He looked down at the little girl sleeping beside him and smiled. She was curled up like a cat, wearing her pink and white spot pajamas, and breathing softly as he pulled the blanket up around her shoulders to make sure she was warm.

It had been a long night full of uncertainty, but he had finally come to a decision. He knew he couldn’t stay there any longer. It was time to put her, his only family, first, and to ensure that their future was bright, not scattered with the darkness that seemed to keep on coming.

He rose to his feet and crossed the room to the window, where he peeled back the curtain slightly and looked out across the parking lot. The motel had been closed for months, but it had finally reopened. And he had decided that if he was going to skip town, he would do it from there, rather than the home they had shared with her all those years before.

He sighed as he looked down the highway. Trucks and bikes thundered past them through the night with their headlights and engines blaring. He couldn’t help but smile. He knew he would miss this life, but he had so much more important things to give his attenti0n to.

His adorable daughter for one.

He had to make sure he gave her the best possible life.

And staying in a place like Slate Springs, where the whole town was falling to hell, wasn’t exactly going in the right direction.

Over the past year, things had changed in his hometown. Stores had closed, fights had broken out, businesses had shut down, and people had gone missing. News had filtered through about the battle between a bike gang he knew well and a group of outsiders that were trying to muscle in on the action and take the bikers’ businesses.

Everything felt unsettled.

No one seemed to know what was coming next.

He had sat by and watched a lot of it happen, and he had seen some of the shady characters that had come to town in the meantime. He had heard their Russian accents, and he had sensed the impending carnage.

He may not have been a biker, but he was friends with a lot of them, and he had heard whispers of what was going on.

He knew a shit storm was coming.

And Trent wasn’t prepared to get caught up in it. And he certainly wasn’t going to let his beloved Emma suffer either.

He let the curtain drop closed and turned back to look at her, sleeping soundly in the bed. She looked so innocent and so like her mother when she slept. However, the bitch that had given birth to her, was no innocent angel. He shuddered with anger when he remembered how she had been so irresponsible throughout her pregnancy, and how she had up and left as soon as she had the chance.

He had been Emma’s only family.

Her sole provider.

He had no idea how the woman he had once thought he loved could have left them both behind without a second thought, but she had. And now he had to admit that they had been better off without her.

They were close as father and daughter. They were best friends. And Trent would do anything to make sure she had everything in life.

And that was why he had to leave.

He couldn’t risk staying in Slate Springs when such uncertainty surrounded the town. He had to get out of there and go back to his roots.

He may have classed Slate Springs as his hometown now because he had been there for so long, but there was another place just as close to his heart. Somewhere where he had spent most of his youth, and where his grandfather had settled and kept their family house for a long, long time.

“Wakestone Pines,” he whispered nostalgically as he twisted the top off a bottle of beer and held it to his lips.

It had been years since he had been back, but he knew where the house stood empty, and he had the keys to access it. His grandfather had died, and he had left it to him in his will, and Trent had been waiting for the right time to go back there.

“This is that time,” he whispered as he took a swig of his beer and looked down at the suitcases scattered across the floor.

He didn’t want to bail on Slate Springs in the middle of the night. But he had left home and taken Emma to the motel so they could be right on the highway and ready to leave if anything crazy happened. He had had such a bad feeling all day, and now he was on high alert. He had heard that the Russians were on the brink of invading and causing an almighty gang war, and there was no chance he was going to risk being caught up in it.

Emma rolled over in the bed and sighed. She looked like she was dreaming, and her eyelids twitched ever so slightly as she continued to breath softly and kept herself cuddled up beneath the blankets.

“I’ll do anything to keep you safe,” he said as he looked over at her and rubbed his temples.

He had to get out of that town. He had to get out of that life. Emma was going to be raised right, and he didn’t want her to witness any of the violence and criminal activity that went hand in hand with being a resident of Slate Springs.

Trent could no longer turn a blind eye.

He knew what the bikers were up to, and even though they were good, kind hearted guys, who protected the town, he was also very much aware that there was trouble coming to their door.

And he didn’t want to get caught in the crossfire.

He’d told Emma about the house in the mountains many times before, and it had become a sort of myth to her. He had told her all about Wakestone Pines, and about how the forests and rivers that surrounded it would be like nothing she had ever seen before.

She had asked him if he could teach her to fish, and he had never felt a greater sense of pride.

For a single dad, it was little things like that that let him know he was doing alright.

He would teach her to fish, and he would teach her how to build a fire. He would teach her how to live off the land and get back to her roots. Trent was a mountain man through and through, and he had been sucked into life in the desert almost by accident, but now he was more than ready to return.

He could already smell the fresh, clean air. And he could feel the breeze on his face. He closed his eyes and imaged the sight of the lush greens of the forest, and could already hear the rippling waves of the streams that ran down by the back of the house. A city was no place to raise a daughter, and with all that was going on within it with the gangs, it just made Trent even more determined to get out.

He drained his bottle of beer and placed it down on the desk in the corner before he stood and looked at himself in the mirror.

A man on his own.

He was almost forty, tanned and muscular, but suddenly, he saw the age to him. He wasn’t twenty anymore, but did it matter? He was the guardian of a six-and-a-half-year-old, and he was a dad first and foremost.

He had sworn off women for life after Emma’s mother had done what she did. When she had left, she had taken part of his heart with her. But only because he was destroyed that she wasn’t interested in raising their child. The thought of having her in his life now was abhorrent, but he did feel bad for his daughter that she didn’t have a mother figure. All little girls need a mom, and Emma was certainly missing out on that.

Trent did his best. He tried to be both. And that was why he had made the decision to leave Slate Springs.

He leaned over and turned out the light on the corner of the desk, before he kicked off his boots and swung his legs up onto the couch as he lay down. The sounds of the trucks thundering past were a lot more calming than he would have expected, and he knew it wouldn’t take much for him to get to sleep.

He looked across at Emma again as she slept silently in the bed. Within twenty-four hours he would have rescued her from all the uncertainty that a future in the desert was going to bring for them. And he would have settled them both somewhere new, somewhere fresh and clean, where there was no crime, and where people’s values were still non-corrupt and genuine.

Trent and Emma were going to start again, they were going to get back to their roots, they were going to live off the land, and they were going to thrive in a new environment that would bring them nothing but promise.

He felt warm inside when he thought about it, and he knew he was doing the right thing.

Being a father was the most important job a man could do, and he was determined he would excel.

Emma deserved the best, and he was going to give it to her.

It was time for them to start a new life in Wakestone Pines.

It was time for Trent to head back to his mountain.