“The guy, Hawk, right?”
“Oh!” I said, shaking my head. “No, he wouldn’t do that. Why would he do that?”
“Why would anyone? A warning.”
“Well,” I said, my head racing. “It’s not like you guys are in the business of making enemies or anything,” I said, my voice laced with sarcasm.
“I hear you, but my gut is telling me it’s something else.”
“Why?”
“Because if someone wanted to get revenge on the Gods, they’d probably do something a little different than issue a warning of this kind. Pretty sure there’d be blood involved. No, this was a message. Like I said, a warning, I’m telling you.”
“This is insane,” I said, my heart racing, my head spinning.
“It’s fucking bold, is what it is,” he said. “Someone doesn’t know who he’s messing with.”
He puffed up, his frame visibly widening and elongating.
Such machismo, I thought to myself. I was half turned on and half turned off. The last thing I needed was to be a part of some stupid posturing game between two men.
But I barely knew Hawk, why would he do something like that?
“No, I don’t believe this,” I said. “None of this makes sense.”
“Well, it happened, so that means we have to deal with it.”
“Deal with whom?” I asked, turning to him. “Who are you going to fight? Some invisible guy? There’s nobody here, Shadow!”
“Yeah, well, you can think what you want,” he said. “But I can’t ignore my gut, Evie. That wouldn’t be safe.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“Nothing to do till the motherfucker shows his face. Then, when he does, I’ll be ready.”
“Ready for what?”
“For whatever he brings.”
“Right,” I said, turning on my heel and walking back inside, my thoughts churning as I tried to figure out some rational reason someone would stick a knife in Shadow’s bike seat.
I couldn’t think of any.
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
SHADOW
After leaving Evie and Jeremiah locked in the house, I headed outside again. It was at this point that I knew Slade would want to know what was going on. But I hesitated to call him, when I essentially had zero information.
I walked around the cabin slowly, checking out every inch of the surrounding property. I looked for footprints, broken branches, any sort of evidence that might give me a clue about who had been there. After looking around the edges of the cabin, I began going down the trails, hating to venture too far away from Evie and Jeremiah, but I wanted to be thorough.
I went down one trail, and then another, turning back towards the cabin after just a few minutes. It was on the third one that I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye.
A flash of black just off the trail, and then it was gone.
I cocked my head, listening, watching. After a few seconds, I took a few steps that way, certain I’d seen something. Stomping through the undergrowth, I dodged fallen tree trunks and thick weeds crunched under my boots.
I kept going and that’s when I saw him.
I stopped cold, staring, my mouth open.
Dressed in all black, with an old dark hat on his head, a tall man stood in the middle of the forest yards ahead, lifting his hand in a wave. I started toward him, and he faintly smiled before turning away.
“Hey!” I called out. “Wait!”
He didn’t wait. In fact, he seemed to move way too fast to be moving through the thick undergrowth without getting tripped up.
“Hey!” I called again, following after him.
I hadn’t gotten much of a description from Evie, but if I had to bet, I’d say this was her friend Hawk.
I picked up the pace, throwing my body through the forest with all my strength, trying to close the distance between us. I looked down for a quick moment as I stumbled over a tree stump that was covered with thick ivy, and when I looked back up, I gasped.
Just like that, he was gone.
I spun around, searching for him, my heart in my throat.
There was absolutely nowhere for him to go.
And yet, he’d just vanished.
“Hey!” I called out, one more time, bewildered.
Leaves crunching behind me made my blood run cold.
Slowly, I turned around and saw him again, this time in the complete opposite direction of where he’d last been.
“What the fuck?” I growled.
He laughed — he fucking laughed at me — and then turned and started running off again.
“Hey, asshole!” I shouted, my voice bellowing through the trees.
I took off again, my mind contemplating all the things I’d do to him once I caught the prick as I stormed after him. Quickly, I was able to close a little distance between us, and yet, the closer I got, he seemed to almost fade away.
I grunted as I ran faster, my shins crashing into the fallen logs in my way as I jumped over them. He was right in front of me, but I swear I could see the trees in front of him, as if I was looking right through him.
And then, all of a sudden, in an instant - he was gone.
I hadn’t taken my eyes off of him for a second.
One second he was there, and the next, he wasn’t.
He’d vanished into thin air.
“Motherfucker,” I whispered, my eyes wide with shock.
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
HAWK
It was fun playing with him.
Watching him stumble through the woods like a big bumbling elephant. I couldn’t help myself.
The knife wasn’t enough. I needed to shake him to his very core.
My goal was for him to leave.
These are my woods, they always have been.
And I’ll do whatever it takes to keep it that way. I have too much invested to leave. I share this property with the Gods, because up until now, they’ve been fun to watch. Even when Slade started gutting the house I built with my own hands, I just watched, allowing him to make whatever changes he wanted.
