Four Crows

by Lily White

  Breathing out a trembling sigh, I glanced over my shoulder one last time at the path that would lead me to the adjacent farm where Elliot was waiting. I wondered how long he would sit in the abandoned house until he realized I wasn’t going to show. Would he worry that my family had somehow kept me from leaving? Would he show up at my property to help me escape?

  A new layer of heartbreak and concern crept over me and I became stuck in place once again, unable to move forward or back.

  Glued to that small spot amongst the trees, I was battling myself over what to do. How had everything become so complicated so quickly? How had I messed everything up so easily?

  Complicated was too simple a word for the position in which I found myself. Dangerous was more like it…or disastrous.

  Spinning in place like a damn merry go round, I didn’t know what to do. If I continued forward back to my family, I ran the risk of Elliot showing up to see if they’d kept me from going to him. But if I took off back in the direction of where I knew he’d be waiting, I ran the risk that he wouldn’t let me go.

  I was damned by every possible decision I could make, and I was the only person responsible for the problem.

  Back and forth, my feet paced beneath me, my body moving in circles as I pondered the right thing to do.

  And just as I made a decision I thought would resolve the dilemma I was facing, a loud voice rang out through the cold night, a terrible sound that caused my entire body to stand frozen in place.

  I ran towards the tree line and peered out across the expanse to discover that I’d taken too long making my decision.

  There were five men around the bonfire. My brother, Brody, was laid out on the ground, his eyes closed and something dark puddled beneath his head. In a chair beside him was my brother, Finn, his hair a disheveled mess and pure rage drawn across his expression. From where I was standing, it appeared that rope was pulled taut against his body; the plastic chair where he sat bent at the sides from how tight the rope was tied. Jack was lying on the ground as well, his pants pulled to his ankles and his lifeless body draped across a naked woman. Neither was moving, and I wasn’t sure if they were alive or dead.

  My father’s raised voice was barely audible over the music that continued blasting from a small radio that sat atop a red, plastic cooler. The pressure in my chest at the sight in front of me was unbearable, the need to run, to fight, to scream…to hide.

  Held by the throat, my father was struggling to fight a man I didn’t recognize. Dressed in head to toe black, the man looked like a mercenary, a bloodthirsty killer, a soldier…

  Elliot…

  My heart pounded out a frenetic beat and my body swayed over knees that were barely holding my weight. Standing in horror, I watched my father drop to his knees, Elliot’s hand still wrapped around his throat as the two men screamed in each other’s faces. Panic shot through me until every muscle in my body was painful against my bones.

  Here again, I was trapped in indecision. I didn’t want my father to die and I didn’t want Elliot to die either. What happened in the hour that I’d been away and what was I going to do to stop it?

  I had limited choices, and very little power to step in between two men that mattered to me. Helping one would only hurt the other. If I freed Finn so that he could help me save my dad, he would kill Elliot in the process. If I jumped in to break the two men up myself, I knew one of them would die. There was no right answer, no clear and direct path I could take that would stop the nightmare that was playing out in front of me.

  From one second to the next, my father was losing his battle against Elliot. Finally forced to his knees, he was dragged to a chair next to Finn, tied up in much the same fashion, his head twisting violently to the side when Elliot struck him with a closed fist. Blood shot from his lips and I bit my lip to swallow the scream that rose instantly to my throat.

  This couldn’t be happening. Not like this. Not between these two people.

  What does a person do when they’re caught between two people they love most in the world? My mind raced with possibilities, but nothing seemed actually possible. Just when I thought Elliot would kill my father right there in front of me, he stepped back, his gaze sliding down to where Jack lay prone over the body of the women he’d dragged into the house just hours before.

  Picking his limp body up, Elliot slammed it down into another chair before reaching into a black duffel bag to extract more rope.

  For a brief moment, there was a lull in the violence playing out in front of me, and a thought came to mind, a thought that incessantly whispered in my head until I found the strength to take action.

  They made it easy for me.

  I wouldn’t have believed one man against four could go so smoothly, but that’s what happens when two of those men have their pants pulled down to their ankles and the other two have at least a half bottle of liquor sloshing around in their stomachs.

  Sneaking up had required no skill at all. There was no doubt in my mind that I could have walked up slowly carrying streamers and tossing confetti and these slack jaws wouldn’t have noticed. I’m not complaining about the ease of catching them off guard, I was just a tad bit disappointed that the simple task hadn’t helped to alleviate the rabid anger that was still boiling in my veins.

  Fortunately for me, once Maggie had made her departure and I’d waited a decent amount of time to ensure she was far enough away, Jonah and one of Maggie’s brother were called upon by nature, their bladders working overtime to expel the alcohol they were ingesting as fast as their throats could work it down their bodies.

  The blond man and Maggie’s other brother were taking turns on the woman they held captive. I continued logging each disgusting act they committed against her just so I knew the exact score I needed to settle once I had them in my grasp.

  That poor woman had lost the ability to scream after a half hour of their torment and I imagined her vocal chords were as shredded as my soul had been when I’d returned home from war to an empty and quiet house.

