𝐀𝐅𝐅𝐄𝐂𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 || 𝐌𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐏

| 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝟑 |

𝐄𝐌𝐌𝐀'𝐒 𝐏𝐎𝐕:

"Woah, hey. It's just me" He says with his hands in the air. I exhale with my eyes closed as I lower my bow.

How did he find me?

"What are you doing? I could have shot you" I say with a serious yet kinda angry face.

"Sorry" I look at the floor sighing, then back at him.

"How'd you find this place?" I furrow my eyebrows. No one has ever discovered this place, just my dad.

"I, um, I followed you...?" He asks in more of a question. I raised my eyebrows.

"You followed me?" I stand straighter, slightly amused at his nervousness.

"To make sure nothing happens to you. You were heading pretty deep into the woods, and with the person that put the note on Bullet around here...I just wanted to make sure you were okay" He scratches the back of his neck before standing straight again. I scoff and look down.

"Is the Mitch Rapp worried about my safety?" I smirk tilting my head as I put my weight on my right leg.

"Maybe" I sigh with a smirk as I place the arrow back on the bow starting to turn around.

"Well, I appreciate it, but, as you saw earlier, I can protect myself" I then turn around and take a few steps forward to do what I came here to do. Shoot arrows.

A few years ago, I set up random bullseyes around this area. Many of them are hidden in the trees while others are in plain sight. I shoot the first arrow to a hidden one which you wouldn't even notice if it weren't for the arrow landing right in the center.

"Wow" I hear Mitch whisper behind me, but, I still hear him. I pull another arrow and tilt it to the left and shoot another bullseye right in the middle, again. In the next 10 seconds, I shoot 3 more arrows, all landing in the center.

"You're good." I turn to see him walking up to me looking at the bullseyes. I chuckle and look over to my right to see that the sun is starting to droop behind the trees. I walk over to the tree stump and place the bow down. I take off the quiver and place it down next to the bow. I hear Mitch walking around my not so secret clearing.

"How'd you find this place?" He now faces me as I cross my arms and look around.

"My mom and I stumbled upon it one day while walking Bullet. He was only about 3 months old back then. It kind of became our little secret, until she passed away. My dad eventually found this place as I constantly vanished and he had to set out looking for me. We're the only ones that know about it, and now you." I look back at him to see him looking at me with sorry eyes.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have followed you" I scoff, again, as I look up at him.

"Well it's too late for that. Just as long as you don't tell anyone" He scoffs a smile and nods.

"Is that a creak?" he points to, well, the creak.

"No, it's Narnia. Yes dumbass, it's a creak" We laugh as he holds his hands up in defeat.

We spend almost an hour there, talking about his training and such. He doesn't ask about my mom, which I'm thankful for. In return, I don't ask about what happened on the beach. I know how it feels to lose someone to violence, so I know it's not an easy topic to discuss. It's now getting dark so he decides that he should go back to the bunker. We bid ourselves a goodnight before he walks off and I stay. I lay down on the grass looking up at the stars that are visible here. I think back to moments with my mom and my dad. When it was the three of us. Four with Bullet. I then feel someone laying down next to me. I know who it is so I continue to look at the stars.