by Brook Wilder
“What was that?” one of them said. “Are you having trouble with something?”
“No, no,” Junie said. “I think I just dropped my keys.” She was sure to keep the flashlight on for a little while longer. She knelt down on her knees and started feeling around for something she knew wasn’t there. The mud clung to her hands, and when she finally heard something move amongst the trees, she got back up again, turned off the flashlight and looked around.
“What’s going on?” the big bellied man asked. Suddenly, there was a loud crash. “What the fuck?” Before Junie could react, all four of them pounced in the direction of the bar. She wished she could distract them just a little bit longer, but they were quick, a bit too quick. Junie rushed in the direction of the shed, popping her head out through the inched open door. She knew she had to keep an eye out for any victims, she just hoped Aiden wasn’t one of them.
Aiden cocked his pistol and walked into the bar. He motioned for his men to follow. The air was musty, almost saturated with the smell of sweat and liquor. The Mercenaries were dancing around, most of them drunk; Aiden thought that was the perfect opportunity to pounce. A single deafening roar from his assault rifle penetrated the air, and that was when all hell broke loose. He watched as the Mercenaries ducked down with their hands clasped over their heads, but they didn’t stay disoriented for too long. A bunch of them cocked their pistols and started firing. Aiden’s men ambushed them from all directions, pouring in from all the entrances. Some of them climbed in through the bathroom windows, ambushing the Mercenaries from behind. They seeped in from the back door, the front door and the windows, outnumbering their rivals and throwing them off balance.
Another rifle shot. Aiden thought for a second he felt pain. He was sure it was just a stab in the gut from his nerves. Not, as he first imagined, a bullet. But when he looked down his pants were already soaked in blood, and it was only then that he realized someone had shot him in the calf. The rifle shots sent splinters flying and polluted the tavern air with even more dust. The gun smoke and sawdust irritated Aiden’s lungs so badly he had to cough. He knew he had to get out there. He ducked down under a table, his eyes following the men’s feet as they scurried back and forth. One of them fell down next to him, the blood trickling from his ears.
Another Mercenary down. Aiden thought about Junie, how he just wanted to get back to her. He knew he couldn’t let her down. She was his drive, his motivation, the one thing that kept him going. So he rose to his feet and cocked his pistol again, firing a couple of shots into the air and then at one of the Mercenaries, who was ducked down behind the bar. He took a bullet straight to the head. Utter chaos. Aiden’s eyes were darting back and forth frantically. The place was a mess. “I’ve got to get out of here,” he said to himself, charging for the exit. No turning back now. He was surprised he could even walk at this point. A few seconds later he was out in the woods again. In the distance he could hear murmuring, and, realized that it was coming from the shed, he headed in that direction. Junie was busy patching up some Rebels, and when she looked up, Aiden was just standing there, panting.
“Aiden!” she squealed. He stared back at her with glassy eyes, and it was only then that she realized that he needed help. She ran to him, grabbing him around the waist and helping him sit down. “I’ll be right back,” she whispered, running back and stitching one man up faster than she ever thought she could. She knew she had to get her head in the game. In the distance she could still hear gunshots; this was far from over. “What happened?” she asked, stroking Aiden’s cheek with the back of her hand. Beads of sweat were rolling down his forehead, cheek and nose; Junie knew she had to work fast.
“It’s, it’s my leg,” he muttered, his lips turning an ashy gray.
Junie reached down and rolled his pants up. Aiden howled in pain. “Alright,” she said. “We’re going to need to stop the bleeding first.” She took out some gauze and slowly started wrapping it around Aiden’s calf. He clenched his eyes as she pressed her hands to the wound, trying to stop the blood from oozing out. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay,” Aiden hissed. At that point he could barely breathe. Junie grabbed a blanket and covered him with it.
“Are you cold?” she asked, squeezing his arm. Aiden nodded. “Okay, just listen to me,” she said. “We don’t want to remove that bullet, we just need to focus on stopping the bleeding first.”
Aiden nodded. “You know I’ve been shot before, right?” he asked. “Several times… even one time in my left butt cheek.”
“Are you trying to make me laugh?” Junie asked, smiling weakly. She knew Aiden resorted to that most of the time. She thought that this time, she might as well embrace it.
“What would we do without humor?” he asked, trying to force a smile. “Ow!” he flinched, clasping his stomach with his hands even though it was his leg he should be worrying about. He took Junie’s hand and squeezed it, and she smiled at him sweetly, trying to hide how terrified she was. The truth was, she was scared he wouldn’t make it. She was scared she would fuck up. She was scared she wasn’t good enough. Her hands were trembling, but she decided she had to get it together. This was Aiden she was talking about.
She pushed down on his wound. “Does this hurt?”
