Shadow Game E-Book

Lorhainne Eckhart

• Herausgeber: Lorhainne Eckhart, INC.
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: The Watchers
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 224

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

In a perfect small town hidden in the depths of the Appalachian Mountains, Raul's search for the truth about his friend's mysterious death pulls him into a whirlwind of deception and peril. "Shadow Game" weaves a chilling tale of government corruption, vanished loved ones, and experiments that echo the darkest chapters of history.

Leseprobe

Shadow Game

COPYRIGHT © Lorhainne Ekelund, 2024, All Rights Reserved.

No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Contact Information: [email protected]

Editor: Talia Leduc

Shadow Game

The Watchers

Book 1

Lorhainne Eckhart

Contents

Keep in touch with Lorhainne

The Watchers

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Coming Next

Discover the Origins of Raul Boothe: Read "The Sacrifice"

Chapter 1

About the Author

Links to Lorhainne Eckhart’s Booklist

Keep in touch with Lorhainne

Sign-up for Lorhainne’s Newsletter & Monday Blog

Like Lorhainne on Facebook

Follow Lorhainne on Instagram

Follow Lorhainne on Twitter

Lorhainne’s Audiobooks on Audible

Follow Lorhainne on Bookbub

Follow Lorhainne on Amazon

Connect with me on Goodreads

Check-out Lorhainne’s Pinterest Boards

Follow me on Wattpad

The Watchers

Six unlikely friends, with a diverse set of skills, are brought together to face off against a common enemy in the mind-bending new series The Watchers.

Shadow Game

Meet the Watchers: Six unlikely people from different backgrounds united by a common goal—to make the world a better place.

One night, Raul receives a call from an old childhood friend who tells him a wild story about human experimentation in a small town deep in the Appalachian Mountains, not far from where they grew up. Raul dismisses it, but a day later, his friend is found dead in a motel room two hundred miles away.

When Raul arrives in the small town his friend described, it appears postcard perfect, as do the residents. However, as he digs into its history, he discovers that the town square is fake, the police chief harbors secrets, everyone seems related in some way, and something nefarious is occurring in the surrounding woodlands.

Then, seemingly coincidentally, Raul meets five others in town who have also noticed something off. As they join forces, they soon learn that something far more sinister is unfolding. And worse, what they uncover hits closer to home for Raul than he could have imagined. Could it be bigger than any of them are equipped to handle?

ChapterOne

Raul Booth felt a storm brewing even though the day was hot and sunny and the blue sky held not even a wisp of clouds. His face was damp and his bare chest sweaty, the faded old blue T-shirt he had pulled off resting over the edge of the rusty wheelbarrow. He lifted the ax and brought it down hard, splitting another round of birch, then reached for another. The echo of the sharp thud in the hills was oddly comforting.

“You want to tell me what you’ve got stuck in your craw? Because I’m getting tired of watching you, and as much as I appreciate the wood, I can’t see myself burning all that,” came the voice of his older brother, Asher, who was sitting in an old wooden chair on the porch beside Raul’s dog. “Suppose I could sell some, but it doesn’t seem fair, taking advantage of you this way. Let me think on that a second.”

Raul rested the blade of the ax on the ground and pulled the back of his other hand over his forehead, which was dripping with sweat. He stared up at Asher; his dark hair was wavy, and his beard needed a trim.

“You know what?” Asher said. “On second thought, I won’t lose any sleep, making a profit off your skinny ass. What do you suppose you’ve cut there for me, about six cords, seven?”

Raul gripped the wooden handle of the ax and lifted it with one hand, feeling the burn in his shoulders. He then buried the ax in the chopping block with a thud, reached down for the split wood around it, and tossed it onto the pile he had chopped. “Figured it’s the least I can do since you’re feeding me and letting me bunk down here.”

The quietness that settled as he tossed the last piece of wood had him wiping his hands and turning around. His brother was watching him with the same sadness he’d tried to hide since Raul had shown up two weeks earlier. “Stay, my ass, Raul. This is always your home. You’re not a damn guest here, you know that, especially considering you’re bunking down in the old shed on a cot with the dog. Again, how about you come clean on what’s eating you? You’ve been chopping since sun-up. I made coffee hours ago and even a sandwich, expecting you’d come in when you were hungry, but I’m starting to think you enjoy discomfort. For two days, all you’ve done is chop as if you’re a damn machine.”

