Insta Lovers: A Collection of Steamy Novellas

by J. L. Beck

  “You need to cross back over and keep going west.” I say with a heavy heart. “I’m going this way.”

  “No, we are not separating,” Reed demands.

  I don’t want to separate either. I am not sure why but letting Reed go and possibly not seeing him again breaks my heart. I probably feel this way because of all the craziness we have been through in the last two days. Whatever the reason might be, my heart feels like it’s about to shatter.

  “Look, there is someone straight ahead. I’m going to pass them on this side and you are going to pass them on the other side. We meet back at the creek after we pass them. Just orient yourself by their voices and their flashlights. This way we distract the dogs even more if they come this way.” I try to keep my voice firm and steady. He can’t realize that I am lying to him. Please just go.

  “I don’t know Evie, I think we should stay together.”

  “We don’t have time for this. The truth is, I will be much faster if I don’t have to hold your hand and lead you through the dark. If we separate, I at least have a chance.” I press harder, even though I am crumbling inside. I hate lying to him, especially knowing how this lie will hurt him. He will think that I abandoned him too, but what other choice do I have? He would never let me go if he knew where I was really heading.

  “Okay,” he says, still not sounding convinced and I don’t wait for him to say or do anything else. I just turn and start walking away from the creek. When I hear him walk back through the water I slow down and look over my shoulder. He is already on the other side putting his boots on. He gets up and disappears into the darkness. I watch his shadowy figure walking away from me with an agonizing pain that is expanding in my chest. Am I ever going to see him again?

  I stand there until I am sure he is gone and that he can’t see me anymore either, then I change my course. Instead of walking east I start walking back up north toward the cabin. I don’t bother going terribly fast. I’m in no hurry getting up there and meeting the Magnolia family’s minions up there, but this is the only plan I got. The only way I can get at least Reed out of this.

  All too soon I hear voices coming toward me and this time I walk towards them, instead of away from them.

  The brightness of the flashlight that is pointed in my direction blinds me instantly. I put my head down to avert the light and hold up both of my arms in surrender. “Don’t shoot. You need me alive.” I say with a confidence I didn’t know I had in me.

  “Of course, we need you alive,” an accented voice states, moving closer.

  The last thing I remember before the darkness engulfs me, is a sharp pain exploding on the back of my head and air whooshing around me.

  32

  When I regain consciousness, I feel like I got hit by a truck. I am trying to remember what happened but the agonizing pain in my head is so debilitating that I can’t form a single useful thought.

  “Hello Evie,” a male voice greets me and the sound acts like a sledgehammer to my skull. Is my head slit open? I try to touch my head to feel if I am bleeding but my hands are stuck.

  “Time to wake Evie!” The same voice says, but in a harsher tone than before.

  With effort, I pry my eyes open and draw in a shaky breath. I am in my cabin with three guys standing in front of me. They are all dressed in black shirts with dark pants, and guns peeking out of their belts. I recognize one of the men, it’s Burman, the prison guard that brought Reed to the hospital.

  “I have been looking for you for quite some time,” the voice continues. It is not one of the three talking, so I follow where the voice is coming from. I find a man sitting on one of my kitchen chairs. Unlike the other three guys occupying my cabin, he is wearing an expensive looking suit.

  I try to get up from the chair I am sitting in, but I realize that my hands weren’t stuck, they are tied to the chair.

  “Who are you?” I say, while yanking on my restraints.

  “Of course, how rude of me. I am Brian Magness,” he says, pointing to his chest.

  “What do you want?” I ask. I am not sure if he knows about the mass email I have set to send out in a few hours, so I decide to play dumb.

  “Straight to the point then. I want you to do me a favor,” he says casually.

  “A favor? Why don’t you do me a favor first and untie me?”

  “I will, as soon as you agree to do what I ask of you.”

  My head is still throbbing and talking to this crook doesn’t help. “What would that be?” I say, hoping this conversation will be over soon.

