by Gemma James
I flopped to my stomach and shivered as chills traveled over my back.
“I’m not done with you, not even close.”
Something was wrong. It pulled at the edges of my mind and demanded I take notice. I reached for Rafe, but my fingers grasped empty space. His side was bereft, though the sheet still radiated his body heat, so he couldn’t have been gone long. I jolted upright, eyes blurry, and blinked. We must have fallen asleep after our second round of sex.
The loft was the way we’d left it, though it was cast in shadow, indicating the sun had set. Once my eyes adjusted, I noticed the ladder was closed and the bathroom door shut. Darkness seeped from underneath, so he wasn’t using the toilet. Grabbing the sheet and surrounding my body with it, I tiptoed to the ladder and let it drop to the floor with a loud clank that made me jump. I was about to call out his name when another voice stopped me.
“Who’s here?” Zach’s question thundered up the stairs, and I slapped a hand over my mouth to keep from crying out.
“Just some girl I hooked up with. Listen, we should talk about this when you’re sober.” Rafe’s calm tone poured over me like warm honey, and I let out a breath until it sank in that Zach was really here, just a few feet away. And he was drunk.
I stumbled back, gouging my fingernails in my arm, and lost precious seconds as I thought of my brother discovering my presence. They exchanged more words but none of them penetrated. I was too frozen in a waking nightmare of Zach finding me in nothing but a sheet. He’d go irate and kill Rafe. Frantic, I searched for my clothes and found my sweats on the floor. The T-shirt was ruined, so I jerked a drawer open and grabbed a shirt that was sure to swallow my tiny frame. I stepped lightly across the room, gritting my teeth when the floorboards creaked, and listened, remaining out of sight.
“You’re a fuckin’ liar! I know she was on her way here.”
“What are you talking about?” Rafe’s voice held steady, but even so, I balled my hands. He could handle himself, I knew he could, but I couldn’t get the memories out of my head. Zach was insane when jealous and irrational, and it was like watching a lion let loose all its ferocity onto a weaker species.
Rafe had taken him down so many times during their matches, but this was real. This wasn’t a training session or a controlled fight inside a cage with screaming fans crowding around to watch. This was bad.
“The little bitch was running straight to you. I’m not stupid. Did she call you? Tell me what she said, every word. I need to know.”
“Seriously, Zach. I never heard from her.”
“She’s always wanted you, and now she’s”—his voice broke—“gone. Just like that. This is your fault! I swear to God, I’ll tear you to pieces if you don’t tell me what she told you.”
“I was convicted of raping her, remember?” Rafe’s tone barely concealed a lethal edge. “So why would she come here? That doesn’t make any sense.”
God, he was clever, and it made me love him all the more. Zach couldn’t argue with him, not without incriminating himself.
“Then why’d they pull her car from the river down the fucking highway?” he yelled.
“I don’t know.”
“I can’t go on without her,” Zach choked. “I won’t.”
“C’mon, man…” Rafe’s voice faltered, and my spine stiffened. Something had him scared. “Put the gun down.”
I gasped, then slapped my hands over my mouth, but it was too late. The sound echoed in my ears like a blaring siren, and I was certain Zach heard it.
“Tell your hookup to get her ass down here.”
“This is between you and me,” Rafe said. “I barely know her. She doesn’t need to be part of this.”
“Get down here now!” Zach shouted.
I stumbled down the stairs, my legs shaking so badly, Rafe steadied me to keep me from sprawling on my ass. He pushed me behind him, but not before I saw Zach’s eyes bulge.
“The hell?” He jabbed the gun in Rafe’s direction. “Lex?”
“Go home,” I told him, hating how my voice quaked. “I called the cops. Th-they’ll be here any minute.” It was a lie, Rafe knew it, as I didn’t have access to a phone, and I was positive Zach knew it too from the way I tripped over the words.
“Un-fucking-believable.” Zach’s bitter laugh made me cringe. “Do you think I give a shit about the cops? Let them come.”
Rafe was strung so tightly, I worried he’d strike at any second, but he reached a hand behind his back and clutched mine, as if I could anchor him. “What do you want, Zach?” he asked.
