by C. E. Black
The harsh lines around his eyes deepened as he scowled down at me. “That was a mistake,” he bit out. “I was trying to be nice. Now we’ll have to do it the hard way.”
Though he wasn’t as big as Mason or Kaden, he did outweigh me by at least seventy pounds. There was no way I could get away from him. All I could do was wait for him to make a mistake. Maybe if he let go of my wrists I could jab him in the eyes. His hands tightened painfully as if he’d read my thoughts. Then he transferred my wrists to one hand so the other could slide down my body. Gritting my teeth, I turned away from his triumphant glare as he palmed my breast. Tears leaked from eyes when his squeezed too hard.
“Why so quiet?” he asked. He slid his hand under my shirt and pushed up my bra. He pinched a nipple between his fingers, giving it a harsh twist. My lips parted, but of course, my cry was silent.
“Why aren’t you screaming?” he snapped. When he continued inflicting pain on my breast without receiving the sounds he expected, he reached for the button of my jeans. “I know how to make you scream, bitch!”
Through my tears, I could barely make out his expression. His voice held no compassion. I didn’t doubt for a second that I would suffer in the worst ways by this man’s hands. For the first time in my life, I wished for someone to save me. I couldn’t do it myself this time. I pitched my body forward, yanking as hard as I could, but he used his weight to pin me down. As more tears spilled down my cheeks, I begged silently for Kaden and Mason. Where were they?
I was brought back into the moment by the sudden jerk in the man’s body. His grip on my wrists loosened and I pulled away just as he slumped to the ground. His hazel eyes, wide and glazed over, stared straight ahead. Dead. He was dead.
My gaze fell on the arrow sticking out of the back of his skull and I backed up, putting the tree I’d just been held against between me and whoever had shot that arrow. My neck craned as I looked around the tree, searching for what could be either my savior or worst nightmare. If they’d had the skill to take down my attacker, they wouldn’t be easy to get away from if they wanted to hurt me too.
Seeing and hearing nothing out of the ordinary, except the occasional bird or squirrel, I pressed my forehead against the tree. What did I do now? I couldn’t call out to them. If I ran, they might shoot another arrow. I glanced down at my dead attacker. No matter the why, I was grateful for whoever had saved me.
“Jane!”
The sound of Mason’s voice had me spinning around and waving for them to get down. They were coming from the same direction as the arrow, and my heart leaped in both pleasure at seeing them and fear that they might be the archer’s next victim.
The men saw me right away and began jogging, their smiles bright. They weren’t smiling for long. Kaden noticed the dead guy first. Before he could ask, I grabbed them both and pulled them with me behind the tree. It didn’t come even close to offering us all protection, but I couldn’t bear to see them out in the open.
“What is going on?” Mason asked.
“Archer,” I signed to Kaden. I pointed to the arrow sticking out of my attacker’s head. Both Kaden and Mason looked from him to me, their gaze narrowing on the state of my clothes. “Looks like he got what he deserved,” Mason clipped.
“Are you okay?” Kaden asked.
Since the moment they’d called my name, all I’d wanted to do was fall apart in their arms. But that wasn’t me. Instead, I used the bottom of my shirt to wipe my face and gave him a stiff nod.
His eyes on mine, Kaden reached under my shirt to put my bra back in place. Though his movements were gentle, the cloth scraped over my battered nipple, causing me to hiss. He paused, his teeth grinding together as he did his best to finish without hurting me more. When he reached for the button of my jeans, I pushed his hands away and turned around to do the job myself.
“He’s one of the roughnecks we’ve been running from,” Mason said. “Did you see who shot the arrow?” I shook my head no. “Well, whoever it was is gone now.” He looked up at the darkening sky. “We should get out of here too.”
Nightfall approached and the adrenaline from my attack had faded, leaving me hurting everywhere. After the long hike and climb up this damn mountain, I needed to lay down. But I needed my bag more. It still sat on the ground where my attacker had thrown it. I hobbled past the dead man, surprised at the short distance I’d run from him. I was ashamed of how little I’d fought. I wasn’t a weakling. I knew how to fight off an attacker and how to run and hide. I’d done it before. How had this time been different? How could I have allowed this man to get the best of me?
