Four Crows

by Lily White

  Pushing in with one slow stroke, I studied the expression on her face, every muscle in me tightening to watch her eyes close and her lips fall open on an erotic moan.

  “That’s right, beautiful girl. Damn, you feel amazing.”

  I wanted this to be slow and meaningful, wanted it to be something that took hours to complete, but I couldn’t control myself once I felt the wet heat inside her. I warned her to hold on. Without question, her hands grasped the sheets at her side, and I moved inside her with the ferociousness of a starving man.

  It only took minutes for her body to break apart beneath me and for her to scream out her release, but I wasn’t quite done with this beautiful girl, wasn’t quite ready to let her sleep.

  My hands gripped her hips as I held her in place and I made love to her with a steady rhythm that was gaining in speed. Her body molded perfectly to mine, her muscles gripping me so tightly that it was impossible not to come.

  I hadn’t had time to protect myself, so I groaned on the last thrust inside her before pulling out on my release.

  “Fuck,” I muttered, my body falling over hers, the sweat of our bodies mingling as we held each other tight.

  Her hand stroked over my hair, her lips planting soft kisses along my jawline. And I closed my eyes as I breathed in her scent, and smiled to realize that she was finally mine.

  It was impossible to sleep that night, not with Maggie’s naked body curled up against mine, but after making love to her three times over, I finally fell into a restless sleep that was enough to recharge me for the day to come.

  Knowing what we were facing, we both moved about our morning, showering and packing, while refusing to talk about the fat elephant in the room that was staring us both in the face.

  After stopping at a small diner that stood on its own in the middle of nowhere, we were back on the road heading towards a federal reserve. Maggie told me her father had long ago built a small lean-to when he’d been a hunter and had added to the structure over the years they’d visited there to hide. Sneaking materials in while the authorities weren’t looking, he built it deep enough into the woods that he didn’t have to worry about it being discovered.

  From how she described it, the structure was nothing more than four walls and a plastic roof. There was no running water or electricity, or anything else that would give it away.

  I was surprised that, through all the years, no person had stumbled across it, but Maggie explained that once the land had been set aside as a nature preserve, there were no hunters walking around that could have discovered it. Even on the seldom occasions that Maggie’s family had chosen to hide there, they had to sneak onto the property using an overgrown trail that was barely wide enough for the trucks and equipment they hauled while traveling the country.

  She hadn’t been lying. Once we approached the turn off that led into the woods, I had no desire to drive my truck through what looked like a path of saplings and low lying bushes and shrubs. They scraped against the bottom of my truck with jarring sounds that made me wonder how much work it would take to repair the damage being caused. However, within minutes of making the turn, I noticed that the trail had recently been flattened down by another heavy vehicle.

  “Any chance it was your brothers’ truck that cut through the vegetation?”

  I was simply making conversation to fill in the silence that was thick between us, however Maggie didn’t respond. Glancing over at her, I saw her mouth moving where she was gnawing on her lip, and I recognized the fear behind her eyes that held her motionless in her seat.

  Reaching out a hand, I grabbed her thigh. “Hey, Maggie. Are you okay? You look like you’re about to jump out of the truck and haul ass the other way.”

  Her head slowly turned to look at me, fear and apprehension behind her beautiful eyes.

  “Where’d you go just now?”

  “I’m right here with you.” The words were spoken steadily enough, but as usual she failed to convince me of the lie.

  “No, Maggie. You’re somewhere else. You’ve gone to that place you go when you can’t face whatever is happening around you. I can’t handle not having you here with me now.”

  She knew she was caught. She attempted to avert her eyes, but I refused to let her. Gripping her chin with my thumb and forefinger, I gently turned her head back in my direction.

  “Talk to me.”

  Breathing out a frustrated breath, she pulled her chin from my fingers. “You should keep your eyes on the trail, Elliot. It zigzags and you don’t want to run us into a tree.”

