Page 26 of Defenseless
A band was tightening around Chad’s chest, squeezing his heart, squeezing the breath out of him. But he managed a sharp nod. “I need to get out of here for a few days. Maybe go hiking and camping. I’ll be back Monday.”Maybe, he amended in his head.
“What was that about?” Mitch pressed, jerking his head in Sabina’s direction. Chad didn’t turn around.
“A lot of things,” Chad answered. “I can’t…I can’t talk about it right now, though. Whatever is going on in her life, it’s not my business. I’m not going to pursue it anymore, and it would be best if we stop inviting her out. We can find someone else to take her place at Gramps’s haunted house.” Again, his relatives shared a look. “I’m also going to ask Colton and Ava to make a few changes at the office. Don’t be surprised when those start happening,” he added, looking at Ethan.
“You don’t look so good, C,” Ethan said. There was a reason for that. Every breath he took felt more and more difficult, and he could feel his head starting to swim.
“I’ve got to get out of here. When I decide where I’m going, I’ll let you know,” he said. He knew they had questions, he could see it on their faces, but he couldn’t be in the diner anymore. He couldn’t be inside, around people.
The minute he walked through the door he gulped in huge breaths of the cold October night air. He ran his fingers through his hair and wasn’t surprised to notice his hands were shaking. Shoving one into his pocket, he walked toward his car and unlocked the door.
He made it two miles from his home before he had to pull over and throw up. Standing beside the passenger door, with one hand on the handle, he leaned over the shoulder of the road and emptied his stomach. PTSD could be a bitch that way.
When there was nothing left inside him, he grabbed his water bottle and rinsed his mouth out. Then taking a few deep breaths, he walked back to the driver’s side and climbed in. He sat for a few moments in the stillness until he felt grounded enough to drive the rest of the way. As soon as he arrived home, he walked straight to his room and changed into a pair of cargo pants, a lightweight performance hoodie, and his hiking boots. He wasn’t leaving for the camping trip yet, but he knew himself well enough to know that he needed to be outdoors. He needed to feel the fresh air against his skin, the stretch of his muscles, and the timelessness of nature.
Even distracted by the events of the past forty minutes, he couldn’t forget the rules his parents and grandparents had drilled into him. Grabbing a backpack, he stuffed a water bottle, snacks, a shock blanket, a can of bear spray, a headlamp, and a beacon inside. His phone he kept in his pocket and his firearm at his side. He had no intention of using any of the items, but habit and training wouldn’t let him leave without any of them.
After resetting the alarm and locking up his house, he headed out into the night. Picking a trail that he’d discovered a week after moving in, he headed south, walking parallel to the lake below him. The night was cold, but his body warmed up as he moved. Eventually, he was able to tune out everything he was thinking and feeling and simply exist in the woods.
A full moon lit the way, casting shadows among the tall pines. A gentle breeze rustled the top of the trees, but it wasn’t strong enough to reach him on the forest floor. Scents of evergreen and that unique dusty dirt smell of a dry mountain forest wrapped around him. A smell as familiar to him as his own heartbeat.
He walked and walked. Time didn’t matter. He dropped down to the lake at some point, but only stopped long enough to admire the moon reflecting on the still waters. When the sound of someone canoeing—no doubt a resident taking one last full-moon paddle around the lake before the winter set in—interrupted his reverie, he turned and headed back up the mountain.
About halfway home, his phone vibrated in his pocket. He should have shut it off, but he couldn’t bring himself to bethatcut off from his family. He didn’t have to answer it, though. If it was important, whoever it was would call back again, and he’d consider answering then.
To his dismay, ten seconds after it stopped buzzing, it started again. With a sigh, he pulled the device from his pocket and saw Ethan’s name on the screen.
“Yeah?” he answered.
“Sabina called; she’s got a flat tire. Can you go out and help her?”
“Not a good idea,” he answered as all the peace he’d found on his hike bled from his body. “Besides, she’s capable of changing a flat.” Stella and Hunter made sure all their employees knew the basics of a lot of things, including how to change tires. “Wait, aren’t those run-flat tires?” he asked before he could stop himself.
“They are, which is why you should go check on her,” Ethan answered. Run-flat tires were designed to stay sound enough to drive on for at least thirty miles.
Chad faced the lake and let his gaze skate over the inky blue. “I give you it’s odd that it went flat so fast that she had to pull over, but there’s still a spare.” Cars with run-flat tires didn’t typically carry spares, but again, Stella and Hunter insisted.
“She’s close by, C. Just head over and give her a hand.”
“I’m not home, how can you know she’s close?”
“Because I’m tracking your phone, moron. Why are you being so difficult?”
Given that Ethan had no clue what Sabina had said to him, he kind of deserved that comment. His tune would change if Chad told him, though. But he couldn’t bring himself to talk about it yet. Just thinking about it still had the power to suck the air from his lungs.
“You might regret this,” Chad said, accepting that unless he wanted to bare his scars right there in the middle of the woods, he’d have to do as Ethan asked.
“I don’t even know what that means,” Ethan retorted. “I’m sending you her coordinates. If you head up the mountain and hit the roadside trail, it shouldn’t take you more than fifteen minutes.”
He was already walking, but he kept the line open. “Why call me? Why not head over yourself? If there’s a problem, we’re still going to have to call for a ride.”
“Because I’m home already, and I’m thirty minutes away. If you have a problem, call and I’ll come get you. But call me crazy, I don’t like the idea of her—or anyone—sitting on the side of a mountain road any longer than they have to.”
“What the hell is she doing out this way anyway?” Based on the coordinates Ethan had sent, she’d gone the opposite direction from her home when she’d left the diner.
“Have no idea. The only thing in that direction is you. And the lodge. But probably you.”
“She was definitely not coming to see me,” he grumbled as he hit the roadside trail. The name was a bit of a misnomer. The trail itself didn’t run alongside the road but rather ran parallel to it, about thirty yards down a steep hill.
