Hitched & Hitched Again: A Comedy of Marital Mayhem

In the distance, the hunt in the forest was still raging.

It was too far away to hear any screams, but the roars of wild beasts echoed through the trees.

Tarquin glanced down at the numbers glowing on his wristband.

Over fifty illegal poachers had slipped into these woods-now, more than half of them were dead.

Only twenty-two left.

Not a flicker of surprise or sympathy crossed Tarquin's face.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, he thought. They brought this on themselves.

He tapped his wristband, switching to the navigation screen, and started trekking toward the lodge. There were still a few dozen poachers back at the house waiting to be dealt with.

The forest was wild and thick. No trails, just tangled roots and brambles everywhere.

Lucky for him, Tarquin was no stranger to the wilderness. With his digital map guiding him, he found the old cabins soon enough.

The elders' cabins were a circle of eight wooden lodges, each one snug against the next.

All two-story, all built from sturdy oak, all practically identical.

Six of the elders had a place of their own. Elysia and the kids shared another. The last was a communal storeroom, stacked with supplies and food-canned beans, jerky, crackers, peanut butter, and all sorts of homey essentials.

fences here, just a waist-high picket fence strung with twinkling fairy lights. The glow

and shimmered like tiny fireflies, wrapping the cabins

the heart of the deep woods, the sight gave Tarquin a sense of warmth he

and the kids inside made his expression

forward, ready to see

Suddenly-

He stopped dead,

mistaking it: he'd just stepped on

and he'd be

out why there'd be a bomb buried so close to the cabins. The elders were all legends in their own right-ho way

Waiting for him

His eyes darted toward the cabins, his

quiet. Too quiet. He stood there, one foot pressing down on the hidden explosive, not

scared-just a

a very numb leg), he finally spotted two elders strolling

crisp white tracksuit; the other, a sharp dark

had a certain air about

one

about it,"

were. He

triggered the mine. Walter was

woods at the moment, and he'd already met Bernard, so these two had to be Quincy and