by Jan Springer
The men laughed while they roughly pushed Red from one man to the next. A ploy used to keep their victims off balance and to prevent them from running.
It was working.
Red stumbled and fell several times before being hauled to her feet and pushed toward the next man. He shuddered at their crudeness, having her feet bare. Out in this cold weather, her feet sinking into the icy cold snow would be brutal. Bastards. He’d enjoy killing them.
He tried to ignore the cold sweat running down his back while he studied each man. He committed their movements and features to memory, trying like hell to ignore Red’s tired pants as she fought the laughing men.
Shit! Didn’t she know not to breathe through her mouth when stressed?
Okay focus, Blade. Focus on how to get her out.
Beside him, Cade shifted uneasily. His anger sparked through the air between them as he readied himself to pounce blindly into the fray.
“You go in there without a plan and we’re both dead,” Blade warned as Cade shifted again.
Muscles spasmed and jerked in Cade’s cheek.
Blade held his breath as one of the men back-handed Red across the face. The smack of flesh hitting flesh ripped through him like a cleaver. He fought the impulse to shout at them to stop.
He expected Cade to rush out and was surprised when he stood his ground. Hell, they might survive this after all if the guy kept his temper.
Not good odds if Red was fast enough to help. Crap odds if she hadn’t sunk deep into herself in order to protect her mind.
“I’ll take the four on the left,” Blade said.
“Just make sure you don’t hit her. If you do, I’ll kill you,” Cade warned.
Unfortunately when the shooting started, Red would be in the crossfire. Chances were likely she would get hit and, although Blade had been about to shoot her yesterday, he couldn’t stomach killing her today, especially with his protective instincts clouding his judgment. He was in one hell of a situation, wasn’t he?
Another sharp slap of flesh hitting flesh jolted him and the familiar burn of anger raged through him. He used it to stoke his adrenaline.
“Give me my fucking—”
His gun appeared in front of his face.
Hell, truth was all three of them probably wouldn’t make it out alive. He really had nothing to lose if he accidentally shot Red. Maybe that’s why Cade had finally given him a weapon.
Either way, it was a really bad day to die.
* * * * *
One minute Reena was being shoved to the next leering man and the next she fell over his prone body, her bare hands plunging into red snow.
She blinked at the color in confusion. Okay, so she’d lost her mind?
Gunshots split the air and she screamed in surprise. All around her, the hunters were grabbing their pistols and returning fire. For the longest time, she lay on top of the dead man, fearing any movement would bring a bullet into her head.
Paralyzing terror gripped her as the gunshots continued. She struggled to get her bearings and finally managed to snap out of her stupor and quickly searched the dead body for a weapon.
Whoever was shooting at them was either a friend or foe of hers. If they were friends…well…too bad. If they got in her way while she was taking out the hunters, she’d deal with the guilt afterward. But if only she could find this guy’s damned gun!
Frigid air sawed into her lungs like fire. Ice-cold sweat pooled at the base of her neck and she continued to search the lifeless body, hoping to hell the other men were too busy firing their guns to pay her any mind. Acrid gunpowder smoke slammed into her nostrils, making her gag, and her ears rang from the zings of shots spiraling around her. She’d just about given up finding a weapon when she touched smooth cold metal at the small of his back.
Yes!
Self-control whipped through her like an explosion as she palmed the weapon. She rolled off the man and onto her tummy. Releasing the safety, she used the lifeless body as a shield, took aim and prayed the gun was loaded. She fired at the first man, the son of a bitch who’d conked her on the head. He cried out, dropped into the snow and lay still.
More gunshots rang out. She took aim at another man who turned toward her and pulled the trigger of his gun. The bullet slammed into the dead man’s back. She plugged the asshole two times for good measure. He clutched his chest, dropped and remained motionless.
She fired at another figure hunched down behind a fallen log. Shards of snow flew up in the air like a white tornado. She’d missed. Thankfully he didn’t return fire and it was then she figured the guy was dead.
