The North Star

by Wendy Cole

I had Mother Nature.

  CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

  The men quieted. They sat scattered about, staring into the night, looking lost in their own thoughts. Two went so far as to stretch out on the ground and fall asleep.

  Drake kept his tight hold around my shoulders and lightly traced a path down my arm with his fingers. Years ago, I’d have basked in the attention. Once upon a time, I’d loved when he doted on me. Even after he changed, all he had to do was throw me an ounce of love, and I’d rationalize all of it. But not anymore. Now, all I could do was stare into the flames and pretend I didn’t feel it. It was the only thing that kept me from pulling away. If I pulled away, I’d make it worse.

  But as the night drew on, the flames dulled, and Drake’s intimacy intensified.

  He shifted closer, nuzzled my neck, and smelled my hair. “I missed you,” he whispered.

  I closed my eyes tight and swallowed hard. I held my breath and pictured Bard. I thought about him and how things would be when this was over.

  “Jessie,” he pulled my face over, “open your eyes.”

  I did.

  He gave me a soft look. His look. It wasn’t soft like the ones Bard gave. It was smooth and sleek. It was an act. I’d seen the look a thousand times before. I’d seen it work, on me, on other girls. “Didn’t you miss me? Even a little?”

  He caressed my arm, and I shuddered. It was all I could do to swallow back the bile in my throat.

  “If I missed you, don’t you think I would have just come back?”

  The mask slipped and replaced by the devil beneath, but it only lasted for a moment before he put it back in place. “Not if you thought I’d be angry.”

  I snorted. I needed to play nice. I needed to pretend, but I just…couldn’t. “You beat the fuck out of me, Drake. More than once. What makes you think I’d want that?”

  He nodded slowly and touched the hair at the back of my neck. “I always thought you understood me. You always forgave. Every time.” He leaned closer, dipped his face so I would meet his gaze. “I don’t know why I like it so much. There’s something about it, when you just take it, barely flinching, then when you don’t…” He bit his lip. “I know I’m fucked up, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love you.”

  “You can’t love.”

  His eyes blazed. “I can. I do. You think I would have all these men looking for you if I didn’t. I’ve been out of my fucking mind since you disappeared.”

  “That’s not love, Drake. That’s possession. You want to possess me.”

  “I do possess you.” His jaw clenched; teeth bared. “You think I’d just let some asshole take you away from me?” He shifted back straight, stared at the embers still glowing in front of us.

  I held my breath. The atmosphere had charged. I shouldn’t have goaded him. I should have lied, pretended, but instead, I lit a fuse. At any moment, he’d detonate, and I had no choice but to sit right beside him.

  He clasped his hands in front of him, rubbed his fingers together, then gripped them tight and pulled them to his chin. His left leg bounced. He unclasped his hands and ran one down his face.

  I scooted away an inch, and that was all it took to set him off.

  “Everybody leave.” His voice was quiet, so quiet the men just had time to register and look over before he roared, “Everybody leave!”

  They jumped up, woke the other two, and walked away without a backward glance.

  I started to rise, but my limbs were frozen. They fought against my better sense. My body warred with my brain on what was best for survival. Stay and play the game, make him happy, or run like hell.

  Drake gripped my thigh and pushed me back down. “Not you.”

  “My back.” My voice shook. “I can’t.”

  Drake twisted towards me and pulled, knocking me off balance as he slid me closer. I fell back and hissed as the earth dug into the still open wounds.

  His eyes trailed over me, and the sight of my pain parted his lips. “See? I don’t know why I like that so much.”

  I pushed through the burn and pulled myself up, only to be knocked back again.

  Drake pressed a hand to the center of my chest, pushed me back to the ground and held me there. “I barely recognized you, ya’ know.” He fingered the hair by my face. “I liked the blonde better.”

  “I was trying to hide.”

  He looked at me, his lips tight. “You’re pushing too far, Jessie.”

  I bit my tongue. I was pushing. I shouldn’t have been pushing. I should have been doing whatever I needed to do to survive until Bard could save me. I needed to survive for him.

