Total pages in book: 160
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 149137 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 746(@200wpm)___ 597(@250wpm)___ 497(@300wpm)
Fuck. He needed to do this fast. He pulled out a small flashlight. His phone would throw the light far too wide and bright. He needed to be subtle because he didn’t want to attract some curious park ranger.
As quietly as he could, he moved to the north end of the lot where the trail choices were offered. One a nice paved trail. Yeah, that wasn’t his. He got the stairs that led to the dirt path.
The road less traveled.
Thank you, Robert Frost. The road less traveled might have made all the difference to that old poet, but it likely meant rattlesnake bites to him.
How much time had already passed? He’d left the minute he could, throwing on some clothes and hauling ass out. Kay would want a shower. That would take her a while. His boots thudded along the stairs. Off to his right, he could see the Pacific in the distance, illuminated by the full moon. Somewhere down there was his house, the one he shared with Kayla now, the only place in the world he’d ever felt halfway safe.
He turned away and jogged down the trail. Fast. He had to get there, stash the key and get back. Jared was handling Kay. If she came out before he got back, Jared would explain that he was in the locker room taking an important call about the film. Those could last for a nice long time, and Kay understood the rules of the club. She wouldn’t go in there to check on him.
Jared would keep an eye on her and everything would be okay.
Something flashed up ahead of him, twin lights on a face that immediately disappeared into the shadows. He caught the merest glimpse of a big body lumbering along the canyon and back into the trees.
Cougar. That was a fucking cougar.
He crossed the paved road and then turned right. Rising Sun Trail. He could use some sun right about now. He started the climb, the trail cresting and diving, following the lines of the canyon.
The trail began a descent, but Josh stopped, instincts kicking in. He wasn’t alone.
He clicked the flashlight off. There wasn’t a lot to shield him where he was and now he cursed the bright light of the moon.
Was that a person coming up behind him? Or had the fucking cougar decided he was hungry and Josh looked like a halfway decent meal?
He stood for roughly thirty seconds, listening to the sounds around him. Crickets hummed, the underscore to this particular soundtrack. Something crunched through the shrubs to his left, but it was small, likely a prey animal. Everything was silent. Eerie, creepy silence.
Fucking hold on to this feeling. He could use it if he ever did a horror movie.
He clicked his flashlight on again, following the trail down.
Up ahead he could hear a stream flowing. Close. He was getting close. He stayed on the east bank of the stream, jogging now, looking for the steps.
Bingo.
He had no idea why someone had built a shrine to the Virgin Mary out in the middle of the Santa Monica Mountains, but there it was, just to the north of the trail. He breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Almost there.
Almost there.
He hit something in the trail and slipped. Fuck. Pain flared in his right ankle before he fell on his ass.
And that was when he heard it.
Rattle Rattle Rattle.
Shit.
Josh went still. The flashlight had fallen to his side, but it managed to illuminate enough of the path to see a big-ass rattlesnake coiled not four feet in front of him.
His breath stopped in his chest. The thing looked like he was ready to strike at any moment, its diamond-shaped head up and alert while that rattle on its tail kept its tune.
Keep calm. Assess the threat. Some of that military training he’d taken for various roles started playing through his head. Nothing was done until his heart stopped.
He had to stay still. As long as he was still, that thing seemed happy to remain in pending strike mode. The good news, the first thing he thought the snake would hit was his left shit kicker. That leg was closest to the incredibly large snake. If it struck, it might hit the rubber sole of his boot or the metal tip, both good places for him.
The bad? His ankle hurt like a motherfucker. And his time was definitely running out.
“Don’t move, Josh.”
He tensed but managed to stay where he was. “Kay?”
“Don’t move. I don’t want to hit you.”
He stayed as still as he could. Even when he wanted to look back, to make sure that really was his submissive somewhere behind him and not a park ranger. Please let it be a park ranger with a super-sexy voice. He could deal with that. He could bribe a park ranger. Kay would want her bribe in the form of answers, and he had none for her.