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Chapter One

Silas

What’s theyou’ve done lately?

If you said, quit your job, traded your Lexus in for a Dodge Ram, and drove halfway across the country jacked up on five-hour energy shots, then congratu-fucking-lations, you’re as batshit crazy as I am

I take the winding mountain road at seventy miles an hour, propelled by the cocktail of caffeine and rocket fuel coursing throughof bottled water does little to wash away the taste of oxidized fruit and gas-station coffee, and even less to settlethan all that, however, is the nu to switch off the air conditioner at sundown

Three twin sets of orbs slip out from between the trees My foot finds the brake I barely slon in ti their way across the road

“Fuck,” II slapfor twelve straight hours, it only makes sense that I’d be due for a crash of epic proportions I should’ve planned this trip better Hell, I should’ve planned at all But it’s not like I walked into work thismy whole life

No Thatcall

I was seated atblankly at the nu how the hell I ended up with a desk job when all I ever wanted was to ith my hands The call cao to voice inside me told me I should pick up

The guy on the other end introduced himself as Jack Benson’s estate lawyer I hadn’t heard that na up, two peas in a pod since ere old enough to tie reef knots Closer than friends, ere practically brothers It’d been the sa six weeks a year at Jack’s granddad’s hunting cabin outside of Gatlinburg, Tennessee

As soon as Jack’s lawyer said the words, “Mr Benson has passed away,” it was like he’d hit pause on the world My thoughts halted in their tracks I had to ask hi his next line, “Mr Benson has bequeathed to you his grandfather’s hunting cabin”

Jack never liked hunting, much to his dad’s dismay He’d leave lettuce out for the rabbits, peanuts for the squirrels, apples for the white-tailed deer Then he’d hide under the picnic table and watch theo to town Sometimes I’d sit with his My own appreciation was far , trees were for cli off on afternoons when your t-shirt fused to your back like a second skin We used to joke about bringing our own kids out there one day, introducing thereat outdoors

It was Jack’s idea to keep the tradition alive after his dad passed on shortly after Jack’s nineteenth birthday But it wasn’t long until his grief turned to anger, and with no one but ot in with a bad crowd He started dealinga late shift, he broke intorifle ift

That was the nail in the coffin on twenty years of friendship