Page 29 of Wedding Cake Carnage

“This isn’t about pleasing you. It’s about keeping you safe.”

“And what about you?” I ask as I take in the ever-darkening woods around us.

“I’ll be just fine.” Noah kills the lights as we come upon the dirt driveway. He snuggles the truck up against an overgrowth of young pines, a little farther up than we were earlier today. “There’s enough moonlight on the trail to our right. We should be fine.”

The trail lights up like noonday as ethereal sparks begin to bloom, and Beasty appears with an enthusiastic Lea waving over at me.

“It turns out, I won’t need a flashlight or the moon. Beasty has lit up the trail like a beacon.” I glance back to find Noah pecking manically into his phone.

“What are you doing?”

“Being very vague with Ivy in the event we run into trouble.” He slips his phone deep into his pocket. “Get your gun, Lottie. And hold on tight.”

I do as I’m instructed as we get out of the truck.

The air is warm as a gentle breeze licks by. The scent of damp earth and pine needles infiltrates the air. Noah and I step softly as we make our way up the crooked path to our right that mimics the dirt driveway leading to the cabin in question.

We crest the small hill and there it sits, a small cube of a cabin built entirely of logs with a wraparound porch and a river stone chimney crawling along the right side of the structure. It doesn’t look big, two bedrooms at most. There’s a peach glow emanating from the living room implying someone is home, but there’s not a car in sight and no garage that I can see either.

Noah ticks his head for me to follow, and we boldly make our way right up to the base of the cabin. The two of us crouch low in an effort to conceal ourselves.

Beastly growls so loud I’m half-tempted to shush him, but thankfully, I remember the fact no one else can hear him. Noah and I aren’t holding hands, so it’s just me privy to his ferocious warning.

“See if you can go in,” I whisper to him and Lea.

Noah turns my way. “Lottie, there are bars on the windows,” he says it low, for my ears only.

“It’s a prison,” I practically mouth the words.

Noah motions for me to wait where I am as he slinks up the stairs—right next to Beasty and Lea, but unlike Noah, they hop right through the door as if it were open.

“They’re in.” I breathe a sigh of relief.

Noah crouches his way to the window and takes a brief glance inside before shaking his head my way.

I do my best to glide my way up the porch in the same covert manner and the steps squeak like mini alarms as I hit each one.

Perfect. I don’t remember them squeaking when Noah went up, but then again, who could hear a darn thing over all the detonating my heart is doing?

“No signs of life,” Noah whispers as I scoot in close.

“Mind your word choice. I’d swat you, but I might just shoot you on accident.”

“Hold your fire. I have a feeling we’ll need the ammo.”

“Do you think she’s asleep?”

“I don’t know.” He scans the vicinity briefly. “Where are your ghosts?”

I peer through the window and spot an ethereal glow coming from the hall.

“Deep in the house.”

“Why aren’t they coming out to give us an update?”

I shrug. “I guess I didn’t ask them to.”

Beasty jabs his head abruptly out the window next to us and I gasp.