Chapter 15

“How you ever thought that maybe I am opening up to you more?”

“You keep changing,” I told him. “It is like there are two of you in there.”

“Two of what?”

“I don’t know.”

Damian closed his eyes with regret, and then lowered his head with grief. I sensed his troubled thoughts, so I lifted a hand to rub it along his upper spine, smoothing it over his shoulders to make him feel better.

“I know what you mean,” he relayed softly.

“It doesn’t bother me. I only wanted to know the reason behind it.” I moved forward so my face was close to his. “And why you kissed me like that in the kitchen.”

A smile escaped him, as if recent memories were suddenly flooding back to him.

“Overpowering me in that way,” I explained. “Dominant.”

“An alpha male,” he chuckled under his breath.

“Yeah, and you aren’t like that.”

He turned his gaze in my direction, letting it sink into my pale blue eyes. “I could be.”

“With that gun attached to your hip I guess you are.”

“It’s used for emergencies.”

“Like what?”

“I already told you outside of my house.”

“What animal can attack us in broad daylight, Damian?”

“It’s more of something happening.” He licked his lips nervously. “I’ll feel safer with the gun on me.”

“How many guns do you have?” I interrogated him. “And knives?”

He swallowed hard, looking nervous suddenly.

“You would never hurt me, would you?” I asked in a trembling voice. “I don’t know you so well, the number of weapons I’ve been seeing is kind of alarming.”

“Protection.”

“From what?”

“These forests are very old, Sara.” He stopped himself, and let his eyes graze over the distant horizon, taking in the tops of the pine trees. “Sacred.”

“For whom?”

“To some people,” he relayed with uneasiness. “I feel safe here, but at the same time I know the dangers that lurk in these forests.” He inched his face closer. “And not even I can protect you from some of them.”

“What are you hiding from me, Damian?” I demanded. “My friend, Ashley, told me last night that people get mauled to death here. What is it?” Damian had moved his head back, frowning suddenly. “You know something, don’t you?”

“I know it’s not safe to be here out at night,” he told me in a steely voice, “and if people are too stupid to listen to my instructions, I feel no pity for them.” Damian sharply turned his head to me, wearing a dangerous look that startled me. “Let them die.”

“They are human beings.”

“They know the dangers here.”

“Damian.”

He licked the bottom of his lips unexpectedly, and then used the tips of his fingers to partially cover his mouth. “I need water,” he said as an excuse, and guzzled half of the bottle down like there was no tomorrow. He sprung up to his feet suddenly, complaining he had to piss and sauntered off into the forest to give himself some space.

Ashley is right, I reflected. He really is a nutter.

I seized the quiet moment to investigate his bag, seeing another first-aid kit in a tiny box at the bottom. There was a hunting knife stealthily shielded in a side pocket and a rolled-up piece of linen that was curious.

If Damian wanted to kill me, he has the right weapons to do it.

Damian isn’t a murderer though, but how can I be so sure of it?

What if he is bipolar, I thought, but sensed he hadn’t displayed such symptoms.

There was that anti-depressant bottle.

I closed the bag and pretended I was staring out into the distance once I heard his boots pounding on the solid ground. It had not escaped me that there were no traces of the brown dust on his shoes this morning, unlike the footprints that he left on the staircase and the small front porch of his house.

What if he lied to me, I wondered, and he really didn’t take a walk this morning?

But there was dirt left at the bottom of his bathtub, I remembered, and tried to recall if I saw any footprints throughout his house. He has a mat at the front, I reflected, Damian could have easily dusted off his feet there.

“Sara,” immediately broke through my thoughts. “You look worried.”

“Do I?”

His voice was full of concern as he emphasized, “yes, you do.”

“Oh.”

“I’m sorry about what happened to those people, but they knew the risks of coming here. In fact, those are the kind of people that go out of their way to look for trouble.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I am usually the one that finds their dead bodies in the morning.” He dropped down to the ground and took a close seat next to me. “All I have to do is look up at the sky and see a ring of vultures and know …”

“That someone’s been killed.”

“That there is a feast left for them.”

I turned my gaze away from him and let my fingers glide over the front of my hiking shoes. “How often does it happen?”

“Not that often.”

“How often?”

“At least once every month,” he deliberated aloud. “It’s worse in the summer season.”

“So, it’s normal here.”

“Normal enough.”

“They should close this place down,” I deliberated aloud with lowered eyebrows.

“They’ve been trying too,” Damian assured me. “But this place generates a lot of money, and besides, people flock here when they hear how dangerous it can be.”

“Why do you stay here?”

“It’s my home,” he told me as he raised a hand to reveal the expansive forestry around us.