Page 7 of Echo (A Monster’s Prey #2)

Sleep was a slippery fucker.

I kept getting up to check the windows of the bedroom, looking for Mark’s car in the driveway.

It didn’t really matter if a bear body-slammed my door every single night. I wasn’t going anywhere.

I couldn’t run home to my daddy and tell him I fucked up.

I couldn’t stand the thought of him being disappointed that his daughter would ever allow a man to treat her this way.

I’d left my husband for less. I should’ve seen Mark coming a million miles away, the fact that I didn’t was an utter failure on my part.

I could live with an animal or murder mountain man at my door. I couldn’t live with my father’s disapproval, or Mark in my bed.

When I’d gone to lie down, I’d found Pearl’s room, with a shotgun right by the nightstand. I slept in the guest room, but I took the gun with me. It helped me at least get a couple of hours of sleep.

I wouldn’t be caught with a skillet and a kitchen knife again.

Once the sun was up, I opened the front door with the shotgun loaded and ready.

Ranger went between my legs, preparing to attack too.

I searched the front porch for any signs of last night’s visitor.

There were no footsteps or signs of a disturbance, other than scratches in the paint where it had clawed at the door.

Maybe it really was a bear.

I systematically cleared every section near the farm. But the woods were thick, and the land was vast. It would be impossible to say for sure nothing was out there.

The only thing I could confidently say was that there wasn’t an axe wielding murderer in the barn.

The gun was an old familiar friend I hadn’t seen in a long time.

My dad had taken me to the range almost every Wednesday when I was young, making sure that no matter what situation I ended up in, whether it was by intentional decision, mistake, or blowback from his job, I could take care of myself.

Every muscle in my hand and arms remembered what to do, despite the fact I hadn’t touched so much as a bullet in years.

In the barn, I found countless paint cans in a horse stall and figured shit like last night was why the mailbox paint job was so new. I put the safety on the rifle, and let the shoulder strap guide the weapon to my back.

They had a bunch of colors, but endless gallons of white paint.

Fuck it. I grabbed the black paint can figuring that it would be less noticeable if and when a bear came back again. I went to leave, and the cow mooed at me with enough attitude to get my attention.

“Okay.” I chuckled. I was right. Yesterday’s learning experience made getting the animals fed and watered twenty times easier. The Devil Cock even let me gather the eggs without a fight.

“See, we can be friends,” I told Devil Cock, and he ignored me in favor of pecking at the food I’d brought them from the gardens.

Call me the Queen of Diplomacy.

I used my shirt to hold the excess eggs. I’d get me one of those aprons like Hilda Falin’s eventually. I wished I’d ask her where she got hers yesterday, not that I’d figured out what it was for at the time.

Searing heat scorched the side of my body, as I bent over to grab the handle for the paint can. A fiery gaze that made me feel the person’s passion all the way from here.

Was that who was at my door last night?

The guy who’d been walking his dog yesterday? No. I’d heard my cousin’s voice. Nothing about this made sense.

Ranger crouched at my heel, growling. I followed his gaze to find a tall figure covered in shadows, stepping behind a tree.

A dog barked, but I didn’t see any signs of one anywhere. Something about the bark made my hair stand on end, but I couldn’t figure out why it made me nervous.

I refused to spend another night in my house scared, because this creeper saw something he liked yesterday.

“Hey!” I yelled out. “Explain why you’re on my property again or I’ll let my dog rip your leg off.”

The only sound that answered was the wind in the trees. The leaves and branches brushing against each other were a wind chime of sorts, and the sudden silence was more alarming than I was mentally prepared for. But the wind hadn’t changed in speed or strength.

Something wasn’t right.

There wasn’t anything in my line of sight, but I suddenly felt like I was a rabbit in a fox hole.

Ranger stayed where he was, but stopped barking.

That was it.

It was too unnaturally quiet.

I turned and found the chickens watching the trees, too. Not a single cluck from over a dozen chickens. The cow wasn’t mooing in the barn. The pigs weren’t bellowing. Even the bugs and birds weren’t chirping.

I licked my suddenly dry lips in nervousness. What kind of predator could make nature itself stop? I dropped the paint can and carefully sat the eggs down. When I stood, I flipped the shotgun back into my hands and stepped forward.

The crack of a stick under my shoe made me cringe. Anything would hear me coming from a mile away, but I kept moving. Slinking down the stone path until I made it to the back porch, where a giant ball of brown and white fur laid on across the boards.

I internally cringed. It just had to be the porch with the glass door.

An unholy cry brayed out of it, and I risked coming closer to get a better look. It was a half dead deer on my porch. I’d even be willing to bet it was the same one that startled me yesterday.

It cried out again as I approached, and I could swear it was begging me to end its misery. I kept my space, but adjusted my angle to get a better look.

Four giant gashes were pouring blood all over the white porch. Guts poured out of the open wounds, and it was amazing this thing made it this far.

Dad always said to never trust a dying animal. The kick of life was at its strongest right before death. Only someone arrogant thinks the fight is gone before the last breath was exhaled.

“You poor thing.”

It let out another wail of agony.

“That mean bear got you, huh, girl?” This must have been why it was so hostile last night. It’d lost its kill. I lined up a headshot. “I’m sorry.”

