by Lucian Bane
Lucian sighed.
“I think it’s time you both know that our Jase Duff isn’t playing,” Preacher said, standing. “That hole back there was intentional. And that chocolate with the laxative? It actually had ricin in it.”
“What?” I whispered. “What is…ricin?”
“A lethal poison and chemical warfare agent preferred by some terrorists.”
My jaw dropped. “Oh my God.” I looked at Lucian. “That…that can’t be legal. Right?” I vigorously whacked at the stupid watch slash camera on my wrist. “Hello. Hello, whoever is watching. We’re in danger. There was a trap set and one of our team members is badly injured. Can you hear me? Lucian, try yours. Check the map, doesn’t it have some kind of emergency code?”
“I’ll check.” I watched him kneel down and examine the map closely. “Hold the light.”
I hurried next to him and helped him search for something in the legend. Nothing. “Let’s check everything.” I began taking the items out of the bag and Lucian examined them. Soon Becca was doing the same with Preacher’s. It didn’t take long to find nothing. I examined the bags themselves, looking at the inside and outside for hidden pockets.
“Oh my God,” I whispered, throwing the bag down and pacing in small circles. “I can’t believe they wouldn’t have a fucking way for us to contact them.” I took off my watch and turned it over, shining the flash light on the back. “Hello, can you hear me? See me?” I turned it back around. “We are in danger!”
“Okay sweetheart, we’ll look more in the morning.” Lucian put his arms around me from behind.
“I will boil some water and make you a tea,” Becca said softly.
I looked at her and saw compassion in her face then realized my panic was showing. Fuck. Jesus, fuck. I nodded and smiled. “Yeah, sure. Sorry. I’m sure we’ll figure it out in the morning. I’m sure they’re watching and already know and are probably sending help as we speak.” I nodded and smiled at Lucian. “Right?”
“Yes, love.” He kissed me on the cheek and hugged me tight. But it only made terror pump harder through my body. He was scared. I could feel it. Shit shit shit.
Chapter Eight
I held Tara close to me, unable to sleep. After we’d burned the fire for about an hour, Preacher loaded that shit pit with hot embers and killed the snakes. He fished a few out and cleaned and skewered them on long sticks, and for the first time in my life I ate snake. Best fucking thing ever. If I was starving, I could only imagine how hungry Tara was. She’d eaten it after I’d made a huge deal about how it tasted just like bacon. In the morning we’d fish out the flag and pray it wasn’t melted to hell.
Oh well, melted or not, it was the fucking flag, they didn’t say it had to be pretty.
And it was our third flag. Tomorrow was the fourth. Then one more and we were home free to get off the island, get out of the game. Dom Wars was over. In only two days. I could hardly fucking believe it.
I pulled Tara closer to me, remembering that first day I met her. In line at the audition. I smiled softly at the memory of her picking up her pennies on the ground. You can keep them she’d said. I pressed my lips into her hair and stroked her cheek. She’d been so flustered. I’d never been so turned on by such a thing. She had no idea how transparent she was to me that day. Standing there, so sexually affected by me and unable to hide it from me. My cock responded and Tara pressed her ass against me in her sleep. Jesus, I needed her so bad. I needed to not think about that because there was no having her.
My cock refused to forget that day, however. I’d told her, “Use your BDSM vocabulary words. I spank them. Force them to orgasm over and over again. Worship their pussy. Their body. I bite them, fuck them hard and—” My words had mortified her then, even while they excited her. The memory of how lovely her cheeks were when flushed with desire haunted me. Fuck.
Tara suddenly turned over to face me. My heart banged loudly against my chest as she quietly worked my pants open. Oh God. I swallowed hard wondering if I could handle that in utter silence.