When I turned, Kaden was right behind me, with Mason not too far away. They were watching my back, their eyes on our surroundings. Protecting me. I frowned. Had I become dependent on them? Were they the reason I hadn’t fought harder? Because I’d been waiting on my rescuers?
Kaden turned his head just in time to notice my expression, his eyes widening in alarm. I could only imagine what he saw. Rage, shame, guilt… pain. Kaden, usually so put together himself, looked startled. Upset even. So, when he reached for me, I schooled my features to mask those feelings and walked past him.
For the first time in years, I was vulnerable. I couldn’t allow them to do that to me. Not now. In this world, being vulnerable got you killed.
11
We hit a stretch of road leading us to several small cabins. They were vacation rentals, all with contrived names carved into their signs. Bear’s Den, Bear’s Creek, A Bear Affair… Someone had a thing for the furry beasts it seemed.
“Be right back,” Kaden said before jogging toward one of the cabins. I pointed my flashlight at the sign, my brows lifting at the irony. Three Bears Getaway. Nice.
“How are you holding up?”
Hearing Mason behind me caused me to sigh. I’d been avoiding him, both of them. Between the attack and the realization that I might be depending too much on the guys, I’d had a lot to think about. I still wasn’t sure where my head was at. But Mason didn’t deserve the silent treatment. Neither of them did.
I turned to let him know I was okay and instead my jaw became unhinged. The beam of my flashlight hit him square in the face and he winced, but I couldn’t move. He looked awful. His face was pale and a tad green and sweat had beaded across his forehead. The dark circles under his eyes spoke of days without sleep, yet I knew that wasn’t the case.
He coughed, the move causing him to stumbled to the side. Rushing forward, I held him steady. The heat coming off his body had me touching his forehead. He was burning up!
Mason grabbed my hand and placed a kiss on my palm before tucking it under his arm. “I’m okay,” he whispered. His voice held none of his usual confidence.
Hearing Kaden return, I began helping Mason toward the cabin. Kaden rushed forward to help, his expression not what I expected. Had he known Mason was sick this whole time? Mason stumbled and we paused until he could get his bearings. It might have been pitch black for most of the hike here, but how had I not seen this? He was a wreck!
Once inside, Kaden and I led him to the nearest bed. “No,” he grunted as we helped him lay down. “Jane gets the bed.”
I shook my head, but other than that, Kaden and I both ignored him. Leaving Kaden to help Mason get more comfortable, I searched for candles and got lucky. I pulled my bag off my shoulders and dug for a pack of matches. Successful, I lifted the glass off the hurricane lamp and lit the wick. The now illuminated room revealed the man’s shadow next to mine. I wasn’t surprised. I’d heard him walk up.
Kaden’s hands hovered over my shoulders. When I didn’t pull away, he laid them down gently and leaned in to kiss my neck. Tilting my head, I gave in to the touch, only briefly.
His hands fell from my shoulders as I turned to face him. “What’s wrong with Mason?” I signed.
As he stared at me, I noticed the lines above his brow had deepened. Worry lines. My gaze scanned his face. Those lines weren’t the only ones to stand out. Had he ag
ed so much in only a day?
“What’s wrong?” I demanded.
Instead of answering, he pulled me against his chest. His arms wrapped like steel bands around me, squeezing so tightly I gasped for breath. He eased his grip but continued to cling to me, his cheek resting on top of my head. This was so unlike the Kaden I knew, that I began to panic.
Unable to make sense of what was happening, I clung right back. However, it wasn’t long before I was holding on for a different reason. My shoulders slumped, my muscles losing the fight to keep standing. Then the floor swayed beneath my feet. Kaden caught me, lifting me up and into his arms with ease.
“I knew you were about done for,” he said softly against my head. “You need to rest.”
