Strangers with secrets
740 Words
Ava froze when she saw him—tall, lean, dripping with rain and secrets. Darren stood at the edge of the clearing like a ghost from her past. His clothes were muddy, his face drawn, but his eyes… they were the same: sharp, knowing, and hungry.
Leo stepped between them instantly.
“Who the hell are you?”
Darren raised his hands, a twisted smile on his face. “Easy. I’m not here to start trouble. I’m here for her.”
Ava’s heart thundered. She didn’t know if it was anger, fear, or something darker. “You’re not supposed to be here.”
“I know. But I couldn’t let you disappear like that. Not without the truth.”
Mara appeared behind them, silent as smoke, arms folded. She was watching Ava, not Darren. Watching the way her breath hitched, the way her hands trembled. She saw too much.
“The truth?” Ava asked, voice brittle. “Which one? The truth where you slept with someone else, or the one where you gaslighted me into thinking it was my fault?”
Darren’s expression cracked. “That’s not what happened.”
Leo’s voice was cold. “You need to leave.”
But Darren didn’t move. His eyes stayed locked on Ava. “You don’t know him. You think you’re safe because he’s quiet and competent. But that man has blood on his hands.”
Leo didn’t flinch, but Ava felt something shift. A tightening in his jaw. A muscle in his neck twitching. Darren’s words hung in the air like smoke.
“I’m not here to fight,” Darren said softly, stepping closer. “I just want to talk.”
Ava stared at him. At the man who shattered her trust. The man who now stood here in the middle of her new beginning like a match poised over dry leaves.
“Then talk,” she said.
He smiled faintly. “Not here. Walk with me.”
Leo took a step forward. “She’s not going anywhere with you.”
Ava looked at Leo—at the protectiveness in his stance, the storm behind his calm. Part of her wanted to hide behind it. But another part—the stubborn part, the part that had packed her bags and run to the wild—wanted answers.
“I’ll go,” she said. “Five minutes.”
Leo’s face was stone. “I’ll be watching.”
They walked in silence down a narrow path, damp earth soft beneath their boots. Birds screeched in the trees above. Darren didn’t speak until they reached a ridge overlooking the river.
“You look good,” he said.
Ava laughed once—sharp, humorless. “Don’t.”
“I mean it. I didn’t come to ruin things. I came because I found out what he’s hiding.”
She folded her arms. “Let me guess—he’s a murderer? A thief? An ex-soldier with a haunted past?”
Darren’s eyes darkened. “He used to work for a poaching syndicate. The real kind. Ivory, rare animals, underground trade. He disappeared after a raid went bad—people died. I only found out because one of my contacts in Kenya recognized him in a photo you posted.”
Ava’s heart stuttered.
Darren stepped closer. “I know I hurt you. I can’t take that back. But I swear on everything—I’m not lying about this.”
She didn’t speak. Couldn’t. Her chest felt tight.
“I’m staying at a small camp upriver,” he said. “You don’t have to trust me. Just... don’t trust him blindly.”
And then, without waiting for her to answer, he walked away.
When Ava returned, Leo was waiting. Mara was gone.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
She wanted to lie. To pretend it didn’t matter. But the words came out in a whisper.
“Who were you before this?”
Leo looked at her, long and hard. And then he said, “You already know.”
She didn’t ask how. She just nodded. Because she did. Some part of her had known from the moment she saw the scars on his hands and the sadness in his smile.
That night, they didn’t speak. But when Ava turned in her hammock, Leo was standing by the fire, staring into the flames. And for the first time since she’d arrived, she felt cold in the heat of the wild
- Writer