Great! Shooting blindly. Wasted bullets. She needed to chill and get her head into focus mode!
Her breath caught as another bullet tore through the upper back of the dead man she lay behind. A nauseating wave of lightheadedness almost toppled her as another man, his face bloody, took aim at her. He was the guy she’d shot earlier. The one who’d conked her over the head.
He stood about twenty feet away. Wobbly, but standing nonetheless, he aimed right at her head.
Oh God!
Frantically she tried to ignore the image of the bullet tearing into her brains as his finger tightened on the trigger. She held her breath as he stepped forward.
If she lifted her gun and aimed at him, he’d plug her dead. But she really didn’t have much choice. He would kill her either way.
He took another step forward, a horribly smug sneer on his face.
She’d have to raise her gun. At least then he would kill her before he raped her. She blinked wildly as he dropped to his knees, fell face first into the snow and lay deathly still.
A huge knife protruded from the man’s back. Cade stumbled toward her. Falling. Clutching his right arm.
Her tummy hollowed out. He was injured and he’d come to her rescue. Again.
She rolled onto her knees, wanting to put as much distance between all the dead men and herself as possible. Wanting to help Cade.
But as she got to her feet, dizziness swept through her and she dropped on her butt into the cold, puffy snow. There were bodies everywhere. They littered the red snow.
Sickness churned in the pit of her belly. Her side hurt like a bitch and her feet and hands were so cold and red she swore they would have to be amputated. An unexpected, sharp bite of tears stung her eyes and a dam of despair threatened to spill from her, but all that disappeared when she detected movement from one of the fallen men on her left, outside the fray of the campsite.
Sweet Jesus. No. She couldn’t handle putting a bullet through another guy’s head. Not now. The scent of death was too overwhelming.
But she recognized the man’s coat and his light-blond hair.
Damn! Blade had come for her too?
She swallowed an anguished cry as she swept her gaze to Cade’s motionless figure and then to Blade’s slightly moving one.
They had both come for her? Saved her from these horrible men?
And gotten shot for their troubles.
Nausea rolled through her as she finally managed to climb to her feet. Feet that hurt so bad they were on fire. But the hurt was better than being numb and useless. She needed to find her boots.
Surveying the disarray in the camp, she wanted to run from the bloodied bodies crumpled here and there and get far away from this evil. She clamped down on the urge to flee and focused on locating her boots. They lay near the smoldering fireplace. Her gut twisted at the sickening scent of burnt flesh as she spied a man’s arm that had flopped into the fire when he’d fallen after being shot.
She bit back the sour bile rising in her throat and struggled into her socks and boots. Inhaling at the fiery pain burning in her side, she swung her gaze back to the scene strewn with lifeless bodies. She could no longer hold back her anguish at what had almost happened to her.
She screamed. And screamed.
* * * * *
Reena’s gut-wrenching shrieks rocked Cade right to his core. He lay in the s
now, on his back, his breath shooting like white flares into the cold air. Through the haze of excruciating pain, he saw Reena sitting on a log, her eyes squeezed shut tight, her hands stuffed beneath her armpits as she rocked back and forth, screaming.
He wanted to get up out of the cold snow and wrap his arms around her. Wanted to reassure her she was safe. Unfortunately every time he so much as moved a muscle, powerful jolts of pain rocked into his right shoulder and chest, making him inhale sharply, which in turn made his head spin.
Warm blood flowed out of him, lacing his flesh, sticky and wet, and his body chilled as he readied himself to meet his maker.
Fuck, he was in bad shape. He opted to just lie there and listen to Reena’s screams, knowing instinctively she was releasing her fear. Physically she seemed to be out of harm’s way and it appeared the men were dead. At least he hoped they were after seeing them drop one by one, compliments of Blade and their surprise attack on the camp.
Icy snowflakes caressed his hot face. Yep, no use in moving, he’d only pass out. For all he knew, he was already dead. Blade was probably dead, too. Cade had seen him go down. At least with Blade out of the way she’d have a fighting chance to reach safety.