Though as tired as I was, I still wanted to know what was happening with Mason. “Is he sick?” I feebly signed, my eyelids flickering as I did my best to keep them open.
Kaden gently lowered me to the bed and kissed my forehead. I turned my head toward Mason. The bed was huge, a king size. I hated that he was so far away, and I was too tired to move. He gave me a weak smile but otherwise said nothing. His silence was enough to cause my heart to race.
“Shhh,” Kaden pressed on my shoulders until I lay back down. “He just needs some rest.” He and Mason exchanged a look I couldn’t decipher before he looked back at me. “Both of you do.”
Pulling a blanket over my legs, he picked up one of my hands. His jaw clenched as he stared at purple bruises beginning to bloom on my wrists. “If he weren’t already dead, I’d kill him,” he stated. Then, with an infinite tenderness I’d not seen from him before, he placed a healing kiss on both wrists before standing.
“Get some sleep,” he whispered. “I’ll take first watch.”
It was the moans that woke me up.
I opened my eyes to a darkened room. As I looked around for a window to determine how close to dawn we were, I instead caught sight of Mason. Still lying on the other side of the bed, his body had curled into a fetal position facing away from me. He made a sound, a deep guttural moan. The same moan that must have woken me. A sob caught in my throat. This wasn’t just a head cold.
Just as I was about to roll over to check his temperature, a hand caught my wrist and I jerked back. Kaden stood next to the bed looking down at me. It was too dark to see his expression, however, the anxiety rolled off of him in waves.
“I was just about to wake you,” he said quietly.
Pulling my wrist from his gentle grasp, I signed, “He’s worse.”
“Yes,” was all he replied with.
Blowing out a breath, I asked, “Why? What’s wrong with him?”
“Let’s talk out here,” he signed back.
With a hand on my arm, he helped me from the bed. But before leaving the room, I looked back at Mason. The sun was just rising, affording me enough light to see the extreme pallor of his skin. I sucked in a breath through my teeth. If it weren’t for his rapid breathing, I would have thought he were dead.
Kaden shut the door behind me, then pressed at the small of my back to move farther away from the room. Once in the kitchen, I turned on him. “Tell me what’s going on,” I demanded.
The thing I was still trying to figure out about Kaden was how he could hold so much inside of him. His expressions, actions, even his words rarely gave me a sense of what he was really feeling. So, when his face crumpled, tears springing from his eyes as if the dam holding it in had finally burst, it scared the shit out of me.
When he turned his head away, as if ashamed, I leaped forward to offer comfort. With my arms wrapped around him, I couldn’t sign. Instead, I pleaded with my eyes for him to tell me what was going on.
He sniffed back the tears and pulled me closer, pressing my head against his chest. I sighed, listening to the thump, thump, thump of his heart. I hadn’t realized how much I needed this. How I’d needed him as much as he’d needed me. But the luxury of being in his arms was short lived.
When he finally answered my question, I was thankful he still held me in place. Because if he hadn’t, I wasn’t sure if I would have fallen to the floor sobbing or kicked his ass.
“Mason was bitten.”
12
I should have known. We’d fought a horde of flesh eaters and hours later he was deathly ill? Didn’t take a Ph.D. to figure it out. But I’d selfishly been thinking about no one other than myself and hadn’t seen what was right in front of me.
Kaden had pulled back the blankets and shown me the bite. It was red and swollen. Infected. And the location couldn’t have been worse. Upper chest. Meant whatever those things infected us with would hit the heart and enter the blood stream quicker.
I gripped Mason’s hand, trying to offer him reassurance. Though the gesture was probably more comforting to me than it was to him. Or maybe I was really tethering myself to him so I wouldn’t do what I’d always done when things had gotten hard… run.
My gaze moved over his face, taking in the sheen of sweat and the circles under his eyes that continued to get darker. He hadn’t woken since I’d come in. And he wasn’t moaning anymore either.
