibility of another club coming to our door, no one was taking chances with Cain.
I didn’t become too alarmed until the rain started to come down in sheets, the lightning illuminating the sky in angry flashes. Then the temperature dropped even more, and the rain started to freeze anything it touched. It didn’t take fifteen minutes for everything to be covered in a thin layer. And it was absolutely pouring.
“Call back to the clubhouse,” I yelled to Sword. “Have someone bring a couple of side-by-sides. We’re gonna need ’em before we get done.”
Sword nodded his agreement and took out his phone, texting furiously.
We kept moving deeper into the woods. With each passing minute I grew more and more alarmed. There was ice everywhere. I had no idea what Chloe was wearing, but I’d bet she wasn’t dressed for the weather any more than she had been when I’d found her earlier today.
“Chloe!” I yelled her name, hoping like hell she’d hear me and yell back. It was a futile gesture, because the wind was so fierce it whipped the words straight back into my face. “Chloe!”
I glanced at Sword. He was yelling her name too, but I could barely hear him. There was no way she’d hear us from any distance.
We kept moving. Her trail was faint because of all the weather, but I’d had more experience tracking people than I cared to admit. I wasn’t usually so close to my target, but I’d had to track my prey before I set up my nest to watch for the perfect moment for the kill. I was using every bit of my tracking skills now.
The longer I went without spotting her, the more alarmed I became. The storm still raged, the sky illuminating with each streak of lightning, the air booming with the following thunder. With the wind and ice, I knew I could easily pass right by Chloe and never know it if I wasn’t careful. I’d lose her trail and might not ever find it again. I glanced to my right and spotted Goose in the darkness and rain. He pointed in the same direction we’d been heading, wanting me to go on.
I tried to go carefully so I didn’t miss a sign, but it was hard. I wanted to run until I found her. She had at least an hour’s head start on us. I thought she was trying to head toward the main road, but she’d strayed off course and instead headed deeper into the woods. There was a bluff about a mile from here that fell into the lake. That was the only thing of importance in the direction she was headed.
Goose whistled low, motioning for me to come to him. It took little time to see her tracks carried me in that direction. When I came on a little depression at the base of a close group of trees, I paused. It looked like a place she’d try to take shelter, though it was woefully inadequate. It was the only place I’d seen where she could curl up and hunker down. If the wind wasn’t constantly shifting directions, the trees would probably keep most of the freezing rain off her. At least, it would have at the beginning. Now, there was no way it sheltered her.
There were more tracks nearby. Like she had stopped here but moved on.