He wrapped himself in the comforting knowledge of meeting up with those bastards who’d just hurt her. In heaven or hell, wherever God saw fit to put them, he’d make sure every one of them—whoever had hurt Reena—would pay.
* * * * *
Blade drifted in swirls of searing pain. His left chest area hurt. Every time he inhaled, fire lanced through him. So he tried not to inhale. Tried not to breathe. But no breathing meant death. If he died, he’d never have another night like the one he’d had with Reena all those months ago, and he really would enjoy fucking her again.
Oh man, just thinking of her brought a lash of confused emotions. Up until last night, he’d been able to keep a tight lid on his attraction toward her and concentrate on following through on his kill orders. But seeing her wrists cuffed, her ankles restrained, the need for protection shining in her vulnerable eyes—he’d caved like a sixteen-year-old school boy raging withhormones.
Yeah, he’d like to have her again, but that would mean he’d have to get up. Breathe. Endure more pain.
Suddenly, he became aware of noise. It grew louder and louder until it mixed with his red-hot pain. An engine? But that couldn’t be. They were in the middle of nowhere. No roads. Just trees and snow. He tried to open his eyes. Couldn’t.
He was cold. Icy waves speared right down into his bones like a poison, anesthetizing his mind and chilling his brain. Numbing his senses and crippling his well-honed reflexes. To his surprise, the ground moved beneath him. No, not possible. The ground couldn’t move like this. Or maybe he was moving?
His temples throbbed with an excruciating headache. The roar of the engine broke into his mind again, followed by the strong scent of gas. The motion continued and so did the racket.
He drifted off and slept. For how long, he had no idea. A sound…maybe a door closing? Whatever it was woke him. He tried to open his eyelids again. It was hard. But he managed and winced at the blinding glare of the setting sun. No, not the sun. A light? Yes, a porch light. It glowed, stabbing like daggers into his head, thrusting his vision into a world of pain.
He closed his eyes again, welcomed the relief. Waited a few seconds and then opened his eyes, this time squinting and wishing he had a pair of sunglasses.
Behind the painful glare, he made out a building. A big one. A log cabin. One story. A roof covered in snow and lots of snow-drenched pine trees towering behind the building.
He recognized it. Had come across it while tracking Red. This was where she’d been living. He’d gone into the cabin after finding the door wide open. Someone had busted in and vandalized the place.
Despite the mess, he’d found the place rustic. Bookshelves had lined the living room. An old cast-iron potbelly stove was warm to the touch and coals glowed in a nearby fireplace. She’d left an erotic romance novel lying on the couch. A quick glance at the back cover blurb revealed the book contained lots of hot sex and a threesome. He could just imagine what the men who’d broken into the cabin thought about what she’d been reading.
He’d left the building in a hurry, following the tracks until he’d come upon the group of men who’d set up camp. In the nearby bushes, he’d listened to their conversations about tracking down the woman who was staying at that cabin. Blade would have opened fire on them, but there had been too many for him to shoot. He wouldn’t have been able to get away without being trailed by survivors. The last thing he’d wanted was for them to know he was around. So he’d left and gone in search of Red himself. He’d found her and Cade and then the storm had hit.
Blade focused back on the present, to the square logs with cement caulking. Homemade job. With matching stone chimneys on each end. His gaze lifted toward the sky where a spiral of gray smoke puffed into the black night air. Chimneys meant fireplaces and that meant heat. Warmth cracked through the chill encasing his heart and, for a split second, he had the weird sense of “coming home”.
He ripped himself free from that odd homey comfort when someone stepped down the rough-hewn wood-planked stairs. He wondered if the person was a hallucination, but the shadow seemed solid as it moved toward him. Red’s face floated from beneath a black hat and scarf, and just like every time he saw her, his breath seemed to halt in his lungs.
She was a striking woman. Beautiful. A ripe, sensual mouth. Gorgeous eyes. A man could drown in her eyes. Her hair was loose and spilled from her black hat like wildfire to the tops of her shoulders. He didn’t know how he could see her hair in all that dark shit she wore, but he could.
