by Bec Botefuhr
“All done, we got it.” Ace says, wiping the blood from his hands.
“Wrap it,” I hoarsely order.
Bull digs through the pack on his back, and pulls out a bandage. He tips raw alcohol onto my shoulder and I roar with pain, Ace shoves the shirt back into my mouth. Bull wraps it quickly and when it’s over I realize I’m on the ground. I didn’t even feel myself fall. I don’t remember the last few seconds. I guess I blacked out. It’s about fuckin’ time, it hurt like a fuckin’ bastard. Bull shoves two pills into my mouth and washes them down with water. I’m thankful that the boys thought to pack a first aid kit in those bags.
“We gotta move boss, can you walk?”
I close my eyes a minute. I have to get up. I have to keep going. I shove to my feet, hissing in pain. I walk with trembling legs towards Angel and Rusty, who now have the girls in order. I stop in front of the girls and count them. Possibly one or two missing but we don’t have time for that right now.
“Right, you ladies want to get out of here alive, you do as these boys ask.” I say in a rusty sounding voice.
“We’ve got a boat, we’re going to take you all home and get you some help.”
I like my eyes scan the woman as Ace says those words. Some seem to come to life, their eyes widening and hope flashing across their faces. Others just stare at the ground, completely broken. I don’t know if anyone will ever be able to put those girls back together again. I really don’t.
“Alright,” I say roughly, “onto the boats.”
The boys take the women and begin leading them towards the boat. That’s when one decides she doesn’t want to go. She opens her mouth and she screams, then she spins and darts off towards the trees. Rusty is after her in a split second and he reaches her quite quickly. She punches, screams, kicks and yells out loudly. Fuck.
“Bull, knock her out, she’ll fuckin’ give us away.”
Bull pulls a bottle of chloroform out of his bag and rushes over. I have to look away as they tackle the poor woman to the floor. She’s scared, frightened and sadly has come to know her masters here and possibly even think she loves them. I can’t imagine what that does to someone. Rusty lifts the slumped girl over his shoulder and carries her towards us.
“Any more of you scream, and you’ll have the same thing happen. We’re here to help, not hurt you.”
The other women don’t acknowledge me speaking. They just continue moving. God, they really are just broken bodies. There is no life left in any of them. No soul. We begin loading them onto the boat and settling them down beside each other. I turn and stare back at the island, hoping I’ve done enough. I’m about to climb onto the boat with the men when I hear someone call my name. I turn and squint, and see Huck running through the trees towards me. What. The. Fuck.
“JAGGER!”
I leap off the boat and rush towards him, wincing in pain as my body is forced to move. When Huck reaches me, he’s panting, bloody and terrified.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Huck?”
“You can’t blow this island, you can’t.”
“Tell me why not?”
He looks me dead in the eye. “Because Willow is trapped up there, and your father has bombs planted on this island. He was going to kill you all. We have exactly twelve minutes left, and we’re all dead.”
My world begins to spin.
CHAPTER 18
WILLOW
I can’t believe we got caught. I can’t believe I was a hero. Huck and I got onto the island together and were managing to sneak through when I saw that they had missed two girls. Being the hero that I am, I tried to help them. I didn’t want them to die. It was a mistake. Now I sit tied and bound in a huge open airfield, surrounded by guards. We’ve got six minutes left, six minutes and we’re dead. I tried to tell them that, but they all laughed at me.
I feel silent tears slip down my cheeks. All I can think about in this moment, is Cody. I’ve failed him. I should never have left. I should have just stayed and let these men do what they had to do without me. I tried to be a hero, when all along Jagger probably could have dealt with it and been off the island before Mick’s explosives went off. Huck got dragged away, I think he’s dead. It’s all my fault.
My lip is bleeding where a guard hit me three times. My leg feels like it’s close to being broken and my head is pounding. Desperation took over me about ten minutes ago, and I started screaming and begging. All that got me was a few good kicks in the stomach – after they removed my bullet proof vest. Now my head is bowed and I’m crying, big, hot tears stream down my face. I’ve failed and my son will now grow up without me. I can only pray Jagger got free. I can only pray. It’s all I have left. Five minutes to go.
