Deep Woods

His voice changed, taking on a tone I hadn’t heard before. He sounded wistful. “I loved it. Loved….” He trailed off, searching for the right word.

“Serving?” I offered.

“Protecting people,” he said at last.

I nodded to myself. I’d seen that fierce, protective instinct in action. It was who he was.

“It felt like I’d found my place,” said Cal. “The guys you serve with, they get to be like family. I guess jarheads aren’t much more imaginative than schoolkids because they called me Bigfoot, too. But...it was okay, coming from them.”

I nodded silently. I understood.

“I did four years, then applied for the Marine Raiders. They taught me a whole bunch of stuff.”

He said it like it was nothing, but my eyes were bugging out. He was Special Forces?!

“Got sent around the world, helping out here and there,” he said. “I was in for eleven years, all told.”

“You miss it?” I asked.

He didn’t answer for a while and I realized he was thinking about it. Either he hadn’t thought about it, all these years, or he hadn’t let himself.

“Yeah,” he said at last. “Yeah, I miss it.”

And then he just went quiet.

I waited. Nothing.

“What happened then?” I asked, keeping my voice light.

Silence. I sat up in the bath, staring at the sheet, wishing I could see him. “Cal?”

I strained my ears. I could hear his breathing, ragged with pain. Just as I was about to say something, he spoke. “I’m going to go check on the animals before we turn in.” His heavy footsteps, clumping across the wood floor, then the door opening and banging shut.

Something had happened after he left the Raiders, something that had led him to isolate himself out here. Something he couldn’t talk about. I sat there in the cooling water, arms around my knees, my chest tight with worry. In two days, I’d be gone. And whatever demons Cal had in his head, he’d be left alone with them forever.

36

Ralavich

I STOOD on the mansion’s balcony, looking out at the view as the sun went down. To the left, lights were gradually coming on, pinpricks of white and orange that joined up to form towns, with crawling caterpillars of car lights inching between them. To the right, there was...nothing. Just the blackness of the woods.

Bethany was in there, somewhere.

It had been two days since some cops had seen her in Marten Valley. They’d questioned the locals and someone had recognized the man she was with: some big, bearded loser who lived out in the woods—no one was sure exactly where. And—I felt the anger start to boil inside me, thick and dark as bubbling tar—Bethany was presumably spreading her legs for him, in return for living in his hovel.

She’d regret it. They both would.

Cairns had pointed out that the woods covered hundreds of square miles: we could search forever and never find them. His plan was to wait them out, catch them when they next came to Marten Valley.

But I’d had enough. The mansion was a pleasant enough place to spend time: I could run my business from here easily enough, they’d brought in a case of vodka, the good stuff, and there were plenty of girls to fuck. But I wanted her. And I wasn’t going to wait any longer. I’d kept my best attack dog on a chain for over two weeks. It was time to let him loose.

I summoned Alik. “We’re taking matters into our own hands.” I pointed to the woods. “Go out there and find her.”

Alik gave a long sigh of relief and a big, honest grin spread across his face. There’s something about soldiers, especially Special Forces soldiers. They can’t be idle. They need a mission or they get restless, even depressed. “My pleasure,” said Alik with feeling. As he turned to leave, he said, “Things may need to get...messy.”

“Do whatever you need to,” I told him. “Let’s show these idiots how we deal with problems in Russia.”

37

Cal

THE NEXT MORNING, I woke early and lay there on the floor looking at her in the bed. She was on her side, turned to face the wall, but even through the blankets, the glorious hourglass shape of her made me stare.

Today was her last full day at the cabin. Tomorrow morning, I’d take her to Jacques, and then she’d be gone. I wanted to spend every moment with her but at the same time, I couldn’t be around her. The feelings I’d been crushing down inside me for weeks were just too strong, now. Every second I was in her presence, that pull drew me in until I couldn’t speak, couldn’t think, couldn’t do anything except what it demanded. Tell her how I feel. Ask her to stay. Put my hands on her waist, pull her to me, and kiss her.

And then what? What would happen, if I gave in? I couldn’t get close to her. Not without coming clean about what I’d done. And if I did that, and she looked at me in horror….