Raul let his gaze settle on his mutt of a dog, who was resting on the shady porch, watching him with mud-brown eyes. “I’m not complaining,” he said. “It’s my way of saying thanks for keeping my dog when I’m gone.”

His brother was leaning back now in the old wooden chair, lifting the front legs off the porch, rocking it a bit, as he looked down at the dog. “Yeah, well, you had to pick a lazy thing. Doesn’t even carry his weight, just eats and sleeps. You couldn’t even give it a halfway decent name…”

“He’s got a name. Dawg.”

He never could tell when his brother was smiling behind that beard. Asher shook his head as he let the front of the chair down with a thunk and stood. Dawg wagged his tail from the shade of the porch, then walked to his bowl and lapped up the last of his water before picking up the bowl with his teeth and letting it fall with a thud on the old wood porch.

“Okay, boy, I hear you,” Raul said. “Water break it is.” He reached for his T-shirt and pulled it on. His worn jeans were covered in bits of wood and bark, hanging low on his hips as he started back to the small cabin that was his refuge. The place was hard to get to in the hills of eastern Tennessee. He stepped up onto the old porch, sheltered and shady, just as Asher started down the steps beside him. His baggy worn jeans needed a wash, and his blue T-shirt had faded to more of a pale gray.

“Go eat the sandwich I made you and get your dog some water,” Asher said.

Raul opened the door to the cabin, revealing the old woodstove and the sofa his brother often fell asleep on, then turned back to his eight-year-old dog, who had the ears of a Shepherd and the coat of a brown Lab. He reached down for the metal bowl his dog had dropped and then started inside toward the small kitchen, with one counter, an old electric stove, a forty-year-old fridge that still ran, and a porcelain sink that was rusty on the sides.

The bedroom his brother had shared with his wife before she’d left was closed, and the two bedrooms off the back of the house where his five kids had slept were empty. Raul felt the heaviness that still weighed on his brother as he turned on the tap, hearing the rattle of the pipes.

The old rotary rang. He turned off the tap and set the half-full bowl on the dirty linoleum for his dog as the yellow phone rang again. He stared only a second before he reached for it, wondering who would be calling, considering the phone never rang.

“Hello? This is Raul.”

There was static on the other end. “Raul, is that you? It’s Wyatt. I’m in a shitload of trouble. I saw something I know I wasn’t supposed to see. You’re the first person I thought of calling. There’s no one else. I didn’t know if you’d be at your brother’s or where you’d be.” Wyatt Clinton, a childhood friend he hadn’t seen in two years, sounded freaked out. He was rambling, and the line was cutting in and out. “God damn, they’re fucking with people here. I know this is going to sound crazy, but I just walked into this place I swear was never here before. I’m not crazy, I’m not, but everything here, it’s absolutely nothing like how it first looks…”

“Wyatt, Wyatt, look, slow down,” Raul said. “Where are you? You’re making no sense. What place?”

There was static again, and he didn’t know whether it was from his end or Wyatt’s. “Remember that valley not far from where we grew up, on the other side of the ridge? It was impossible to get to, and we were told to stay away when we were young. Remember the Rollins kid who disappeared, and the stories we heard about Ralph Miller going out hunting and never coming back?”

Raul had to think. There were a few places in the hills that they’d steered clear of, both inaccessible and rumored to be filled with unexplainable, dangerous shit that one didn’t mess with. Superstition had been part of the community he’d grown up in. “Vaguely, sure,” he said, “but what is this about? What kind of trouble are you in? You need to be a little more specific. You need me to come and get you?”

“Look, just listen, Raul,” Wyatt said. “I was checking some of my traps, and a few were completely trashed. You know I see red about that kind of shit. You never mess with a man’s traps. So I followed the tracks. Just on the other side of the mountain, in the valley, there’s a small town that was never there before. I know this is going to sound crazy, but I just walked in. The sign says Shadow Valley, but it’s nothing I’ve ever seen on a map. On the surface it seems all pretty and welcoming, but there’s crazy-ass shit going on there. It’s like a giant experiment. They’re fucking with people’s heads.

