by Lee, Lia
I’m clad in a sweater, jacket, and a long wrap skirt that my mother inexplicably included in the bundle she brought to the police station. Somehow it fits the environment, and I feel rather “earth-mother” while wearing it. Mason wears a knitted cap and is snuggled inside a furry bunting bag. I place him in the homemade bassinet that even has handles for carrying. How clever is this man of mine?
I walk out onto the porch, its ancient boards creaking beneath my feet. The noise causes Levi to look over, setting aside his axe. He looks absolutely primal, shirtless and with a glistening sheen of perspiration along his collarbone, his sculpted pectorals covered in a curly field of dark hair. The ends of his long locks are sticking about his sweaty neck, and his jeans have slipped low on his hips, advertising the ridged V of his abdominals that lead tantalizingly below the waistband. My breath catches, and my pussy clenches at the sight.
“Hey,” he calls.
I step off the porch and walk toward him. “Hey. Thirsty?”
“Always,” he says, his newly-exposed upper lip curving into a sexy smile. I set the bassinet down and offer him the water. He gulps it down, his now-visible Adam’s apple bobbing up and down with each swallow. “Thanks. You two going for a walk?” He glances between me and the basket.
“No, just thought you could use a drink, and us a spot of fresh air.”
“The sight of you is all the drink and fresh air I need,” he says with a wink, resting one hand on his nude hip and reaching out to stroke my shoulder with the other. “I’ll be done in a bit. Then we can both go inside and…”
“Haven’t you had enough for today?” I laugh, crossing my arms in front of my chest, knowing what he has in mind.
He shakes his head. “Never. But I want to get as much wood stockpiled before winter as possible.”
I smile but still have my reservations. “You think we’ll really be here all winter?”
“We can be. If you want to.”
“You know we have to go into Forks soon. My folks will be worried, and Mason should see the doctor.”
He nods. “Of course. We can go into town anytime, but…I guess I was hoping you’d change your mind about staying up here longer.”
“I haven’t decided yet, Levi. For now, I think the danger has passed, don’t you?”
“Maybe.” He picks up his axe again. “There’s a tree back there I think I should cut down,” he says, changing the subject. He gestures behind me with his chin. “Looks like it might fall on the truck, or even the cabin if we get a lot of snow. If I cut it now, it should dry and provide enough wood to last us.”
“Which tree?”
“I’ll show you.” He jerks his chin toward the cabin and gestures for me to follow. We walk around to the back of the structure where he approaches a distinctly leaning pine tree and applies a couple of firm swats to its rough trunk. “This one.”
I look up at the spiny canopy of needles along its upper branches. Cutting it down sounds like a difficult task, but I’m learning that Levi Strongbow can, and will, do pretty much anything he sets his mind to. “Are you sure? It provides a lot of shade for the cabin. And hides the truck,” I point out as I step closer and lay a hand on its peeling bark.
“That’s a good point,” he says, dropping the axe to wrap his arms around my waist, his sweaty body pressing close at my back. “But I’d rather be safe than sorry.” He nuzzles my neck and plants a kiss behind my ear. “Maybe we can give it a good send-off before I take my axe to it.” His hands find the material of my skirt and begin to hike it slowly upward. The hem brushes my legs as it rises. His groin presses tightly against my rear, forcing me closer to the tree.
I reach out to brace both hands against it. “Really? A tree ceremony?” I giggle. This is going to be a first. He pulls my skirt up past my hips and wedges his knees between my legs, forcing them farther apart until I’m practically straddling the rough tree trunk. A strange thrill snakes up my spine, and my pussy floods with moisture.
Levi unfastens his jeans with one hand, while clutching my skirt at my hip with the other. “Why not? I worship the outdoors. They’re the ultimate adventure, wouldn’t you say?”
“You’re my adventure,” I say, my breath coming fast and hard as he slips my panties down toward my knees. “Fuck me hard, mountain man.” I look up the long length of the tree, little bursts of sunlight randomly appearing and disappearing through its undulating boughs. Levi’s lips are at my ear, his breath hot and sexy.