Back then, all I cared about was waiting for my bride.
It’s been decades, and she still hasn’t shown up, but I never gave up hope. I roamed the woods patiently, knowing I’d wait an eternity for her to come back.
Desperately, I wanted to apologize to her.
Everything had gone so wrong, so quickly….
I’d come home early. A week early, in fact.
I was ecstatic, my arms filled with a bouquet of wildflowers I’d stopped to pick for her along the road. My heart raced with anticipation.
I’d missed my love so much, I was yearning for her. Work I was doing for her father had taken me away for weeks and once I realized I could steal away and come home early, I jumped on the chance. I couldn’t wait to see the surprise on her face.
I walked into the cabin and called her name.
Sounds of movement in the bedroom echoed through the small cabin and I headed that way.
“Catherine, darling, I’m home early!” Catherine was young, but she was all mine. I’d asked her father for her hand in marriage, surprised he’d given us his blessing. He was a wealthy lumber Barron, his company one of the biggest in the state. His daughter was his pride and joy, but he knew she loved me, and he would have done anything to make her happy.
Just like me.
She was that special.
I was feeling like the luckiest man in the world when I walked into that bedroom.
When I walked out, my heart was shredded in a million bloody pieces.
Covered in the blood of two people, I was now a man on the run.
I hid in the woods for two weeks before the pain of it all became too much. I tied a rope to a tall tree, climbed it, and that was that.
In one quick snap, all that pain was supposed to be over.
But it wasn’t. Life as I knew it? Sure that was dead. And so was I.
But that unrelenting
pain?
It never left.
I’d even argue that over the following decades, it’s gotten worse. The loneliness, the darkness that now resides deep in my soulless shell, it’s all so much worse than I ever imagined it could be.
The only difference is that it never goes away. I can’t hang myself again.
It never lets up.
At least not until recently, not until I’d been provided the distinct pleasure of getting to know Evie.
Somehow, she was able to lessen the torment that I’d endured longer than I was alive. Somehow, she was able to make things almost feel right again.
Almost.
After I died, nobody could find me. Catherine’s father searched, spending his entire fortune combing the corners of the globe to find me, so he could properly punish me. For many, many years, he searched, continent to continent, until he finally died a poor, unsatisfied man, his entire life squandered away by his own guilt for allowing his precious daughter to marry me, disregarding her betrayal completely.
Still, over the years, I’d found that I had forgiven her. Oh, how I wished she’d appear someday so I could tell her that, but I was sure by now that she was lost to me forever, moved on to some other realm that I would probably never be allowed the pleasure of joining her in.
You see, my history is not pretty.
I told you, I’ve done things. Things I can’t be proud of. Things I can never make right again.
I’m a man that has no right to be happy.
And yet, when Evie came into my life, that’s exactly what she brought, even if it was just a glimmer of bliss.
How in the world could I just let that go, after all this time?
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
EVIE
Shadow sank his cock into me over and over, his body pressing me down into the mattress as I wrapped my thighs around his waist, holding on for dear life as he thrust into me harder and harder.
He’d been quiet when he came back from his walk, but once Jeremiah went to bed, he led me to the bedroom, and within minutes we were desperately clutching at each other’s naked bodies.
“Are you okay?” I’d asked, as he began kissing me urgently.
“I’ve been thinking about this all day,” he growled, as he began undressing me. “I need you so bad right now.”
I didn’t question him further, I just laid back and counted my blessings as he kissed his way down my neck and ended up between my legs, patiently bringing me to a frenzy of sensation, as I gripped his head and tried like hell not to scream so I wouldn’t wake Jeremiah.
As soon as I came back down, he lifted himself up and sank into me, his cock so hard and ready that it felt like he could go on forever.
I moaned into his ear, my fingers clawing at his back, as I opened myself up to him. I’d never felt so comfortable, so happy, so damned alive, with anyone else. Shadow had a way of making nothing matter but whatever he was doing to my body at the moment, as if he was waking it up from a long hibernation, one kiss at a time.
We were so hungry for each other, we were insatiable. By the time the moon rose high overhead, he was still inside of me, our mouths languishingly exploring each other, as if there was no limit to the amount of bliss we could feel together.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
SHADOW
Evie finally fell asleep, a thick lock of blonde hair covering one of her eyes as she rested her head on my chest.
Everything about her was heavenly.
Her eyes, her smile, that damned perfect body that kept me hard as a rock, even if I’d already been inside of her for hours already.
There seemed to be no end in sight.
I’d come back to the cabin shaken to my core. Whatever the fuck happened out there in the woods, whoever that fucker was, had me questioning everything I knew to be true.
It was freaky, unnerving, and completely unexplainable.
I contemplated telling Evie about what I’d seen, but I didn’t want to scare her, nor did I want to admit just how much it had screwed with me.
