I half skidded in the snow as I raced downhill, falling to one knee and righting myself again just as fast as my blood pumped through my veins with a wild savagery.
Every instinct in my body told me that something was wrong here. Seriously, fucking wrong.
I’d walked into traps before and I had that same sinking feeling in my gut.
I ran into a clearing and stumbled to a halt as I spotted Tyson, tangled in a net hanging from a tree ahead of me, a steady drip, drip, drip of blood colouring the snow beneath him.
He barked excitedly as he spotted me but I drew my rifle, aiming at the trees as I waited for the ambush to come. Because it had to come. He hadn’t just been left hanging up there like that so I could cut him down and take him home easily. And that was no basic hunter’s snare which had been accidentally tripped either.
I ducked back behind the tree and circled the clearing, trying to ignore the twisting in my gut as Tyson whimpered in panic. He wasn’t bleeding much. But one wrong move on my part could easily equal death for us both right now.
I ducked between the shadows beneath the trees, hunting the snowy ground for signs of footprints, something to show me where the assholes who’d done this had come from or run off to.
When I made it almost the whole way around the clearing, I found the tree where the trap was tied alongside boot prints and snowmobile tracks. All the clues that pointed to whoever had done this without any sign of them anywhere.
That sense of unease only multiplied as I looked at the evidence of their departure, the snowmobile tracks heading off into the trees, wondering if it was just another trick. Maybe they weren’t far away, lying in wait in the trees for when I stepped out of cover.
I pulled my hunting knife from my belt and reached up to grip the rope with my other hand so that when I broke it, Tyson wouldn’t just drop like a sack of shit into the snow. With one forceful cut, I severed the rope and looked around once more before lowering Tyson to the ground.
He scrambled to get himself out of the net before I could reach him and I called out to calm him as I ducked low and raced to his side.
I yanked the net aside and quickly inspected the slash to his rear leg. The wound was long but not deep; he didn’t want to press any weight down on the leg all the same, holding it off of the ground and whimpering pathetically as he slathered my hands in wet kisses with his tongue.
“Come here, you big beast,” I murmured, grabbing hold of his two front paws in my left hand then the back paws in the right before slinging him over my shoulders and hurrying out of the clearing again.
He leaned around to lick the side of my face as I paused in the shade of an enormous pine.
Still no attack came, no gunfire, no shouts…nothing.
My heart stilled. It looked like whoever had set this up had already gone. Which meant that this wasn’t a trap to catch me. It was a lure to pull me away from the real target.
I cursed beneath my breath and started running as fast as I could back towards the cabin with Tyson bouncing on my shoulders in time with my steps.
Panic reared its ugly head within me as my mind began to conjure all kinds of twisted fates that could have befallen my savage girl.
I shouldn’t have left her behind. What the fuck was I thinking leaving her alone?
I ached to scream her name at the top of my lungs, promise her that I was on my way. That I wouldn’t let anything happen to her. That I’d pay in blood for her safety, but I couldn’t risk giving myself away.
When I reached the cabin, my worst fears were confirmed. The front door was busted open and the firelight revealed a whole heap of nothing and nobody within the wooden walls.
Gone. She’s gone.
My heart felt like it might burst as sweat trickled down my spine and I charged up the steps, not slowing until I found myself looking down into the empty hiding place beneath the bed just like I knew I would.
“No,” I breathed, like denying it might make it not