“I could do this forever,” he murmurs, his erect cock fitting between my cheeks and nestling against my eager entrance. “I love you, Dallas.” As the words leave his lips, he slides forcefully inside me, his girth stretching my slick inner walls to their limit.
“I love you, Levi,” I gasp, my palms rubbing against the prickly bark as his member spears me, lifting me up on my tiptoes with each stroke. I feel crazy, wild, and completely free in these moments, relishing his punishing yet loving thrusts. I lean into the tree, sticking my ass out a little more to give him better access. “Oh yes,” I shout. “Yes!”
We grind against the tree, our feral, pleasured grunts and the slapping of skin on skin the only sounds echoing in the dense forest all around us. It’s thrilling and forbidden, and the tingling, electric current of orgasm builds in my core, crawling up my inner thighs and cresting in my pussy. “Oh, fuck,” I scream, losing myself in the sensation. There’s no one to hear.
Levi thrusts twice more, each one more intense than the last, before his body freezes and stills, his cock pulsing inside me, releasing its hot warmth. Our sex is as raw and natural as it could ever possibly be, and I love it; protection be damned. We were one with nature, just as it should be.
“Fuck,” Levi groans, his spent cock still pinning me to the tree. “You were incredible. I’ve never heard you scream like that; you never want to wake the baby.”
The baby! My mind snaps out of my orgasm-induced fog. We’ve left Mason in his basket by the woodpile! “Mason,” I snarl like a mother cougar. “Oh my God, Mason!” I shake free of Levi’s hold and hitch my panties and skirt back into place, already on the run for the front side of the cabin. Please God, don’t let some wild animal be hovering over his basket, poking their claws or beaks into his soft flesh. What in hell was I thinking, leaving him alone?
I race for the woodpile, my chest tightening and threatening to explode in another salvo of coughing. Levi’s footfalls thunder up behind me, both of us coming to a shuddering halt next to the pile of split logs. A scream echoes through the air, and it’s coming from my own tortured throat.
The basket is gone. And Mason with it.
Chapter Thirteen
Levi
I grab Dallas by the shoulders and hold her tight against me, one hand reaching around to cover her mouth and stifle her horrific screams. Panicking will not help. Panicking is dangerous. Panicking is deadly. Even though I feel like bellowing my rage to the skies along with her, it’s the wrong thing to do.
“Dallas, don’t…stay calm and look around…keep your wits about you.” She struggles against my grip for a moment, but her screams subside. I spin her around to face me. “We’ll find him. An animal wouldn’t have dragged the whole basket away. And we didn’t hear him cry. Someone’s taken him. Someone knows we’re here and has been watching us.”
“How could we have heard anything, you brute! Whose idea was it to start fucking up against a tree?” She tries to slap my face and pound on my chest, but I grab her by the wrists. “I should never have put the basket down!”
“Shhh, you’re not hearing now, either. Be quiet. I said, Someone. Is. Watching. Us. Now, let’s look around, quickly. They couldn’t have gone far. Maybe Mason will cry out.” I grab my shirt from the woodpile and drag it on, cold beads of sweat running down my back. We split directions and search through the edge of the trees surrounding the cabin, desperate for any sounds of our child’s voice, any sign of footprints, broken branches, torn fabric, anything, but come up empty. H
ow could this happen? We heard no vehicle engine. Whoever it is has approached us on foot. I fight to keep my mind rational and functioning, even as my heart feels like it’s been ripped from my chest and my stomach lodged somewhere near my feet.
I brought them here to protect them. I thought I could keep them safe. How wrong I was. I’m responsible for this, all of it. They would have been better off if I’d never laid eyes on them. I know in my soul somehow this all has to do with me, and what I’ve done. It’s up to me to fix it.
I may need a weapon, and my dad’s rifle is inside the cabin above the fireplace. I pick up the axe as I circle behind the building where I’d left it against the tree. It will serve until I can get my hands on the gun. Dallas meets me near the porch, her face tracked with tears, her eyes wide in terror.