“I want you dead.”
I swallowed a sob and clung to Rafe’s hand. “Please, leave us alone.”
Zach gestured at me with the gun. “Get over here.”
“N-no.”
Rafe’s shoulders bunched, and his fingers squeezed mine.
“Now!” Zach staggered forward. “Get over here, or I swear to God, I’ll shoot him.”
A sob escaped, as I recognized the truth in his words. Even though he was wasted, a gun evened the playing field. He was much too close, and it wouldn’t take a straight shot to hurt or even kill. I went to move away from Rafe, but he wouldn’t let go.
“You’re not touching her. You want to shoot me, do it, but you’re not laying a hand on her.”
“Don’t test me!” Zach roared, raising the gun a few inches.
I yanked free and flung myself at Zach, clutching his shoulders, and the barrel pressed into my chest. “I’m here. Don’t hurt him.”
“What are you doing?” Rafe shouted.
“Stay back,” Zach warned him. “Don’t make me hurt her.”
I couldn’t see Rafe’s reaction to my brother’s threat, but Zach’s lips thinned into a dangerous line. “Did you fuck him?”
“Zach,” I pleaded, avoiding his furious gaze.
He gave me a rough shake with his free hand. “Answer the question!”
“Yes!”
He spit at me, and I resisted the urge to inch back as I wiped my cheek on my sleeve. He’d only pounce on it, see it as a display of weakness. As long as I stayed between the gun and Rafe, Zach couldn’t shoot him. Somehow, I had to get the weapon away from him.
“Why, Lex? Why can’t you love me like I love you?”
“If you love me, you’ll calm down and think about what you’re doing.” My words seemed to have the desired effect. He let out a breath, and I felt the gun slide down my chest by a few degrees.
“Of course I love you, baby. I’m the only one who loves you. He’s just a fucking waste of space.” He tried to push me to the side, but I clung to his jacket.
“Let’s go,” I said. “Right now. We’ll get far away from here, just you and me.” I inched a hand down his chest, disguising my aim for the gun as a caress.
Rafe jerked me back before I got close to the weapon and shielded me with his body. “Fuck no. You’re not stepping foot out of here with him.” Holding my hand tight with one hand, he gestured toward the gun with the other. “Why don’t you put that down and fight me, like we used to, or are you too washed up to take me?”
With a snarl, Zach switched on the safety and jammed the gun into his waistband. “Bring it, asshole. I can take you in my sleep.”
With the gun no longer a threat, and Zach too wasted to be a real challenge, Rafe wouldn’t have a problem taking him down.
“You haven’t been locked up with hardened criminals,” Rafe said as he moved toward my brother, his grip slipping from mine. “I’m gonna rip you a new one for what you did to me, for how you raped your own sister, you sick fuck.” He rolled his shoulders, his stance wide and hands balled at his sides.
I jumped back and slapped a palm over my mouth as he charged Zach. He grabbed him and brought his knee up, one, two, three times until Zach fell to his knees. Something insidious unleashed in Rafe, and it scared the shit out of me. I’d never seen him so unhinged. He pounded on Zach with his injured hand, but it didn’t slow him down.
Zach countered the next onslaught of punches and managed to get an arm around Rafe’s neck. I screamed, my heart in my throat as I watched them fight for survival. This wasn’t a battle for something as inconsequential as a title. This was a battle for life. Rafe’s, mine, even Zach’s.
Rafe tried to turn into the choke hold, but my brother was high on adrenaline and obsession and wasn’t about to let go. Rafe’s face blanched, eyes rolling back, and I recognized the burn for air by the grimace on his face, certain it was the same expression that crossed mine whenever he choked me. Except Zach wouldn’t stop at unconsciousness. He’d kill him, and not even a bloodstream full of alcohol would hinder him.
“Stop!” I pounced on his back and reached into his waistband, desperate to get my hands on the gun. I curled my fingers around the handle and jumped back, flipped off the safety, and held it in shaking hands, aiming at Zach’s head. “Let him go!” I hoped he’d hear the steel in my voice, realize how serious I was, because if I had to choose between Rafe and him, it would be Rafe. “Now!” I shouted, steadying the gun, my finger on the trigger. “You know Dad taught me to shoot. I won’t miss.”
