Page 15 of Trail to Trouble

Alyssa arched a brow. “A good guide would have told me the fox was there. Instead, you just walked on by,” she teased back.

Bianca threw her hands in the air. “Yeah, we paid good money for this service. I might file a complaint.”

“She’s right,” Hannah added as she placed her hands firmly on her hips.

Hunter lifted his hands into the air submissively. Smart guy. He would not win against the three of them.

His stunning smile stretched. “You’re right, ladies. I’ll try to be more on my game for the rest of the trip. Please don’t tell my uncle, or he’ll put me on latrine duty or something.”

They shared a laugh.

Hunter gestured for them to follow.

Snap!

Hannah halted on a dime and looked in the direction the noise had come from. There was no way that little fox made that noise—that branch break, or whatever it was.

She glanced at the guide. He faced in the direction of the noise as well. Like Bianca and Alyssa, Hannah returned her gaze to where the noise had come from.

Silence.

“Probably nothing,” Hunter said as he began moving down the trail.

The pit of her stomach knotted. She had a bad feeling about this. Bear? Deer? Moose?

Returning her gaze forward, she caught Hunter peering back toward the noise. He looked worried, too. Not good.

ChapterFive

Hunter shotanother glance over his shoulder. That crack wasn’t an animal. It was too clumsy. Unless there was something wrong with the creature. Unfortunately, an injured animal was a dangerous animal, so he hoped that wasn’t the case. He’d spent enough time in the woods to know that sound wasn’t normal.

Judging from the fear in Hannah’s darkening emerald irises, she was of like mind. He’d had to look away from her, as if to hide his uneasiness. She was already gun-shy about something, and he didn’t want to make it worse.

Continuing down the trail in silence, he kept his eyes and ears peeled for anything out of the ordinary. Nothing.

Tension tightened in his spine with each step he took. The song of the woods was normal. The sight of the woods was normal. Had he imagined the strangeness of the sound? He supposed he could have.

Rushing water echoed in his ears as he drew closer to the Pine Loop Falls. The gradual ascension upward would turn steep in a few minutes.

He turned to look at his followers. “Almost there. Get ready to climb.”

Bianca arched a brow. “Climb?”

“It’s not that bad. No worse than yesterday, but this time we won’t have the luxury of rocky steps. It’s more of a dirt path with a steep climb, but no worries. There are trees that line the path. You can use them for balance, as handrails, so to speak.”

Bianca looked back at her friends.

Alyssa wore a concerned expression. Hannah shrugged.

“It’ll be fine. I take people up here all the time,” he assured.

Hunter took a long stride, then a short one to begin the ascent. Since he’d climbed this hill hundreds of times, he knew to be on the ready for loose dirt. For him, using the trees for support wasn’t all that necessary, but he gripped the trunk of a small pine tree between the sparse branches so the ladies could see how it was done.

“Ouch!”

Hunter stilled and turned to find Bianca rubbing her left palm with fingers from her right hand.

“What happened?”