“Nothing,” she rasps, holding her chest.
Something’s not right. Flu my ass; she’s going to develop pneumonia out here. My fault, again. A stab of unholy regret rips through me. I should have stayed out of their lives altogether.
“I’m going to get my rifle,” I say. “Then we’ll take the truck and check down the road. If we don’t see anything, we’ll go to the ranger station for help.”
She nods as tears start afresh, a crippling cough doubling her over.
“Come inside,” I say, reaching for her hand. She takes it, and I help her up onto the porch. The door squeaks on its hinges as I rip it open. The hairs on my neck stand on end the instant I step over the threshold.
“There’s the loving couple,” a voice speaks from over by the fireplace. “You all finished with your forest nuptials?” I shield Dallas with my body as my head snaps in that direction. “That’s some very bad parenting. Leaving a poor li’l babe all on his own. Why, a coyote or a bear could a got him just like that.”
He’s standing there in front of the mantel, the rifle from the wall above it in his hands. Aimed straight at us. Mason is in the basket at the man’s feet, squirming and fussing. It’s him. The guy from the market.
Dallas sucks in a terrified breath. “You…” she snarls.
“Well, hello again to you too, pretty mama,” he replies, a crooked grin splitting his ugly, weathered features. “You should have come with me the first time. Avoided all this unpleasantness.”
“What do you want? Why are you following us?” Dallas cries.
“Oh now, don’t get those pretty panties in a knot. I got a good look at them, you know, while you two was getting it on behind the woodshed, so to speak. I had half a mind to make it a threesome, but then I wouldn’t have been able to protect junior here. Like you should a been doing.”
Anger and outrage burn in my gut at his words. “Answer the question,” I growl. “Why are you following us? What the fuck do you want?”
“Oh, stand down, Mr. He-man. It wasn’t easy, let me tell you. A stroke of luck, really. And it’s not you I’m upset with, pretty mama. You were just doing your job, and you did it right fine.”
“What are you talking about?” Dallas asks, gripping my arm so hard my fingers are going numb. They still curl around the axe handle, but fucking fat lot of good an axe is going to do in this situation. He’s got our baby, and my own gun pointed at my head. Even Davey fucking Crockett couldn’t throw an axe fast enough to beat a bullet.
“You were cool as a cucumber during that robbery,” he says, clucking his tongue as if in admiration. “They must train you tellers real good. You just handed over the cash like a good li’l soldier. Got down on the floor, no questions, no arguments. The whole job went off smooth as silk.”
“I don’t remember you,” Dallas says. “You weren’t the man demanding the money.”
“That’s true. I was covering the entrance. I’m a good li’l soldier too, you see. Unless I’m not treated fairly. Then I take matters into my own hands. Like I am now.”
So, he was involved in the robbery. I look the man up and down, but time and circumstance have faded my memory. Then my eyes come to rest on the thing fixed at his belt. Furry and matted, it looks like the remains of a coyote’s tail. Son of a bitch. He’s had a part in killing those animals, too. Hatred explodes inside me like a Fourth of July rocket. All my rage, for everything bad that’s happened in my life, is now focused on this individual. He’s touched everything that’s sacred…my family, and my wilderness home. He’s going down. If it’s the last thing I ever do on this Earth.
“So, Mr. He-Man,” the man says. “You better drop that axe before I blow it out of your hand. Then you’re gonna hand me over that big old bag of cash you withdrew from the bank that day. I saw you take it. I know you got it stashed here somewhere.”
I let go of the axe handle but shake my head. “There’s no cash. I gave it away to charity. It’s not here, so you’re wasting your time. Give me my son, and get the fuck out of here. If you touch so much as one hair on his head, I will fucking kill you.”
“Kill me? Oh, yeah, I know you’d try. You’ve done it before. You think you can get away with murder and the money, too? Well, it’s not gonna go down that way. You see, I saw my pal Rudge go after you in the parking lot. Greedy son of a bitch. Pulling the heist wasn’t enough for him. Kinda his own fault he got himself popped. We could a all been on that plane to Mexico, living off the fruits of our labor, but no. He had to get greedy.”
