CHAPTER 18

DAY 34

Saturday

AN: Thanks for all the love on the last chapter. The reviews were wonderful and really show me that you enjoy the daily posting schedule. The next chapter is when all the fun begins, so let me know what you think.

STEPH POV

I was hiking a couple of miles from the cabin and sweating profusely in the 82-degree heat. I guzzled a bottle of water to quench my thirst. It had been five days since I'd kissed Finn, and I couldn't stop thinking about what might have happened if he hadn't left so abruptly. I touched my mouth, still feeling his soft lips touching mine and his weight on top of me. Because of what Durant did to me, I hadn't wanted anyone touching me intimately, but Finn made me feel safe.

Now, things between us were uncomfortable, to say the least. It's not that I regretted kissing him because I don't. I do regret the quiet looks he gives me when he thinks I'm not paying attention and how he makes himself scarce as soon as training is over.

For whatever reason, he decided kissing me was a mistake. I had to respect his decision even if it was a blow to my ego. I added it to the pile of hits my self-esteem had taken in the past few months. Between Ranger's firm refusal of a relationship with me and Morelli's lying, cheating ass, things weren't looking good for me in the romance department. That is unless I was willing to settle for the devotion of a psychotic serial killer, which I was not.

I groaned into the quiet forest, letting frustration pour out of me. What was I thinking? This journey was about bettering myself, not attaching myself to a man who would probably end up hurting me. Been there, done that. We'd only known each other for a month. What did I really know about him? I thought about that for a minute and realized I knew more about Finn than I did about Ranger, and I'd known Ranger far longer. No matter what questions I asked, Finn answered them honestly and without me having to drag the information out of him or giving me a one-word answer, like Babe.

I resolved that today would be the last day I'd let Finn hide in the garage. When I returned from my hike, I would confront him and clear the air so we could get past the awkwardness. I would not let that kiss ruin my training or the friendship we'd been building.

I ate my lunch under a shade tree. By the time I was finished, I still hadn't spotted my four-legged friends. I hadn't explored this area before, so I decided to go further and see if I ran into them. Movement up ahead caught my attention. A man was pointing his rifle at something. He was too focused on making his shot to notice me. I followed the trajectory of his rifle and nearly lost my breath when I saw Judy scouring the undergrowth for food and Billy behind her. I took cover behind a tree, pulled my gun from my thigh holster, and fired a warning shot to scare the deer away.

The woods erupted in a cacophony of sounds. Birds that had been perched in treetops screeched and flew off. Judy looked up, frozen for a moment as if she didn't understand what was happening, then she dashed away, Billy following. I saw red, literally. There was no more rational thought. That man tried to kill my friends. He was no better than Durant, taking what he wanted, killing what he wanted, and never showing concern that he was hurting the innocent.

I had the presence of mind to holster my weapon before running at him, yelling like a banshee. He stood there, much like Judy had, eyes wide in puzzlement and alarm. That moment of inaction would cost him. The force of my body knocked him to the ground. My training took over, and I got into the mount position just like Finn taught me. While the hunter was recovering from having the wind knocked out of him, I swung my leg around in one swift motion, locking him in an armbar. He screamed.

"You were going to shoot them," I hissed, pure rage brewing in my blood. "They did nothing to you."

"Get off me, bitch." He was huffing with rage and blustering because he knew I had him in a hold he couldn't get out of. He was middle-aged, overweight, and untrained. His only recourse was to insult me. I put more pressure on his arm until he squealed. "Please," he begged, "I don't want any trouble."

"You want me to show you mercy?"

He tried to nod his prematurely balding head, but I had my knees locked so tightly around his neck that he could only mutter, "Yes."

"Were you going to show the deer mercy?" He glared at me as if he could kill me, even though I had the upper hand. My heart was racing with adrenaline. All I could think of was what would have happened today if I hadn't been here. I pulled his arm harder to show him I meant business, and he howled. "If I break this arm, you'll never be able to shoot straight again."

Now that I had him immobilized, I didn't know what to do with him. I heard twigs breaking behind me and glanced back to see Finn running up, eyes widened in surprise at seeing me on the ground with this asshole in a tight hold. "Damn, I missed the takedown." A broad grin transformed Finn's face, confusing me. I figured he'd be pissed that I'd attacked someone and tell me to let this asshole go. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Help me," the hunter cried out.

"He was going to kill Billy and Judy," I explained. "I had to stop him."

"What? I wasn't going to kill nobody! She's crazy!"

"What are you going to do with him?" Finn's nostrils flared as he glared at the man on the ground. He knew how important the deer were to me.