  Soft laughter shook my shoulders. “Well, then stop forcing me to bring you back to the present. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

  Tense seconds passed in silence, but she breathed out again and gave up the fight. “I’m scared. Hell, I’m more than scared. I’m terrified.”

  “Of what?”

  “Of you getting yourself killed. You don’t know my brothers. They’re evil. When something gets in their way, they don’t care what it takes to survive. I’ve seen what they can do to another person. I saw what they did to my father, and they were supposed to love him. I’m not in the present with you at the moment, you’re right about that. But it’s not because I’m thinking of something from my past. I’m fast forwarding to the future, and I don’t want to watch you die.”

  The truck lurched suddenly as I slammed my foot on the brakes. Throwing the truck into park, I twisted my body in my seat to look Maggie square in the eyes.

  “I’m not worried about dying. And I’ve been in worse situations than the one we’re heading into now. But, to be honest, I’m scared shitless right along with you. Not about losing my life. I’m not worried about that. I’m worried about the sons of bitches getting their hands on you. I wish you’d have listened to me when I asked you to stay at the motel.”

  In truth, I’d all but begged her to stay in bed. To stay under the blankets where it was safe and to keep the mattress warm until I got back. She argued until she was blue in the face and refused to stay where I told her. Maggie was just as stubborn as me in that regard. I wasn’t even sure why I’d bothered arguing with her in the first place because before I even opened my mouth, I knew what her answer would be.

  “You wouldn’t have been able to find the place if I stayed behind. You needed me to lead you here.”

  “Yeah? Well, I know where it is now, so why don’t I turn this truck around and drop you off at the nearest motel? It would certainly make things a hell of a lot easier on me in the long run.”

  “No,” was her final answer, the strength behind that one syllable word enough to tell me there was no changing her mind.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “Because we’re stronger together. I know the property where we’re headed. I know the way to sneak up to it and I know all the crevices where my brothers would hide. I’m not letting you walk onto a battlefield where they have the advantage.”

  The smile that pulled at my lips pissed me off. I wanted to be mad at her for being a stubborn, stupid woman, but I couldn’t ignore the bravery she was showing me. When I’d met her, she was a timid young thing, unsure of herself as much as she was with the world around her. But not anymore. The woman that looked at me now had steel in her spine and an unspoken determination that rivaled even the toughest of soldiers.

  But even then, there was still panic rattling around inside her. Not for herself. No. She was far too selfless for that. The poor thing was working herself up inside because she was too afraid of losing me. I made a promise to myself that I wouldn’t let that happen. That we’d walk out of these woods together, or we wouldn’t be walking out of them at all.

  “Take a deep breath, Maggie, and then leave all those fears right here in this spot. They won’t do either of us any good. You have the maps we need locked up in your beautiful head, and I have the skill to bring down your sorry excuses for brothers. We’ll accomplish everything we came to accomplish, and then we’ll walk away from everything in ou
r past. You hear me?”

  Nodding her head, she went back to worrying her lip between her teeth. Ignoring the fact that she was still nervous, I put the truck into drive and inched along the trail towards our destination.

  “How long is this trail anyway?” I asked.

  She shrugged her shoulder. “We have at least another twenty miles. These woods stretch out forever, it seems.”

  Thinking about the best approach we could take to ensure we both stayed safe, I said, “Tell me when we’re three miles away. At that point, we’ll leave the truck behind and move the rest of the distance on foot. That way we become a smaller target and we have a better chance of not tipping them off to our approach.”

  “I can do that,” she promised. Her hand reached out tentatively, and when I released the wheel, she entwined her fingers with mine. She didn’t let go of my hand for the remainder of the drive.

  It took another two hours to crawl the distance to the house, the sun beginning to set in the distant sky. I didn’t mind the darkness, in fact, I believed we could use it to our advantage. Assuming her brothers would light a fire, it would give me a beacon with which to find them. A target where I knew they’d be waiting without realizing what was stalking them from behind.