Zach scowled but let Rafe’s limp body drop to the floor. “You’re not gonna shoot me.”
I fired a shot over his shoulder, thankful for all the times our father had taken me to the range. Zach put his hands up and backed toward the door. Rafe gasped for breath as he pushed to his hands and knees. My attention wavered from Zach for an instant, just long enough for him to flee through the front door.
Rafe rose to his feet, his breaths coming fast and hard. “Give me the gun.”
The aftereffects of jumping my brother hit me, and the gun wobbled in my hand. “I-I…”
“C’mon, hand it over. He’s gone now.”
For how long?
Rafe took the gun and curled a hand around my bicep. “I’m getting you out of here.”
“W-where are we going?” Of course, I knew, but even with my brother on the run and posing a real threat, I couldn’t stem the panic at the thought of leaving. “I can’t do this.”
“No choice. I’m getting you off this island.”
I pulled against his hold, my heart pounding so hard, I thought my chest would rip open. “No! Please. Let’s just call the cops.” Even as the words left my mouth, I realized why he couldn’t. The cops would come, and the island and cabin would become a crime scene. They’d find the prison down in the cellar and they’d start asking questions, namely why someone who was supposed to be dead was still very much alive. I struggled as he forced me from the house, down the porch, a few steps closer to the water.
“I need you safe,” he said, “because I’m gonna fucking kill him.”
I dug in my heels, bare feet sliding over dirt and rock. “You can’t! You’re not a murderer, Rafe!” He was too prone to guilt. I’d seen it firsthand. “It’ll destroy you.”
He picked me up and flung me over his shoulder, and I kicked, clawed, screamed, hit…all of it seemed to bounce off him as he strode toward the water.
“I’m doing this for you.”
I screamed, coming unglued as he tossed me into a boat. The water terrified me, but as he unwound the rope anchoring me to the dock, that almost split me in two. “Come with me! Please, Rafe! Please—” I broke into unintelligible sobs, left with nothing to do but drift away from the island. From him.
“Alex!” he called as he let loose another boat—Zach’s I guessed. It floated in the direction mine had. “You’ll hit land a little ways upstream. Stay calm. I’ll find you.”
I nodded and squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t speak.
“He won’t hurt you anymore. Not when I’m through with—” A loud grunt tore through the night, and my lids popped open.
I scrambled to my knees as he battled with Zach for the gun. Holding both hands over my racing heart, I screamed Rafe’s name. And I screamed and screamed some more when they fell to the ground and Zach beat him over the head with a rock. Rafe stopped struggling.
He wasn’t fucking moving. The scene before my eyes crawled in slow motion as Zach pushed to his knees, then to his feet. He stepped back, body swaying, and aimed the barrel at Rafe’s unmoving form.
OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod…
I screamed at him to stop, but my voice cut out when the blast echoed off the mountains. I almost fell into the water, reaching, pleading, praying for Rafe to get up, but Zach kicked his body into the river.
My mouth opened, yet no sound came out. This wasn’t happening. That shot was a car backfiring from the highway, or someone testing their illegal mortars a few weeks early of the Fourth of July. Any second now, Rafe’s strong arms would pull him to safety and he’d beat the shit out of Zach.
But he didn’t surface.
Zach dove into the water with a splash, and his strokes brought him straight for me with the stealth and speed of a shark. I could do nothing to save myself. Water lapped against the boat, paralyzing me. My fear trapped me, held me prisoner in my own mind, and Rafe…
He wasn’t coming up, wasn’t gasping for breath and diving after Zach.
My heart fractured, split wide open, and I didn’t recognize the howl of agony spilling from my being. Zach pulled himself into the boat, his sodden clothing weighing him down, and shoved a hand over my mouth. I flailed as he wound an arm around my neck. I fought him with everything I had, even as my gaze fastened to the spot where Rafe had gone under. I longed to slip into the void after him, to vanish as he had. I didn’t want to live if he didn’t.
