CHAPTER 34
FURY
The trees that lined Green’s property were thick and plenty. Western yellow pines and Doug firs and noble firs stood side by side amongst Western red cedars, creating a towering canopy that blocked out most of the light, with the exception of narrow beams of brightness that shot through the branches. Shadows of leaves danced on the snow-covered forest floor.
Covered with thick blankets of fresh powder that perched on the edge of their leaves and trimmed their branches with bright white lines, the trees swayed in the cold breeze as my footsteps softly crunched below, breaking through the top crust of the fallen snow.
I’d ventured far away from Green’s house, wanting to make sure I wasn’t overheard when I called Grace. The stillness of the forest caused the hair to stand up on the back of my neck. I shivered slightly, not sure if it was from the cold or the pure creepiness of the secluded forest.
Grace answered on the first ring.
“There’s been an interesting development,” I said.
“Tell me.”
“I looked over the surveillance footage from last night and you won’t believe who popped up trying to get into Green’s office.”
“Don’t keep me in suspense,” she said.
“It was Dottie.”
“Our Dottie?” she asked. “From the B&B?”
“The one and only. She was dressed in a black hoodie and dark pants, holding a flash light, all hunched over and moving slowly. When she saw the door was locked, she walked out of view.”
“That is interesting,” she said. “Did you tell Green?”
“I haven’t told anyone but you. What do you want me to do?”
“Don’t tell him. Don’t do anything. I’ll talk to Dottie and see if I can get anything out of her.”
“My lips are sealed,” I said.
“Fury? You didn’t come back last night. Is everything okay?”
Thankfully, she couldn’t see the blush that crept up my face.
“Sure,” I said. “Just fine. Spent the night at Jackie’s, actually.”
“The waitress at Jenny’s?”
“Yes, that’s her.”
She paused and I could just imagine the look on her face. Grace never reacted to much instantly, she always stopped to take a breath and think things over before proceeding.
“She seems like a very nice girl,” she said, finally. I couldn’t help but smile. “I’ll talk to you later, Fury. Let me know if anything else comes up.”
“Will do.”
I hung up the phone with the realization that I’d wandered even deeper into the woods while we were talking. The crunching of my boots and the birdsong flowing overhead were the only sounds within earshot. The snow shrouded any trail that may exist, so I wound my way through the maze of tree trunks and fallen logs in a random path. I traveled this way for a quarter mile or so, falling peacefully into the silence, my head replaying images of my night with Jackie last night in between flashes of anger at Green.
She’d cast a spell on me. Without the need for potions or voodoo dolls, she’d entranced me from the moment I’d laid eyes on her. Making love to her the last few nights had only reinforced her power over me.
Green’s snide remarks about her only made me hate him more.
A man that can talk about a woman like that deserves to have his face beat into the ground. I’d been pulsing with anger ever since. His words had only served to make me even more determined to bring him to his knees.
He didn’t deserve an ounce of restraint.
So, while the forest I was wandering in was peaceful and quiet, inside of my chest, a storm was brewing. My heart beat with a thunderous rhythm and I marched through the woods like an angry bull, blinded with rage.
This was the Fury I’d been avoiding for the past year.
This was the man that lived under the surface of my cool demeanor, threatening to find a way to unleash itself and succumb to the uninhibited rage.
This Fury had caused a lot of problems. He’d overwhelmed me many times, causing me to lash out at the wrong time, at the wrong people, over and over. He’d served me well in the past, don’t get me wrong.
Anger had been merely a tool. A tool that taught me righteousness and dignity. A tool that had blessed me with the strength to stand up for myself, when nobody else would. Life had failed me, but my anger never would.
But it was a tool I’d inherited, not something I’d chosen.
My old man was pure rage. As if he’d had so much rage inside of him, he couldn’t contain it all, he’d passed the excess on to me. From an early age, it was all he taught me. Quick to anger, and the first to fight, I’d seen him take down his opponents before they even knew the punch was coming.
For the short time he was actually around, if I ever showed an inkling of fear, he’d beat it out of me. Fear was something you fought back, something you didn’t give the light of day to.
It never made sense to me.
How could you have so much anger without having something to be afraid of in the first place?
To me, fear and fury went hand in hand. But maybe that’s because it was always my fear meeting his fury. After a while, I just adopted his ways, because it was easier that way. It kept him from turning that rage my direction and in a sick, twisted way, we sort of bonded in our mutual anger at the world, lashing out at common enemies, battling the same wars.
That was before I’d met Asher and Eli and Nate, though. Once I’d been introduced to their world, once I realized that I could be tough and still be in control, the need for that anger fell away. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t instant. That rage had been instilled deep in me, imprinted into my soul, and even to this day, it’s still proving to be something just under the surface just waiting to explode again.
Green’s lewd words about Jackie had come the closest to igniting that bomb than anything else had in a long time.
To say a walk was in order was an understatement.
Now, leaving a situation, taking a deep breath, and when really pushed, taking a walk, were the best tools I had to keeping that rage controlled. Green had no idea how close he’d come to death by insulting Jackie like that.
I hoped like hell, for his sake, he never said another word about her.
Because even this walk, in this cold-ass, dark, peaceful forest wasn’t doing much to assuage the white-hot hostility that was pumping through my veins.
I kept walking. I couldn’t go back like this, drunk on this storm of emotions rushing through me. For Molly’s sake, I couldn’t let him see me like this. I had to keep my cool, at least outwardly, and I had to stay on course, or we’d never get that little girl to safety.
After jumping over a fallen log in my path, I came to a small, opening in the trees. Just big enough to fit a small house into, the snow was undisturbed in the open area. In a corner sat a small pile of rocks, topped by a pile of decaying flower stems. I walked closer and sat down on another fallen log beside it. Looking around, there was no other indication of any other items around, but I figured this must be a meaningful spot for someone to have chosen to pile rocks there and leave flowers.
I remembered Jackie’s story from last night, about Bodhi’s best friend having disappeared. I about kicked myself when I realized I hadn’t relayed that story to Grace earlier. It had to be important.
It might just be the answer to everything.
And whatever this spot was, it could be a clue.
Sure, Green’s family had lived on this land for many decades. It could easily be the grave of a beloved pet, but it’s possible it was more than that.
I jumped up and headed back, grateful for the brief respite from the boiling rage I’d been consumed with.
I pushed it back just enough to make my way back to my bike parked in front of Green’s house.