“I’m making things right.”
“This wasn’t part of the deal, Jack! You fucking murdered someone, you crazy fuck! You’ve gone way too far.”
“Like I said, I’ve got a plan. I’m doing what needs to be done. I am not the one that’s gone too far, Jett has. Gallivanting with those dirty monsters! She needs to be saved.”
“She doesn’t need saving! Leave her the fuck alone, it’s time to end this! Where are you?”
“I’m with Jett. Or, I will be soon. My plan is unfolding perfectly, with one minor problem, but I can work around that.”
“What do you mean you’re with her? Did you follow her? For fuck’s sake, Jack, you really are crazy, aren’t you?”
“You shouldn’t talk to me like that. You hired me. You wanted her face to stay in the spotlight. I’m only doing what you asked me to do - make sure she keeps going, that her star doesn’t burn out. Don’t you see this is all part of it? If she keeps soiling herself, nobody will buy her records anymore. This is part of the deal.”
“Leave her alone, Jack, this is too much! Please don’t —,”
I hung up, bewildered at the audacity to try to change everything now. This was all part of the plan.
The sun was barely coming up, my car covered in a thick layer of dew. I gathered my supplies, and started through the woods towards Jett’s cabin. The light was just dawning through the trees, and I decided to look around the area. I took the trail that led in the opposite direction from Jett’s cabin, hoping to find an unused cabin nearby. These woods were full of vacation cabins, and I was betting that most of them sat unused most of the year.
I had walked about a mile when I finally saw a cluster of cabins up ahead. I stayed back in the woods as I approached, and when I didn’t see any cars, I realized I had hit pay dirt.
My original plan included the assumption that I would have to find a hotel to take her to, but that would have included having to transport her, and increased the risks of being seen. Jett had made my plan ten times easier by coming to the middle of nowhere.
Two of the cabins had easily found keys hidden outside, and I let myself in to both of them, exploring them, testing the locks, making sure the water was on, looking in the cabinets for food, or anything else I might need.
I had most of everything I needed already in my car. I had been prepared for weeks, a bag packed in my car and waiting for the right opportunity. I had steel brushes, steel wool, bleach, alcohol, soap, rope, handcuffs, razors, shaving cream, my clothes and jacket, a wig, jewelry, a knife and of course, my gun.
I choose the cabin that had a secluded bedroom upstairs and plenty of food in the cabinets. Knowing there was a possibility that we might be there for a while, I needed to make sure we were well stocked.
Once I had everything all set out, I jumped in the shower and shaved every strand of hair from my body. It took quite a while, and some of the places were much harder to reach than others. By the time I was done, I couldn’t stop caressing my smooth skin. It was exciting. I was finally going to have a chance to show Jett what a real woman looked like. A clean woman.
Afterwards, I put on my rain gear, grabbed my gun and headed back out into the woods.
Jett’s cabin was not far away, but it wasn’t an easy trek. The trails were almost non-existent, the brush so thick that it caused me to go out of my way more than once to get around it, and I had to cut through the winding river so that I could circle around to the back of her cabin.
By the time I got there, the rain was falling in a light mist and I hid behind her wood shed as I watched her cabin. I waited, wondering how this was all going to play out, hoping things went smoothly.
I couldn’t mess up. I had to do this right.
Her shed had a tin roof, and as much as I tried to ignore it, the pinging was like a knife to my brain, the sharpness of the memories coming back were like blows to the head.
Cursing myself for leaving my iPod in the car, I covered my ears, hoping to drown out the sound ringing in my ears.
****
“Mama, please let me out…”
“Stay there, you little freak!” she yelled, the corners of her mouth filled with spit as she snarled at me. “I saw what you did, you dirty boy!”
“Mama, I’m sorry! I didn’t know! I’m sorry, please let me out!” I pleaded with all my heart.
“No, it’s time you learn your lesson! You’d better not let me catch you touching yourself again, you filthy pig!”
“Please, Mama, please…”
I couldn’t bear another night in the dark shed, the relentless rain pounding on my head, the unseen creatures crawling and biting me, my screams unanswered, unheard…
****
When Jett came out of the cabin, my heart began racing. She was serene and calm, her face relaxed and peaceful in a way I had never seen before. She was pure beauty.
With every step she made, her gracefulness was apparent. The raindrops caught in her hair like little bubbles, and I bit my lip to keep from crying out in ecstasy.
She was alone!
My opportunity had arisen, and I didn’t even have to deal with the biker. It was like the angels were delivering her right into my hands. It was fate.
My Jett.
My love.
My destiny.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
First, I heard the crunch. It was a soggy crunch. Looking back, I’m surprised I heard it at all over the raging river. But I did. And my heart soared at first, because I figured Colt had woken up and decided to join me.
How hugely I was mistaken.
He was tall, bald, his eyes wide and crazy. And his gun was huge. I knew who it was right away.
Sure, it could have been some crazy neighbor pissed that I had somehow intruded on his space, even though I legally owned it. But when I saw the happiness in his crazy eyes, I knew who it was.
“Hello, Jack,” I said to him. He stood there silently pointing the gun at me, his hands only slightly shaking. A smile spread across his face when I said his name.