  Using the tall grasses around the property as cover while I made my way closer to the house, I kept my eye on Jonah Crow. He was the weakest link as far as I could tell and the distance he placed between his son and himself made it easy for me to sneak up behind him. The idiot still had his dick in his hands when the butt of my gun came down at the back of his head and he didn’t have time to shout out a warning to his son taking a piss around the corner. I would have felt bad for the bastard landing in a puddle of his own piss, but I’d lost the ability to give a shit about him on the day my family disappeared.

  One down – three to go.

  Rounding the corner, I peered out to find that Maggie’s brother had his back to me, a steady stream of urine mucking up the dirt beneath his feet. The man was so drunk, he didn’t have enough sense to shoot the stream farther out so that his boots weren’t covered in mud. Thanking God for how fortunate I’d become in my quest, I crept up in a slow crawl, my steps light as I approached. Finally having drained his bladder, his body jerked a bit as he zipped up his fly, turning just in time to catch sight of me before I struck.

  Bloody spittle sprayed from his mouth the instant my fist made contact, but he wasn’t going down as easily as his father. Reaching out, he caught me in the shoulder, dragging me down with him as his foot slipped in the puddle he’d left behind.

  It wasn’t the best of circumstances when you had no choice but to wrestle a man in urine and dirt, but I clenched my teeth and endured. I’d been in worse situations and I wouldn’t be shaken by the filth that now covered my clothes.

  The man was one hell of a challenge. Even three sheets to the wind, he gave as much as he received, but a few well placed blows to the back of his head finally settled him down. Opening his mouth to scream had been an unfortunate decision when I took the opportunity to shove his face down into the muck and forced him to swallow the mess he’d dragged our bodies down into.

  Reaching back, I pulled a gun fro
m my waistband. It took another three successive blows against the back of his head for his body to crumple beneath me. Had it been any other man, I would have left him to drown in the puddle of piss, but I had other plans for him that included a slow crawl to his maker.

  After turning him over to prolong his life, I grabbed a few zip ties from a pocket in the cargo pants I was wearing and bound his hands and feet. He wouldn’t remain unconscious and silent for long, so I made quick work of rounding the building once again to check on Jonah. He was still out like a light, and I had little worry of him waking up at an inconvenient time.

  Saving the bindings I’d brought in my pockets for the younger men still having their way with the woman, I rounded the house one more time to duck behind a bush and monitor the activity at the bonfire.

  Cursing under my breath, I had to dial back my rage to keep from drawing my gun and ending them right there. Maggie’s brother was taking his fill of the woman’s mouth, while the blond man violated her body from the other side. Her arms dropped beneath her body, listless and swaying. I could see she’d lost the ability – or the desire – to fight back any longer.

  Thankfully, she was still alive and I had a chance to make things right. Nothing I did at this point would take away the horror of the violence being done to her, but at least she still had a chance to leave this place and return home to the people who loved her.

  Katelyn and Michael never had that chance, and on that thought, I crept forward to take control of the situation. I needed to see these men writhe in agony just about as much as I needed air to breathe.

  Neither man was aware of his surroundings, their eyes too busy looking down on the victim they held between them. Choosing to take a longer path, I crept over the ground holding close to the shadows of the house before rounding the bonfire to come up behind the blond man.

  Drawing a knife from my pocket, I slid the blade open and just as Maggie’s brother’s eyes caught sight of me, I reached out to slice through the blond man’s Achilles tendon. He fell like I knew he would, blood spraying out from his ankle as a feral scream erupted from his lungs. Having lost the ability to walk, he was no longer a problem and I was left facing a one on one fight with the last man standing.

  Pushing up from my crouched position, I smiled at the poor bastard, my eyes narrowing the moment a scream left his lips. My gaze lowered to find a pool of blood forming in his hands and I couldn’t help the burst of laughter that left my lips. It appeared that at the moment the blond man went down, he’d dropped the woman along with him. Her teeth snapped shut from her impact with the ground. Unfortunately for Maggie’s brother, his dick was still inside her mouth at the time.

  My head fell back and my eyes were wide open as I gazed at the stars and mouthed a quick ‘thank you’ to whatever dumb luck was helping me along. Within seconds, Maggie’s brother lunged forward, his bloody dick still hanging from his pants, his feet stumbling over the jeans that were wrapped around his ankles. He didn’t have much time to set himself straight, but he fought regardless. I had to commend him for not going down as easily as I thought he would.

  His boots trampled across the woman and the blond man who was now lying on top of her, his hands grasping my shirt as he pulled me towards him. Caught off guard, due to my hesitance to trample the woman and cause any more injuries than she’d already endured, I stumbled forward, losing my footing just long enough for the brother to drag me to the ground.

  Fighting on the ground wasn’t my preference, especially not with two moving bodies beneath me – one crying and the other attempting to grab my ankles to hold me in place. While Maggie’s brother attempted to gain control of my arms and torso, the blond man did his best to grab onto my legs, resulting in his face meeting the bottom of my boot several times. Four quick kicks left him moaning on the ground and he quickly gave up the struggle, leaving me free to continue wrestling down the brother.

