#11 Meet Me in the Emerald Forest

Clementine

I had no idea why I was trusting this dark haired God-like man walking beside me. As you can imagine, I don’t trust easily, so I was beyond baffled when I confessed my life story to a stranger standing in the forest.

All I had wanted to do was get away from Danny. After being in the car with him for two days, I couldn’t stay in the same space as him for another two seconds. I went for a walk and found my feet taking me to the woods where I was cornered by wolves seven years ago. This was the first time I had been there since that day.

It took me longer than I’d care to admit to announce myself to the man leaning against the very same tree I hid behind on that night. His face looked so peaceful, his posture completely relaxed against the tree. When I finally spoke and he opened his eyes, I was completely startled by the familiarity of those haunting green orbs. He jumped up and I couldn’t help but notice how his muscular body flexed with each movement, the ink black tattoos twitching over his exposed biceps.

I was sure that I imagined it when his eyes raked over my body and lit up with admiration and recognition. And then I opened my mouth and couldn’t control what came out.

We were so close to each other that our hands were almost touching as we walked down the streets towards my neighborhood, the Willow Community.

“Am I making you nervous?” His voice interrupted my train of thought.

“What? No.” I nearly jumped out of my skin. Lukas laughed at me, a low chuckle that began deep in his chest.

“Is that your house?” He said, looking past me.

“How did you know?” I narrowed my eyes on him in question, instantly suspicious.

I knew we were approaching my house, it was one of the first homes on my street, Rose Ave. Lukas cocked an eyebrow with a smirk on his plump lips and gestured his head towards something. I turned around and sighed loudly.

“Oh.” I muttered.

Danny was stomping down the sidewalk with a scowl that could’ve been seen from the moon.

“That’s my brother.” I clarified, looking back at Lukas. He had an amused expression on his face.

“He doesn’t seem thrilled.”

“He’s a ninny.” I grumbled.

“Clem?” Danny yelled at me from across the street to get my attention. He jogged towards us.

“Where have you been?” Danny asked as he stopped in front of us, “And who is that?”

“I went for a walk and he’s just someone I ran into.” I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at Danny.

“You just got out of the hospital….”

“Yes and I’ve spent two days stuck in a car with you. I needed to stretch my legs and get some fresh air.” I huffed.

“With a stranger?” Danny turned his sour expression on Lukas.

“How do you know if he’s a stranger or not? You weren’t exactly around to meet my high school friends, now were you?” I said in a judgey voice.

Danny blinked and looked taken aback, his hands dropping from his chest and dangling at his side in disbelief.

“Clem….”

“Just go back inside. I’ll be in, in a minute.” I sighed, feeling extremely agitated with him. Danny frowned and, after giving Lukas one last threatening look, turned to walk back up the sidewalk.

“Sorry about that.” I apologized to Lukas.

“You don’t have to apologize to me about a little family drama.” Lukas shrugged, “I’m sorry if I caused trouble for you.”

“It’s not you. Danny and I have some old wounds we’re still working on healing.” I waved my hand, dismissing his concerns, “Anyway, I should go in.”

“Before you do, I wanted to offer my help on your parents’ case.” Lukas touched my arm, keeping me from turning away.

“Help?” I asked curiously while focusing on the tingling feeling his hand left on my skin.

“After the attacks, the reservation helped the police and donated to the community. I have everything in the files at my office.” Lukas explained but I was still a bit confused.

“I remember the reservation fundraising for those who lost family and had to pay for funeral services and such. They did some renovations for the ransacked houses, too, right?”

“Yes, we did.” Lukas nodded.

“At the risk of sounding snobby, my parents were pretty loaded and so we didn’t need any help. I’m sorry, I’m still not sure how this helps with the case.” I was trying not to sound rude.

“We have some very good trackers on the reservation and they helped the sheriff follow some leads at the beginning.” Lukas clarified.

“Right, because you’re Native American culture.” I said in recognition. Lukas looked at me funny before smirking,

“Yeah, something like that. I don’t know if they’ll help but….” Lukas said,

“Sure, I haven’t had any new leads in a while. Any little bit helps, thanks.” I smiled.

“I’ll bring them by tomorrow, if that’s okay.”

“You don’t have to rush.” I argued.