  “I need you to hack into my partners account and transfer me all his money. The same way you did when you were seventeen.”

  I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t that. I am looking at him speechless, trying to wrap my mind around the connection. He is visibly growing more impatient by the second, so I have to think quick. It is still dark outside so it will probably be a few more hours before the email will send. I need more time.

  “So, if I do this for you, then what? You are just going to let me walk out of here?”

  “Sure,” he says, but the stupid grin on his face and the snickering of the other guys tells me otherwise.

  “I’ll do it,” I say, not really having any other choice.

  Magness gives one of his goons a nod and I am untied thirty seconds later. The generator is already running and the computer is turned on. I take a seat at the desk and notice a paper on it with multiple bank account information. Much slower than I normally do, I start to type, trying to buy as much time as I can.

  “Pick up the pace Evie and don’t play games. You know how that ended for Jason.”

  I freeze, my fingers hovering over the keyboard without moving. What is he saying? Jason’s death wasn’t an accident? That I am in the same room as the person who is responsible for my brother’s death? I hear some heavy footsteps coming up behind me but I can’t move a muscle. Not until I feel a rough hand on my shoulder and see a shiny silver object next to my face. I move my head slightly and find myself looking into the barrel of a gun. I react before my brain can construct a single thought.

  I grab the gun with my right hand and twist while I throw a left hook, hitting my attacker in the jaw. I am not sure if it is my sudden anger that provoked this strength or simply that I took him by surprise. Either way, I stunned him enough to release the gun and make him stagger back. I turn the gun in my hand and point it at the remaining guys in the room. Magness is sitting in the chair, his face white as a ghost. Apparently, he hadn’t counted on my bravery or skill to grab the gun either.

  “Shoot her!” He orders.

  The bang is so loud inside this little room that I am sure I will be walking away with hearing loss, that is if I will be walking away at all. I pull the trigger a millisecond before the other guy, hitting one of the men in the knee cap, just where I intended to. He crashes to the floor in an instant. The last remaining guy standing is Burman and he is so stupefied by what is happening that he almost didn’t see me pointing the gun at him. He can’t raise his arm quick enough before I shoot him in the hand. His weapon drops to the floor, Magness jumps up, trying to get to the gun but I manage to kick it under the bed. I think people are yelling but I can’t hear anything besides a maddening ringing in my ear. I look up and see that no one is covering the door so I take the chance and make a run for it. Just when I yank the door handle open I feel someone pushing me from behind but ignore it and keep running.

  I run away from the cabin without looking back. I don’t know for how long I am running, but I suddenly feel the need to slow down. I stop running and start walking. That’s when I feel it first, the sharp pain originating from my side. I scan my surroundings. It doesn’t look like anyone followed me. I try to take a deep breath but it hurts. I look down to my stomach in confusion. Why is there blood on my shirt? It takes me a few more seconds before my overwhelmed mind draws the conclusion that I have been shot.

  I look around me again, trying to o
rientate myself. The sun is rising now, giving me enough light to pinpoint my location. I am a good distance away from the cabin, I realize, but I am not that far from a road. If I can make it to that road I could get help. Hopefully, Magness and his gorillas cut their losses and left the area. I know that this road I am close to is not well traveled but there is still a chance that someone might find me there and that chance is all I need to make me start walking. This time I move much slower than before. I clutch on to my side, trying to stop the bleeding but I can feel myself getting weaker by the minute.

  Just a little break I tell myself and slump down, leaning my back on a tree. I want to close my eyes so badly, but I know that if I do, I might never open them again. I think about Brandon, who had only me left. It would kill him to lose me too. I think about Reed, even though we have only known each other for a little while I somehow feel like I have known him forever. I have no idea how he would feel about me being dead, especially after the way I left him earlier. Then I recall what he told me last night, that he was afraid of waking up and I would be gone.