  But I just couldn’t. Things were different now. I was different. If I let him pull me back, if I succumbed to this, even once, it felt like I’d never get my new self back. It would kill all the hope I’d acquired; destroy all the healing Bard had done.

  “I haven’t done anything, Drake.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “We’re over. I don’t want you. Even the feel of you makes me want to fucking vomit. You disgust me.”

  His hand lifted from my chest to my throat and squeezed so hard I thought my windpipe would shatter. “That’s not how this works,” he said, his voice far too calm. “You don’t get to leave. You know that.”

  I whimpered and clawed at his hands.

  “Now.” He released his hold, ran the same hand slowly down my chest, over my waist, then to my hip. “Apologize.”

  I gasped for oxygen and cringed at the feel of his hand.

  Just do it. Just say you’re sorry and live.

  I couldn’t. “Fuck you.”

  Drake snarled. “Have it your way then!”

  He gripped my jeans and wrenched the button open.

  I fought to get away as he held me pinned with his forearms. The world sped up. My heart thundered as adrenaline fueled me. My hands, legs, arms, and everything else shook and scrambled. They were too desperate to do me any good.

  Then, it all stopped.

  Two male screams pierced the air.

  Drake jumped up and paused. He scanned the surroundings. “Fred!”

  “Sam and John fell in a fucking hole!” Fred called back.

  Drake jerked me to my feet and stood stock still with his face turned to where Fred’s voice had come from. “What do you mean they fell in a fucking hole? Tell them to get the fuck up!”

  No response came.

  “Fucking idiots.” Drake jerked me along as he headed to investigate.

  The minute the old man came into view, he shot somber eyes to his nephew. “They can’t get up. They’re dead.”

  Dragging me along with him, Drake rushed forward and peeked over the edge of a large crevice. Perfectly square, and at least six feet deep, it was obvious that it’d been made. The leaves and debris that had hid it still littered the ground around and inside.

  That, and two men who were both impaled by sharpened sticks buried point up from the ground.

  It was one of Bard’s booby traps.

  The bile I’d so carefully contained flew out of me. I whipped away and heaved into the grass.

  Drake yanked me upwards. “Did you know about this? Did you!”

  “No! I didn’t! I swear!” My voice was desperate. I lifted my hands.

  My eyes shot to Fred. He and the other two men stood staring at their fallen comrades with shocked expressions.

  “Two of my men are dead!” Drake dragged me closer to the hole. “Maybe, you should join them!”

  “No!” I pulled back and kicked at his leg, but Drake stuck an elbow into my back and the pain almost made me collapse.

  He jerked me forward.

  I clenched my eyes shut, waited for the moment, but it never came. Instead, I found myself jerked in the opposite direction

  “Move! Go!”

  We broke into a sprint, and I opened my eyes to see Fred trailing behind us.

  The other two men laid on the ground beside the pit, an arrow sticking out of each back.

  Drake pulled me through the t
rees. “That fucker’s alive!” he called back to his uncle.

  Fred fought to keep up with Drake’s panicked pace. He was like a spooked horse, wild and willing to run blindly if it meant getting away from whatever the threat was. He didn’t maneuver like Bard did. He constantly tripped, and each time, he’d pull me down with him. Then he’d look back at me with fire in his eyes, as if I were the one to cause the fall.

  We ran for at least a mile, never slowing, never pausing, until a clearing came into view, and Drake came to an abrupt halt along its edge.

  He and Fred hunched over and gasped for air. The run had been too much for either of them. They’d overexerted their abilities.

  I watched them, only slightly winded.

  I was stronger now.

  The time had come. This was it. Bard would save me.

  “You need to give him the girl, son.”

  Drake’s eyes shot to Fred and narrowed. “What? Why the fuck would I do that?”

  “You don’t know these men. They know these mountains like you wouldn’t believe. If you don’t do something, we’re gonna die here tonight.”

  His jaw clenched. “I’ve met these men before. Bullet dropped his father just like any other.” He gripped my arm tight and stared down at me for a long moment. “No.” He pulled the gun from his waistband, pulled my back into him, arm circling my neck, then pressed the metal to my temple. “If he wants her, he can come get her.”