  After pulling the truck off the trail just enough to ensure it wouldn’t be seen, I leaned over to give Maggie a long and lingering kiss. She relaxed when my mouth met hers and I hoped the gesture was enough to ease the fear that assaulted her mind. Pulling away had been difficult, but I realized we only had so much time to get the job done that we’d come here to accomplish.

  “You ready?” I asked, my finger beneath her chin as I tipped her face up to mine.

  “As ready as I can be,” she confessed.

  Giving her a single nod of my head, I turned off the engine of the truck and climbed outside. Maggie met me by the tailgate and waited patiently while I readied myself for the fight I knew was coming. Slinging my rifle over my shoulder, I grabbed two handguns, handing one to Maggie as I asked, “Do you know how to handle that?”

  She looked up at me like I was complete idiot.

  I shrugged a shoulder and laughed.

  After strapping two knives to my thighs and tucking a third in my boot, I grabbed additional ammo to shove into the pockets of my cargo pants. Surprising me yet again, Maggie reached into the bag and grabbed my spare rifle, pulled the bolt to ensure it was loaded before grabbing a few magazine clips to stuff into her own pockets. For once, she wasn’t dressed in one of those loose dresses she seemed to love and I had the biggest urge to dip my finger in the mud at my feet to wipe little smudges of war paint beneath her determined eyes.

  “You look fierce when you’re pissed off, you know that?”

  Her smile was like wicked sunshine.

  “You don’t look so bad yourself. Now let’s go prove we have what it takes to end this.”

  While we walked, I considered the opponents we were up against. It would be too fortuitous to believe that the universe would hand me such an easy target as it had before. I doubted those two fucks were three sheets to the wind this time, or busying themselves with raping some woman that was a hell of a lot weaker than them. I’d caught them by surprise the last time I’d found them, and I was sure they’d be on the lookout for me after everything that had already gone down.

  Interrogating Maggie about all the weapons they had at their disposal, my lips pulled into a thin line to realize they were as well armed as me.

  “Daddy taught us all to shoot since we were old enough to hold a gun properly,” she explained. “It wasn’t only for our protection, but because we lived off the land during the times we were off the grid and hiding. Brody is a much better shot than Finn, but Finn is better at hand to hand. He’s strong, Elliot, so don’t think for a second that he’ll be easy to take down, if it comes to it.”

  Shaking my head, I reminded her that I’d already wrestled that son of a bitch in a puddle of his own piss. Her face scrunched up in disgust, which made me chuckle.

  “The house we’re heading to was built on higher ground. Daddy did that on purpose so that we would know if trouble was coming. The main trail to the place has few trees we can use to hide where we are, but if we circle around south, I think we have better cover and can sneak up closer to the property.”

  “I have no problem following your lead, Maggie. You get me there and I’ll take care of the rest.”

  “I can fight if it comes to it, Elliot. I have no love for my brothers.”

  Not doubting what she said, I grimaced to think of another person’s blood staining this girl’s hands.

  “What I need is for you to be watching my back. How are you at climbing trees?”

  “Pretty decent,” she admitted. “But you’re not leaving me behind.”

  I wanted to stop in my tracks to have this conversation, but the waning light was making it difficult to cross the rugged terrain. “My fear is that you’ll become a liability to me. What if one of them gets ahold of you? It’ll stop me from being able to act quickly.”

  “I’ll worry about myself, Elliot. I won’t get close enough for either one of them to grab me. What I need is for you to make sure you’re taking care of yourself. I won’t leave this forest without you.”

  “Maggie,” I warned, knowing full well that she wouldn’t listen to a damn word I said, “If something happens –“

  “Nothing’s going to happen,” she insisted, cutting me off at the knees.

  We didn’t speak again as we closed the three mile distance. As the sun set on the horizon the small house came into view. Her brothers hadn’t started a fire like I’d hoped, and the land was far too still to feel safe.

