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Chapter One

AUTUMN

M y gut twists and tightens, a slithering sense of unease washes over me. That sixth sense tingles in my gut, that feeling that something is wrong . The hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention making my pulse race and my hands tremble as I reach for the door.

“Colton?” My bedroom door creaks under my hand. Broken glass crunches under my feet as I walk out into the tiny, open-concept cabin. The tile floor of the kitchenette is littered with broken glass, chunks of food, and shards of porcelain china. Open containers with half-eaten food are carelessly thrown all over our countertops and overflow the sink cascading onto the floor.

Mother used to say brothers and sisters are best friends that fate has chosen for you … I beg to differ. Colton has been nothing but a thorn in my side since the day he was born. Mother always used to yell at him for getting into fights. His temper is often out of control, but it’s been getting worse and worse lately.

I stare in disbelief at the broken cooler that serves as our refrigerator. It’s how we keep our meat fresh, meat that is no longer there. Melted ice trickles past my feet into the carpet of our living room. Colton’s obnoxious snoring greets me through the thin walls. My fists clench as my anger flares. I grab a large fragment off the floor of a broken plate with a blue crest encircling its edges. These plates were our Mother’s family china, we only used them on Spring Solstice and New Year’s Eve to ward off evil and bring in the season with good favor. It’s the last remnant we have of her. Now they are ruined. I clench it in my fist until it draws blood.

“Colton!” I scream, weaving my way back through the maze of glass and food. I walk around the couch to his bedroom, the door next to mine, swing open the door, and fling the plate fragment across the room. It shatters into even smaller pieces against his wood-paneled wall, jerking him awake. His eyes dart around in alarm, his fingers grip the mattress cushion that blooms under his nails, and a growl emanates from his throat. Its threatening nature echoes in my bones—as if he was expecting someone else.

“Colton, what the hell? You wander in at all hours of the night, you ate all of the damn food in the cooler, and you broke Mother’s china.” I swallow my sob. It takes all the restraint I possess to keep the tears back. “That china … that was all we had left of her.” At that admission, the dam breaks and I’m in tears.

My Mother made me promise that I would always protect my younger brother. As he grows older and more defiant, it’s an impossible task. Rocky Falls is such a small, geographically remote town and there are only two things to do here—get someone pregnant or turn to drugs. I’m afraid Colton is falling into the latter category.

He runs his hand through his dark curly hair before leaping over his bed to me and bringing me into his arms. Although he’s my little brother, sometimes I look into his hazel eyes, and I swear the wisdom behind them is ancient. It doesn’t make sense that he’d be so stupid to get into drugs. But as the days pass and he comes home later and later, I’m just waiting for a call from the police. A similar call came when my Mother, our last living relative, was shot in a gas station shoplifting-gone-bad. Since we never knew our fathers, that call made me a fifteen-year-old adult. That was ten years ago, and each day is still just as hard.

At her funeral, after everyone had left, I just sat staring at the closed casket. Eight-year-old Colton came to sit next to me taking my hand in his. We sat in silence like that for what seemed like hours. When he finally spoke, he promised me we would make it. He promised that we’d be a team. Now, everything is falling apart. I can’t keep track of him as he’s gotten older, and fear consumes me day and night.

I stubbornly break out of his embrace and run into my room, slamming the door behind me.

A little while later, I’m dressed in my khaki pants and collared work shirt. After this morning’s commotion, I’m running late for work. I dash out to grab my purse. Before swinging the front door shut behind me, I take notice that Colton’s sweeping up the glass in the kitchen. I release a calming breath, maybe there’s some hope for us after all. Turning toward my front yard, my eyes catch sight of a blooming hibiscus. To say I have a green thumb is putting it mildly, I don’t think I could kill a plant if I tried. My garden initially started out as a necessity when we couldn’t afford groceries, growing fruits and vegetables. But now plants and herbs can be found inside and all around the cabin. It’s become my sanctuary, the one thing I can control and nurture when Colton disappears. My hand cups the stem of the hibiscus as I inhale deeply. They are in full bloom with their pink petals outstretched toward me like the arms of a lover. With a smile, I spin to head to work just as a phone chimes through the open window. Where did he get a phone? Determined to find out what he’s been up to, I creep over and stop beneath the window, craning my neck to hear.

“Yeah, I made it home okay …” he comments above the scratch of glass sliding across the tile floor, “No … Autumn has no idea … she never will.” He states it like a command, silencing the caller on the other side. A sting of betrayal strikes my heart. He is lying and hiding things from me. After all we have been through. I pull away from the house, rubbing my aching heart, unable to bear anymore.

With new determination, I walk off down the dirt driveway toward the Gun Lot, the local hunting store. Not your average job for a high school dropout, but it’s the only thing that pays more than minimum wage. It doesn’t hurt that I’ve learned a lot about guns; it makes the immature hometown boys hesitant to hit on me. Colton just turned eighteen and we are trying to get him into college, somehow. I’m the only one working. Colton can’t seem to hold a job because his ‘nightlife’ is keeping him from waking up at a reasonable hour. That, mixed with his attitude lately, makes for a bad employee. Recently, we’ve had to sell Mother’s car, we canceled our cell phone plan, and live without electricity to cut every corner that we possibly can. I’ve done everything possible to give him a better life, but now it seems that college isn’t his priority anymore. I kick a rock, it thunks against a tree. Ugh, I could punch that kid in the face. I wish there was more to life than babysitting my defiant younger brother. We used to talk about moving to a coastal beach town and co-owning a florist shop or nursery. I’d always be surrounded by flowers, and Colton could surf, or hike, or bike to his heart’s content. We don’t talk about that anymore.

