Page 100 of Tempt Me

“Roe.” Quinn was beside me, shining his flashlight into another section of trees. They found something.

I swallowed and nodded for him to continue.

“The blood trail…It ended.”

I looked at him in confusion, shining my own flashlight onto the ground where the red tints were fading as we continued further into the deep forest. The winding trees were so thickthat they seemed to absorb every sound of the crackling thunder around us.

“They found gunpowder over that way and a match. I don’t know your sister, but that could be used as a cauterization tool in the army. Emergency situations call for…painful solutions to preserve one’s life.”

I wiped off my face from the dirt, sweat, and rainwater. Taliah was resourceful, and pain hardly bothered her. It was a miracle that, based on the blood amounts that had been identified to be hers, she was even alive. There were no bodies and no sounds in the dark forest.

Nothing.

It made it harder to accept. There should be sounds of a struggle or cracking twigs from someone running. It couldn’t just be this fucking silence. We needed something to go on. Taliah and Fallon were a blip on a huge radar.

We would never find them.

The helicopter over our heads was our only hope, but with the tree coverage and the number of bodies on foot, it was a slim chance.

“Where are you, Little Voyeur,” I whispered into the darkness.

Judas, Randall, and Goliath were close by. Quinn got a call on his radio about more gunpowder residue.

“Quinn, I got my brothers. Go over to your team. Find my sister.”

Micah looked hesitant to leave us alone, but finally, Lith convinced him. He had a gun in his hand.

I reached out for the weapon, giving my eldest brother a look. “I have to do this, Lith. This isn’t your fight, man. Don’t you take this away from me. He took away Ariah. He has to know who killed Xenia. I have to do this.”

Goliath hesitated.

“Lith, come on,” I said, forcing him to look me in the eye. “You can’t take this from me. You can’t always shield me from what’s going to happen. I was called a monster for all those years. I am not the innocent man that was put behind those bars. I may have been a good man back then…but the asylum changed everything. Losing Ariah and Xenia took any light I had. If I lose Fallon too…I will never fucking forgive you.”

My words trailed off, and I reached out and took the gun from my triplet’s hand.

“I am already the monster, whether you try to pretend or not. I will kill him. You can’t save me.”

Judas and Randall came up to us. They likely spotted the tension but knew better than to say anything. It reminded me of that night Joe was killed. The only difference was that Randall joined the party, and I was the one with the metal in my hand.

“Where, oh, where are you?” Judas said, peering behind our backs. Whatever imaginary friend he lost track of, we had shit to do.

“Roe. The force has combed these woods for hours. I am not sure they’re going to find them tonight. Maybe we should head back.”

I yanked my arm away from Randall’s outstretched hand.

“You wanna run? Fine. Go for it. I am not leaving until I find my woman, my sister, and kill that monster. Quinn can wait outside with my handcuffs. I don’t care anymore.”

Randall sighed and walked forward deeper into the woods. Judas followed him on the sort of leash that Randall had linked him to—those boys were a fucking mess.

“Lith… If you need to go back, I understand. You have a house of crazies to rally. I can’t leave.”

Goliath shook his head. “I let Zee know to keep everyone in check. I am not leaving until this is over…one way or another.”

I swallowed. I realized there was a scenario where I wouldn’t find Fallon and my sister alive, but I couldn’t think like that. It wasn’t going to help anyone.

They have to be okay…

The dark forest crackled with the lightning, and I took a minute to get my bearings. We were nearly at the cliff that led to nothing but fucking death. The perimeter where they could run was thinning.

---