Good question. I felt out of control. I was so angry at people who stalked their prey and hurt them. It didn't register that I was comparing animals to humans. "If I let him go, he'll just come back another day and kill them."

"I won't." The hunter tried nodding his head for emphasis to assure me he was sincere. "You have my word."

My decision could cost Billy or Judy their lives. I leaned closer to the man's ear and whispered, "I don't believe you."

"They're just animals. They're meant to be eaten," he rationalized. "You're blowing this way out of proportion."

"Just animals?" I pulled harder on his arm, the elbow bending almost to the breaking point.

"What I mean is they… they… they're special creatures who have a right to roam around without being shot."

"Then why were you going to shoot at them?"

"I don't know," he exclaimed, and I added a little more pressure. "It's a sport, that's all."

When I turned back to Finn to see what he had to say, I found him leaning against a tree, arms crossed over his chest as if watching a sporting event. "We could keep him to practice your self-defense techniques on. It's always better to use live subjects."

"What?" I asked.

"It's up to you." Finn shrugged.

"Do you think he's telling the truth? Will he come back and hurt them?"

"I think you've scared him so badly he'll probably become a vegetarian."

I snorted at Finn's sardonic sense of humor and then sobered. Rational thought was starting to prevail, and now I had a choice to make. In one smooth move, I let the hunter's arm go and pulled his wallet out of his camo pants before bouncing to my feet, lungs filling with much-needed air.

"I'm going to have you arrested for assault," he threatened in between moans as he cradled his arm. I should have been concerned about going to jail, but I wasn't.

I removed his license and read it out loud so Finn could hear. "His name is Donald Trumball, 371 Camilla Street, Gaffney, South Carolina. What should we do with him?"

"That's up to you," Finn addressed me but was focused on the hunter. "Considering he's trespassing on a United States Federal Agent's private property to hunt deer in the closed season, I'd say he's in serious trouble if I call the authorities."

The hunter paled.

Since Finn wasn't an official agent anymore, I knew he was just trying to scare the hunter into leaving and not pressing assault charges against me. It was sweet of him, but I wouldn't have changed anything even if I was hauled off to jail. I leaned down and whispered in Donald's ear. "I know where you live. If anything happens to those deer, I will do the same to you." He swallowed hard, the tone in my voice conveying my disgust, anger, and the right amount of crazy. "Get off this mountain and never come back."

"You'll never see me again, I promise," he said as he got to his feet and reached to pick up his rifle just as I put my foot on it.

"This stays with me. You won't need it anymore, right?"

"Right." He nodded and scurried away as quickly as he could while cradling his arm and mumbling curses. Wisely, he kept moving and didn't look back.

Finn pushed off from the tree and came to stand beside me. We watched Donald get smaller and smaller in the distance until he disappeared. "That shot scared the hell out of me." He shook his head as if to get rid of some horrible image. "I thought you were being mauled by a bear or some other wild animal." There was no mistaking the concern in his voice, but even though I'd caused him to worry, he wasn't berating me for my actions.

"Do you think he'll come back?"

"No," he said, picking up the hunter's rifle. I thought he'd have more to say about what just happened. Maybe something like, you can't go around assaulting and threatening people, especially people with guns.

Remembering the fruit I'd brought for Billy and Judy, I pulled it out of my backpack and laid it on the ground. I looked through the trees in the direction they'd disappeared and sighed. I hoped that idiot hadn't scared them away for good.

Finn slung his arm around my shoulders. "Want to learn how to paddle board?"

"Yeah." I smiled up at him. "Paddle boarding sounds fun." And just like that, the awkwardness of our kiss vanished.

Halfway to the cabin, Finn took off in a jog. I hung back because I had some things to think about. I'd been out of control and was a little scared of my reaction. If Finn hadn't come along when he did, I don't know what I would have done to that man. I liked this new power I had to cause someone else pain for a change. That asshole needed to know what it felt like to be afraid… to be at someone else's mercy.

By the time I made it to the cabin, Finn had changed into a quick dry t-shirt and board shorts and was dragging two paddle boards out of the garage. "I bought a new one last summer. You can use my old one."

I looked down at what I was wearing. I had on jeans and hiking boots. "I need to change. I'll be back in a minute."

After donning life vests, Finn demonstrated how to maneuver on the board. I took a cleansing breath and began to paddle. My board rocked back and forth before I finally found my balance. Even though it was hot today, I didn't relish falling into the cold lake. After I got the hang of it, I was able to enjoy the day. There was a nice breeze blowing, just enough to keep me from sweating, and the water was so clear I could see all the way to the bottom in many places. When I made that off-handed comment to Jeanne Ellen about getting training, I never thought I'd end up in a place so beautiful being trained by a man like Finn.