by Mae Doyle
I never should have turned it into what it is.
When I’m sure that he’s dead I step over him, leaving his body for later. Now I have to find Nathan, and I have a pretty good feeling that that’s going to be a lot harder than I want it to be.
He’s the one who really adopted this lifestyle. He lives and breathes training and hunting.
If he’s already on Natalia’s scent then I may be fucked.
But if I can get to her first then I can save her.
As quickly as possible without making any noise I feel my way through the trees, testing each step with my foot before putting down my weight. This way I can be sure that I’ll be able to sneak up on Nathan without him knowing that I’m coming.
I hope.
I know for a fact that if he finds Dale or Zach’s bodies first then he’ll not only be hunting Natalia, but also me.
I can’t let that happen.
There’s a crash off to the side, closer to the cove and I freeze, waiting for a moment to see if I can hear anything else. Nothing moves for a moment then there’s a scream.
Natalia.
I start running.
Chapter 29
Natalia
I thought I was being so clever.
Each step was as silent as I could make it, but I made one huge mistake, and that was to keep moving when I should have stayed still.
If I’d been still then Nathan may have walked right by me. He may have thought me a stump or a broken tree, but I moved, barely breathing, my heart so slow as I crept through the forest that I wanted to pass out.
And he’d seen me.
Nathan lunges at me, his weight knocking me squarely off balance and I scream as he lands on me, the sound leaving my throat cut off abruptly as I land on my back. My lungs feel like they’re collapsed as all of the air gets knocked out of them.
The knife I’ve clutched so close to my body this entire time flies away from me, landing with a soft thud in the sand. It’s too far away but I stretch my arm out for it anyway, praying that I’ll feel the cool metal of its blade or the warm handle under my fingers.
I try to suck in a breath but it’s so painful that I just lay there, staring up at the stars. They’re dizzying, even through palm branches, and the inky black of the night seems to surround us as I try to breathe.
This is how I die.
But then Nathan grabs my shoulders, lifting me up to a seated position and shakes me. My head flops back and forth before I can control it and I try to push him off, slamming my hands into his chest.
“Little rabbit whore!” He screams, his face inches from mine. I feel the spit from his mouth as he yells, he’s so close, and I wince, trying to pull away. “Are you trying to ruin everything? Do you know what you’ve done?!”
His voice gets higher and higher with every word, the sound of it so loud that I’m sure that the other hunters are going to hear him and come running. I wonder if Marco hears him back at the building, if he cares that I’m about to die.
I push the thought of him from my mind. I’m not going to die thinking about a man who doesn’t care for me, that’s for sure.
“Answer me!”
Even though it’s dark, I can still see the rage on Nathan’s face. We’re right by the cove, the little bit of moonlight reflecting off of the water. I turn my head away, wanting to look anywhere but at him.
His hand slaps across my cheek so painfully that I gasp, the sharp sensation of it bringing me back to my senses.
I need to fight.
Bucking, I try to get him off of me but he just growls, pushing me down so that I’m stretched out on the beach under him.
“Is that what you did to Marco to make him want you? Did you fuck him here on the sand, bucking your filthy little cunt up at him?” He asks, leaning over me and grabbing my chin.
He turns my head so that I have to look at him then forces my mouth open with his other hand, shoving his fingers into my mouth.
“Did you suck his cock with your filthy whore mouth, rabbit? Show me. Show me how good you can suck something.”
Tears spring to the corners of my eyes and, for just a moment, I do what he wants me to, swirling my tongue over his finger and lightly sucking them, getting all of the sand and sweat off of them, swallowing it, before I realize what I’m doing.
Then I bite him.
Hard.
His fingers curl in my mouth and I taste blood flow across my tongue.
“Fuck! What the fuck is wrong with you!” He screams, trying to pull his fingers from my mouth. I grind my teeth into his fingers, closing my eyes as I do so that I don’t have to think about what I’m doing.
“Let me go, you whore!” The hit comes out of left field. I don’t see it coming, not with my eyes clamped shut against the horror of what I’m doing. His punch lands squarely on the side of my head and I gasp, letting go of his hand, and my head drops back onto the sand.
Everything is fuzzy. Darkness creeps in at the edges of my vision and he pushes himself up to stand over me. The way that he’s standing, leaning down to get a better look at me, makes him the center of all that I can see.
“You fucking whore,” he says, then spits at me, the fine spray landing on my cheeks. I blink hard, trying to clear my vision.
When I do I can see that he’s holding his hand, cradling it close to his body. It’s too dark to see how much damage I did, but it’s obvious that it hurts like hell.
Good. The thought makes me smile.
“I want to know how good that pussy of yours tastes,” he tells me and I feel my body stiffen. Keeping his injured hand tucked close to his body, he uses his good hand to undo his pants. The sound of the zipper is loud in the quiet of the night.
I have no idea where the other men are who are hunting me but it doesn’t matter. They’re not going to be on my side when they do get here.
Swallowing hard, I look up at him. “Go to hell.”
