Page 75 of Searching for her Heart
“Why would she go there?” I ask curiously as I keep pace with the three angry men.
“If she thought we were mad at her, she probably went to get us something, as a peace offering.” They get angry at her and her first thought is to buy them a present? That doesn’t seem right, but he knows her far better than I do.
We storm through the stalls of the market calling her name, I ask everyone I know if they’ve seen her and nobody has. When we finally reach the end of the market, we all just stare into the empty street on the other side.
“Where is she?” Brax growls. We decide to ask every person we can if they’ve seen any sign of her, and as we pass a couple stalls, I see where there’s a small alley between them, leading to the forest. Something has me taking a step back to look at it again before I slowly walk down it, looking for any signs of her.
“What is it?” Indy asks, coming up behind me.
“I don’t know, but this alley gives me a weird feeling.”
“I feel it too,” he says as he steps up beside me. Indy is a far better tracker than I am, so I let him take the lead as he scans the ground until he finds what he’s looking for. “There!” He points to what looks to be a small footprint on the ground, much too small to be a man’s.
“Did you guys find something?” Ryker asks as Braxton and he comes up behind me.
“It’s a woman’s footprint for sure, I’m going to follow it.” We all know that this could be any woman, it doesn’t specifically have to be Penny, but at this point we’re grasping at straws.
“I’m seeing a few footprints, but they’re facing the wrong way,” Indy explains.
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“It’s like she was walking backwards. Oh—here, she turns and…” He sucks in a small sharp breath.
“Indy, what is it?”
“She… started running.”
“Fuck.” I’m not sure which one of us says it, or if all of us do, but as Indy starts running into the forest, we all follow right behind him.
After a minute, he starts yelling her name and the others follow suit.
“Shh! Listen!” Indy whispers as we stop moving and strain our ears. We hear a sharp whistle to our left, and silently jog in that direction.
After a minute, Ryker yells her name again, followed by Braxton. This time we can hear her voice, but it’s faint. Ryker doesn’t hesitate to take off at full speed, clearly the fastest runner of our group, as we try, unsuccessfully, to keep up with him.
“I see her, over here! Penny!” he yells from a short distance in front of us.
I’m the last one to reach her and my eyes quickly roam the area. She’s clinging to Ryker, but as soon as I set my eyes on her and know that she’s okay, my eyes then move to the body on the ground twenty feet behind her.
“Who is that?” I ask as I move around them towards the body. Indy and Brax move behind me and when I get closer to the body, I suck in a sharp breath as he becomes familiar. “Yariff? What happened here?” I ask, turning to where Ryker still holds Penny.
“Pen? What happened? I promise you’re not in trouble, just tell us what happened.”
“H-he wanted to be my m-mate. H-he wouldn’t t-take no for an a-answer,” she says sniffling into Ryker’s neck.
“You killed him?” Indy asks, sounding surprised, but she shakes her head, before lifting it to look at Indy.
“It was the masked man, he was here again, he saved me… again.”
“Shit, what would have happened if he wasn’t here?”
“Why don’t we get out of the rain, and go back to the tavern so Penny can get out of her wet clothes and calm down,” I suggest. I see Brax and Indy quickly glance at Penny, a look of guilt flashing in their eyes. Ryker lifts her up and helps her awkwardly move her legs around his waist so she clings to his front and he carries her back towards the market.
Indy runs ahead to push a path through the market for them, Braxton walks right behind them, with me taking up the rear, and it doesn’t take long before we’re stepping back into my tavern. A few of the locals are sitting inside since I’d left it open. A couple of them are my friends and I head over to them.
“I need you guys to take care of Yariff’s body. He tried to attack Penny. You’ll find his body just to the east of the back corner of the market, about a hundred paces into the woods.”
“Shit, really? I always knew there was something off about him,” Evan says, standing alongside Mario. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of it.” I nod before turning back to the stairs and jogging up.