Tara didn’t seem concerned as she stroked my hard cock with one hand and danced soft fingers over the head with the other. I gritted my teeth and clenched my eyes, thrusting into her hand, draping my leg over her hip as she continued to stroke my length and dance tongues of fire on the head of my cock with her now wet fingers. I kissed at her neck, scraping my teeth along the salty column then burrowing my mouth on her shoulder and sucking with intensity as she brought me to a raging fucking orgasm in under three minutes. I held my breath through the waves of pleasure, pulling her hair and biting the muscle on her shoulder just hard enough to take the extreme edge off. She pulled my hair back just as hard, her hands and fingers mercilessly milking every ounce of that climax from my body.
Delirious with the need to pay her back, I stealthily yanked on the button of her pants. She shook her head and I captured her jaw in my hand and kissed her while gaining access to her pussy. I didn’t need her pants down, I slid my finger inside her dripping heat and moved my palm in circles over her clit until she buried her face in my neck, her mouth at my ear. She pulled my hair hard as I worked her core and clit simultaneously, gritting my teeth at the feel of her mouth on my ear, open with silent gasps. Fuck yes. With Preacher and Becca at my back, I kissed her with a ruthless passion while I jabbed at her core with two fingers, keeping it nice and deep so that no sound was made.
Propped on my elbow now, I grabbed a handful of her hair and held her mouth to mine as she finally broke. I choked on a growl when she bit my lip before sucking at my mouth while bucking on my hand. I fought to keep up with her kiss while she rode the storm in her body oh so quietly. Fucking amazing. I’d never ever had that kind of secret sex before. What a rush. Especially on the too-narrow sleeping platform we’d hastily thrown together to stay out of the bugs. I counted it a victory that we didn’t collapse the damn thing.
Her breaths finally returned to somewhat normal as I nipped softly and continuously at her mouth. “I love you,” I mouthed against her smile.
“I love you too,” she mouthed back.
I hugged her close to me and we went back to our spooning position from just before. I made myself think of good things in hopes of maybe getting a little sleep. The last thought I had was remembering the day I learned that Tara liked reading the obituaries as a mental security blanket. And how much I fucking loved her for that.
Chapter Nine
I woke the next morning to the stern look of Preacher next to me, shhhhing me. I lifted my head slowly in the direction he pointed. My heart lurched when I spotted the giant mottled brown…animal a few dozen yards off. Shit.
“What the hell is that?”
Preacher shook his head. “Thinking it’s not indigenous to this island.”
I looked back at the strange thing with its low triangular head and rounded ears, massive shoulders and sloping haunches. “Then how…”
“Your buddy Jase must’ve had funds to go along with his job. And there it goes. Wake the ladies.” Preacher hurried and doused the fire.
I looked back to the tree and the animal was gone. Shit. I shook Tara awake then Becca as Preacher gathered supplies. “Don’t forget the flag,” I hissed.
“Why are we whispering?” Tara mumbled as she looked around half asleep.
“There’s some kind of animal nearby. We don’t know for sure what it is. Let’s go.”
Ten minutes later, with our melted flag fished from the shit pit, we were on the trail, me in the lead, and Preacher at the rear. We moved, no, more like ran, through the forest as fast as we could, fighting not to get dizzy from finding the best path while staying in the right direction. Each time I stopped to get my bearings, Tara ran into me regardless of my warning.
“More than two second warning please,” she huffed, out of breath. “Are we almost there? Feels like we’ve been running for three hours.”
I took off again. “Soon,” I lied.
“Soon? What is that in isl
and from hell language? Like before I die?”
“Like maybe two more hours.”
“Two more hours!” she shrilled. “Oh my God you call that soon? And is that two more hours at this break neck speed? Can you please slow down?”
I stopped again and Tara ran into me.
“Oh geeze, really?”
“Well it’s hard to think with you bitching at my heels, did you forget that there is a strange animal possibly hunting us?” Shame bit at me, but I reasoned maybe if she were more scared she’d cooperate. I sure didn’t want to run into that thing. The more I thought of it, the more sure I became of the damn thing’s identity. And the thought of wondering around a small island unarmed while a fucking hyena also wondered around that same small island… Well, that thought just shouldn’t exist. Too bad it did.
