by Vivian Gray
When Zeke finished talking and slumped back in his chair – a sign of the strain this was taking on him – Nathan leaned forward.
“Well, young Zeke. I’m glad you came to me.”
Zeke raised an eyebrow. “You know something?”
Nathan rose to his feet and began pacing the room while he spoke. “A year after the explosion, I received a letter. All it said was that there was blood on your hands, Zeke. It also said that as your commander, the overall responsibility was on my shoulders. The crazy thing is, it was signed by Gary. I knew that couldn’t be possible. I identified his body, for God’s sake. I can still picture his messed up remains.” He paused to take a drink, his face twisted momentarily in anguish. “I tried to ignore it, but something like that tugs at your mind. For a while I worried about who could be out there, brooding over the tragedies and pointing the finger in the wrong places. You know as well as I do that there was nothing we could’ve done to prevent that IED going off. We did our jobs as best we could. Hell, I wasn’t even on the base at the time. Everything went quiet, so I just put it down to a sick hoax. The interesting thing is, I had no idea until now that Gary had a brother.” He stroked his chin in thought with his arms folded across his chest. “This could be significant. It could be him. Twins are connected in ways normal siblings would never understand. The death of one twin must be devastating. It could send someone over the edge. It’s perfectly plausible it could be that this Troy guy has gone mad and wants to take his anger out on us.”
Suddenly, a loud smash tore through the conversation as a brick came soaring in through the back window, landing just inches away from Nathan’s feet.
Sophie screamed and bounced backward, causing her chair to skid across the tiled floor. Zeke had instinctively thrust his arms out in front of her for protection, but on realizing it was just a brick, he got up and moved forward, his shoes crunching on broken glass, to grab a piece of paper strapped to the brick with a rubber band.
He unrolled the paper, tiny shards of glass falling like rain drops to the floor as he did.
“Careful,” Sophie whispered in a shaking voice. She could see his fingers were trembling ever so slightly.
He read it silently and looked up at Nathan, with panic in his eyes. He glanced at Sophie with a pained expression.
“What? What does it say?” she asked, stepping forward. She looked over his shoulders and read the words – All three of you will pay. She gasped, and as her knees weakened, she steadied herself with one hand on Zeke’s shoulder.
“I won’t let him hurt you,” he said, staring into her eyes intensely. “I won’t.”
Chapter Seventeen
Zeke
As soon as the note was revealed, Nathan ran out the back door saying, “Let’s catch this son of a bitch,” through gritted teeth. As he disappeared around the corner to make a loop of the house, Zeke spotted something hurtling in through the smashed window. He instinctively leaped forward, pulling Sophie to the ground and covering her body with his. She let out an involuntary shriek on the way down but lay still underneath his strong frame, her breath labored with shock.
Two small, metal canisters rolled along the tiled floor towards them, hissing as gas spewed out and began to cloud their vision. Zeke kicked the nearest one away as far as he could, but the second one was just a little too far to reach.
Suddenly someone scooped Sophie up by the underarms and began to drag her outside.
“Zeke!” she called out.
“I’ll go back for him,” Nathan grunted.
Zeke was so glad to hear his old commander’s voice in the smoky haze, and that he’d helped Sophie first. Within seconds, Nathan was back and pulling him to safety.
Zeke coughed and wiped at the stinging gas, attempting to clear his lungs with the fresh summer air outside. Sophie and Nathan sat on the grass nearby, their eyes pink and streaming with tears.
“Did you see him?” Zeke asked Nathan between coughs.
“No. He’s a little cleverer than we thought. I did a circuit of the house, and by the time I got back here, he’d launched these and disappeared.”
Sophie stepped forward with her hand stretched out towards Zeke. He took hold of it gently and pulled her in towards him, wrapping the other arm around her. “You OK?”
She sniffed and nodded. “Yeah.”
“Let’s get in the car. Do a few blocks. I know the area so let’s take mine,” Nathan said, holding up a ring full of keys. He then quickly dashed off to the summer house to tell his wife, Tracy, to head to her sister’s place and stay there until she heard from him.
Zeke, Sophie, and Nathan ran to the older man’s Chrysler parked in the drive and hopped in. Nathan pulled away at full speed just seconds after the doors were shut. He swerved and looped the neighborhood’s streets as all three of them kept their eyes on different sides, looking for anyone running or just acting weird.
Zeke and Sophie were both in the back. Zeke grabbed Sophie’s arm and flipped it over to see a web of little cuts all bleeding into one little trickle. He looked deep into her eyes. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered. It hurt to see her hurt.
“It’s not your fault,” she whispered back.
He turned away to look out the window. He couldn’t let her get much deeper in this. If anything happened to her through association with him... well, he just couldn’t handle the thought. That would finish him. He’d found it hard enough to deal with losing so many colleagues, but to lose the first woman he’d cared about in so long, it would be too much. He didn’t want to be her downfall.
