Perking Up -Moss Bluff Series Book Three

Chapter 20

Thank you for reading this book. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. Don't miss Book 4 of the Series Secret Admirer coming out soon.

Chapter 20

Beckett

"How do you know where you're going?" Blake demands as we push our way through the dark woods. "You get us lost, I'm going to be pissed!"

"I'm not getting us lost! God, you're whiny!" Annoyed with my brother, I stopped walking to explain myself. "Aubrey taught me how to get through the woods. See the broken branches, and the footprints? Someone came through here recently."

Blake shines his light on the prints and kneels down. "This print isn't a woman's. It's too big."

"Exactly. Ethan's." I decided without wanting to acknowledge the question on his face.

"Or someone else. Beckett, we don't know what we're getting into. We don't know these woods. We aren't trackers. We need someone from around here to help us. Or they're going to be looking for us next." He isn't wrong. I won't admit that.

I can't go back without Ethan. He would do the same for me. "You want to tell Aubrey and Will we gave up? Do you want to tell Brynn?"

"Tell me what?" Both of us shine our lights in her face. "Hey! Do you mind? What's wrong with you two? You're making enough noise, if Lindsey is out here, she knows you are too!"

Brynn isn't wrong either. We're making too much noise. Standing up, we quiet down and mutually agree that the person we needed is here. Brynn walks these woods as much as I do. She has walked them with Aubrey and Ethan. She's lived here longer and knows the trails.

"Can you track like Ethan does?" I whisper, hoping he taught her something.

"Better than you two. You're going the wrong way. Ethan went that way." She points to the east. "See the prints, toes that direction. And the direction the grass is flattened. Someone else went that way, circled back and went this way. More than one person is out here. A woman's print is right there. Another is there, not the same one. Different sizes, different shoes."

Once Brynn points it out, I notice she's right. There's several sets of prints. Which way is the right one is another story. Letting Brynn lead the way, we follow her quietly through the dark. Pausing here and there to take a longer look when the prints seem to cross over each other.

"They're going the same direction but cutting back and circling around. This isn't even a trail, there's no reason for them to cover their prints out here. It's like they're purposely trying to lead someone astray." Brynn shines her light in one direction then the other. "She isn't stupid. That way leads to the creek and wraps back behind Aubrey's house. This way leads to the main road and where the crash happened." She turns around and points behind us. "This way goes deeper into the forest and closer to the ranger station."

"Which way do we go?" Blake asks, shining his light around the ground looking at the mass of prints that overlap. "It looks like they have been back and forth here. This is a heavily used trail. Is it a trail that hikers use?"

"No. This is one that someone made, recently too. See the breaks here, they're fresh." Brynn points at the branches. Ethan did teach her to track.

Following her through the dark, we duck under low hanging branches and step over a fallen log. She keeps her eyes on everything. Not just the prints in the mud but the branches and the trees, the moon overhead and the plants around us.

Brynn signals us to stop and be quiet. We listen carefully to the night. The distant howl of a coyote, the hoot of an owl. There's a lot of animals out here tonight. She motions to her left and goes off the trail.