“A little bit,” he said, clenching his eyes again. “Can you give me something to bite on? Wait, nevermind.” Aiden pulled the covers up to his chin and bit down on them. Junie exchanged the piece of gauze for another one, until that one was soaked, too. Gunshots could still be heard, and Aiden was growing more and more worried. “Do you think they found Lee?” he asked, looking as though he would drift from consciousness at any second.
“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Junie said, taking his temperature. “Your temperature’s stable, you’ll be okay. Aiden, you’ll be okay.”
“I’ll be okay just as long as you stay next to me,” he whispered. “Just stop the bleeding, and I’ll be fine.”
Junie grabbed the roll of gauze of wrapped his calf in it. A couple of minutes later, the bleeding started to slow, and Junie breathed a sigh of relief, brushing a hand through Aiden’s hair. “It’ll be okay, we’ll be okay,” she breathed. “Can you sit up for me?”
Aiden got on his elbows and pushed himself up. He leaned against the wall, his legs stretched out in front of him. “Come here,” he whispered. Junie leaned in and kissed him. This time, she felt more comfortable than ever. Aiden’s lips were soft against hers, and she could feel herself falling more for him. At that moment, everything felt right; no doubts, no worries, no turning back. Junie knew she had made the right choice. “Let’s try and get out of here as soon as we can,” he said, licking his pale lips.
Junie nodded. “We have to wait until things die down first, so we’re sure that no one else is hurt.” She looked around her and the men she had been treating were moving about normally. No one was severely injured, no one but Aiden, anyway. Junie knew she had to take more care of him.
“You’re an amazing person, you know that?” he asked, looking at her with heavy-lidded eyes. Junie blushed.
“You don’t have to say that,” she smiled. “I’m just doing my job.”
“If I get a chance to tell you how amazing you are, I’m going to take it,” he said. “Now, come here.” Junie leaned in again and pressed her lips to his. He grabbed her by the collar and pulled her close, and when she realized it was all getting too heated, she pulled away.
“Let’s…Let’s get out of here,” she said. Not so long after, things started to die down. Junie made sure that there were no more victims, and then she and Aiden snuck out, making their way downhill. Aiden was slow at first, but then he picked up the pace. It was all too risky. “We’re going to take my car,” Junie said. “You can’t drive like this.”
“I know, I’ll go back for my bike first thing in the morning,” Aiden said, slipping into the passenger seat of Junie’s car. “We couldn’t find Lee, or at least I couldn
’t find him,” he said after a long pause. “I have no idea what happened in there, I don’t know what happened to the rest of them. I don’t know anything.” Aiden looked like he was going to cry. His eyes were swelling up with tears; what if anything were to happen to his men? There were a couple of them that he knew nothing about, but he knew he couldn’t go back in there, either. If he were to go back into that tavern with his injury, Aiden was a dead man.
“I don’t want you to think about this too much,” Junie said, shaking her head. “This is an operation; people were bound to get hurt.”
“I know,” Aiden said. “I just can’t shake off this feeling that there was something more I could’ve done.”
“And you’re wrong,” Junie said, stomping on the gas pedal. It was late at night and the roads were almost completely empty. “You’re a brave man, Aiden. You knew this whole thing was risky. Just be thankful you even made it out of there alive.”
Suddenly it dawned on Aiden that he could’ve died in there. He looked at Junie and all he saw was a wonderful, caring woman. If it weren’t for her, he probably would’ve never made it. He turned to look at her, inspecting all the little details of her face, the things that made him fall for her. The way her fingers tightened around the steering wheel whenever she shifted gears, that face she made whenever she hit a speed bump. It was all so mesmerizing to him. “I’m thankful for you,” he said finally. “I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.”
Junie smiled to herself. “I need to do something,” she said, reaching for her phone. She dialed Amy’s number and pressed the phone to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Amy,” Junie said suddenly. “Where are you?”
“I was asleep,” she said. “What the fuck is going on?”
“I just wanted to check up on you, see if you’re home.”
“Well, I’ve been home for a couple of hours. And you… you were off doing whatever it is that you were doing. I’m not even gonna ask. Goodnight, Junie.” The line went dead. Junie slipped her phone back into her pocket and let out a sigh. She knew her sister wouldn’t let this slide. Could she blame her? She left her behind with some stranger. She ran off to God-knows-where, and she never explained a thing. What was becoming of her? And what was she going to do to fix things with her sister? A million questions were racing through her mind, but right now, she was just glad Amy was safe.
“Alright, here we are,” Junie said, pulling over in front of Aiden’s house. “Let me walk you to the door.”
“No, wait,” Aiden said. There was a pause. “You wanna go back to your place?”
Junie didn’t know what to say. For some reason, she didn’t see this coming at all. “Yeah.” The words just spilled out of her mouth. “Matt’s probably asleep.”
“I’m sorry you had to leave him all night by himself,” Aiden said.
