Page 3 of Hunting Isla

I stared down at the sleeping baby. Was he supposed to sleep this much? Kara hadn’t even told me his name. We’d talked about baby names over the past few weeks, but had she even named him?

I looked up at the TV, the headline across the bottom of the screen catching my eye. Then a photo of a face that was all too familiar flashed on the screen, along with almost a dozen others. I strained forward to hear what the newsreader was saying.

“It is a tragic scene in Chatsville this morning, as a dozen bodies have been pulled from the remains of a fire that killed a local family, including five children. Police described the scene as horrific when they arrived early this morning to find the house completely consumed by flames. The family of six that resided here, as well as extended family and friends who were staying for a family celebration, all perished.”

Kara.

My fist wrapped around the bar of the car seat, my knuckles turning white. She’d been murdered, along with her whole family. I knew that in my gut.

Choking back my sobs, I stood as they called for my bus. I straightened my shoulders and looked down at my charge. He would have been the thirteenth victim last night. I’d made a promise, and I would keep it.

I would call him Bohdie, like Kara had planned, and I would do what his mama asked. I would never stop running.

CHAPTER 1

WYATT

FIVE YEARS LATER

Isniffed the air again, trying not to choke on the smell of stagnant swamp and cooking oil.

“Wyatt, hurry up,” Axel growled at me, and I hurried. Axel was in a perpetually bad mood, and I didn’t want to get on the bad side of his rage today.

“We have to have the wrong place.” Archer eyed the weird little diner that was basically on the banks of the bayou and looked like it hadn’t passed a health inspection in the last forty years.

Axel gave us both a dark look. “She was here.” I sucked in another deep breath, but I couldn’t smell anything. The thought that maybe I’d forgotten her scent made my heart split in two.

Axel pushed through the door, and relief washed over me. She had been here. I hadn’t forgotten her scent.

Isla.

Archer walked up to the girl behind the counter, putting on his charming smile. The one that meant he always had a girl in the backseat of his car after parties when we were teenagers. In those dark days after everything had gone to shit. After we’d lost her.

“What can I get’cha?” the waitress asked, fluttering long, fake eyelashes.

Archer looked briefly at the girl’s name badge. “Hey there, Heidi. We were meant to meet a friend of ours here.” He leaned forward, subtly sniffing the register. “She’s shortish, with big gray eyes? Dark brown hair?”

“You guys are meeting Leila?” She looked between us like she couldn’t believe this Leila would possibly be meeting three attractive guys.

“Yeah, Leila. Has she been in? We were meant to meet for lunch.”

Heidi shook her head. “Leila hasn’t been in all week. Boss isn’t happy. If you see her, tell her to get her skinny ass here ASAP or she won’t have a job.”

Archer tipped an imaginary hat. “Thanks for that, Heidi.” He turned toward the door and shot her a smile over his shoulder. “Which way is her place again? She’s terrible at directions.”

Heidi hesitated, finally showing a little bit of common sense. Then she blew it. “Three blocks that way,” she said, pointing south.

I gave her a halfhearted smile, while Axel scowled, and we left. Axel went point, though that’s not what it looked like. To the casual eye, we walked like an ordinary group of college students, not like the predators we were. We walked three blocks in the direction Heidi had pointed, then paused as Axel scented the air.

He whirled around and pointed to a derelict house, its windows boarded up and its eaves sagging with rot. It looked deserted.

“Archer, go around the back. Wyatt, with me. Be alert.”

We knocked on the front door as Archer sprinted around the back. When no one answered, Axel shouldered the door, and it popped open with disturbing ease. We walked into a living room that was dark and musty, and I let my eyes track the shadows in case someone, or something, was lurking there.

We froze as we heard the unmistakable slide of metal on metal. The sound of a gun being cocked.

“Get the hell out of my house before I blow your brains out,” a voice said from the darkness.