CHAPTER 31: THE HUNT BEGINS

Chapter 31: The Hunt Begins

Danielle lowered her eyebrows and moved her head to the right side jus a little bit...she could hear hee heartbeat loudly in her ears.

"What...?"

Ethan was crawling on the floor, hands pressed to his groin, the moment after her headbutt still hurt him a lot.

He hissed and rolled onto his back, Danielle saw a dazed look on his face. For once he looked weak and clumsy and very much human, and Danielle almost laughed at the sight of it.

She turned slowly, wiped the blood from her lip with the back of her hand, and faced him.

"Why do you know so much about Theo?" Danielle asked.

Ethan barked a laugh that sounded ugly and surprised at the same time. He pushed himself up on one elbow and looked at her like he was watching a strange bird.

"Because he is my bastard brother," Ethan laughed again. His grin came back, looking meaner.

Danielle blinked. "You what?" She tried to fit the pieces together and failed. Bastard brother...Ethan. Theo... A name like a key turned in a wrong lock.

Ethan sat up slowly and wiped his face. He looked tired in a new way. "You did not know...you didn’t know the stories we told each other when the house was empty." He shrugged, as if the thing was simple and obvious.

Danielle had spent so much time not knowing who Theo was. She had built a version of him in her head from small things, from the way he moved and the way he stayed. Now Ethan said the truth and it felt like a hand on a wound.

"So you are family... You are blood."

Ethan nodded. "Yes. We share a father. But not a name. Not the proper things." He laughed, and the laugh was thin.

He thought for a beat and then added, "He always was liked by people more than me, the old man did. He liked what he could shape. He liked the small thing that obeyed. You need to know where you stand."

Danielle felt cold through and through. She thought of shows and rooms and the way Theo had always been there, the quiet shadow that stayed with her like a secret.

She thought of being told to be less, to be small, to stay safe. How many things had hidden behind other things?

"You are cruel," Danielle finally whispered. "How can you say that?"

Ethan rolled his eyes. "I am what I am," he replied. "The world is full of broken tools. I choose to use them." He smiled again, a hard smile. "People like you are useful to me...Useful and so easy to shame."

She felt rage rise again, but it had a new temper.

"No...You are small and petty and cruel. If I had a brother like you, I would tell everyone I was an orphan."

The words were precise. They landed in the room and made Ethan feel like his neck was hanging on the rope.

Ethan’s face changed. He blinked and his anger looked surprised. He had expected fear, begging, bargaining. He did not expect this..."who the fuck are you...?"

He pushed himself to his feet and tried to make his voice big. "Do you think you can walk out of my house and nothing will happen? Do you think the world lets people act like this and stay free?"

Danielle didn’t move from her spot. Her heart was loud and true. She looked at him and said, "I will walk out if I want. I will walk out right now."

He made a step toward her like he wanted to stop her. His hand moved too slow.

Unfortunately, Ethan was not quick enough. Danielle had practiced small moves. She knew how to make a body go where she wanted it. She kicked his knee with all her weight.

The sound of the impact came like a small gunshot in the tiny room.

Ethan fell back again..."fucking slut! I will kill you!" He cursed and grabbed at his leg.

Danielle did not wait...Theo was somewhere, looking for her...she could feel it. She moved fast, pushing aside a wooden crate, climbing on it, and then onto the night like an owl.

The window was open, so she shoved the sash up with shaking hands.

Ethan found his voice and shouted for his men. "Get her! Come here and catch the bitch!"

He dragged himself up and started to move, but it was slow once again...

"Get her!" He barked like a dog. "Bring her back."

"You try to take me and I will break your balls," she called down as she swung a leg over the sill.

Cold rain hit her like a thousand little needles. For a moment all the pain and fear and fire in her body mixed into one thing: the need to be gone.

Then Danielle dropped from the sill and hit the wet ground. Mud slid up her legs.

She ran...out of breath just after a few seconds, but behind her was a predator who would not let her live...

Ethan’s men moved after her with the speed of people who had been told to run before.

He cursed and stumbled out of the door. But the forest was dark and messy and the rain had made paths slick.

Danielle ran until her lungs dried out, blocking her from inhaling more air. She lost the men and kept going. She ran until the trees thinned and the road came into view like a pale line.

Only then did she stop and crouch in the wet grass, shaking and laughing with the weird sound of a person who cannot hold the truth inside.

She wiped rain from her face and called Theo’s name out into the air. "You’re a shitty bodyguard!!"

"Am I? I thought I was doing a good job..."

"Th-Theo?" Danielle’s lower lip quivered..."is-is that really you?"

__

"Yes boss?"

"Let the hunting begin...kill the bitch while chasing in the woods...tonight, we will make our trees bleed."