She must have sensed his anguish, as her hand squeezed his knee as if to tell his thoughts to shut up.
There was no sign of anything to follow up on.
“Shit,” Nathan said, slamming his hand on the steering wheel. “He’s outsmarted us. “Just then, a car drove so close behind them it caused Nathan to tilt his head to peer into the rearview mirror. “Zeke, can you make out the person in that car?”
Zeke turned. “No, he’s wearing a hood and a scarf over his nose and mouth. That has to be him. We need to find a way to stop him.”
Before Nathan could respond, the car behind them rammed into Nathan’s hood, causing it to swing open and block his view of behind. Sophie gasped and held onto the seat in front of her, her fingers gripping it so tightly that they were turning white.
“Brace yourselves,” Nathan warned before slamming on the brakes. The car behind crunched right into the back of the Chrysler – it was like two soda cans had slammed together. As soon as both cars ground to a halt, Nathan and Zeke leaped out, but before they could even lay a hand on the other car, it reversed, turned, and speed away.
Zeke kicked a stone, shouting, “Fuck! Shit!” He leaned over and rested his hands on his knees and breathed deeply.
Nathan held his head in his hands – looking like a statue of defeat.
After a minute, they jumped back into the car, and Nathan put his foot on the gas, causing a few wheel spins, but then Zeke heard a grinding sound and could smell burning rubber.
“Shit, I think we’ve got a flat,” he said, shaking his head in frustration.
***
The mood in the car while they waited for one of Zeke’s motorcycle club guys was heavy with despair. Every now and then Zeke punched the seat in front of him.
“We’re professionals,” he said through stiff lips. “How is he managing to get the better of us? We should be able to kick his ass.”
Nathan sighed. “It’s the element of surprise. It’s half the battle. You know that.”
Zeke nodded.
Their lift eventually arrived. Toby from the club asked no questions. He made small talk, but it was clear he could tell from the mood in the car to keep it easy.
Back at Nathan’s house, Zeke followed him up the path, giving him a piece of paper. “This is the number of a guy who’s been helping us so far – Sophie’s boss. He’s good. He knows everything so far. If you need anything, call him
straight away. I’m going to get her out of town for a couple days while we plan our next move. Stay safe. I’ll call you.”
As he walked back to the car, a pang of guilt tugged at his gut as he caught sight of Sophie’s large, frightened eyes. She looked so innocent sitting in the back of that car, the fear oozing from her.
He climbed into the passenger seat up front, giving Sophie a measured smile as he did. “Can you take us to Woodbrook?” he asked Toby.
“Really?” Toby asked, turning to look at Zeke with one eyebrow raised.
“Definitely.” He turned to Sophie and explained. “We’re going somewhere safe for a few days. Somewhere secluded that no one knows about.”
Sophie frowned. “This Woodbrook place... what is it?”
“It’s my safe house,” Zeke said softly, keeping his eyes on the road.
Chapter Eighteen
Sophie
Woodbrook was a wooden lodge in the clearing of a dense forest. It was completely camouflaged until the car approached a clearing on the bumpy, mud-encrusted road.
Zeke had barely spoken on the thirty-minute ride out, his fists clenched on the steering wheel the whole way. Sophie knew not to press for information. She’d learned by now that he was a private person. He never just offered information; details seemed to seep out slowly over a few days. She knew she’d find out Woodbrook’s back story once they were settled inside.
It was dark when Toby dropped them off, and they took their bags up to the porch. The wooden steps creaked. Sophie looked at the swing chair, big enough for two, which was rustic – clearly handmade. Even in the eerie darkness, the cabin had charm.
Zeke unlocked the heavy, plank door and gave it a shove to force it open. “Wood contracts and expands. This door is either tight, or it swings like Frank Sinatra.”
Sophie laughed. It was good to see the softer side of Zeke again.
Inside, he went around lighting gas lamps and putting logs and fuel bricks into a burning stove in the fireplace. There were woolen blankets over the backs of two sofas facing the fireplace and some rustic pottery on a shelf on one wall, but apart from that, it was bare. The walls were simple wood planks, and instead of curtains, there were green painted wooden shutters. Sophie liked it. It was modest.
Zeke made two steaming mugs of peppermint tea while Sophie watched from the sofa. She was intrigued. This was a situation she’d never seen him in before. He was calm, in control... relaxed.
When he brought the mugs over and sat with her, he let out a long sigh and blew the steam in curls over the top of his mug. “I think we should lay low here for a few days while we plan our next move.”
“So... this place....” Sophie said, looking around the room. “Is it a holiday home?”
“No. It’s more like... therapy. At least, it was,” he replied. “When I first came out of the military, I needed a project to keep my mind focused. My old man left me this bit of land in his will....”