  I gripped his forearm and fought to pull it away from my throat, but his hold was like iron. He forced me out into the clearing, then stood, wide open and taunting.

  “You see my woman here!”

  I jolted and clenched my jaw.

  “If you want her, you better hurry! You got about two seconds before I blow her fucking head off!”

  My chest pulled and tightened. This was it. This was how it was going to happen. All this time, all the fighting led to this moment.

  Moments passed without a single sound. Even the wind stopped as if Mother Nature herself had seen what was happening and pressed pause.

  Drake’s hold loosened, and he turned us back around. “See, old man!” He laughed. “We lost the fucker. Stop being such a pussy!”

  Fred still looked uneasy. “We didn’t lose him. He’s probably watching us right now.”

  His jaw twitched and something in his face seemed to shift. He scanned the trees again and heaved a deep breath through his nose.

  Drake snorted. “Calm the fuck down.”

  “Don’t be stupid!” Fred snapped. “I told you not to be so fucking reckless!”

  My eyes widened onto my old friend, but he didn’t show even the slightest bit of regret for his outburst.

  Survival reigned supreme, and in that moment, Drake ceased to be the biggest threat.

  Drake’s eyes narrowed. “What did you say to me?”

  Fred took a step forward, his eyes blazing. “I said, you’re a punk ass little piece of shit, and your daddy should have beat your ass when he had the chance. If he had, maybe I wouldn’t be standing here on a fucking mountain, waiting to be fucking killed for no reason other than you’re fucking stupid!”

  Drake’s hold on my neck slackened. He stood quiet for a moment, unaccustomed to being called out by anyone, but it only lasted a second before he pulled the gun from my head and pointed it at Fred.

  No!

  I knocked his arm away just as he pulled the trigger, and the bullet flew off into the trees.

  Drake exploded. He jerked my hair, threw me down to the ground, and pressed the gun hard into my forehead. “I should have done this a long time ago!”

  Fred, for once, didn’t stand by. He barreled forward and tackled his nephew away from me.

  I stayed put, frozen in shock. Adrenaline pumped through me like fuel through a jet engine, and my chest heaved lungful after lungful of cool mountain air.

  A few feet away, the men fought. I tried to get up, to help, to run, to do anything other than just lay there, but I couldn’t move. My back was too fucked. My body was too wired. I flopped back to the ground and stared at the pair of them.

  Fred was old, and years of riding a Harley and hard living had wreaked havoc on his body. Drake easily took the upper hand. While Fred punched at his gut, Drake rammed the barrel of the gun into his temple, and that was it.

  Fred dropped, hit the ground in a motionless pile, and Drake’s attention turned back to me.

  “You fucked up again, Jessie. Too many times. I was going to forgive you! We were going to get past this!” He flung his hands about as he ranted, and the gun he held was pointed in all directions.

  “You’ve ruined every fucking thing!” He turned to me, his eyes blazing. “Stand the fuck up!”

  I struggled up again, but only made it halfway.

  Drake grabbed my hair and yanked me the rest of the way. “I’m going to wait for him to come.” He leaned in until his face was only a breath away from mine. “Then, I’m going to show him. You’re mine. I’ll take you right in front of him then snub you out, nice and slow. He’s going to watch it all, Jessie. Doesn’t that sound like fun?” Insanity danced within his eyes. “But we need to draw him out first, don’t we?”

  His fist connected dead center of my face and sent me backwards to the hard earth.

  “Dammit, man!” he cried. “That was a good one!”

  Pain radiated through my skull, and my vision swam in a sea of white.

  “You see this?!” he screamed into the silence. “She’s gonna suffer until you come out here!” He hit me again to prove his words true.

  My face numbed. I didn’t even feel it when the third strike met my cheek, nor the fourth, nor the fifth. The world spun. Tree tops whirled above my head in a merry-go-round of green.

  “There you are!” Drake stood, yanked me back up, and positioned my body in front of him. “Look who it is, sweetheart!”