  Lowering her voice so it wouldn’t carry on the wind, Maggie said, “It’s now or never, Elliot.”

  I took a few breaths while I scoped the property. The old red truck I’d seen her family driving was parked outside the house, but there was no other sign of her brothers.

  “What are the chances they’re sleeping?”

  “Slim to none,” she answered.

  “That’s what I was afraid you’d say.”

  Creeping up the hill, careful not to step on any errant twigs or trip over exposed roots, we crouched low to the ground, our eyes focused on the house and the clearing of land that surrounded it. We’d almost made it within a hundred feet when a branch broke above my head, and I looked up just in time to see Brody’s body falling on top of me. Maggie screamed, but I couldn’t see where she was standing. Throwing my hands up to push the bastard away, my head shot to the right with the full strength of his fist. We fought for several minutes, his body taking as bad a beating as mine, but our battle was quickly stopped by the only thing I feared.

  “I’ve got a knife to your girlfriend’s throat, you stupid fuck. If I were you, I’d stop struggling.”

  There was sick satisfaction in Finn’s voice, and the pained cry of a woman who’d just had the blade of a knife dragged across her skin. Allowing Brody to pull me up from the ground, I didn’t fight when he bound my hands behind my back and turned me to face his brother.

  Blood from a shallow cut dripped down Maggie’s throat, but her eyes didn’t betray what she was feeling.

  Finn’s eyes were another matter altogether, and behind the blue, I saw the promise of violence and suffering.

  “What did I tell you, Brody?” He jutted his chin in my direction as a sick smirk pulled at his lips. “I told you the little bitch would bring him here. Now aren’t you glad I made you wait in that tree all damn day?”

  Brody didn’t answer his brother. He just tightened the binds on my wrists until I felt my skin split beneath the pressure.

  Returning his insane gaze back to me, Finn smiled as he ran a hand up Maggie’s body. Angling his face towards hers, he whispered words to torment her.

  “Would have been smart of you to run away with your boyfriend, Maggie Pie. But you’ve never known when to leave well enough alone. Guess that’s good
for me. I still haven’t finished doing to you all the wonderful things I have planned.”

  His tongue flicked out to lick a trail up the side of her face, her eyes rounding with disgust. Tears slipped down her cheeks and Finn licked them up, one by one.

  “Leave her alone, Finn. This is between you and me.”

  I knew what I said wasn’t enough to get him to stop torturing his sister, but I hoped it would drag his attention back to me.

  Laughter shook his shoulders, the sick sound echoing beneath the trees. “Is that so?” he finally asked. “And why is that exactly? Because you think we did something to your family?” More laughter, his brother, Brody, joining in.

  Lowering his voice so that it was a deep rumble on the wind, Finn traced a finger along Maggie’s shoulder, smiling when he saw how badly she trembled.

  “You know,” he said, as if lost in some important thought, “I’ve been thinking about what you said to us that night at my house. About the woman you swore we’d killed. She was your wife, right? Her and a little boy? I think I remember them.”

  My body stilled when he mentioned my family, my jaw ticking with the rage I couldn’t contain.

  “I don’t remember much about the little boy. He wasn’t exactly my flavor. But your wife, I seem to remember her. Took me a while to think back that far, but I have to admit, now that I took the time to think of her, she left one hell of impression.”

  Brody laughed from where he stood behind me, but I trained my expression to one of boredom and lack of concern. My refusal to react pissed Finn off, that cold fact evident in the expression that wrinkled his face.

  “She begged for her little boy’s freedom. Stupid kid with a stuffed bunny, right? Can you believe the little shit actually fought with us trying to protect his mama?”

  My jaw ticked with how hard I ground my teeth, but I met his stare with venom in my eyes, my body rigid where it was held in place. My mind imagined every way I planned to kill this bastard.

  “That wasn’t until we dropped him off to the sick fuck who ran the pig farm. I think that’s when he realized his mommy wasn’t having fun at the party. But your wife…”