15. Arlo

Chapter 15

Arlo

The wheels were still spinning on the bicycle that Arlo had taken from some unsuspecting poor soul as he pushed it into the undergrowth.

‘ Urgh . I feel terrible,' Arlo said, out of breath and feeling guilty for having stolen the cycle. ‘I'll make sure they get it back. Or I'll try. If I ever come back to Eagle Ridge…'

Arlo looked at the tall trees that were all around him. The sunlight was seeping through the cracks between the leaf-covered branches, and the birds were chirping in their nests. But this was far from the happy scene it should have been – or would be, in normal circumstances.

Having taken the bicycle in a blind panic and cycled out of town, Arlo had used his somewhat shaky knowledge of Eagle Ridge's backstreets, roads, and dirt tracks to take him out toward the forest – Sunset Forest specifically.

‘Back where it all started,' Arlo said, sighing as he recalled just how much he had fallen for Eagle Ridge in the time that he had spent there.

Of course, it was far more than the lush outdoor spaces that had captured Arlo's heart. There was the not so small factor of Axel too. But right now, Arlo couldn't even begin to wrap his head around what would happen between him and Axel. All Arlo knew was that he was effectively on the run from the military…

‘Sass, I'm not being dramatic,' Arlo said, taking his backpack off his achy shoulders and removing his stuffy from his side compartment. ‘Harper and Kray are bad people. The worst . And I know that they've hurt people in the past. There were always rumors. They were here for me, I know they were.'

Arlo felt a tear trickle down his left cheek.

The tear moved over Arlo's cheek, and he tasted its salty flavor as it ran over his lips. For Arlo to be this close to breaking down in floods of tears showed just how stressful and horrible a situation this was for him. Arlo was tough, full of character, and hated backing down to anyone or anything. But the very real threat of his former military bullies was taking him to a place that made him feel vulnerable in all the worst ways.

‘Come on, be a big boy,' Arlo said, his bottom lip trembling a little as he spoke. ‘Be brave. Don't back down. Never let the bad guys win.'

Arlo steeled himself and felt a renewed sense of hope. He knew that he was in a tough spot, but Arlo had been in difficult places before. If there was a chance of getting out of this situation in one piece, then Arlo was determined to take it.

Think fast.

Think smart.

Think… different.

Arlo then smiled the biggest smile as he saw a tree across from him that just so happened to look extremely climbable. While he knew that he wouldn't be able to hide up there forever, Arlo did think that by climbing up as far as he was able to, he would be able to at least rest easy and know that he was safe…

‘I'll climb, make a plan of action, and go from there,' Arlo said, his voice suddenly full of excitement. ‘That's a good idea, isn't it Sass?'

Arlo giggled as he put his backpack underneath a nearby bush and stuffed Sass into the waistline of his jeans. And as nimbly as a monkey, Arlo began scaling the tree.

Even before his military training, Arlo had always loved tree climbing for as far back as he could recall. But with the added skillset of professional climbing training in the armed forces, Arlo was bordering on being a competition standard climber.

‘Woo-hoo!' Arlo called out, easily maneuvering himself up to a perfect plateau made of the thickest, sturdiest branch he could have wished for. ‘ Perfecto . I'm like a Little Tarzan!'

Arlo looked in awe as he was able to take in a wide ranging view. He might not have been in the mood for sightseeing as such, but there was something undeniably breathtaking about seeing the forest and then the town in the distance from this vantage point.

As he sat on his perch, Arlo thought about how difficult it would be if he wasn't able to see Axel again. It would hurt. It would hurt a lot . But Arlo knew that he had to be realistic. If Harper and Kray were after him, then they most likely weren't going to stop until they found him, and this meant that sticking around in such a small place as Eagle Ridge just wasn't an option.

‘I just wish I knew what they wanted from me…' Arlo said, letting out a long sigh.

It was possible that the pair of buttholes had simply come to make Arlo's life miserable once more – after all, they could have been on leave and had nothing better to do than come and cause him all kinds of crap. Arlo wouldn't have put that past them.

But far more likely was that Harper and Kray were trying to influence Arlo's unfair dismissal case. This could have been because they could potentially see their careers in tatters because of it. Or even scarier, they might have been sent by the sergeant to simply take Arlo out of the equation completely.

Whatever the reason, Arlo couldn't see a way where he could remain in Eagle Ridge. He knew that Axel would want to protect him, but Arlo didn't think it was fair to drag his Daddy into a potentially deadly world.

Just when Arlo's head was beginning to spin with outcomes, some good and some bad, he saw a very sobering sight indeed …

‘It can't be… not again…' Arlo whispered, looking slightly into the distance and seeing Harper and Kray parking their SUV. ‘How the hell did they find me?'

Arlo made himself as small as he possibly could while also retaining a safe position at the apex of the tree and the branch. He knew that Harper and Kray would be looking upward as well as along the ground, so it was vital for Arlo to keep as still and silent as he possibly could. It felt like a fifty-fifty shot at whether he would go undetected or not. Arlo's two bullies might not have been the smartest soldiers ever, but they weren't fools either…

‘Fuck. Where the hell is he hiding?' Harper snarled, his booming voice carrying up toward Arlo as they drew closer to him.

‘Arlo? Can you hear me?' Kray called out, a toxic tone in his voice that Arlo knew all too well. ‘Come out, come out, wherever you are!'

Arlo felt himself shiver.

Despite not having heard either of Harper or Kray's voices for some time, hearing them now brought everything back in the worst way. For a brief moment, Arlo nearly lost his balance as he found himself mentally back in the worst moments of his experience of being bullied. It sucked. But Arlo was too determined and too focused on survival to allow the moment to get the better of him for too long.

Calm down, Arlo.

You're a big boy.

You and Sass have got this …

Arlo quietly and calmly began to do his breathing exercises and felt himself gradually lose the sickening feeling of stress that had just come over him. And even better, it seemed like Harper and Kray had decided to turn back and try looking for him somewhere else.

‘Yes!' Arlo whispered, doing his best to contain his excitement as the two men shook their heads and trudged back toward their SUV. ‘I won! I beat those meany ass-wipes.'

However just as Arlo was expecting to hear the SUV's engine come to life, he felt his heart begin to thump inside his chest. Something was up. The two men weren't getting inside, ready to leave. Instead, it looked like Harper and Kray were opening the trunk…

‘What… the…' Arlo whispered, his eyes widening as he saw Harper taking out what appeared to be a shovel, and Kray picking up a chainsaw. ‘No… no… no… no… please no.'

Arlo knew what Harper and Kray were planning on doing.

And judging by their wicked, howling laughter the pair of them were looking forward to bringing Arlo back down to earth with a bang too.

‘Daddy…' Arlo said, tears forming in his eyes. ‘Please find me, Daddy. I need you. I need you more than ever…'