The walk to work is faster than normal, my feet can’t be tamed when it comes to outwalking my worries. I make my way through the parking lot toward the warehouse entrance. The sound of tires screeching breaks me out of my reminiscing. I leap out of the way before a blacked-out SUV makes a hard circle barreling into the parking lot. The scent of burnt rubber fills my nose. My hand flies to my heart as if that would calm the incessant beating brought on by narrowly escaping life as a hood ornament.

As soon as the driver’s side door opens, I know who they are. The mysterious out-of-town hunters. A group of them come in every week, stocking up on new guns and silver-tipped rounds. Something about their leery eyes makes me uneasy. It’s not anything they do, it’s just a feeling tingling in my gut. I don’t know what they are hunting, but whatever it is requires a lot of firepower. What are they planning on shooting with all those bullets anyway?

My eyes narrow on them as the two decked in brown camouflage stalk toward the entrance. The bald one walking around from the driver’s side is the one who almost hit me. My eyes fix on him as he continues and my blood begins to boil under my skin, my face heating with rage. What would happen to Colton if he hadn’t missed narrowly plowing into me? My fists clench at my sides.

Suddenly, the bald one trips.

“Oh crap,” he falters on a raised edge of the concrete and regains his balance before diving head-first into the sidewalk.

“First day with your new feet, Phil?” His comrade snorts beside him.

“Fuck off, Brian.” He scratches his sweaty head. “I didn’t even see it there. It sprouted out of nowhere.”

“Sure, it did. Remind me to tell Susan you need to get your eyes checked.”

The conversation is cut off as they disappear inside the front door. I turn back to the employee entrance and enter my passcode before slipping inside.

* * *

I’m locking the dial on my locker when Vicky comes in huffing and puffing about something. She collapses into a chair and sighs deeply again. I’ve learned that’s her cue that she wants to talk seeing as we’re the only two women in our twenties.

“Something up, Vicky?” I ask. Her small slender frame is deceiving to most of our clients because she can cock a gun with the tiniest flick of her wrist and shoot with more accuracy than most of the burly men who come through our store.

“I hate those creeps with the Sureshooter 300 shotgun and the custom-order bear traps. They are such assholes.” She leans back, blowing her brunette bangs out of her face as she continues, “That bald one totally blew me a kiss, like get real, pal, you are old enough to be my father.”

“They are just jerks, don’t pay them any attention.”

“Customer is always right, my ass …” she whispers, grabbing a cracker off the folding table and munching on it, still lost in thought.

“I have to go clock in, see you on the floor,” I call behind me. I have too many issues at home to get involved in other people’s drama. To be honest, I don’t really connect well with anyone here in Rocky Falls. These people don’t get me or the quirky principles and deities my Mother instilled in us. I’ve had to grow up hard and fast and have responsibilities now, some that a spoiled, single-child, man-eater, like Vicky could never understand.

* * *

I’m showing an older gentleman our new Sureshooter 200 rifle when Vicky finds her way over to me. She butts in, something about the scope being ‘totally awesome,’ and relieves me of continuing this conversation with him. I admire how she can make a sale with absolutely no effort. Sometimes I wonder whether it’s due to her attractiveness or her experience with guns, maybe it’s a combo of both. So I let her take control of the sale; it’s not like we work on commission. All of my energy was drained in my fight with Colton this morning. Mother used to say the Gods don’t like when brothers and sisters are at odds.

“I’ll take it,” the man full-on smiles at Vicky, a missing tooth on the side of his mouth greets us both, and she starts ringing him up.

“A few of my friends and I are going camping this weekend, Autumn, you should totally come,” she offers once again, even though she knows I won’t go.

“I don’t think this weekend is going to work.” I look away because I’ve always been a bad liar. I don’t know why she still tries making plans with me because I always turn her down.

“Don’t lie to me.” She nudges my arm. Working together for two years, she’s picked up that I prefer to be alone. I’m more like my Mother than I care to admit sometimes.

“My brother is getting into trouble. I can’t leave him in an empty house right now …” I shiver thinking of what I would come home to if I left him unaccompanied for an entire weekend.

“You need to loosen up, he’s eighteen—he just needs to get it out of his system,” she states, leaning closer to me and nudging my shoulder. “Don’t you think she should get out more?” Vicky turns to hand the receipt to her salt and pepper friend. He nods and smiles again as she hands him the gun and a box full of rounds.

“I—” Vicky stops me, throwing her hand up.

“I know …” She shakes her head. “Just let me know if you change your mind.” With that, she walks away from me, knowing a lost ‘sale’ when she sees one.

I sigh when the interrogation stops, but part of me—the part that is still young at heart—would love to go camping. It’s been so long since I’ve just hung out with friends, no worries, and laughed. Gods, what I would give to laugh again and be carefree for a few days.