I hear a gun shot, then another, then another. I snap my head up and see the guards around me dropping like flies. I peer around but I can’t see anyone. More guards rush out only to drop to the ground too. It’s a machine gun, I can hear the clear pop pop pop. I throw myself to the floor as bullets whizz past me to hit the guards closest to me. The gun is loud and intense, and the sound is cold and frightening. Before I know it, someone is gripping me in their arms. Another guard?
“Willow.”
Jagger, oh god. Oh no. No….
“Willow, don’t move. I have to untie you.”
He quickly cuts through my binds with a knife, and then spins me around to face him. He’s covered in blood and he’s panting. His arm is bandaged up and he looks a little pale.
“Jagger no,” I rasp. “You should have run.”
“I’d never leave you, ever.”
He pulls me to my feet. “Run, we have to run.”
“We only have minutes, Jagger.”
“I know, run!”
He begins pulling me towards the trees but I’m limping. The guards kicked me so many times in one leg it burns. I close my eyes and think of my son. Fuck my leg. I pick up my pace and Jagger runs so fast he’s pulling me most of the time. I’m just making my legs move so I don’t fall. I hear gunshots behind us, but Jagger doesn’t turn. When something hits me in the back of the leg, followed by an intense burn, I know I’ve been shot. I scream and my legs collapse.
Jagger spins around, raising his gun and shooting ferociously at the guards nearing. They drop like flies. He leans down and lifts me into his arms, roaring in pain as he does. He begins running again. The burning pain in my leg is so intense I actually throw up on Jagger. He dodges through the trees and I know we have a minute left, if that. We’re going to die here. This is the last moment we’ll have. We reach a cliff, it’s high but it soars off into nothing but clear blue water. No rocks, just water. Jagger curses.
“I went the wrong fucking way.”
Gun shots begin sounding out again. Jagger turns to me and a hot tear streams down his face. I don’t know if it’s from pain or because he knows this is the last time we’ll see each other. He takes my face in his hands.
“I love you baby, forever and always.”
Then he throws me off the cliff, just as a loud boom fills the air and orange lights the sky.
CHAPTER 19
JAGGER
Pain jerks through my body as salt water fills my lungs. I’m spluttering and coughing, trying to get myself to the surface. I can’t feel anything, my body is beyond pain now. It’s just numb. I surface and breathe in a breath full of smoky, horrible air. I dive back under when a huge rock flings into the water. The island is still trembling and exploding. Willow. I have to find her. I jumped after her, I saw her go under.
I dive, searching the water even though it burns my eyes. I reach out, hitting only bits of rock and debris. I surface again and the smoke burns my lungs as I desperately try to breathe.
“Jagger?”
A tiny voice in the distance calling my name. She’s alive.
“Willow!”
I swim towards the sound, dodging bits of hot rock as they begin landing everywhere around me. I see Willow further out, struggling to stay above the w
ater. She’s not a good swimmer. I swim over, wrapping my arm around her and running my hands over her face. She’s bleeding badly from a wound in the head.
“You got hit.”
“A rock,” she whispers.
Her eyes are rolling slightly. I hear a sliding sound, and I turn. The cliff that we jumped off is slowly beginning to slide down as more explosions go off. Holy shit. I start swimming, dragging Willow beside me. She’s kicking her legs as best she can, but she’s losing a lot of blood.
“Hang in there baby, I’m gonna get us to safety.”
I kick harder, forcing my legs to move even though they don’t want to. I feel Willow stop kicking just as I’m out of the way of flying rocks. I pull her in front of me, kicking my legs madly to keep afloat. She’s got her eyes closed and oh god, there’s blood all over her face.
“Willow,” I rasp, “baby wake up.”
She doesn’t move. Panic seizes my chest and I slap her face a few times. Nothing.
“Willow no, don’t you die on me. Don’t you fuckin’ die on me.”
Tears burn my eyes and I slap her again.
“Willow!”