He laughs, a sound that sends chills through my body. It’s the laugh of a crazy person who has been pushed so close to the edge that the darkness is not only swirling around them, but also consuming them.
There’s no coming back for him.
“I want to feel what made Marco so crazy,” he said, pushing his pants down. When I don’t move to pull off my pants he kicks me, the toe of his boot slamming into my ribs.
I roll over with the force of the kick, pain shooting through my body. Sparks flash in front of my eyes and I suck in a breath, trying to get enough oxygen to stay alive.
My ribs scream out in pain where he kicked me and my mouth falls open in shock. A guttural scream tears through the silence of the island and I blink in surprise.
Was that me? The scream comes again and again I feel Nathan kick me. This time I flop over onto my stomach, trying to crawl away from him.
“You’re not going anywhere, whore,” he says, grabbing my ponytail and pulling back so that my face and head lift off of the ground. I moan, the sound rolling out of me as he plants his knee in my back. “I can strip you down just fine if you don’t want to play nice. All I wanted to do was give you something to enjoy before I kill you.”
I want to scream at him. I want to rage against him but I simply don’t know how to get out of this situation. Maybe if Marco came to help me I could survive, but I’m here on my own and I honestly don’t see a way out of this.
He fumbles with my pants, trying to undo them and p ull them down, and while he’s working on that, I hear something.
Footsteps.
Tears stream down my face as I realize what’s about to happen to me. Zach and Dale had to have heard the commotion and they’re all going to join in on the fun. I can’t get out of this.
“Marco,” I moan, his name slipping from my mouth one last time. He’s the one man I thought I might be able to make a life with and he’s abandoned me.
Like everyone does.
“Nathan!”
The voice makes Nathan stop tugging on my jeans and
I turn my head, trying to see who’s coming. There’s a loud clatter as the man tears out of the woods into the cove, breathing hard.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d think that it was Marco.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Nathan asks, getting quickly to his feet. He plants one heavy boot on my back, pushing down hard to keep me in the sand, but it’s better than being kicked in the side.
I want to turn my head and see if it really is Marco. I have to know if I was just hearing things or if he really did come to my rescue.
A gun cocks, the click so loud in the quiet that it hurts my ears.
Chapter 30
Marco
It’s hard to see what’s going on in the dark but I can tell that Nathan has Natalia face down on the ground, his boot on her back to hold her in place. The sound of her screams echoes through my mind and my hand shakes a little as I point the gun at Nathan.
How the fuck did we end up here? He’s my best friend, always the person that I knew I could depend on no matter what, but right now I’m willing to put a bullet in his head if that’s what it takes to save Natalia.
She’s the only thing that matters right now and all I can think about is getting her off the ground and into my arms, but I can’t do that yet.
Not until Nathan is gone.
“You killed Dale and Zach.” Nathan’s voice is steady and calm, but he’s not asking a question.
“I did.” I can’t believe what I’m saying but it’s the truth. I killed them both and I’m not going to stop with just them. I’m going to kill anyone standing in the way of me getting to Natalia.
I can’t see Nathan’s face but I can imagine the emotions shooting across it right now. He’s not sure what to do, anymore than I am. This is uncharted territory, but I’m sure he has a plan.
He always has a plan. That’s what’s so fucking terrifying about him.
“You’re blinded, Marco. Natalia is the devil and blinded you, but you don’t have to live like this. You can come back from this, I know you can.” Nathan’s always been great at keeping his voice calm even when he’s going crazy inside and I have no doubt that he’s plotting something.
“Let her up,” I tell him taking a step closer.
He moves faster than I could imagine, pulling something from his pocket. It’s too small to be a gun and fits neatly in the palm of his hand, but I can’t tell what it is.
“Don’t come any closer,” he warns, holding one hand out from his body as if for balance. He still hasn’t taken his foot off of Natalia and I grimace, wondering if I should just shoot him.
The fact that he and I have been best friends for years is the only thing holding me back. But I’d choose Natalia over him, I know I would.
“What the fuck is that?” I snap.
He chuckles, obviously enjoying the attention he’s getting. “This? This is just my insurance, Marco. I always knew that you were going to do something stupid one day and that I’d want to have a way to stop you from taking me down.”
I’m silent as I try to figure out what it could be. Finally I break the silence. “A weapon?”
“More than that. Let me go, Marco. Let me get to the helicopter and you and your little whore can live here happily ever after. Well, at least until the food runs out.”
I wish that I could see his face so I could tell if he was bluffing, but it’s too fucking dark. “Tell me what that is.”
“Let me leave.” He takes his foot off of Natalia and puts it gently down on the sand next to her before slowly inching away from her. “Let me leave, Marco, and you two can live.”
There isn’t a chance that I’m letting him off this island. The first thing that he’d do would be to turn me in. The island would be raided, everyone arrested, and I’d never see Natalia again.
That’s the one thing I can’t have happen.