“You’ve been expecting me, right?”
“You could say that,” I replied. My eyes darted around, as I examined my surroundings. He was directly in the middle of the trail, the cabin behind him, and nothing but the river behind me. Jumping in to get away would do nothing but cause me to drown, and I quickly ruled that option out.
If he was as crazy as I assumed he was, maybe I could talk my way out of this.
“You received my letters? My packages?”
“You mean the poisonous snake? Yeah, I got that. What do you want with me, Jack?”
His eerie smile chilled me to the bone.
“You, of course, my dear. I want you. I want to cleanse you, Jett.” He began walking towards me, his gun pointed directly at my heart.
“Jack, I don’t belong to you.” My heart was pounding in my chest, my eyes still darting away searching for a weapon, a way to escape, anything. I found nothing.
He was right in front of me now, his breath hot against my face. The tip of his gun touched my chest, and he leaned forward, slightly pressing it into me.
“You’re mistaken, sweetheart. You’ll see,” he said, quickly grabbing my arm. I tried to pull away, yanking my arm out and down, but he held on tight, his grip bruising my arm.
“Colt!” I yelled, hoping he could hear me through the trees. Jack put his gun to my temple, and I closed my mouth.
“Shut up! Do as I say, so I don’t have to shoot you…or your dirty lover boy in there,” he snarled. The thought of Colt, or anyone else, getting hurt again because of me, cut right to my heart, and I nodded my head, silently submitting to him. I would just have to get out of this one myself.
We were half way up the trail when I saw her.
Sam. Standing there, her hair soaked, her glasses wet with rain, her hands shaking. The gun in her hand looked like a toy and I was overcome with confusion. What was she doing here?
“Sam!” I exclaimed.
“What the fuck!” Jack said, his face full of recognition and irritation. “Why did you come!”
“Jack, you can’t do this!”
“What the hell is going on, Sam?” I asked, as Jack tightened his grip on my arm.
Sam’s eyes met mine, and she began to cry.
“I’m so sorry, Jett…” her voice trailed off, and she looked away. “Jack, you can’t do this,” she repeated.
“Do what, goddammit?!” I asked. “Sam, what the fuck is going on?”
Jack shook his head, his wild eyes looking even crazier as he pointed his gun at Sam.
“Don’t try to stop me, Sam! I told you, I’m doing this for both of us, for the whole world! I’m saving her for all of us, Sam, you know that.”
“No, Jack, it’s gone too far. Way too far. Put the gun down and you can go home, Jack. Let Jett go. Please. I never intended for anyone to ever get hurt. We were just supposed to keep her name in the news, that’s all. This is too much, Jack, and you know it!” Sam took a step towards us, and Jack yelled at her, his voice deep and bellowing beside me, causing me to jump.
“Stop! Don’t take another step!” Sam stopped, her eyes pleading with Jack.
My mind reeled with confusion. What did Sam have to do with this? How did she even know this crazy madman? I couldn’t believe she would be behind this.
When she looked at me again, her eyes filled with regret and tears, I knew it was true.
“How could you?” I whispered. “I trusted you, Sam.”
“I know, Jett, I know. I was trying to do the right thing —,”
“Shut up!” Jack yelled again, his voice filling with anger and panic. “You can’t be here! You’ll ruin everything.”
“Jack, let’s talk about this, okay? Please, just let go of Jett and we’ll all —,”
The sound of the gun going off ripped through my head. Like a hot, explosive flash, I lost all vision for a split second, and when it came back, Sam was lying on the trail, her limp body bleeding and still, her gun lying at her side. Her dead eyes looked up at the trees, and I screamed in horror.
Jack slammed his hand over my mouth, pressed the hot tip of his gun against my ribs, and pulled me through the woods.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
Slowly, I regained consciousness, my hands instinctively reaching out for Jett. She wasn’t there.
“Babe?” I called out, lifting my head and looking around the cabin. No answer.
I stood up, walking through the rooms, calling her name.
“Jett? Babe?” She was nowhere to be found. I looked in the kitchen and saw the coffee on the counter next to a handwritten note.
“Colt,
I’m having coffee down by the river.
The first trail on the right outside the back door.
Join me when you wake up!
Love, Jett”
I laughed to myself when I saw she had signed her name like I had seen her sign it countless times when someone asked her for an autograph.
I started another fire in the fireplace, spread my wet clothes over the hearth, and then walked into the bathroom, turning on the hot water in the shower. If anyone in the world needed a shower, it was me. Even though I was half disappointed to be washing the remnants of making love to Jett last night off of me, I knew I would sure having fun doing it all over again.
Last night had been perfect. Being alone with Jett was like a drug, devouring her body was the sweetest addiction a man could have. As I showered, the events of last night ran through my head and by the time I turned off the water, my cock was raging hard with anticipation of feeling her skin sliding through my hands again.
I wasn’t ever going to let her go again.
I wanted to hear her moaning in my ear every night before I went to sleep for the rest of my life. I was hungry for her.
I was also starving for food. I hadn’t eaten a thing yesterday, and after a shower, and more sex, food was very high on the list of what my body was demanding from me.