  He was a worthy opponent, evenly matched in strength and determination, but completely lacking in focus and skill. Perhaps abducting and raping women hadn’t prepared him for the struggle that would take place while fighting another person of the same size. I wanted to laugh at that thought, but it was too depressing at the same time.

  Gaining the upper hand, I rolled above the brother, my arm snaking around his neck as I crawled my way higher. It didn’t take long before I had him in a chokehold that he couldn’t break. I looked down into his face as he struggled against my grip, the lines of his skin becoming deeper while a crimson shade turned to a darker purple. His mouth opened in desperation for air and within a few minutes, his angry glare disappeared as his eyes closed. It wasn’t until his body had gone limp that I released the tension in my arm and dropped his body into the dirt.

  The blond man was still fully conscious, but he was too focused on the damage to his ankle to notice that my eyes had locked on him. Brushing the dirt and grime off my shirt, I pushed up to my feet and leered down at the idiot who sat crying over his injuries. The woman beneath him wasn’t moving and I worried that she’d not survived the violence committed against her.

  Reaching down, I held my finger to her neck, not finding a pulse and grinding my teeth at the realization that, if she wasn’t dead, she was damn near close.

  A new level of rage roared through me, my hands reaching for the first thing I could find. I pulled a log from the fire, ash sparkling in a stream of rain as I brought it down over the asshole’s head.

  One good hit was all it took to sink him to the ground until he, too, was left a pile of useless meat. He wasn’t dead. I hadn’t hit him hard enough for that, but he would be before the night was over.

  Pulling more zip ties from my pockets, I quickly bound the two men where they lay on the ground and went back out in search of the two I’d left by the house. I had many things to say to all of these assholes, and questions I needed answered. By the time I was through with them, they’d be my unwilling audience until the moment came that I executed each and every one of them.

  I’d barely had time to retrieve the man I’d left lying in his own piss, drag him around the house and tie him to a chair before a voice rang out behind me.

  “Who the fuck do you think you are coming on my land and attacking my family?”

  It appeared Jonah Crow had woken up to rejoin me and I spun around to face down a man who looked too sick and beaten to be standing.

  “The name’s Elliot,” I offered, my voice a bit rough from exhaustion. By the expression on his face, he didn’t appreciate my entrance, the beatings, or the nonchalant response I’d given him.

  A smirk pulled at my lips when I asked, “What’s wrong? Were you expecting me to give you a different answer?”

  “You’re a dead man,” he growled out before spitting blood onto the dirt at his feet.

  I glanced around at the bodies of his bound sons and the blond man – whoever the hell he was – and laughed. “Oh yeah? How, exactly, are you planning on accomplishing that?”

  All joking was tossed aside as soon as he lunged in my direction. My hands reached out the minute his fist came into contact with my body. My fingers gripped around his throat as he struggled to cause me even the slightest amount of harm. Although still strong for the condition he was in, he wasn’t much of a match.

  He continued pounding on my chest and shoulders with everything he had, but I took each blow and savored the pain while my hand tightened over his throat.

  Once the fight he had in him slowly simmered down, I leaned in until our noses were barely touching. His face was turning a nice shade of purple from the lack of oxygen being drawn into his lungs.

  Our eyes locked for several seconds before I smiled in the old man’s face.

  “Like I was saying, you pathetic piece of shit: The name’s Elliot, and I’d like to have a conversation with you about a few things. Thank you kindly for the invitation to your house.”

  “I didn’t invite you nowhere,” he managed to answer despite my hand wrapped tig
htly around his throat.

  Laughing at the comment, I stared him in the eye, my voice calm as I answered, “That’s where you’re wrong, Crow. You invited me here fourteen years ago. You just didn’t know it at the time.”

  He dropped to his knees on the ground in front of me without another word and I made quick work of binding his hands and feet.

  I was a damned fool for thinking I could come between my father and Elliot, but I was determined to try. I couldn’t overpower either of the men. I knew that as well as any person would. I didn’t have other options.

  Lucky that both men had been distracted by the time I made it back to the property, I kept low to the ground as I ran back towards the house. I grimaced to pull the door open and hoped like hell nobody heard the telltale squeak of the hinges.

  Once inside, I ran to the window facing the bonfire. Peeking out from around the curtain, I saw that Elliot had overpowered my father and was in the process of tying his wrists and ankles with little plastic bands. I breathed out a sigh of relief to see that neither man had killed each other in the few minutes it had taken me to get inside, but that didn’t mean death wasn’t coming.

  Quickly glancing around, I noticed that Finn was still strapped to a chair, while Brody and Jack lay lifeless on the ground by the bonfire. Blood puddled beneath Jack’s leg and I wondered if he was dead or alive. The answer didn’t matter much, and I wasn’t certain I cared what happened to my brothers. The only thing that mattered was keeping Elliot as far away from my father as possible.

  I took the time to continue watching and when Elliot picked up my father to plant him in the seat next to Finn, I assumed he wasn’t planning on killing him immediately. It was a small reprieve, but one I hoped gave me time to do something about the situation.