“I didn’t know he’d passed away,” Sophie said, putting one hand on Zeke’s knee. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
Zeke shook his head. “It was years ago when I was fifteen. I got the deeds when I was eighteen, but I didn’t know what to do with it at that point. Suddenly it all made sense when I recovered from the explosion. I built this place by hand.”
“All of it?”
“Yes, all of it. That’s why it’s a bit rough.”
“It’s great.”
“Thanks. It really helped me get to a stable place, mentally. When so many of your friends are taken from you so suddenly, and so brutally, it’s impossible to process it all at once. Log by log, day by day, this place gave me the peace to get over it. I stayed out here for a few months after it was built. The solitude was so healing. But then I needed a life again – people, work, a purpose. I come out here every now and then to rebalance. It’s not on the grid and doesn’t have an address, so we’re safe here. We’ve vanished... for now.”
Sophie was impressed. She leaned her head on his upper arm and stared into the flames, which were now building into a nice blaze in the stove.
“If you don’t mind me asking.... where is your mom?” she asked.
“She’s in New York. She moved there a year ago with her new husband. Never see her. But I’m glad she’s happy. She spent all those years bringing my kid brother and me up, pretty much alone. Dad was never supportive. He had... other priorities. And then he went and died in a drink-driving accident. So... it’s her time to live again. I don’t blame her for that.”
“Wow. That’s...”
“Messed up?” He laughed. “You show me a family that isn’t.”
“True,” Sophie said, nodding. “What about your brother?”
“He’s in town. I see him a lot. He’s one of my closest friends.”
“That’s nice,” Sophie said and sipped her tea.
“You’ll meet him,” Zeke added with a grin.
Sophie smiled back. Another sign of his intentions. “I would’ve loved a sibling. I never had any family,” she said, staring into the fire. “I’d get close to some kids at the children’s home, but then they’d be relocated or adopted, and that was that. It was too painful to keep in touch with the ones who had been adopted into a family. It just reminded me of what I didn’t have.”
Zeke put an arm around her and rubbed her shoulder. It sent a rush of warmth through her. Her skin tingled with pleasure. This was the closest to feeling loved she’d ever felt. He kissed her hair and then moved down to kiss her neck, sending shivers down her back.
They put their mugs down on the chunky log table, eyeing each other as if passing a message without words.
He cupped her face with one hand and kissed her squarely on the lips with just enough force to show he really meant it. She responded by pushing into the kiss. Their tongues teased through the small gap in their lips and electricity surged through Sophie’s body. He had the ability to drive her wild.
She pushed him backward so he was sitting against the back of the sofa and she climbed over him to sit on his strong thighs. She could feel he was already hard through his jeans. She looked into his eyes, which were filled with lust, and began kissing and licking his neck.
“I’ll look after you,” he whispered, before grabbing her ass and pulling her in closer. While they kissed again, he stroked up and down the length of her spine. “I love the smell of you,” he said, pulling away and pressing his face into the space between her breasts. He pulled her top up and over her head. He kissed her shoulder so tenderly it sent shivers through her. She unclipped her bra, letting her breasts bounce free right before Zeke’s face. He licked his lips before taking one nipple into his mouth and gently sucking. He looked up at her at the same time, which was too much for Sophie. She let out a gasp and grabbed at his hard shoulder while rocking her pelvis on him.
He unfastened her top button and plunged a thumb inside her jeans, caressing her sex over her panties. Her breath quickened as the pleasure took hold.
She couldn’t wait any longer and stood up to shake off the rest of her clothes before pulling Zeke up and prying his clothes off too. He stood still, smiling as she pulled on the fabric, letting her take complete control. He stood in front her, completely naked, with tribal tattoos all up one arm and creeping across one pec. She sighed. He was perfect.
She pushed him back down on the sofa and sat on top of him again, this time, taking hold of his cock and guiding it straight inside of her.
“I can’t wait any longer,” she whispered. “I’ve never wanted someone so much before.”
He responded with heavy kisses on her neck. “I want you so much too,” he said in breathy tones. “I think about this – about you – all the time. I’ve never... You’re amazing.”
He thrust upwards and into her gently and rhythmically, causing her to gasp each time. She rocked her hips in response to his, riding him.
Suddenly, she gripped onto the back of the sofa and picked up the pace. “Faster,
I need it. I’m going to explode.”
He thrust harder and deeper, grabbing hold of her hips and pulling her down at the same time. It was like the perfect sexual dance. They moved as one.
With a low moan, she leaped forward, breaking the rhythm and panting, “Oh my God, oh my God,” as waves of pleasure engulfed her, sending her into a storm of bliss.
Zeke let out a deep groan and bit his lip as she maneuvered herself to face the other way, holding onto his knees for support, while he held onto her hips and lowered her back onto his hard-on. He kissed her back as they slowed the pace for a moment, and he reached round to grab hold of one breast. She turned her neck so she could look back at him, a naughty smile dancing on her lips.
