Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89093 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 445(@200wpm)___ 356(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
“It’s okay. Everything here can be replaced.” He glares at me like I’m insane, like I have no clue how hard he worked for everything he has. “But until then, we can either go back to the other cabin or rent a place in town for a couple of days.”
Now his stare scares me. I’m not panicked he wants to physically harm me. It is the absolute despair in his eyes I’m paying the most attention to.
“What do you want to do, JR? Tell me what you want to do, and I’ll do it?” I’m not a naturally submissive person. If leadership is required, I’m usually the first to put their hand up. But since the damage to his cabin is my fault, I can take a step back and let someone else lead for a change. “Do you want to stay here?” My heart beats at an unnatural rhythm when he angrily shakes his head. “Then where are we going to go? We can’t stay here, but you’re refusing to go to town as well.”
As quickly as my anger surfaced, lucidity made itself known. “We could go to Ravenshoe.” When he scoffs, I blurt out, “You won’t go to town because you don’t trust the Lancasters, but you can trust me when I say they have no influence in Ravenshoe whatsoever.” I step closer to him, hopeful the sincerity in my eyes will get me over the line. “I know people there who will help us.” I gather his hands in mine. “Whatever the Lancasters did to you, we can fix it in Ravenshoe. I promise you that.”
I’m convinced nothing I could ever say will get me over the line, so you can imagine my shock when he snatches up a duffle bag that survived the carnage and commences packing.
“We’re doing this? We’re going to Ravenshoe?”
Before he can answer me, a twig snapping in the distance steals my focus. It wasn’t an overly loud snap, but in the quietness of darkened woods, it is most certainly hair-raising.
Just like earlier when JR intuited the fire without smelling the smoke, he drags his eyes over the tree-studded landscape. He’s far more trusting of his intuition than me, and his dedication pays off when a second snap occurs not long after the first.
“It’s probably just a deer,” I murmur when the worry blackening his alluring gaze augments. “Or a bear,” I tack on when the snapping is loud enough for me to hear over the frantic beat of my heart.
I step back from the large window spanning one wall of the cabin. I’m having a hard enough time wrangling one hairy beast into line. I don’t need another one tossed into the mix.
“Come back to the bathroom so I can wash the shampoo out of your hair before it gets in your eyes, then we will sit down and work out where we’ll go from he—”
JR cuts me off by pressing his fingers to my lips. When I remain quiet as wordlessly asked, he slips on a pair of fleecy, soot-ruined pants, stuffs his feet into snow boots, tosses on a thermal shirt and thick winter coat before he fetches the chair out of the bathroom.
Once he has it sitting directly in front of the cabin’s door, he gathers up his gun, then hands it to me.
“Why are you giving that to me? I don’t know how to fire a gun.”
Once his wild hair is contained in a messy man bun and a box of bullets are in his hand, he shifts his focus back to me. I’m stunned with silence when he teaches me how to load and fire his shotgun with a step-by-step tutorial. I’m not solely stunned the chamber can hold three shells—I thought the maximum was one—but I’m also shocked to learn the chamber was empty at the start of his presentation.
Did he remove the bullets after my failed attempts to flee or before? I truly don’t know, but both answers please me in uniquely different ways.
After showing me how to brace the gun on my shoulder before firing, JR heads for the door. I don’t know what shocks me more, my panic that he’s leaving me alone or the sudden decline in my confidence the further he retreats from me.
“Take me with you.”
His grunt is the roughest he’s delivered, but it doesn’t stop another plea spilling from my mouth.
“Please. I don’t want to stay here by myself. I’m scared.”
JR can’t hear the panic in my tone, but my eyes must do a good job of relaying it. They halve his strides, but regretfully, they don’t alter his stance. After a brisk shake of his head, he signs, “You’ll be safe here,” before he disappears through the door.
He is gobbled up by the blizzard not even three seconds later.