Page 28 of DFF: Delicate Freakin' Flower

"I don’t want to die—especially not by raccoon or at the hands of some creepy corporate villain. And definitely not by something stupid, like slipping in the outhouse and being found three weeks later by a park ranger named Doug."

The littlest one waddled forward and plucked a piece off the plate without even looking at me. Bold.

“Does death ever sound appealing?” I mused. “I guess if it’s peaceful, like a nap you don’t wake up from. But the kind I’m trying to avoid? Not so much. I’d prefer to stay alive long enough to figure out what the hell I’m doing with my life.”

The raccoons kept eating, unfazed by my existential monologue. And honestly, that made them the best listeners I’d had in weeks.

I tossed the last piece and leaned back against the rock, letting the moment settle around me. The woods weren’t silent, they were alive. Birds, leaves, soft claws on dirt, everything was moving and surviving.

Including me. And that, for now, was enough.

Chapter Eleven

Webb

I'd told Gabby I was checking the traps, and that was technically true because I did check one on the way out. But mostly, I needed a signal and a quiet place to take Marcus’s call. He didn’t like sending texts when things got serious—which meant this wasserious.

I walked a little past the creek, near the old fence line where the trees thinned out just enough to catch a bar or two and dialed his number. He picked up fast.

“You’re not gonna believe this,” Marcus said without preamble. “Matty tracked down Clayton Barris.”

I stopped walking. “The guy Maddox left in charge?”

“Yeah, he’s been keeping a low profile, but Matty’s contact in Tallahassee spotted him. He’s rattled, so something’s definitely going on.”

“What kind of something?”

“Looks like Maddox got spooked because he took off faster than expected. Word is that a federal audit's brewing. Someone dug into his city contracts, and it’s looking like the paperwork doesn’t hold up.”

I swore under my breath. “And Gabby’s files?”

“Probably the match that lit it. Barris might know more than that now. We don’t know how much he’s been involved, but he’s nervous. That might be bad, or it could be useful.”

That shifted everything. I thanked Marcus, promised to update him if we got any kind of contact from Barris, and ended the call.

When I turned back toward the cabin, I cut through the far side of the clearing, and that’s when I saw Gabby sitting on a flat rock at the edge of the tree line, holding a plate and whispering into the bushes like she was hosting a secret forest podcast.

Then came three raccoons, little masked troublemakers creeping from the undergrowth and waddling toward her like she was the trash-fish messiah. I stopped and just watched, wondering what she was going to do.

She tossed a piece of something shiny and smelly—sardines, by the look of it—and muttered, “You’re drinking shitty, pissy water, Steve. You’re better than this.”

I had no idea who Steve was, but I assumed it was the boldest raccoon currently slurping away like he’d paid for the buffet.

Gabby didn’t notice me at first. She was too focused on talking to them softly like they were old friends as she began telling them about not wanting to die. That evolved into her telling him about how she was being hunted and about not slipping in the outhouse and being found by a park ranger named Doug.

It was the kind of moment that would’ve looked unhinged to anyone else.

But to me, it was pure Gabby. Honest. Weird. Endearing. And kind of heartbreaking.

I accidentally stepped on a branch. The raccoons bolted—all four paws and no hesitation—into the bushes like furry little bandits on the run.

Gabby whipped around and glared at me. “Jesus, make a noise or something,” she hissed, clutching her chest. “I thought you were a bear. Or a ranger. Or a judgy bear ranger.”

I didn’t smile, not quite, even though I wanted to. “I didn’t want to interrupt the group therapy.”

She looked down at the plate in her lap. “They're going through something. And frankly, so am I.”

I moved closer and crouched beside the rock. “Well, I’ve got something that might help. I just got off the phone with Marcus.”

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