Once I realized there was absolutely no food in the kitchen, I put on my still damp clothes and went searching for Jett. I needed food and I needed it fast.
I was grateful the rain had let up, and the fine mistiness of what was falling now was refreshing. I found the trail behind the cabin, and strolled down it, taking in the scenery as I went along. Jett had certainly picked a beautiful spot. The forest was lush and beautiful. It was pristine, the trees bursting with life. I half expected to see a deer bolting through the trees.
But I didn’t. I saw something entirely different.
I saw Sam’s body first. I blinked my eyes several times as I stared down at her. The brutality of it all seemed so out of place in such a peaceful paradise, and once I realized it was Sam, I was even more confused.
When I saw a coffee cup lying broken in a puddle of coffee ten feet away, my heart fell.
“Fuck!” I yelled, my scream echoing through the trees.
****
I ran up and down every nearby trail I could find, yelling Jett’s name until I was hoarse. There was one more car by the cabin, and a quick look in the purse on the passenger’s seat told me it was Sam’s car. So, either she came with someone or they were on foot with Jett.
I had no idea what had happened, all I could do was assume Crazy Jack had Jett. I had never been more terrified in all my life, and after running for a straight hour through the trails, I stopped and pulled my phone out of my pocket, trying in vain to catch my breath.
When Rusty answered, I had never been happier to hear his voice.
“We’re on our way, Colt, hang tight, brother. We’ll find her. I promise.” He hadn’t asked any questions, other than the address. He hadn’t hesitated one second. He knew I needed him and he was coming. That was what our club was all about. Loyalty. If one brother was in danger, we all were.
It would take them at least an hour to get there, and I needed to keep looking. I ran back to the cabin, grabbed my gun that I should have kept with me all along, and headed back out into the forest.
There weren’t any other tire tracks other than Sam’s car leading in, so I was convinced that Jack and Jett were on foot. Eventually, I went off the trails, following along the river, my eyes scanning both sides for another house, a car, anything.
I couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to Jett, so I pushed all my fear to the back of my mind, and tried to pretend this was just business. That I didn’t love her. That she didn’t mean everything in the whole fucking world to me.
****
An hour and a half later, the roar of a gang of motorcycles echoed through the trees, and I ran back to the cabin. I had been searching in vain for so long that panic was setting in. Hearing those hogs breaking through the stillness of the forest, and then tearing through the trees and seeing them pulling into the driveway, was like an oasis.
“Any luck, brother?” Rusty asked as he took off his helmet.
“No. I’ve looked down every trail I can find. Fucker’s got her, Rusty! I can’t fucking believe this, man.”
“Try to hold it together, brother. We’ll find her, okay? Listen, we saw a car about a half a mile away, hidden in some trees on a turnoff off the highway. Looked a little out of place to me, so we checked it out real quick. Doesn’t look good, man. There’s ropes and a bunch of guns in the trunk.”
“Oh, fuck…”
“Yeah, so why don’t we go back, and start from there.”
“He killed Sam. She’s lying on the trail up there,” I said, gesturing behind me.
“Sam? Seriously? Fuck, dude means business. I don’t think we can spare another minute, man. Let’s go to that car and follow the trails there.”
We jumped back on our bikes, the other brothers riding along behind us as Rusty led the way. When we found the car, we turned our bikes off and jumped off. Rusty had brought five other men, and the seven of us scoured every inch of that vehicle. When I saw the name on the title, I knew I had been right
. Jack Anderson
Crazy Jack.
“Fuck! It’s him. He’s got her. If his car is here, then they gotta be close. Let’s keep searching. We’re gonna have to go on foot, though,” I said.
The seven of us thundered through the woods like a storm of leather, going down trail after trail after trail.
Rusty and I walked together silently, and I was grateful he wasn’t trying to talk to me. I couldn’t think about anything else until I found Jett. It was agonizing, this fruitless searching going on and on while I could only imagine what Jack was doing to her, what she was going through, how scared she must be.
And it was all my fault.
Once again, I had failed her.
This time, I had failed her miserably. All I could do was hope that I could somehow make it up to her someday.
****
Two hours later, we came upon a cluster of three cabins hidden deep in the forest. They must have been forest cabins, there were no roads leading into them at all. When I saw a light flickering in one of the windows, my heart filled with hope.
☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
Roughly, he dragged me through the woods to a cabin miles from my own. It seemed to take forever to get there, but when he pushed me inside, he pushed me so hard I fell to my knees. I suddenly wished we were back out in the woods. The thought of being locked inside four walls with this crazy freak sickened me.
When I heard him slide the lock in place, my stomach dropped. I had to get out of here. I didn’t know what his fucked up, insane plan was, but I was determined to not be a part of it.
He grabbed my arm again, his gun pointed straight at my chin as he made me sit in a chair in the brightly lit kitchen. Immediately, he began tying my arms and legs to the chair. I started to struggle, but he pressed the gun right into my temple, and I stopped.
I was going to have to use my brain to get me out of this, as I had already determined before he killed Sam.
Sam. How could she possibly be behind this? How could she possibly be dead?
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