Hidden Deep Read Online Free Page A

schooling?”
    Lad’s face contracted in a grimace. He jumped up, stalked to the edge of the nest, and stopped, facing away from me. “I don’t want to talk about that anymore.”
    Well then. Not only had I ruined a very interesting moment, my question had struck some kind of nerve. The silence between us stretched out and became awkward. I thought about the fact that Lad was barefoot and strangely dressed.
    When I’d first seen his clothes, I’d pegged him as the indigenous redneck variety of local male. Now, I wondered. Maybe his family is really poor . I’d heard of backwoods people living in little more than dirt-floored plywood shacks without even what most would consider the basic necessities. It would explain how I’d seen him out here when I was lost as a child. He hadn’t been a hallucination or even lost himself. His family must have lived somewhere out here in the woods. Maybe even on my grandma’s property. He must have been ashamed for me to know.
    I needed to change the subject, get him talking again. I hadn’t even gotten any answers about that night yet. I stood and gingerly made my way across to him and touched him lightly on the arm.
    “I’ll tell you a secret about me,” I offered.
    Lad turned around, looking alert and interested. “What is it?”
    “I’m completely, totally, and incurably afraid of heights.”
    He laughed with obvious relief. “Really? I would never have guessed.”
    I laughed, too, but in the next instant Lad clamped his hand over my mouth and dropped to his knees, pulling me down with him. His entire body was tense. I heard him hiss some kind of foreign-sounding curse under his breath. After a few moments he removed his hand from my mouth and let me go. “Sorry.”
    “What was that? What happened?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Just body-slamming me and cussing for fun?”
    “No. Sorry. It’s—I saw something. I should take you home now.”
    “You were so all-fired determined to get me up here, and now you want me to go home? Why? What did you see?”
    “A deer. I saw a deer.”
    “A deer. Well, as far as I know, they don’t climb trees or bite.”
    “I don’t want… it to know this place is up here—never mind. It’ll be dark soon. Let’s get you back before those national guards start looking for you.”
    “National Guard. It’s singular. You know, a group, a unit? How can you not know what that is?”
    “Whatever it is, I don’t want it out here. Let’s go.”
    Once on the ground, Lad was all business. He scanned in all directions then charged into the thick of the woods. I had to practically jog to keep up. Wow. He can’t wait to get rid of me now.
    I, on the other hand, wanted to slow down, to postpone the end of our journey. My mind was still swimming with questions. I needed to know more about him. I couldn’t exactly carry on a conversation with the back of his head, though, especially as winded as I was from trying to match his impossibly long stride.
    As we passed the natural pool, Lad glanced back at me and kept going in the direction of Grandma's log house. He knows how to get there already . At the edge of the yard Lad stopped and turned to face me. He looked around then stepped close and spoke softly.
    “I followed them when they came and took you that morning. I wasn’t sure if it was all right for you to go with them, but there were so many men, and I was so small. I understood after they brought you here, it was where you belonged. I wasn’t supposed to go close to the houses, but I came back in secret to try to see you again. I watched you in the yard with your family. I heard them call you Ryann.”
    I couldn’t get over the way he said my name. He made it sound beautiful.
    “Then one day you were gone and didn’t come back. I thought I’d never see you again. And now I can’t answer your questions. I’m not even supposed to be talking to you. I’m sorry. You should go in.”
    Lad took a step back, his jaw set. He nodded, as if