  I pull myself up, with a steadying grip on the tree. I start walking again, one foot in front of the other. I feel like my feet are getting heavier, like someone is attaching weights to my shoes with each step. My vision starts to become blurry and my breaths are becoming more ragged now. Every step hurts, but I keep pushing. With Brandon and Reed in my mind, I keep fighting. The walk seems endless and giving up has crossed my mind a few times, but then I finally see it. The asphalt is peeking through the tree trunks in front of me. The sight gives me a final push of energy and I pick up my pace the last few feet, like I am about to cross the finish line after a race. A long grueling race.

  I slump down on the side of the road unable to stand up any longer. I can barely see the trees around me, my vision is so fuzzy and my eyelids feel like my eyelashes have turned into lead. It is becoming impossibly hard to keep my eyes open. The last thing I remember is that I don’t feel pain anymore. Everything becomes numb, all discomfort lifts off my body and I fall into a deep dreamless sleep.

  33

  My eyelids feel like sandpaper when I try to open them. At first, I see nothing but the color white. Slowly, I start making out the outline of the light fixture on the ceiling I am looking at. Then I start becoming aware of a low and steady beeping close to me. My mind is so hazy it takes me a long time before I understand that I am in a hospital.

  Something squeezes my hand and I peek down to see what it is. Green eyes look at me with joyous relief.

  “Reed?” I try to say but it comes out more like a croak. My throat is dry as a desert after a drought.

  “Hey crazy, how are you feeling?” Reed’s voice sounds funny to me, far away somehow. I must be high on painkillers.

  “What were you thinking?” He adds, shaking his head disapprovingly. I’m not really sure what I was thinking. I am not even sure what I am thinking right now to be honest. I feel like my brain has turned into a bowl of spaghetti and someone keeps stirring it up.

  Reed takes a cup with a straw and held it in front of my mouth so I can drink. I have to lift my head up slightly to do so and even this little movement is tough for me. Reed put his other hand behind my head to steady me and I eagerly gulp the water down, trying to sooth the burning dryness in my throat.

  When the cup is empty and Reed removes his hand, I lay my head back on the pillow in exhaustion. I close my eyes again, hoping that the next time I open them I will feel a little bit better.

  I have no idea how long I slept but when I wake up, I feel better. My mind is less hazy and more alert now. Reed is lounging in a hospital recliner next to my bed. His eyes are closed and he is breathing evenly with his mouth slightly open, telling me he is asleep. Like a creep, I watch him sleep for a few minutes until I hear the door opening quietly. Tanja walks in, her face lighting up when she sees me awake and looking at her. She walks over swiftly and takes me into a careful embrace, gently wrapping her arms around me. I return the gesture, glad to have my friend here.

  “I am so sorry Evie, I should have never left you that night. I just didn’t know what to do. They told me I needed to leave if I wanted to keep my job. I was so worried about you,” She murmurs into my hair.

  When she lets go after a few minutes and stands up, I can see that she is crying.

  “It’s ok, it wasn’t your fault,” I assure her. I hate that she blames herself. There was nothing she could have done at that time.

  “How bad is it? Did you have to get the bullet out?” I ask her, while cautiously feeling around my side.

  “Yeah, we got you into surgery as soon as you got here. We got the bullet out and stopped the bleeding. You lost a lot of blood though. It was a miracle that you survived. If Reed hadn’t found you when he did and brought you here so fast you probably would ha…,” she starts sobbing, unable to finish her sentence. Reed found me? I try to remember that part but I can’t recall anything after making it to the road.

  The beeper on Tanja’s belt goes off, letting her know that another patient is calling for her.

  “I’ll be back in a little bit,” she says, squeezing my hand, before exiting the room.

  Reed must have woken up sometime during my conversation with Tanja, because when I turn my head to look at him, his eyes are open and he is watching me with an expression I can’t read.

  “How did you find me?” Is the first question that pops in my mind.