I hear the sound of a speed boat and jerk my head up, I can see a white boat speeding towards us at a great rate. I wave my hand, desperate. It slows just as the next explosion rocks the island. This time more rocks come launching into the water. We have to move. We’ll be dead in seconds. I see it’s Ace and he leans over the side, gripping Willow and sliding her on board. Then he pulls me on too. I drop to my knees beside Willow, shaking her tiny body.
“Wake up, baby, wake up. Don’t die, please don’t die.”
A rock smashes the side of the boat.
“ACE MOVE!” I roar.
Ace spins the boat around and speeds out into the blue depths. Soon the air is clearing and the smoke is clearing off. In the distance all I can see is a mass of black smoke and occasionally a red mushroom shoot into the sky followed by a loud noise. Mick really did have that planned well. No one would survive that. No one. I look back down at Willow.
“Ace, first aid kit?”
“Under the seat.”
I move the plastic white seat along the side and pull out a kit. I begin frantically cleaning Willow’s head but she’s lost so much blood. It looks like her leg is nearly broken, it’s twisted in odd ways and blood seeps from a bullet wound. I close my eyes a moment, then I begin cleaning her up, applying pressure where I can. She’s still breathing. If she remains breathing, I’ll get help.
We arrive at the larger boat the boys came in on further out at sea. It relieves me to see they’re all alive. Angel leaps over onto our boat and grips Willow’s head. “No,” he rasps.
“We need help, we have to move.” I say, my hand trembles.
“Jagger, you have to be prepared that we might not…”
“NO!” I roar. “She won’t die.”
Angel nods and looks over at Ace, then he turns to the other boat.
“Get me a blanket, she needs to stay warm. Throw over as many first aid supplies as you have. MOVE!”
The boys on the other boat begin tossing things over. Ace wraps Willow’s leg and Angel tends to her face. I take a needle and thread, unsterilized, and I stitch her head. If we don’t stop the bleeding, she’ll die. An infection is the least of her problems right now. She’s still out, and her breathing is becoming more jagged. We don’t have long, hours if we’re lucky. I wrap her in a blanket and crush her to my chest.
“Go as hard as this fucking boat will take us Ace, now.”
He nods and I hate that sympathetic look on his face. I hate it because I know what he’s thinking. He thinks she’s going to die. I won’t let her die. God, please don’t let her die.
CHAPTER 20
WILLOW
I hear voices, lots of them. I can hear them but I can’t open my eyes. I’m not in any pain, I can’t feel anything at all. Maybe it was all just a dream. Maybe I didn’t land in the water so hard it broke my ribs. Maybe I didn’t get hit in the head with a flying rock. Maybe we never left for that island. Maybe I’m imagining this all and it was just a nightmare.
“She’s stirring.”
It’s a familiar voice, Ava maybe. Are we home? Am I safe? Is this a dream? Maybe I’m dead.
“Willow, hey, can you hear me?”
My mom?
“Willow, come on honey, open up.”
I’m trying, I want to scream. I’m trying to open my eyes. I focus all my attention on them and finally they move. As soon as the air touches them, they burn and I clamp them shut with a wince.
“She opened them!” Ava – I think – cries.
She makes it sound like this is a massive thing.
“Call the doctor.”
A moment later, someone is pulling my eyelids open and shining a torch into them. Jesus! I groan and shove at the hands.
“She’s moving her hands too, this is all very good signs.”
That voice was unfamiliar.
“Willow honey, it’s Ava. Open up.”
I force my eyes open again but they burn.
“I’ll put some moisture in them. They’re likely burning.”
A moment later someone is playing with my eyelids again and opening them to drop tiny cool drops into my eyes. Oh that feels nice. The next time I try to open my eyes, it doesn’t burn so much. I blink and blink, trying to clear my blurred vision. When I manage to make out shapes, I can see a girl leaning over me. Ava.
“Hey sweetie, how are you?”
“Oh my baby is ok.”
“Mom, don’t get in her face.”
They’re all here. My mom, Jenny and Ava. Where’s the rest? Oh god, oh please no. Is Jagger dead?
