Capturing the Huntsman. C.J. Miller

      Being in a position where she was alone with Nathan for hours, possibly days, made her equal parts anxious and excited. She was already thinking about how it would feel to kiss him and have his strong arms around her. That was dangerous. She wasn’t ready to jump into an affair, regardless of how brief.

      Ford’s words at the lounge came to mind. Why had Nathan left his wife? It shouldn’t factor in, but Autumn wondered if Nathan was a man who could be trusted. He wanted to find his sister’s killer and seemed willing to do anything to accomplish that goal. Anything, including lying to her? Pretending to be interested in her? Thor’s wet nose nudged her hand, giving her a chance to escape the conversation. “He’s ready for his walk.” Thor didn’t have the same apprehension she did about walking through the campground.

      Autumn grabbed the leash off the back of the door and attached it to Thor’s collar. Normally, she would let him run loose, especially when not many guests were staying in the cabins, but she was feeling protective of him.

      Autumn took out a flashlight from her closet. When she was eight years old, she’d been lost in the woods after dark and had been terrified she wouldn’t be found. She’d done exactly as Blaine and her father had taught her, stood still and blew her emergency whistle. When they’d found her, she was shivering from terror and cold. She’d been careful since then about venturing out on the trail after dark without the proper equipment.

      She’d take a short walk around the Trail’s Edge property and make it up to Thor tomorrow morning with an extra long jog along the trail.

      Ten minutes later, Thor was meandering in front of them, dodging from side to side along the path, stopping to sniff the trees and bushes. As they walked, their feet crunched the leaves that had fallen to the ground.

      “It’s so quiet,” she said, thinking about the chaos that had reigned the night before.

      “Peaceful,” Nathan said.

      Autumn hoped that the Huntsman had moved on, farther down the trail, maybe lost himself in the woods or decided to give up looking for victims with the winter weather coming. “I wonder if the FBI has found the identity of the last victim,” Autumn said.

      “We might have to wait for the press release on that information. Ford isn’t eager to loop me into the case,” Nathan said.

      “I sensed something between you two that first night and again tonight,” Autumn said.

      “Ford and I worked together years ago. He follows the rules to the letter and I prefer to consider the spirit of the law and do what’s necessary to get the job done,” Nathan said. “And since I was married to his sister for a brief time, he holds that against me, too.”

      Autumn stepped up her pace as Thor dragged her faster. He seemed bent on going to the location where the body had been found. The trees around the area had been roped off with yellow caution tape, but that wouldn’t stop Thor. She pulled back on the leash, trying to dissuade Thor from moving in that direction. He didn’t heed her, and since she rarely kept him on the leash, it wasn’t unexpected.

      Autumn turned the flashlight to the path ahead of them. “Thor wants to see the location of the body.”

      “Let him. We’ll keep him off the scene, but I wouldn’t mind having a look. Unless you want to return to the cabin and I’ll take Thor myself.” He watched her carefully. He was worried about her, and that warmed her. It had been too long since someone had cared about her.

      Autumn didn’t want to be alone. Not out here. Not at her cabin. Something inside her, intuition or caution, warned her to stay near Nathan. “You won’t see much in the dark,” Autumn said. The flashlight provided only a limited view.

      “It might help you sleep to see you have nothing to worry about. The FBI cleaned the area and any evidence was photographed, bagged and collected.”

      Maybe seeing that tree, even in the dark, would begin to scrub the image of a body hanging from it out of her mind.

      Allowing Thor to lead the way, Autumn pulled him to a stop near the yellow tape surrounding the crime scene. The wind blew, shaking more leaves from the treetops. Autumn let her flashlight pan over the scene, starting high, giving herself a view of the tree without someone hanging from a branch.

      A crunching of leaves had her swinging the flashlight lower. A movement near the trunk of the tree caught her eye. She moved the flashlight to see more, frustrated that the narrow beam illuminated so little at this distance. It didn’t help that she was shaking and Thor was twisted for her to let him off his leash.

      A shadow, looking very much like a man, was lurking near the base of the tree. If the light hadn’t given them away to the intruder, then Thor’s barking did. Nathan snatched the flashlight from her hand and pinned it on a figure moving away from the tree. The intruder ducked beneath the crime-scene tape on the side opposite them, running between trees, barely a shadow and impossible to track.

      Nathan drew his gun and it made a clicking sound. Was he planning to shoot at the figure? “Stop!” he shouted.

      The intruder ignored him, almost becoming a ghost and disappearing. Nathan vanished as he gave chase, the bobbing of the flashlight through the woods eerie and unsettling. And growing dimmer. Nathan was gone. It would have been safer for them to run or call for help. Fear and panic tightened her stomach. Autumn reached for Thor, drawing him against her, her shaking vibrating the both of them. She hugged him to her.

      She was alone in the woods in the dark. Nathan was chasing a madman. Could she find her way to her cabin and call for assistance?

      The campground that she had called home now felt threatening. The dark felt ominous, the cold chilling, and the trees and brush were places for a murderer to hide.

      * * *

      The Huntsman had returned to the scene. Perhaps he was looking for another victim, perhaps he wanted to relive the killing and hanging or perhaps he was hoping to finish his ritual by starting a fire. It could be a teenager on a dare or the media snooping around, but his gut told him the killer was close.

      He had to find and stop him. As Nathan chased the figure, it grew more difficult to see. The trees were close together, providing too many places to hide. Nathan stopped and shone his light around the area.

      It was still and quiet.

      Autumn! He’d left her and Thor alone. The Huntsman could have circled back to attack her. It hadn’t escaped Nathan’s notice that she fit the profile for the Huntsman’s victims.

      How far had he run? How long had he been gone?

      Nathan whirled, calling to Autumn.

      His sister’s face flashed into his mind. Colleen had died at this madman’s hands. He wouldn’t let him hurt another woman he cared about.

      Nathan pushed his body to move faster as his brain tripped over that thought. He cared about Autumn. He’d known her a short time, but he’d had an undeniable connection with her.

      “Autumn!”

      Thor barked in response. Nathan was desperate to hear Autumn’s voice. Was he too late? Had he made a critical error leaving her alone? His gun felt heavy in his hand. It did no good to shoot in the dark, but he would shoot to kill if Autumn was in danger.

      When he yelled her name again, this time she responded. He moved in the direction of her voice.

      When she came into view, relief rushed over him. She was squatting on the ground with her arms around Thor.

      He pulled her into his arms and hugged her. Thor growled as if chastising him for his mistake.

      “Are you okay?” he asked into her hair.

      “Except for being left in the woods alone in the dark after being scared by a psycho, I’m fine,” Autumn said. “Was it the Huntsman? Did you see him?”

      He hadn’t seen enough of his face to provide any more details of the man they were