  “When I realized that you weren’t meeting me I walked back, trying to find you. Of course, I got lost in the process, which ended up not being a bad thing. I somehow ended up at the dirt road we parked the truck on and I followed it. I found the truck and two more SUV’s were parked there. One of Magness’s guys was waiting at the vehicles and I was able to surprise him and knock him out. I took his phone and called Whiteside. At that time your mass email had already been sent out and he knew everything. He confessed that he only turned on me because they had threatened to hurt his family. I told him where I was and he came with an army of cops. They called in every officer from all surrounding police stations. They arrested Magness and his guys when they were coming back to their SUV’s and then we started looking for you. Burman admitted that he shot you but that you were alive and ran east from the cabin. We had a team searching the forest but I told Whiteside that you knew these woods and that you would go to a road. We only drove around for ten minutes when we found you.” He stops talking, his expression suddenly turning pained.

  “I thought you were dead Evie, you looked like it. You were lying lifeless on the side of the road in a puddle of blood,” he says, his face twists like he is in agony just thinking about it.

  Desperate to change the subject I ask, “What about the rest of the organization?”

  “The cops got them, all of them, thanks to you,” He says, giving me half of a smile.

  “So, what are you going to do now that you are a free man again? Are you leaving town or are you staying around,” I ask curiously. “You can stay at my place if you need somewhere to crash,” I offer with no alternative motive whatsoever.

  He gives me a full-on smile now. He must have been thinking the same thing that I was, when I offered for him to stay with me. Then he says, “I might do that, but don’t worry about me right now. You are about to have a visitor who is not very happy with you at the moment.”

  “What? Who?” I ask confused.

  “I talked to your brother yesterday,” Reed tells me and for a moment I think I heard him wrong.

  “What? You talked to my brother? Yesterday?” Each of my words come out higher in pitch. None of this makes sense.

  Reed must notice my confusion and starts explaining. “You have been out for thirty some hours Evie. Brandon called the hospital yesterday afternoon frantically looking for you. The cops told him everything they knew, but he wanted to talk to me.”

  For some reason I can’t imagine Reed and Brandon talking on the phone. Both belonging in parts of m
y life that don’t go together. I had the same feeling once when I saw my dentist and my high school teacher on a date together.

  I don’t have time to dwell on the thought, because the door swings open and Brandon gales in like a pirate about to storm a ship. His face is flushed and he is out of breath.

  “Did you run up the stairs?” I ask.

  “Did you run up the stairs?” He echo’s my words. Oh, he is pissed. “That’s what you are going to say to me? Have you completely lost your mind? What were you thinking sending me that email?”

  Oh shit, the email. No wonder he is so furious. I completely forgot about that email.

  “I am so sorry!” I say and mean it wholeheartedly. His features soften a bit and he pulls up a chair next to my bed and takes a seat.

  The next thirty minutes I spend apologizing and explaining everything that happened. Brandon calms down quickly but I can tell that I am not going to be off the hook for a while. Reed is mostly quiet, letting me do most of the talking. After a while Brandon gets up and excuses himself. “I haven’t eaten all day. I’m going to grab bite to eat, so I’ll leave you two lovebirds to it,” he says as he walks out the door.

  Lovebirds? Where is he getting that at? Reed seems to ignore my brother’s statement.

  “So, you want me to stay with you?” He asks, leaning closer as he rests his elbows on his knees.

  “I mean, if you want to. I could probably use some help at home, after I’m discharged from the hospital,” I say all innocent like. Batting my eyelashes at him like a teenage girl.

  “I do owe you a lot, so it would only be right to help you out in your time of need,” He justifies. I keep nodding my head and smile, thinking about all the things he can do for me day and night. Reed leans in even closer and surprises me with a kiss. It starts out as a harmless caress but as soon as our lips touch it turns into more. I snake my arms around his neck to pull him close. I want him as close as possible and I want him to stay with me, now and always.