  I blinked hard and forced my eyes to focus. Bard stood less than twenty feet in front of us, still coated in mud and shaking with rage.

  “He looks mad,” Drake commented. “Let’s see how mad we can make him.” His hand ran up my shirt, cupped my breast, fondled and groped while his laughter bellowed across the field. “It’s working. I do believe he’s jealous,” he sang.

  “Bard…” I choked on a sob. It was too much. I couldn’t take anymore.

  “I’m here, Tequila. I’ve got you,” Bard called back, his voice strained.

  “Tequila?” Drake’s tone darkened. “Isn’t that sweet.” His hand slid down my stomach. “Well, he don’t got you, Tequila. I do.” He dipped his hand beneath my waistline and pushed further.

  I jerked and pulled to move away, to stop him, but my body was broken, his hold was too tight.

  Something inside me fell apart. A tortured sob ripped from my lungs. No more. No more.

  “No more!” I screamed my voice raw. It echoed across the field and through the trees. It felt as if the whole world would hear it. It was a cry to Karma herself. To Mother Nature. To God or whatever higher power would listen. No more.

  “Damn! I ain’t ever heard you scream like that! Do it again.” Drake pulled at my jeans and jerked me tighter into his chest.

  I sobbed, long and heavy, and each shuddered breath between them barely touched my lungs.

  I gave up. He won. I was broken completely. I was torn apart and left mere ashes; the remains of a fire that’d never been allowed to burn.

  Then, everything stopped.

  Drake’s hand froze mid movement and slowly lifted away from me. His other followed suit.

  I stumbled without the support and fell onto my hands and knees. I didn’t question why. I just crawled; crawled and slid as much as I could in a last effort to escape.

  A familiar pair of arms lifted me, and I found myself hugged in a comforting embrace. I let myself go limp; let Bard support me and let more sobs burst free and rack my frame. The relief that flooded me was stronger than any drug.

  Was I dead? Had Karma h
eard me?

  I shot a confused look over my shoulder.

  Boe and Zeke stood side by side, each of them armed with a shotgun. The barrel of Boe’s was pressed firm into the back of Drake’s skull.

  CHAPTER SEVENTY

  Drake laughed an insane sound. “Will you look at that! Your little boyfriend brought friends.”

  I leaned heavier into Bard, seeking his support. I was drained, physically, emotionally, and despite the gun trained on him, Drake terrified me.

  Bard’s hold tightened. “I’ve got you.” That deep voice of his caressed my ear drums, soothed away the fear, and healed me in a way nothing else ever would. He shuddered a breath and nuzzled my hair. “I’m so fucking sorry. I’m so sorry, Jessie.”

  He ran a hand down my back, a motion meant to comfort, but the action felt like flames flickering across the open wounds. I flinched and hissed.

  Bard jerked his hand away and held me at arm’s length. His eyes sharpened and cut, wide and filled with an enraged disbelief. Before I could utter a sound, he whipped me around, and lifted my shirt.

  Bard stiffened. I couldn’t see his face, but I could imagine it.

  The world fell silent, and my eyes found Drake’s. He watched the man behind me, his head tilted; an expression of avid wonder across his features. “Strange, isn’t it? You wouldn’t even think it by the look of her. I guess every girl is ugly somewhere.”

  I could practically feel the rage that poured out from behind me. Bard stood for a long moment, then in a firm voice said, “Zeke, come get Jessie.”

  Zeke walked towards me then sucked in a sharp breath when he caught sight of my exposed skin. More silence, then, “What do you plan to do, boy?”

  “Just hold her. Keep her here.” He stepped away as his eyes locked with Drake’s. “Boe, tie him to that tree.”

  Boe directed Drake over with the gun still pressed against his head. “Walk your ass on, you sorry piece of shit.” He gripped Drake’s hands, then lowered the gun long enough to grab a bundle of thin rope out of the pack on his back.

  He bound them tight, the same way Drake’s men had done to me.

  “I’ve never been on this side of things before!” Drake tilted his head back, his eyes searching for me.