Blackthorne (The Brotherhood of the Gate Book 1) by Katt Grimm

out more, she guessed. But she could handle herself, more than most people realized. The martial arts defense courses she had been going to for most of her adult life gave her some sense of confidence. “Maybe I should have a few more weapons about the house,” she mused as she examined the colorful label depicting an old-fashioned bicycle on her beer.
    “Oh no you don’t. You have too much of a motive to use it on someone right now if you figure out that someone flesh and blood is actually screwing with you right now. Call me if anyone shows up and gets past my house without me seeing him. I can shoot and say I’m crazy. Everyone’ll buy that,” Pam said mockingly as she signed the credit card slip for the nachos that magically appeared in a Styrofoam container on the table.
    “I most certainly will,” Houston said, having returned with his miner friends who crowded around the girls’ table like a mountain range of testosterone filled flannel and denim.
    »»•««
    The group that left the warmth and light of the Dancing Elk was carefully monitored by Blackthorne, who perched in the darkness on the roof of a casino nearby. Rhi’s ink black hair shone in the moonlight. He closed his eyes and could almost feel the strands of silk fall through his fingers. He forced himself to gaze at her again. She suddenly glanced in his direction, the only person all evening who had bothered to look up at the roofline. He shrank back into the shadows of the false front of the building. She shook her head and climbed into her Blazer to follow her friend home, waving goodbye to the group of huge men who had escorted the women out to the parking lot. He watched the headlights of the two cars as they made their way out of town and up Teller One and kept watching long after they faded into the night. His face was inscrutable but his hands convulsively clenched as if trying to hold something that had already slipped out of his grasp. Then he stood and walked to the edge of the roof and stepped off the three-story building into thin air.

Chapter Eleven
    Rhi obediently drove home behind Pam as per Houston’s instructions. Any indignant emotions she might have harbored about being ordered around were washed away by the monstrous fear the night brought as she drove home. Shadows seemed to swoop through the sky over the two trucks as they barreled through the snowdrifts up to Horse Thief Gulch, chilling her blood and bringing on a headache that hit Rhi right between the eyes. The spirits that disturbed her soul sped away as if burned when the women made the turn up their hill. Rhi felt the urge to hurry as she approached the refuge of Horse Thief Gulch. She saw to it that Pam got into her own house and then made her way to her A-frame. It still felt like a haven but also, now, seemed like a prison, or better yet, a gigantic bull’s-eye, with her strapped naked and affixed to its center. She started violently when she pulled up to her home. The silhouette of a tall man holding a rifle in the crook of his arm stood in the pool of light on her deck. Rhi relaxed when she realized it was her neighbor, Bobby Wayne, with the large gold shadow of Ellie Mae at his side.
    She clambered out of the Blazer and broke through the crusty snow to approach her new “acquaintance” on the hill. “How is my baby doggie?” she called as she approached the deck. “Has she been a good girl?”
    “She seems a bit bothered by something,” he replied, calmly watching her make her way up the steps, “but then…I’m a bit bothered by something. We’ve been out walking in the woods together…and I got the feeling we weren’t alone, until we made our way back up here.” He looked down at the giant dog fondly. “Ellie here wants to hunt something…the hair on the back of her neck was standing straight up for the whole walk. But then again, so was mine. Then Houston called on my cell and told me to make sure you girls got home safe. I knew it must have