“I walked into a family cafe, and everyone was staring. I asked for a coffee, and it was poured and handed to me, no charge, and I was sent on my way. I didn’t have to go too far before I spotted buses pulling in with blacked-out windows. I don’t think I was supposed to see any of it. I’m not kidding, I saw someone dead. In the forest were two guys with lab coats and two women sitting at a table with a gun, taking turns pulling the trigger at each other. The guys had clipboards, and after so many turns the gun went off and killed one of the women. There was blood and shit. They carried her into a small concrete building through a metal door. It just has to go underground, like nothing I’ve ever seen. This is completely fucked up. The other woman just sat there as if she were some damn robot.

“I cased the town, circled it, just watching from the trees. Then I went out a little farther. It scared the ever-living shit out of me, Raul. They were all smiles and hellos, the prettiest, cleanest place ever, but I swear to God, none of this can be real. There’s something evil here. I know this sounds crazy, like some demented conspiracy, but it’s not. I swear, Raul, there’s something off. This town doesn’t exist on any map of Appalachia. I know. I checked.”

A chill ran down Raul’s spine. “Just back up, there. Are you sure you haven’t been smoking something?”

“For fuck’s sake, Raul, I’m stone-cold sober. I’m telling you what I see here makes my skin crawl and scares the shit out of me. It’s sick and twisted…”

Behind him, his dog was lapping up water, and outside his brother was whistling. He tried to make sense of what his childhood friend was saying. He rubbed his head, feeling his disheveled wavy brown hair, which he’d only run a comb through so many days ago.

“Well, first, getting the hell out of there would be the smartest thing to do,” Raul said. “You know as well as I do that there could be a hundred different explanations for whatever it is you think you saw out there.” But even as the words passed his lips, he didn’t believe them. He’d learned that people did crooked, evil things for money and reasons he no longer tried to understand.

“Yeah, well, you tell me a reason that makes a lick of sense,” Wyatt said. “I’m already making my way back. You know I’m not some dumbass. Just tell me, you worked for the CIA, the military, all that shit. Do they know about this kind of thing? It’s not on a map. I’m telling you, this is spooky. Nothing scares me, but right now, I’m freaking out.”

The phone line was cutting out, static again. Raul thought of everything the government could have its hand in. The power of the state was something he’d stopped talking about long ago. “It could be, or it could be something else entirely,” he said. “Just get the fuck out of there.”

“What do you think I’m doing? I’m moving my ass as I’m talking to you. But what about this place, these people, what I saw? I’m not sure about the bus, but I saw kids and families getting off. Then this black-robed guy showed up like it’s fucking Halloween…”

Raul’s mind raced, and he made himself pull in one breath and another. Wyatt was as steady as they came, but his voice revealed the gravity of the situation and the implications of what he’d shared. Raul knew he couldn’t simply dismiss his friend’s claims. After a moment of silence and more static, he took a deep breath and responded, his voice filled with concern.

“Wyatt, listen to me carefully. If it’s what you’re saying, then you don’t want to be found there.”

“It’s exactly as I’m saying.” Wyatt cut him off, and the edge in his voice came through clearly. “I took photos, lots.”

Raul took a second to realize what his friend had said. If Wyatt was right, this wasn’t the kind of thing anyone lived to talk about, let alone show photos of. “Fine, you get your ass back here. Keep your head down, and shut your phone down as soon as we finish talking. You call no one else and talk to no one. You hear me? If what you’re saying is true, then we’re dealing with something dangerous and potentially life-threatening.”

Asher, still whistling, was coming closer.

“I’m going to have a word with Asher, see what he knows about the area you’re talking about. How long do you think it will take you to get here?”

There was static again, and he couldn’t make out what Wyatt was saying.

“Wyatt, you’re cutting out. “Listen, just come right here. Again, talk to no one about this. You hear me, Wyatt?”

The line went dead.

“What the hell is that about?”

Raul hadn’t heard his brother come in. He hung up the old phone. “I have no idea. Wyatt Clinton is on his way here. Remember the valley on the other side of the hills, west of here, where we were told never to go? Well, he went, following some tracks after a few of his traps were wrecked. He says he stumbled on a town. He’s going on about weird, crazy stuff. He sounded scared in a way I’ve not heard him sound before.”