“Like you said, it’s his own fault. What’s that got to do with you, or my family?”
“Yeah, he wasn’t the brightest bulb on the tree, old Rudge, but he was my best friend. Shit, I loved that guy. You could have saved all of us the trouble by just giving him the bag. Instead, you played hero. I heard the shot and ran toward it. The others kept going. I saw you take off in that black truck, but didn’t quite get the plate number.” The man gives a menacing chuckle. “Not like I could have gone after you. I was in the middle of a bank robbery, after all.”
“So why didn’t you just leave? With your other lowlife goons and the bank’s money? Save your own sorry ass?”
“Well now, there’s the problem. I didn’t know the others as well as I knew Rudge. Turns out they weren’t so loyal. When he and I didn’t turn up at the pickup point for the getaway car, they just moved on. Blew town. All I got for my efforts was a double cross and a dead friend. So, you can imagine I’ve been a little miffed since then. I spotted your truck every so often, followed you into the mountains, but just never knew exactly where you’d holed up.”
He turns his focus on Dallas. I feel her physically shrink behind me, trembling like a leaf and her fingernails digging into me like claws. I can only stare down the barrel of that rifle. I have to disarm the bastard somehow. Get Dallas and the baby out of here.
“But that’s where lady luck intervened. I saw you, pretty mama. At the farmer’s market. I remembered you. Hard to forget a face as pretty as yours. You were so all alone, you and the kid. Thought you might want a li’l manly company, but no. Too good for the likes of me, huh?” He laughs cruelly. “Then guess who showed up?” He gestures toward me with the gun. “Hard to recognize you, seeing as you kinda let yourself go the way you have. But I put two and two together. I knew you and she had something going. Like this li’l dude, for one,” he says, tilting his head downward. “I figured if I snatched them, you’d come running, and you did. Not quite the way I expected, but come you did.”
Suddenly, Mason starts to wail like a siren, and the man points the rifle toward the basket. My heart leaps into my throat, and a curtain of red rage passes over my eyes.
“Now look, I got no wish to harm a kidlet,” he carries on. “But you, that’s a different matter. I’m gonna give you exactly what you gave my friend. A bullet in the chest. Right after you hand over all that cash you got. Don’t lie to me now. I know you have it.”
“I don’t have it. What would I need it for, up here? I told you, I gave it away. Just turn around, leave us in peace, and go your merry way. Who am I gonna tell about you, huh? Look around. We’re in the middle of fucking nowhere.”
“People talk. They always do. Now, I’m just about out of patience with you, He-man,” he says, his voice rising. “And I do plan to go my way, so you better hurry up and give me that money. Unless you love money more than you love junior here? Or pretty mama about pissing her pink panties right now behind you?” He brandishes the rifle in her direction.
Mason’s cries nearly drown out the man’s words as well as his mother’s sobbing. I don’t give a fuck that he wants to kill me, but his threats toward my woman and child, the only things in the world that matter to me anymore, make me feel like I’m already dead.
“Leave them out of this,” I say, the cold, calm voice coming from my mouth sounding foreign even to me. “I’ll give you the money. Just let them go, let them go outside, her and the baby. Then we’ll settle this.”
Chapter Fourteen
Dallas
I’m living the day of the bank robbery all over again. I’m paralyzed with fear, the scene before me just as unreal, but infinitely more terrifying because my child’s life is in danger. I want to scream, launch myself at this horrible monster, dig his eyeballs out with my fingernails to defend my baby. But all I can do is blubber and cry, hide behind the solid wall of my unlikely mountain man, desperately wishing this was all a nightmare and that I’d wake up any second.
But it’s all too real. My baby’s cries stab through me as painfully as knives. They are all I can hear, even as I strain to comprehend what Levi is saying.
“Let her take the baby and go.”
The man tilts his head as if weighing the pros and cons, an amused grin on his face. “Tell you what. You hand over the keys to that nice truck along with that bag of money, and I’ll consider it.”