I open my mouth to speak but only a croaked “Jagger” comes out.
“He’s ok honey, they’re all ok.”
Relief floods through me. Ava grips my head and gently puts a straw in my mouth. I suck and the cool water soothes my aching throat. The doctor leans over me and begins asking me stupid questions like ‘what’s your name’ and ‘where do you live?’ I answer them all in a croaky voice, but I don’t care about that. I want to see my son and my fiancé.
“Jagger,” I say again, my voice hoarse. “I want to see him.”
“He’s just gone home honey, he’ll be back in about half an hour.”
“Is he hurt?”
“He got shot, but he’s ok.”
“How long have I been here?” I croak.
“A week sweetie.”
A week? God, what happened?
“What…happened?”
My mother sits on the bed beside me and I stare up at her, shocked to actually see her here. She hasn’t had much time for me lately. She takes my hand and Jenny sits beside me too, stroking my hair. Ava stands beside her.
“The island blew, as you know and you got hit with a rock. Jagger stitched you up on the boat ride home. The doctor said he quite possibly saved you because you’d lost so much blood. They got back and Ace brought you to the hospital…”
“Wait,” I whisper. “Why did Ace bring me?”
They all stare at each other.
“Tell me!”
“Jagger went to find Mick. There was a massive shoot out. Jagger got shot again, kinda badly, but he killed Mick. Huck called the cops and had Sharleen arrested and Mary too. They were all caught out planning and there was a lot of evidence against them.”
He killed Mick? Jagger killed his own father?
“I want to see him,” I whisper. “Call him.”
“Honey…”
“Now!”
Ava nods and pulls out her phone, dialing Jagger.
“Hey, she’s awake.”
She nods a few times, then says goodbye. She takes my hand and smiles.
“You scared us honey. When Ace called and told us you were at the hospital, and they didn’t know if you’d live…”
I squeeze Ava’s hand and then turn to Jenny, who’s looking down and crying.
“Hey,” I whisper, reaching for her hand. “I’m ok.”
She nods and swallows. My mother takes my hand from Jenny’s and squeezes it.
“We were afraid Willow, we thought you were dead.”
“I know, and I’m sorry.”
“Don’t scare us like that again.”
Just as my mother has finishes speaking, Jagger skids around the corner and flies into the room. He comes to an abrupt halt when he sees me lying on the bed, propped up and awake. His eyes fill with tears and I see first-hand how scared he’s been. Ava stands and ushers the others to follow her.
“We’ll come back later, ok?”
I nod at them, but I don’t take my eyes from Jagger. He’s standing, just staring at me with hot tears streaming down his face. He looks so venerable right now, like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. I take him in, letting my eyes scan every part of him. I see he has a few stitches on his face and one of his eyes is a little bruised. His shoulder is bandaged but aside from that he looks quite good. He stares at me with pained blue eyes and I just want to run to him, but I can’t.
He looks like he wants to say so much, but he also looks more venerable then I’ve ever seen him. He looks…broken. I grip the blanket and I toss it aside, patting the bed beside me. He walks slowly over and then very gently, crawls into bed with me. He isn’t speaking, and part of me knows why – he’s afraid he’ll break down if he speaks. I don’t blame him, if he speaks I’ll probably break down too.
Instead, he wraps his arms around me and puts his head gently on my chest. I tangle my fingers in his hair and breathe him in. Hot tears prick my eyes, remembering how close we both got to losing each other. I feel Jagger shudder silently, his body is trembling. I know he’s crying, but he’s silent about it. A man like Jagger doesn’t cry openly. I hold him as close as I possibly can. A moment into it, the nurse comes in. She stops when she sees us. I shake my head at her and she nods, smiling and leaves.
I hold Jagger like that for over an hour. My legs become numb and I can’t feel my body but I don’t care. He needs me for whatever reason and I’m not going to pull away until he doesn’t need me anymore. After another half an hour, he finally moves. He lifts himself up a little and looks at me. His eyes are bloodshot and broken. I stroke his cheek and feel the stubble scratch my palm.