“I wouldn’t do that… I left him with his daycare nurse. Ever since the Mercenaries broke into her daycare center, the woman never went back. So she babysits the kids, instead.”
“Oh,” Aiden said, nodding. Junie pulled over in her driveway and got out of the car. She popped Aiden’s door open, wrapping her arms around him and helping him up. The two of them walked side by side to Junie’s house, and when she unlocked the door and stepped inside, a sense of tranquility washed over them like a wave. Junie felt her muscles become flaccid; all this stress was finally taking its toll on her. She collapsed on her couch, Aiden slumping down next to her, and the two of them just sat there, staring at the ceiling. “I can’t believe we did this,” he said, wrapping his arm around her.
“I was so scared for you,” she whispered softly. “You know a part of me was terrified you wouldn’t make it, or that I won’t be able to help you like I should. I was scared I would panic, or that I wouldn’t work fast enough to stop the bleeding. It was driving me crazy.”
“And I trusted you with all my heart,” Aiden said, turning to look at her. The two of them just stared into each other’s eyes for a moment before Junie pressed her lips to his.
“Wanna go up to my room?” she whispered against his lips. “I’ll help you up the stairs.”
Chapter 12
Helping him up was easier said than done, and more times than not they would stumble against each other and end up laughing. Junie had to constantly remind him to keep their noise to a minimum, whispering that she didn’t want Matt to wake up.
By the time they reached her room and closed the door behind them, Junie could already feel the heat inside her rise to a breaking point. Aiden had had the good sense to keep most of his weight on his good leg, but just having his arm around her shoulder, needing her the way he did, made her want him even more. She had to admit, it was attractive how a man as strong as him would allow a little vulnerability to slip through. It made him even more attractive.
Aiden sat clumsily on her bed, and as she turned towards her bathroom, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to him. She slumped down on his lap and immediately wrapped her arms around his neck, gazing into his eyes, feeling like the world around them had suddenly disappeared and there was only them. He smiled at her. It was enough to make her melt.
“We should turn off the lights,” Junie whispered, her forehead leaning against his as his hands rubbed the small of her back.
Aiden chuckled and shook his head slowly. “I want to see you,” he replied hoarsely.
Junie kissed him, deeply, her lips pressed against his as she breathed him in. She felt his strong hands pull her closer to him, and her arms tightened around his neck. She felt her body go limp. Her lips seemed to sizzle against his, heat rising from her chest up to her face in waves of anticipation she could not, would not, control. It was almost as if she had been denied something incredible and was finally allowed to indulge herself.
She closed her eyes as their lips intertwined, and for a long moment she lost complete track of time. She had no idea how long their embrace lasted. It was as if they were stuck in time, the world around them at a complete halt as the universe observed their embrace. She relished in the moment, in every feeling that coursed through her, and when she finally pulled away, her breath escaped in a long and shaky sigh.
Aiden’s hands brushed a strand of hair from her face, and when she finally opened her eyes, he was smiling at her. “Are you okay?” he asked, obviously amused.
Junie nodded, and went in to kiss him again. She adjusted herself, turning so that she was straddling him, her hands on his face as her kisses became more eager. She felt his hands slide under her shirt, the feel of his palms against her warm skin sending shivers up and down her body. She could feel him harden beneath her, and she settled against him, pressed against him, made him gasp against her lips.
She pulled at the hem of his shirt. Aiden raised his arms, letting her slide it off him before wrapping his muscular arms around her and returning his attention to her lips. He kissed a trail across her jaw and down her neck, and when her shirt got in the way, he pulled it off quickly and tossed it next to his. She relaxed against him, sighing as he kissed her neck, her chest, her shoulders. She felt his lips trail across her body, back and forth, as if wanting to taste every inch of her, and she couldn’t help but shake against him. The heat welled up inside her. Her fingers clutched his hair. And when he expertly unsnapped her bra, she gasped as his lips traced down one breast and gently locked around her nipple.
Junie felt small explosions go off inside her head. Little bolts of electricity coursed through her. Aiden grabbed one breast in his strong hand and squeezed gently while he sucked, and without knowing it, she began to rock against him, feeling his hardness through the thin fabric of her own pants. She could feel herself getting wetter, and when she couldn’t take it anymore, she gently pushed him onto his back and began to unbuckle his belt.
Slowly she pulled his pants off, careful not to disturb his wound, freezing when he winced against her touch.
“Sorry,” she whispered, but he just
shook his head, letting her know he was fine. She worked slower, gently, and soon his boxers joined his pants.
Junie stood in front of him, gazing at his naked body. She took in the lines of his muscles, how they seemed to have been chiseled in place, each one fitting perfectly next to the other. The sight of him brought out a hunger inside her she didn’t know she had. She slipped out of her own pants as he pushed back onto the bed, waiting for her, watching her strip, his eyes reflecting the same hunger she felt within.