Next to me, Kaden shifted in his chair. “He begged me to keep quiet about it and let you sleep with him last night. I kept watch. I’m surprised it’s taking this long.” His sentences weren’t put together well, but who could blame him? His friend was… He was going to… Mason would be…
“Shhh,” Kaden hushed me as he wiped at the tears streaming down my cheeks. “Don’t think about it.”
I wanted to roll my eyes. Don’t think about it? What else was there to think about?
“Hey,” Mason croaked from the bed, causing both me and Kaden to jump. “I’m not dead yet.”
“That’s enough out of you,” Kaden said playfully, a suspicious catch in his voice. “We’re having a moment here.”
Surprised, I looked at Kaden. His wink accompanied a sad smile. I understood. Keep things light. For Mason’s sake.
“You hittin’ on my girl?” Mason breathed, his eyelids cracking open enough to peek out.
Kaden shrugged. “Can you blame me?”
Mason’s gaze landed on mine. “No. Can’t blame you at all.”
Picking up on the game, I signed, “No fighting, boys. There’s enough of me to go around.”
The guffaw Kaden let loose caused Mason to crack a smile. “What did she say? Damn. I hate that I couldn’t take more lessons.” His limp hands moved on his stomach as he attempted to sign the only thing I’d taught him. “You have a beautiful smile.”
My smile had already wilted. But for him, I tried again.
“Thank you,” he whispered. “Now what did she say?” he asked Kaden.
“She told us to stop fighting. We could share,” he paraphrased.
Mason’s chuckle turned into a series of coughs that had both me and Kaden up and hovering, unsure what to do.
“I’m okay,” Mason croaked, coughing once more before lying back with a sigh. Just as we were about to relax back into our seats, we stiffened once more at a sound from outside. A car door.
Kaden rushed to the window and drew back the curtain. With a curse, he stepped away and turned to Mason and me, his expression one of resignation.
“Is it them?” I asked, my heart racing. How did they keep finding us?
“I think so,” he said, then shook his head. “I don’t know. If it is, we’re fucked.”
A groan from the bed had me rushing to help Mason as he struggled to sit up. I had to hold back a gasp when I put my arm around his shoulders. The heat from his body was so extreme I didn’t know how the man was still lucid.
“Lay back down,” Kaden hissed.
“We have to leave,” Mason said. He started to swing a leg off the bed. Or tried to. He stopped when his breathing became too labored.
“There’s no way we can get out of here in time,” Kaden said carefully, but Mason was no dummy. The implications of that statement hit home. Mason would have to stay behind. That wasn�
��t acceptable.
Kaden was strong. He’d have no problem hoisting Mason over his shoulder. Except, how fast could he run carrying more than two hundred pounds? If we each took an arm, we could help him together. I stared at Mason still trying to catch his breath from sitting up in the bed. There was no way he’d make it. He’d pass out before we got out the door. And again, how fast could we move?
“They’re only a few cabins down from us,” Kaden said from the window as if he were reading my thoughts.
Not fast enough, I answered myself.
“You two need to leave,” Mason said from the bed. “Leave me. I’m dying anyway.”
I shook my head no at the same time Kaden growled, “No. I’m not leaving you.”
“You have to,” Mason croaked, then turned his gaze to me, as if to follow up with, “She needs you”. Or maybe I was projecting. I shook my head no for not only Mason’s benefit but for my own as well. I didn’t need Kaden. Or Mason for that matter. However, I did want them. Major difference. I sighed, knowing it was more than that. I may not have needed them; however, I did care about them.
Knowing what I needed to do, I waved to get Kaden’s attention. “Did they see you fighting the flesh eaters yesterday?” I signed.
“I’m not sure.”
“They’ll kill you,” I signed.
“They won’t hurt us.” Kaden’s gaze held mine as he said the exact thing I was thinking. “If you’re not here, we’ll be safe.”
The words were like a punch to the gut, but so true I couldn’t refute them. The only way they had a chance to be safe was if I left.
Mind made up, I nodded and went for my bag.
“No,” Mason croaked. “Kaden. She can’t go alone.”
