Twins of Prey by W.C. Hoffman Read Free Book Online

not been honest with you guys,” the sheriff started. “This is not a training mission, it is a manhunt. Well, a boy hunt,” he said, removing the yellow satellite phone from his frame pack.
    “My daughter found this phone and it has four pictures on it. One of them is the last known picture taken of the Senator's sons who went missing last year.”
    Flipping through the images one by one, he gave them the play by play of what they were seeing.
    “Here is a nice buck one of them must have shot...”
    Henderson being the biggest hunter in the group was the most interested in this one.
    “And here is one of the brothers dead... with a fucking arrow through his skull.”
    The sheriff spoke with little emotion while showing the picture and passing the phone around to the task force he had assembled.
    Each party member examined the phone’s photos and the mood around the campfire suddenly transformed. Before tonight they all had enough sense to know that the twin hunters were most likely dead. Not a single one of them ever imagined they one day would be looking at picture showing one of the brothers murdered.
    “So we are looking for a dead man and his missing brother?” Magee asked.
    “No, we are looking for a dead man, his missing brother and whoever the hell this teenage kid covered in blood is!” Ravizza added, clicking over to the next image.
    Magee being the highest seniority deputy behind the sheriff looked at the picture and immediately recognized the face.
    “Holy hell, its Mowgli!”
    The nickname was given to Drake upon his stay in the hospital all those years ago in reference to Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book , where a child is raised in the wild by animals. Though the picture was of Tomek and not Drake, no one knew back in the hospital days just as they did not know now that there are actually two Mowglis.
    “That is exactly what I am thinking,” the sheriff agreed.
    “Wait, that is all true?” Coleman again seemed confused. “I thought that was all just some story you all told to cover up losing the kid.”
    With a defensive tone, his boss replied, “Of course it is true. What is it about me that makes you think I would ever just make something like that up and use it as a cover-up?”
    “Well, if the boot fits...” Coleman had gone out on an accusatory limb but after all the sheriff had lied to get them all out there in the first place.
    “Well, the boot may fit in your eyes but at least my boot ain’t got bear shit on it!”
    Silence......silence...... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
    The mood was again lightened and the group went into the plans for the remainder of the hike. Sheriff sat with Ravizza going over the GPS data and the maps as Coleman cleaned his boots off, again.
    “Damn it. This bear crap soaked through and it’s on my socks,” Coleman said, tossing a crusty shit-soaked sock into the fire, much to the displeasure of the noses belonging to those around him.
    The group refocused one more time as the sheriff and Ravizza informed them of the general route they would take in the morning and at what time they would be leaving. They tucked into their bags around the warm, flickering glow of the fire. The snaps and pops of the boiling sap inside the pieces of pine mixed with the distant drone of the running river made for a perfect night to be in the woods.
    Ravizza rolled over, pulling Aurora close to him. Looking up he enjoyed being away from the city lights and used the moment to take in the bounty of stars that only northern Michigan can supply. Glancing to the south he became uneasy, as a large swath of Northern Lights was headed their way and would soon cover them for most of the night. Aurora sensed his uneasiness and whimpered.
    “Shhhh, lay down girl,” he comforted her, again rubbing the back of her neck and around her rib cage. Within minutes, the crickets mixed with the sounds of the fire and roaring of Coleman's giant-sized nostrils filling with air were the only things to be