His gaze flew back to her face. Bruises and cuts lashed her high cheekbones where she’d been slapped. The cold deepened inside him and at that moment he wanted to once again kill those bastards who’d hurt her.
She squatted beside him and white puffs of mist escaped her mouth with her every breath. Her lips moved. She was talking. He must have blacked out because he’d missed what she said. Her lips moved again.
“Will? Can you hear me?”
Hell, he didn’t remember giving her his first name. Warmth shot through him. Although he’d known it was the drugs urging her into his room that night, and he’d sworn he’d turn her down flat if she approached him, the instant she’d exposed herself to him—along with the tugging on all those rings—his self-control had vanished. He’d taken her up against the door and she’d been like a drug in his system, making him crave her again.
The erotic scent of her pleasure, her heat, her arousal, swept in around him and for a moment he was back in that room, kissing her pouty warm lips and licking her engorged clit while he held her ass cheeks. Her moans had been sweet and succulent.
“Will? Will? Can you hear me?” Her insistent voice snapped through his memory.
“I need you to wake up, Blade. Or you’re going to end up freezing your ass off out here on my grandparents’ snowmobile. So come on! Do me a favor and wake up!”
Snowmobile?
A sharp pain snapped against his frozen right cheek and damned if the reflexes he thought dead didn’t come to life. With lightning speed, he grabbed her by the wrist and held tight. Her surprised gasp made his cock tighten in awareness.
Well, what do you know? He wasn’t in such bad shape, after all.
“You’d better make sure I can’t catch you the next time you do that,” he croaked. Her cheeks darkened more than they already had from the cold.
Shit. She was blushing. Maybe she wasn’t as damaged as he’d originally thought.
He drifted again. Drifted into the memories. Of warmth. Of Red. Kissing her. Her hot, eager lips melting over his. Her mouth swollen and moist, opening to him, his tongue invading her sweet cavern.
Oh man, he could just about drown in these memories. She tasted so succulent…
* * * * *
He held her wrist so tight she could
n’t escape even if she’d wanted to. And she really didn’t want to because the sexual darkness in his eyes, his exquisite warning about her slapping him—as well as her need to wake him any way she could—had her lowering her head until their lips met.
Scorching tingles shot through her mouth and mind as her lips melted over his. She’d expected the kiss to be as weak as he appeared. It wasn’t. It was potent. Powerful and needy.
Just as needy as the sexual desire pounding through her. The heat of his kiss pushed aside everything else. Suddenly it was just the two of them. Just as it had been the one other time in that bedroom.
She fought to breathe as a rush of want raced through her. Lust, hot and heavy. Thick and powerful. It swept through her entire being like a firestorm, lashing her senses and sparking in her brain.
She wanted Blade. Wanted him like in her fantasy last night. Like she’d had him at the safe house. The kiss deepened and she inhaled him deep inside her lungs.
He was male. Raw and primal. Dominating. His scent powered through her and sailed deep into her bloodstream. Her body tightened with arousal, her pussy clenched. Hot moisture splayed against her panties. The driving hunger for him to fuck her took hold.
His tongue mated with hers. Erotic tingles swept through her and, with the growing heat, she unzipped her coat and cupped her breast.
Jolting at the realization she was getting carried away, Reena moaned with regret and broke the kiss. Blade groaned. His eyes were open and he seemed lucid.
“Need to get inside,” he panted. She wondered if he meant inside the cabin or inside of her. In the lamplight, his dark eyes glittered with pain and he inhaled sharply as she helped him off the snowmobile. Standing, he swayed like a drunkard but thankfully didn’t fall over.
Her legs went weak with relief as he stumbled forward. With her help, he managed the stairs, lurched across the planked porch and yanked open the screen door.
Within minutes, she had him sitting on a cot set up beside the woodstove. Heat blasted him in waves and Blade wished to hell his limbs would continue to co-operate, but it was as if his body knew it would be better if Red undressed him.