Instead, I took her to bed, so I could try to drive away the images of that…man, or whatever it was.
Something was terribly wrong.
I’d never seen anything like that before, and I didn’t know what the hell to make of it. I’m a logically thinking guy. I don’t believe in fucking ghosts, or the afterlife, or any of that ridiculous bullshit.
No way, Jose.
Life is a just a fucking light switch and once your life gets turned off, that’s it, total blackness and it’s all over. That’s what I’ve believed since I was a little kid and that wasn’t going to change now.
What I’d seen in those woods?
That shit didn’t make a lick of sense to me.
Therefore, I found a way to easily explain it away to my confused brain.
Sleep deprivation, that was all it was.
As if to prove it, I closed my eyes and fell fast asleep, for the first time in days.
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
EVIE
Waking up in Shadow’s arms was something I could easily get used to. He snored deeply in my ear, and I couldn’t help but smile. I knew he’d barely slept and it was a relief to seeing him finally getting some rest. I only felt a little guilty that I was the cause of that fact.
Gently, I untangled myself from him, threw on a white linen nightgown in case I encountered Jeremiah, and padded to the kitchen for a drink of water. I was parched from all the love making, my throat feeling like it was stuffed with cotton.
I filled the glass from the tap, drinking down the pure Oregon water like it was the sweetest wine, no filter needed. I stood there in the kitchen, counting my blessings.
At this late hour, all was still and quiet around me, and I couldn’t help but smile at the peacefulness of it all. I looked out the window, the moonlight bathing everything outside in a pale blue hue. Now that my throat felt back to normal, I poured myself a glass of merlot and walked out onto the porch, staring up at the glowing moon.
Walking down the steps, I began humming a slow tune as I marveled at just how much light the moon gave off. Every surrounding tree was illuminated with a ghostly glow, the remaining leaves fluttering on the branches, holding on for as long as they could, flashing their vibrant colors to the lady in the sky.
Slowly, I began to spin around, dancing slowly in Luna’s spotlight. A slow waltz played in my head, a low, droning violin’s song, as I closed my eyes and lost myself in the silent melody.
My bare feet shuffled around, carrying me around the yard in a blissful dance.
I had everything I’d ever wanted.
Shadow was like a gift that I never knew I needed.
My skin was still alive from his touch and I spun with pure joy, letting the moon have her way with me.
CHAPTER FIFTY
HAWK
Breathlessly, I watched her dance, her long blonde hair falling in loose waves to her waist, her curves silhouetted through the linen of her long, white nightgown.
My mind began to crumble, the lines between the past and the present blurring, until I was unsure of who I was seeing.
It could have been Catherine.
It could have been Evie.
In fact, at times, she was both.
She spun me right back to the man I used to be, reminding me of everything I used to possess, of the life I’d had in my hand and squandered away by taking away the life of the woman I’d loved so deeply.
I took a step towards Evie, my entire being drawn to her.
I needed to be closer. I needed to look into her eyes. I needed to see that smile.
I needed to tell Catherine I was so sorry for killing her.
And yet, was it possible?
I took another step closer. She was so close now, merely a few yards away from my hiding place in the darkness. The trees shielded me from view as I drank in the vision of her.
So angelic. So pure. So sweet I could almost taste her.
&
nbsp; I took another step forward, half in the darkness and half in the light, watching, waiting to see if she’d turn my way and spot me.
But her eyes were closed tightly, as if she was lost in some blissful dream, as she spun in a circle, her hair shimmering like strands of gold in the moonlight. My gaze raked over her body, her dress translucent and allowing me a glimpse underneath. Her curves excited me, my body on fire for what I could never have.
Oh, how I wanted to love her.
Observing this happiness on her face, and knowing it was because Shadow had put that smile on her face with the virility of his own body, was absolute torture.
I wanted to do that.
I wanted to be the person she was thinking about when she had that glow in her eyes.
I wanted to be her lover.
Not that bumbling fool, who was sleeping so peacefully in the cabin and not even doing his job of protecting her right now.
Why, she was just a few feet away from me now.
I could have done a number of things to hurt her.
Not that I ever would, of course.
She’s perfect, she’s everything.
Maybe, just maybe…
Maybe she could be mine.
If she lets me apologize, if she lets me explain…
If she lets me in.
I take another step and another, until I am so close I can smell her. Her eyes are still closed and she has no idea I’m here.
I take a deep breath, knowing my time has come.
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
EVIE
“Evie.”
I stopped spinning and my eyes flew open, as the glass of wine fell from my fingers, landing at my feet in the grass.
I turned towards the sound of the voice, hoping like hell in that split instant that it was Shadow’s voice.
But it wasn’t.
Hawk stood there, staring at me with a wide smile.
“Hawk,” I said, my heart jumping into my throat.
A million questions popped into my head. What was he doing here?
Gods of Chaos MC Box Set 4 Page 40