Asher made a face as he walked over to the counter and gestured to the plate where sat a white-bread bologna sandwich, mustard seeping out of the sides. “Eat your sandwich,” was all he said before starting to the closed door of his bedroom.

Raul reached for the sandwich and took a bite, tasting the stale bread as he chewed.

Asher stopped with his hand on the doorknob. “You know, Raul, there’s a reason we don’t go places we’re told to stay out of,” he said. He glanced Raul’s way with an odd expression. “Raul, when you leave here and go wherever you go, I get down on my knees and pray you’ll come back safe and unscathed. When you show up, I can let go of the weight that hangs around me the entire time you’re gone, doing God knows what. You think I don’t know the things you’ve seen, the things you’ve done? You can’t hide it from me. I see your face, the scars you think you hide. You carry the weight of the world, and I can guess at what it is you’ve seen from the screams I hear when you’ve had a bad dream. I remind myself there are some things I don’t want to know about, even though I probably already do. You can’t fix the world, Raul. There are bad people doing evil, fucked-up shit out there.”

He hadn’t realized his brother heard him when he woke from the living nightmares that followed him into his dreams. His dog did, he knew, because it was Dawg who woke him each time, licking his face. He said nothing.

Asher opened the bedroom door and looked back at him again. “Maybe one day you’ll come clean and tell me what has you screaming in the middle of the night. I don’t want you getting killed, Raul. Whatever Wyatt stumbled upon, how about you turn it over to someone else and let that person handle it?”

Then Asher stepped into his bedroom and closed the door, and for the first time ever, Raul realized that the world of hurt he carried was likely nothing compared to his brother’s pain.

The storm Raul had felt brewing earlier brought a flash of lightning that lit up the room. Heavy clouds of darkness passed across the window, and a boom of thunder that echoed in the hills had Dawg hiding in a corner. Raul stared at the phone, then at his brother’s closed door, unable to shake a feeling of darkness that he couldn’t make any sense of.

ChapterTwo

The thunderous roar of the storm echoed through the valley as a torrent of rain pummeled the ground. Flashes of lightning illuminated the treeline, while gusts of wind ripped through the treetops and shook the ground beneath Raul’s feet. The power of a storm was something he both respected and feared. He pulled his arms over his chest, feeling the chill the sudden storm had brought, as he leaned against the post of the covered porch, gazing out onto a landscape transformed into an eerie sea of mud and streams. The woodstove crackled in the background as darkness consumed the sky, and soon enough, even the once empty rain barrels were overflowing from the sheer force of the downpour.

“Still no sign of Wyatt? You know, with this storm, he probably took shelter,” Asher said, the old porch creaking under his feet. The scent of burning wood drifted through the open door of the cabin.

Raul gazed at the dark mass of trees ahead, his unease growing as he caught a whiff of the damp earth and moldy foliage. “Not Wyatt. He’s dealt with worse, hiked through worse. He knows these hills better than anyone. I’m more worried about what he saw. You have an idea about this place he hiked into, Shadow Valley?” Raul glanced back at Asher, whose expression seemed to carry all the world’s worries, then at his dog, lying by the fire in the doorway. “One thing I know about Wyatt: if he says he’ll be here, no force in this world is gonna stop him.”

Asher shook his head slowly, then shrugged. “Foolish…” He paused and took a deep breath. “Look, all I can tell you about that place is that I heard the same as you, some strange stories a while back. I don’t want to know. I have enough problems on my plate. My advice to you is don’t go poking around there. When Wyatt gets back, remind him of all those warnings we heard. When someone tells you not to go near a house on a hill, or to one side of a valley, listen. There are some things you have no business messing with.”

Raul thought his brother had changed so much, being away for so long. At one time, overly cautious was not how he would have described Asher.

“Maybe we should talk about Lydia and the children, why she left and where she is now,” Raul said. “You haven’t said a word to me about that. Have you even tried to see your kids? Do you know where they are?”