“Maybe I just wanted an excuse to see you again.” His voice got lower and something that resembled a growl escaped his throat as he moved a step closer. I felt a deep rose-colored blush spread up my neck and cover my face.

“I….” I felt my voice catch in my throat and a squeaky sound came out.

Lukas laughed at me before dropping his hand from my arm. I looked at the spot where his fingers were causing sparks to ignite on my skin. It was now bitterly cold and I was shocked at how my body was reacting to him.

“I’ll see you later.” Lukas smiled crookedly at me before stuffing his hands in the pockets of his sweatpants and walking away. I watched him walk without shame before he was out of sight. I sighed and hurried into the house.

“I can’t believe you, Danny.” I slammed the door shut and yelled at my brother from where he was standing in the kitchen.

“Me?” Danny looked upset, “I can’t believe you said those things to me.”

“Alright, fine, I apologize for what I said, that wasn’t exactly fair. But, you overreacted, by a lot.” I leaned against the counter and looked at him from across the kitchen.

“I’m worried about you, Clementine.” He frowned.

“I know, but I’ve been taking care of myself for a while now, Danny, long before you came back home. You can’t treat me like a child, hovering over me all of the time. I can more than afford my own place and don’t think I won’t rent one for the three months I’ll be home.” I warned him. Danny sighed loudly but his posture relaxed,

“You left 8 months after Mom and Dad died for college, and you haven’t been home since. We haven’t really had time to adjust to each other.” Danny said, walking around the kitchen island to stand by my side.

“It’s gonna be a long three months.” I grumbled but offered Danny a smile anyway. He grinned back and pulled me into his chest for a hug,

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun.” He chuckled, resting his chin on the top of my head.

“As long as you don’t grill anyone else I walk home with like I’m a 16 year old school girl, we’ll get along just fine.” I mumbled against his shirt and his chest vibrated as he laughed.

“He wasn’t really an old friend though, was he?” Danny asked, pulling me away.

“He’s from the reservation. We just ran into each other in the woods. We were both on a walk.” I confessed, walking away from him to grab something to drink.

“In the woods?”

“I hadn’t been back to the place where I saw the wolves that night. I don’t know, I just felt like checking it out.” I shrugged casually, but Danny saw right through me. I kept my back turned to him as I opened the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.

“Mhm.” He hummed and, when I turned around, I noticed his sarcastic expression. I rolled my eyes,

“I’m going to unpack.”

“Your room is still the same, of course, and I put your bags up there. I also cleared out the office so you could set up in there for work.” Danny said and I turned back to look at him,

“Really?”

“Yeah, I don’t use it and it was really just for storage. I cleared off the desk and moved the boxes out. I figured you’d need space for work, I know you sent for all your files.” He cocked his eyebrows at me in judgment.

“Well….thanks.” I’ll admit to being surprised at his gesture.

I ran up the steps and stopped at the first door on the second floor. I peeked inside and noticed that my brother was still sleeping in his childhood bedroom. At the end of the hall, my parents’ bedroom door was shut. I felt sad for my brother having to live in this house all alone. I continued down the hall to the third door and pushed it open, revealing my old bedroom. Between Danny and I’s rooms was a Jack and Jill bathroom.

My room looked just like it did when I left home at 18. The walls were a deep purple color and mostly clear of any decorations. The king size bed had an off-white duvet cover with a ruffled pattern, and purple sheets and pillow covers. There was a woven circular rug in shades of purple underneath the bed and covering a large portion of the dark hardwood floor. Set off center on the wall was a picture window with a bench seat underneath covered in purple velvet. I liked purple.

The rest of the furniture was matching walnut, including the two side tables for the bed, dresser, TV stand, and two large bookcases that were overflowing with books. On the right wall was the door to the bathroom and on the left were a set of double doors leading to the walk-in closet. Hanging on the wall across from the bed was a flat screen TV with a console underneath filled with movies. It was a fine room to grow up in, but it felt so empty and lonely now.

Danny had placed my bags on the bed so I began to unpack them. Caleb, who had a key to my apartment in Quantico, was going to pack more of my things and send them over along with all the files from my office. I would also be getting case files delivered weekly to consult on. For now, I would put away what I had and settle in the best I could.