“I’m sure it would have eaten us by now, we’ve gone at least ten miles from it.” She gasped the words as she hung onto my shoulders, letting me have all her weight.
I looked behind me and found Preacher watching our rear.
“We ready?”
“Very,” Preacher said above Tara’s shocked What? Wait! We run ten miles and rest for ten seconds?
Again we pushed through the forest. Finding the best place to take my team was suddenly my favorite puzzle in the fucking world and my mind became a metal trap of sick obsessive calculating disorder.
“Bane!” I stopped and turned, seeing the team was like twenty feet behind me and Preacher holding his arms out at his side like he’d had quite enough of that bullshit. I headed back toward the exhausted women, noting Preacher was more annoyed than tired. No doubt he could have left me in the dust. Being forced to go slow may have been a blessing for that leg of his, but not for that Goliath ego.
“I think we should break now.”
“Oh?” Tara nodded at me, gasping for air. “You think? You can still do that psycho man plowing through the woods?”
I quickly found places for relaxing and soon we were all catching our wind. My buddy was in a second wind, or maybe third and I didn’t feel tired. I stood and looked all around then took out the map.
“Where are you getting this energy? Are you eating Becca’s magical berries behind our back? If so, you had better hand them over because I am not keeping that pace of yours for one more step.”
I wished we could find more of the berries Becca had found that first day. Those miraculous things would have given the extra kick we needed. “Well we would like to reach the next flag before dark for once. And according to the map, there should be a water source at this one? Remember?” The map showed a freshwater spring that I was particularly looking forward to.
“Oh, is it this one? Thank God.” Tara sighed as if she were already there.
“I also want to get there before dark and see if we can find out anything about the supplies they mentioned in that information on the pallet.”
Preacher gave me a cold look. “I suspect if those supplies ever did exist, our favorite sadist has either taken them or sabotaged them.”
“Yeah, you’re probably right. Better to think about that nice cool spring water.”
Tara agreed with a moan. “And then there’s the ocean next.” She let her head fall back and closed her eyes, holding her legs to her chest. “I cannot wait to see that ocean again. And that boat. Do you think we’ll make it first?”
Preacher snorted lightly. “That would be a huge ass shock.”
Becca slapped a mosquito off his neck then gave Tara a courageous stare. “We have a perfectly good chance of making it first.”
“Oh good!” Tara sighed the words like the woman had prophesied an event.
It didn’t matter to me, really, just so we made it out alive. And for the past few hours, the dread in my gut told me those odds were far too low for my liking. What the fuck was Jase Duff doing and planning? A disgusting apprehension mixed with the dire need to act was what had me practically running to the next fucking flag. I needed to get to that answer one way or another and deal with it, the dread was too much. The threat had my guts in knots, the instinct to crush it before it had the chance to hurt Tara.
And Preacher’s limp pronounced the pain he was in.
Becca suddenly shot up and began unloading the bags.
“What are you doing baby?” Preacher’s words were guarded yet soft.
“We were supposed to check for a device to make emergency contact. You need a doctor.”
Tara immediately leapt into action with her. “There has to be something here.”
“I’m fine,” Preacher grumbled.
“You are not fine,” Becca snapped in fury, rummaging at warp speed. “Do not fight about such a foolish thing, male. If you get an infection…” She shook the bag viciously. “Surely there is some sort of emergency device!”
Becca’s desperation brought me to join them in the search. “Okay, let’s look at our watches closer.”
They all removed their watches except Preacher. He simply reclined like he was sunbathing at the Bahamas, eyes closed. But my guess, he was anything but at peace.
I looked at the back of the watch and caught sight of the embossed plastic microscopic words.
“Mine says something!” Tara hurried to me, watch out.
I squinted at the microscopic words, then glanced around for the brightest ray of filtered sunlight.
“The emergency beacon is activated when you remove the battery from the phone,” Preacher said. We all jerked to find him still with his eyes closed. “I asked before we left.”
