Steadman's Blind

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 9

Maddie tensed every muscle to run. The shock that had pulsed through her when the jangling ring tone shattered the silence of the forest spurred a rush of adrenalin that zinged through every part of her body. She sprang away, like an arrow released.

“Wait! Maddie, don’t go!”

The sound of her name and the pleading tone of the half-familiar voice tamped down some of her panic. She slowed enough to turn her head, locating the dim figure among the shadowed trees.

“Wait up just a minute.”

He was still nothing but a darkened shape, but his tone was friendly and reassuring.

“You scared me as much as I scared you,” he said. “And besides, I got something I want to ask you.”

He stepped forward, and a ray from the setting sun spilled enough light across his face for Maddie to recognize him. She came to a full stop, stunned into stillness.

Dart Rosedale. What was he doing here, and what could he want with her?

He held up one hand in apology, the other still wrapped around his cell phone as he gaped down at the screen. “Sorry, I got to take this.”

Maddie stared, watching as he turned his back and spoke into the phone. First, he makes her practically jump out of her skin, and now he’s putting her on hold? No way. She wasn’t waiting around for this. Everything she’d ever heard about the guy led her to believe he was a dirtbag and he wasn’t doing anything to change that opinion.

Making sure she still had the quiver and all her arrows, she started down the hill. Dusk was falling fast now, and she didn’t want to pick her way through the dark woods with just the penlight she had in her pocket.

Maddie realized Dart must have seen her when she fell. That had been a minute or two before his phone went off, but he hadn’t stepped forward to ask if she was okay, or laughed, or made a sound of any kind. He’d been unnaturally quiet. Her cheeks flooded with heat and she felt angry, embarrassed, and—

Creeped out.

“Hold on, Maddie! I’m sorry—that was my mom.”

She cast a glance back, taking in his shamefaced grimace. Maddie guessed he was uncomfortable about still living at home after his twenty-first birthday. She kept walking fast.

“Yeah?” she said, “and if I’m not home before dark my mom will be calling me, too.”

“Do you have your phone with you?” he asked, jogging to catch up with her.

“No,” she admitted. “It rings at the most inconvenient moments.”

He laughed. “I see your point.” Keeping pace by her side, he let a moment pass before saying, “I’ve got a bow you can use. It’s nothing fancy, but it shoots good.”

She stopped walking. “What kind of bow?”

Shrugging, he said, “I think it’s called a recurve. But here’s the thing, Maddie. I’ll let you shoot it, and I can teach you how to skin and clean your kills.”

“Why would you bother?” It was tempting to believe his offer, but she squinted at him hard, letting her doubt show through.

He pursed his lips, seeming to consider her question. “I can see you’re interested. It’s something I learned to do when I was a squirt like you. I’m just trying to…give back.”

She snorted. “Yeah, right.”

He was standing in her path now, and the trees hemmed them in. The forest had grown quiet in the twilight hour, scented by a hint of wood smoke from a faraway fireplace. She scowled and tried squeezing past him on the right, but he moved to block her.

“Come on, Maddie. I won’t tell anyone. You won’t get in trouble.”

A tiny tremor passed through her. She didn’t like being alone with him here in the gathering dark. How long had he been following her? Had he been stalking her?

“Let me pass, Dart. I want to go home.”

A few seconds ticked by as he studied her, his forehead scrunched beneath the fringe of straight-cut bangs. She remembered going to see Planet of The Apes at the theater with her big brother. This guy could have been an extra in the movie and he wouldn’t even need make-up. His head was wreathed in an unbroken round of fuzz—beard, sideburns, thick, oddly textured hair the color of an orangutan. This formed a circular frame for his features, which seemed to crowd together in the center of his facial region, except for the large ears that poked out from the tufts of hair on either side.

He stepped out of her way. “Okay, no problem. I just thought I’d make the offer—” he paused and Maddie hunched forward, pushing past the bulk of his body, determined to get home without further delay, “—seeing as how the bow belonged to Matt.”

Maddie’s heart clutched into a rigid ball inside her chest. She turned and stared at Dart Rosedale.

“What did you say?”