I raise the gun, fully intending to shoot him in the face when Natalia rolls, stretching forward as far as she can before sweeping her arm to the side towards Nathan’s ankle. There’s the sick sound of something being cut, of a sharp blade slicing through clothing and flesh and he screams, the sound rolling out of him as he falls.
I keep my gun pointed at him as he hits the ground, still screaming, his body thrashing on the sand. “You fucking cunt!” He cries. “What did you do?”
Natalia sits up, turning to me and stands, about to come to me. I can see her outline in the dark and my heart beats faster as I take a step towards her.
Nathan is the last thing on my mind for a minute as I focus on Natalia. She’s alive. She may be hurt, but she’s alive, and if I can get her away from here then I can keep her safe.
“Witness what I did!” Nathan screams, just as Natalia reaches me. “I did this so you couldn’t fuck me, Marco!”
I wrap my arm around her waist, tugging her in close to my body, and fire at Nathan, the sound of the shots loud enough to make her duck her head and cover her ears.
But I’m too late. We realize at the same time what he was clutching in his hand. It wasn’t a weapon, not really, not in the traditional sense.
There’s a terrible boom behind us and the entire island seems to shake. Natalia ducks her head and presses herself close to my body, wrapping her arms around me for support.
I immediately pull her close and turn just enough to see a bright light on the other side of the island. After the first boom there are several more smaller ones, each one echoing across the island and followed by the sound of crashing.
“What is it?” Natalia asks, her voice muffled from how she has her head buried against my chest. I can feel her heart pounding as she snuggles against me, trying to draw some comfort from me.
I know what it is. I just don’t know how to tell her that Nathan blew up the building.
Chapter 31
Natalia
We have to wait for the sun to come up to really see the damage on the island. Instead of going back to the building when it was still dark, just in case there was another explosive that didn’t go off, Marco leaned against a tree and pulled me into his arms so I could rest.
But I didn’t sleep.
I honestly wasn’t sure if I would ever sleep again. Night was when you were supposed to be able to put your worries aside and rest, but it was now when I had been the most terrified I’ve ever felt.
Marco’s breathing was soothing, the constant flow of air in and out of his body the one thing that I could concentrate on. We were near the cove, waiting for the sun to rise, and it began to send small fingers of light through across the sky before we even speak.
“Natalia,” he says, the vibrations of his voice soothing. “Are you awake?”
I wiggle a little, trying to get feeling back into my legs. “Never slept, I admit. Why?”
He pauses like he’s trying to think of what he wants to say. “I knew that you’d never seen a good sunrise at the beach and I didn’t want you to miss it.”
“Thank you,” I whisper, surprised. Being here with him on the beach almost feels normal even though I know that it’s totally crazy to feel that way. Marco and I aren’t normal and whatever we have — whatever we might have — certainly isn’t normal either.
We’re both damaged, broken. Totally beyond repair. I don’t know that I’ve ever met anyone as fucked up as I am and it scares me.
For a few minutes we watch as the sun rises. The ocean sparts to sparkle again like it did the first time that I saw the cove. I know that in a few hours the sand will be warm to the touch but it’s still a little chilly right now so I snuggle closer to Marco, enjoying the way he presses a kiss to the side of my head.
Once the sun is up and shining on the two of us, he stirs. “Let me see you,” he says, pushing me so that I have to sit up. I do, then stand, my entire body sore.
As I stand I suck in a breath and lightly touch where Nathan kicked me in the ribs. It hurt like hell last night but has dulled to an ache that I’m sure I can live with.
Marco do
esn’t say anything as he lifts my shirt to look at my ribs. The bruise is spectacular, all purple and blue, wrapping around my torso in a dizzying explosion of color.
“Fucking Nathan,” he murmurs, running his fingers across my skin. I know better than to say anything right now and just wait while he looks me over.
When he’s finished he holds me at arm’s length. “How are you?”
I take stock, not wanting to answer him too quickly.
“I hurt,” I tell him. “I’m so hungry and cold. I…I bit Nathan,” I admit, “and I can’t get the taste out of my mouth.”
Marco takes my hand and presses my fingers to his mouth. “Stay here, okay?” He asks, then walks away from me to look at his friend’s body. Nathan’s sprawled where we left him, bullet holes scattered across his chest like bloomed-out poppies.
“Is he dead?” I ask, almost afraid to know the answer. The only thing worse than Nathan being dead is the idea that he was alive all night long just a few yards from us.
Marco nods. “Let’s go see what he did to the building,” he tells me, and I go to him, linking our hands together so that we can walk along the path away from the cove. When we’re almost to the building he stops and squeezes my hand.
“Stay here,” he says, cutting off from the path into the woods. I stay but watch him, not surprised to see him bend over another body. When he comes back to me he nods, then takes my hand again.
I don’t know what I’m expecting to see when we come out of the woods, but I certainly don’t expect the building to be completely gone. It is, though, wiped out, a pile of rubble where it stood and I gasp.
“There were people in there,” I say, tugging on Marco’s hand to make him walk faster with me. He speeds up to keep up with me, both of us stopping just outside the pieces of plaster, bits of tile, and shattered dishes.