“Let’s do yours,” I told Tara.
She clawed a fingernail on the back of the watch, seeking for a crevice. “Shit I think this is it, my nail is too weak. Find me something to pry it open.”
I pulled my knife out and she handed the watch over. “Right there.” She reached her with a finger and pointed at the location just as the blade slipped.
“Sweetheart! Really, go stand over there before I cut your fucking hand off by some insane accident!”
She did as I said, looking torn between being pissed and sorry. Not as sorry as I was for yelling at her, but fuck, who puts their finger on location where a giant knife is?
Tara. That’s who. My sweet fucking Tara.
I finally managed to pop the back off and then removed the flat button type battery and put it in my pocket. I looked at the watch for any indication that an alarm had been sounded. When it just sat there like a watch without a battery, I looked at Preacher.
He shrugged. “That’s what he said.”
“Great. So, we’ll just have to hope the beacon emergency actually worked.”
Preacher worked his way to standing, grunting and letting Becca help. The fact that he did, said he was in a lot of pain. But then again, he was definitely secure in his masculinity and didn’t need to prove a fucking thing to her or anybody else. Reminded me of how much I’d grown to like him. Maybe even a little admiration there. Maybe.
I got the last piece of beef jerky out and split it between all of us and we ate in silence then drank exactly six swigs of water from the last of the water supply. I sure as hell hoped that water was there. We fucking needed it in more ways than one. At least we were doing good time. I could try my hand at fishing the way preacher had and cook us all a decent meal.
I suddenly froze and Tara ran into my back.
“Shit, Lucian!”
“Shh-shh.” I slowly walked in reverse.
“What’s wrong?” She whispered, following suit.
“Preacher? Hyena, twelve o’clock, fifty yards.”
“Roger that, Bane.” Preacher was at my back now, a vicious hold on my backpack, guiding me in slow reverse. “No sudden moves, very slowly, don’t look in his eyes.”
“Too late man.” And I knew once that happened, the last thing you did was look away.
“Then don’t break eye contact. Just keep backing away.”
“He’s feeling challenged dude, he’s coming.”
&n
bsp; Preacher stopped and raised the hatchet toward the animal and roared like a beast.
“Shit dude, I think you’re pissing it off.”
“Get your bowie ready,” he whispered, sounding excited. “Raise it.” Now he walked me forward with another roar. “Two voices are better than one Bane!” He roared again, waving his ax. I roared with him waving my bowie.
“He’s fucking coming!” I yelled.
Preacher ran out from behind me and charged at the sprinting beast with a roar. The creature launched into the air and slammed Preacher, knocking him onto his back with ferocious snarls. The thing growled like a tornado atop Preacher and I jumped on its back and jabbed the knife into his neck.
The creature yelped and three seconds later went limp. I shot up and stared, every part of my body trembling as preacher rolled the beast off him and struggled to stand. I leaned and helped pull him up, looking around for more hyenas. There could be more. A pack even. I prayed not, but hope was bleak.
I afforded a quick glance at Preacher, looking for life threatening wounds. “You okay man? Where’s your hatchet?”
“In his chest.”
I turned and looked at the dead thing and sure enough, there it was, embedded not far below where I’d stuck him. “Holy shit. Good shot.”
“You too.” He chuckled and looked back at the women. “You ladies see Bane?” he bragged. “Fucking attacked him from behind. Shhwoop.” Preacher swung his arm, apparently imitating what he saw.
Becca came forward now and checked Preacher over then smacked him in the upper shoulder. Then hugged him.
I finally looked at Tara and my stomach knotted at seeing the “crazy” look on her face. It said she was holding on to her sanity with one nail. A broken, jagged nail. I stumbled over and pulled her rigid body in my arms, rubbing out the trauma with my hands and soft coos.
“We need to move,” Preacher said. “In case there’s more.”
Tara made a muffled squeal of terror in my chest.