A mercy kill right to the forehead ended the cries for help. Once the last bit of life left the poor thing’s eyes, I stepped closer. What exactly was I supposed to do with a dead body on my doorstep?

People ate deer meat, right? Was I supposed to do something with this?

I couldn’t leave it on my doorstep. That would encourage more wild animals to visit my porch.

“Think, Madison.” I scratched the back of my neck. The Falin’s. I’d bet they knew what to do. I’d give them the deer meat, if the husband would remove this thing off my porch.

I went the long way around the house, not wanting to risk getting too close to the body. As I came around, a black rental car came to a screeching stop in the driveway.

Mark’s hateful brown eyes landed on me through the windshield. My lungs stopped working for a single heartbeat.

Run.

Ranger barked and growled. I raised the rifle back up.

Mark slinked out of his car without a care in the world. Like I wasn’t holding him at gunpoint. He clenched his fists.

The suit he was wearing was too crisp to have spent days in his car. No, he was freshly showered, and his Pompous Ass cologne floated on the wind.

It was him last night. He was teaching me a lesson and getting off on my fear.

That’s all it was.

“Get back in your fucking car, turn around, and leave.”

He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. His lips dripped with arrogant disdain. “I’ve been so worried about you. I’m glad I found you safe.”

How did he find me? Was there a tracker on my car? Had he really been following me the entire time?

“Leave.”

He chuckled, and the urge to run thrummed through my veins tenfold. “Oh, baby. You’re here, so I’m here too.”

“I have a right to defend my property.”

“It’s a nice chunk of land, that’s for sure.” He nodded to himself. “Nice and secluded. Have you met any of the locals yet?”

It was amazing how casually he could make a threat sound. Like we were discussing the weather.

“Yes,” I hissed. “People know I’m here.”

He clicked his tongue at me. “I own you now, so I own this land.”

My stomach tied into knots. “What do you mean?”

He pulled a piece of paper out of his suit jacket. “I have guardianship over you.”

“How the fuck could you have guardianship of me?” But I knew the answer to that. A slimy lawyer that won his cases in the most unsavory way possible would have no problem getting that.

“You’re mentally unstable, Madison.” He clicked his tongue. “Someone has to make sure you don’t hurt yourself.”

“You can’t do that without proof.” Most people did, but he wasn’t most people.

“You can when the judge owes you a fuck ton of money.” He sneered, pointing a finger at me. “You are mine.”

“Can’t own anything if you’re dead.” I put my index finger on the trigger.

“Madison.” He threw his head back and laughed. “Do you really think I walked onto this soil without a plan? If you kill me, you’ll go down to hell with me, sweetheart.”

What did that mean? It was enough of a warning to keep me from squeezing the trigger though.

“Put the gun down, my love. We wouldn’t want anyone to get hurt,” he said slowly, like I would have trouble understanding.

My sanctuary was gone. There were no options left now. He’d planned for me to hurt him. He’d gotten a court order to have every ounce of control over me. I’d never get another chance to escape. I’d be lucky if he didn’t chain me to the bed this time.

“I hate you,” I told him, letting the gun fall behind my back.

He stepped forward and put his hands on my face. I jerked away, but he grabbed my chin in a bruising grip. “Don’t say things you don’t mean. You could hurt my feelings.”

Ranger snapped his teeth and snarled, forcing Mark to take a couple of steps away from me.

“I didn’t.”

“You’ll learn to love me again.” He shrugged. “It’s your fault you feel this way. If you’d simply done what I told you to, we’d still be living happily ever after. You just had to go and ruin things.”

“Who knew an affair could shatter such a perfect, beautiful picture?” I forced a fake smile.

“That never happened, honey.” His fingers tightened suggestively around my throat. “There you go making things up again.”

“So what’s the play? You drag me back to Miami kicking and screaming?”

“Something like that. I’ve got a court order. So you can either come quietly, or I can call the cops to remove that fucking animal and transfer you back to my care in Miami.”

A sense of rage I’d never felt before washed over me and made me want to submit to it. The aura washed over me like a typhoon of fury that threatened to burn everything here.

A loud pop made me jump out of my skin, and Mark stomped over to his car. In seconds, his car tilted weirdly as the rims lowered to the ground on the driver’s side.

“What the fuck?” He crouched down. “There are giant slashes in my tires.”

“A bear killed a deer on my back porch. Maybe it got your tires.”

“Madison, this is what I’m talking about. You can’t think straight half of the time.” He shook his head. “We’ve been standing here the whole time. We would have noticed a fucking bear.”

“Looks like we aren’t going anywhere, though.”

“You think you’re so witty, don’t you? Madison Valentine never knows when to shut the fuck up.”

“I never said that. If you feel a type of way about me, just fucking leave.” I laughed mockingly. “Oh wait. You can’t.”

“Where are your keys?”

“Up your ass,” I answered with more gumption than I felt.

“Honey.” He reached out to caress my face, but I jerked back. Ranger snapped at him again, and he backed up. “Who’s going to love an insane woman like you, sweetheart? You’re lucky to have me.”

“I’m not insane.” I gritted my teeth. “But either way, I can do without your love.”

“You’ll never find out.” He grinned, walking into my house like he owned it.

Think, Madison.