Asher was so damn stubborn in his anger, like no one Raul had ever come across. “You first,” he said. “Tell me about the nightmares that have you screaming like a scared little kid.” His brother edged closer, and Raul didn’t appreciate being put on the spot. “Yeah, just as I thought. Best to leave some wounds alone. You do you and I’ll do me.”

Raul furrowed his brow and shook his head, knowing Asher’s attempts to deflect the conversation could turn nasty. That was just what he did when someone picked at a wound that was still festering. It was something that seemed to run in the family. “You know, Asher, we have to talk about Lydia and the kids at some point. I can see it’s eating you alive.”

Asher remained silent for a moment, not looking in Raul’s direction. He finally turned slowly and heaved a heavy sigh. “I don’t know what happened. Sure, we fought. What couple doesn’t? She talked nonsense, needing space, needing more, wanting more…” He pulled his arms over his broad chest. “One day she was just gone without a trace. Took the kids with her. No note, no explanation. I tried calling her parents, but they said they hadn’t heard from her, either. It’s like she vanished into thin air. I’ve looked everywhere, asked everyone I could think of. But nothing. I came back from hunting, gone for a day, and found empty drawers and an empty house.” His words hung in the air.

“What happened? Why’d she leave? They’re your kids, too, Asher, and you and Lydia, you two have known each other since forever. This makes no sense. I thought she was close with her parents. Wouldn’t they know where she is?”

Asher’s eyes had always been so warm and inviting, but now they held a harshness that made Raul uneasy. As he exhaled, he seemed to force tension out of his body. “Sometimes life is unfair, Raul. And her parents, well, let’s just say that closeness fell away years ago, the moment she said ‘I do.’ They wanted better for her, and that wasn’t me. Maybe they do know where she is, but they’re not telling me. As far as they’re concerned, she’s better off without me,” he said gruffly. “People can disappoint us, and we have to accept it. Not much we can do to change it. Guess I never really knew Lydia.

“I hope Wyatt finds somewhere safe to stay tonight. You should probably stay with the dog in one of the kids’ rooms. There are no leaks in this house, but that shed you like so much has too many holes in the roof. You won’t get any sleep if you stay out there, only get drenched.” Asher gave Raul’s shoulder a brotherly pat before he trudged back into the cabin.

The wind whistled through the trees, making Raul shiver as he rubbed his bare arms, letting his brother’s words sink in. He hoped Lydia’s folks weren’t the reason she’d left with the kids. But, again, some of the things people did no longer surprised him.

Raul rested his hand on the heavy post of the porch, staring at the darkened treeline. A wave of dread washed over him as he considered Wyatt’s words and the strange town he had stumbled upon. He knew the average person had no idea of the crazy shit that went on, sometimes in their own backyard. He had learned long ago that he could never talk about it. He really hoped Wyatt was wrong.

Images of the things he’d seen flooded his mind, and he shut his eyes, pushing the horrors away.

“He’s gone crazy, that’s all. He spends too much time in these hills alone,” he muttered. He really hoped that was all it was, knowing Wyatt would take off in the middle of nowhere for weeks on end. He’d been doing it forever. Raul knew well what happened to soldiers in prolonged isolation. Just maybe, the grueling life they had lived had finally taken its toll. He hoped more than anything that what Wyatt had stumbled upon was nothing more than a few eccentric locals in a backwater town.

“Please, I need a break. No more weird shit, please,” he whispered uneasily into the wind. Then he fisted his hand, slapped the post, and took in the old shed that was his refuge. Maybe his brother was right. He’d sleep in the house tonight, and for one night, maybe he’d tell himself it would be okay to be comfortable.

ChapterThree

The first thing Raul noticed when he opened his eyes was the bright sun streaming through the window over the comfort of the double bed. His dog was at his feet, watching him, and he felt more rested than he had in a long time. Okay, maybe Asher had been right, but he waited another second for the guilt to hit. Penance was all he believed he was entitled to.

He pulled his hand over his face and sat up, tossing back the covers, then set his bare feet on the floor. The clatter of the stove and the smell of a strong brew of coffee told him his brother was already up. He pulled his jeans from the old blue dresser and stepped into them over his striped boxers, then strode barefoot to the bedroom door and pulled it open, smelling the sizzle of bacon.