The headlights crawling along the highway, like pairs of lightening bugs, blinked out in my periphery, and the night narrowed to nothing, yet that empty spot in the river burned in my mind.
I jerked awake in the depths of icy water, kicked weak and useless limbs, and eventually broke the surface. Gasping, I pulled myself onto land with jittery arms and spewed water from my lungs, coughing until I puked. I rolled to my back, and the throb in my head made itself known. So did the fire in my left shoulder. The sky spun like a damn acid trip. Wet and itchy grass cradled my body, and I groaned as I ran my fingers along a nasty gash in my skull. I pulled my hand away and winced at the blood covering it. Too much blood.
Shaking uncontrollably, my heart rate doubled as I tried to sit up, but I couldn’t get myself off the ground. The stars seemed to distance themselves, as if they knew I’d suck the light out of them. I thought I heard someone scream, and something about that hysterical plea fisted my insides. What the fuck had happened to me? I recognized my dad’s island, but why I was sprawled on it, hurt and bleeding, I didn’t know. Another scream cut through the air, abruptly cut short as it carried in the night. Someone was in trouble, needed my help, yet I couldn’t move…couldn’t stay…awake.
Someone lifted me, followed by the unmistakable sway of a boat ride. A voice kept talking to me, telling me to hold on.
Almost there, buddy.
Almost where?
A horn blared, tires screeched, and frantic voices exchanged meaningless words because everything was meaningless. None of it made sense. Where was I?
Didn’t someone need help?
A sharp pain stabbed my chest at the thought. I was unworthy, a sadistic ass who’d done horrible things…who had I done this to? And why would I do something so…what had I done? Why was trying to remember making my head throb like a fucking drum, pounded on by brutal drumsticks that inflicted the most horrid pain? I felt those strikes clear though my eyeballs to my teeth.
Hands grabbed my body and lifted, sliding me onto something cold and hard and bumpy. An engine rumbled to life. I groaned as I rolled, though an arm steadied me, as did the leg stretched out at my side.
A bright light woke me, searing my eyes and intensifying the throb at my temples, which kept time to the rhythmic beep that irritated my ears. I rubbed the blurriness from my vision and took in the small room. What the hell? Had I lost a fight, beaten so badly I’d needed hospitalization?
Why couldn’t I
remember?
Someone shifted on my left, and I found a guy slumped in a chair, his dark blond hair a mess on his head. His drawn face displayed signs of fatigue.
“Thought I’d lost you, man.”
I blinked. Something wasn’t right. He must have been in the wrong room, or confused.
I closed my eyes, but when I opened them, he was still staring at me, waiting for an answer. “Why are you here?”
“Seriously? We get into one fight and this is how you’re gonna play it?” He brushed the hair from his brown eyes. “That’s cold. If I hadn’t come back, you would’ve bled to death. Lucky for you, you sonofabitch, it was a clean shot, so no permanent damage.”
I blinked again, feeling as if I were missing several cards from the deck. “I don’t remember. How long have I been here?”
Some of the anger left his shoulders. “You’ve been laid up three days. It was touch and go for a while. You lost a lot of blood, and they didn’t know how long you’d gone without oxygen.”
What the hell? No one choked me out. It just wasn’t done. I choked my opponents.
“Must have been some fight.”
He raised a brow. “That’s a mild way of putting it. No one can piece together what happened.” He gave me a heavy look, then lowered his voice. “Which is a good thing since you-know-who vanished, though I’d like to get my hands on whoever did this.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well, I’m guessing you let her go? There’s been no sign of her since. I said I found you on the side of the highway, so the island is secure. No cops crawling it.” He sighed. “So what do you remember? Because fuck, Rafe, I don’t have a clue what happened out there.”
I studied this tattooed stranger through squinted eyes, still having no idea who he was or what he was talking about, yet he acted as if he knew me. “Um, I remember seeing Nikki the other night.” Hell, that girl could fuck a guy raw. My dick twitched as I remembered how she’d ridden me.
“How bad did you bump your head? Nikki showed up a few mornings ago. Close call too.” He ran a hand through his hair. “I knew the risks when I signed on for this, but I gotta say it—these past few days have been a bitch.”