Hanging on (Jessica Brodie Diaries #2) (12 page)

“You wanna die, man?” Dusty yelled, fear in his voice.

“Yes. I will die. And if I am not mistaken, Jessica there will try to kill you, and probably kill herself in the process. So it looks like we are all ready to die tonight.”

“No one’s gotta die, man.”

“Someone will die, all right. Either you. Or me. You better aim true, Dusty, because if it ain’t a kill shot I will break your neck with my bare hands before you can squeeze off another round.” He prowled forward.

“Then I’ll aim for your girlfriend here.”

“You kill her and I will rip your face off your head.
After
I torture you. No one will come up here to find me until I want them to. And no one will be looking for you. I have the most powerful lawyers in the state. You kill her; I will get off scott-free.”

Dusty pressed the gun harder into my head, but I would not cry out. We were nearing the cliff, William still prowling forward, ready to spring. Dusty stepping back. I could tell Dusty was starting to tense for something. At first I thought it was to off me, because of the gun digging into my head. But then it loosened up, Dusty’s muscles starting to coil.

I uttered a small cry to get William’s attention. I stared at him hard, willing him to understand that this was about to go down, and he was the target. William gave me the briefest of glances, a whip flick of his eyes, then took another step forward. I had to do something to distract Dusty for a brief second to give William a fighting chance. Anything to put him out of harm’s way.

Just as Dusty was starting to make the move, the gun whipping around, I jerked my whole body backward and cried out. William sprang into motion as Dusty hesitated an instant before he flung the gun toward William, releasing ammo as he did so.

Too late. William was already in flight. One hand ripped me from my captor and tossed me away, the other grabbed Dusty’s gun hand, then his large body crashed on top of the smaller man. They fell dangerously close to the cliff, wrestling and bucking to get the gun.

William pinned Dusty’s gun hand to the ground and raised his body enough to smash his large fist into Dusty’s face. Dusty struggled to get out from under William and the two slid closer to the cliff. Before I could do anything to help I heard scuffling behind me.

The man William downed was moving toward the brush. His leg was at an awkward angle from his knee, his body probably in shock. Being that he had no discernible weapon, he wasn’t a problem. I turned my focus back to the scuffle.

I searched the ground for a weapon, settled on a big rock, and ran to help William. That short look away meant I missed some powerful blows to Dusty’s head, and the two men pivoted on the ledge. All it would take would be one shift for them both to go over.

“William,
careful!”
I cried.

Dusty was barely struggling with all William’s power landing punch after punch. He kept his hold on the gun, though, so William would not relent. As I ran to them I stepped on something that crunched beneath my foot. I looked down to see if it was something I could use. It was William’s now broken cell phone.

Fuck!

If I had only known it was there in the first place!

I sprinted to William, rock poised in the air, watching in horror as his large fist connected with Dusty’s face, over and over. His rage would not ebb.

I scooped the gun out of Dusty’s now limp hand. It was heavy, the grip rough on my palm. I pointed it at the ground, knowing Dusty was done. His face looked like a piece of uncooked steak.

Now the problem was the dangerously close cliff and the out-of-control William.

“
William
!” I screamed. “
William stop!
”

With the free hand I tried to pull him off, or slow him down. Tried to get him to stop before
he
was the one causing man-slaughter. I was sure Dusty didn’t have much longer.

That was when I heard it. A car. It skidded to a stop, rocks flying.

Fear shot threw me. No one knew we were here but Dusty and his friend, and Dusty had planned to share me. Gang rape?

I clutched the gun tightly, holding it up with both hands like I’d seen on TV, backing up in front of William. The headlights glared, blinding me, so all I could see were big shadows running around the car. One thing was for sure; they were men’s shadows!

“Stay back! I have a gun! I’ll shoot you where you stand!” I sounded so damn calm.

“JESSICA!” A man screamed. “Jessica, it’s me. It’s Adam. Jessica, lower the gun!”

Two shadows came toward me with hands in the air. The voice didn’t sound like Adam.

I squinted through the lights, conscious that there were only seconds left before William caved in Dusty’s head or went over the cliff. But Adam hadn’t known we were here, and if he had, he wouldn’t have shown up when his buddy planned on getting me naked. Stories weren’t connecting, and I would not be raped this night!

“How do I know? Prove it!”

“Jessie—it’s
me…
You won the dance off, Jessie. Willie pissed you off that night. He took you here to tell you he liked you. Lower the gun! It’s
Adam
.”

Blinking tears out of my eyes, I did. I lowered the gun, ready to raise it again if I had to.

The two large men burst into action. I very nearly did raise the gun again, my hand putting pressure on the trigger, when I saw a clear picture of Adam’s cowboy boots. There was no one else in the world that had boots that looked as worn in, ugly, but comfortable as those particular cowboy boots. I commented on them enough times to know.

“Oh thank God!” I cried. “
Help
Adam! Help! Get William off! He’ll kill him!”

The boys, the other I now saw was Moose, came rushing by me and grabbed William, each by a shoulder. William struggled and grunted, not wanting to let up on Dusty, then turning in mid-air to confront the new attackers. Moose went down like a sack of potatoes, William having connected with all his strength. Adam, seeing it coming, got a glance across the shoulder before he was able to wrestle William away, stalling long enough for Moose to jump back into the fray, both men needed to restrain a battle raged William.

A red haze still over me, I walked toward the piece of unfinished business. He hadn’t gotten far. Bent into a bush, rocking back and forth clutching his knee, the
other
man that planned on raping me was begging for aid.

I stood over him with the gun, half intending to pull the trigger. My bubble had long since burst and my head was swimming with the events of the past half hour. The unbelievable fear for William and myself. The hate at being the victim yet again. The injustice in the world that I was saved, but some women were not.

Seeing him there made me flash back to Dusty touching me. Dusty’s hands on my panties from the last time. The gun on my breast from earlier.

I could tell my sanity was ebbing but I didn’t care; I wanted blood. I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill him. I wanted killing him to take the pain away.

“Jessica,” I heard calmly behind me. It was William. “Jessica, that is not the way to do it. He isn’t going anywhere. He isn’t going to hurt you now. Lower the gun, baby.”

This man was bad. He was slimy and evil. This fucking man right here. He didn’t deserve life. He deserved my judgment.

“Jessica.” A calm but worried voice I barely recognized as William’s. “It’s over Jessica. You are safe. Please baby.
Please
come back to me. I almost lost you tonight. Please come back to me.” His voice cracked and I realized he was silently crying. I realized I was crying. I was broken. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

It was like a bucket of ice cold water dumped over my head. I blinked a couple times and realized I had walked right up to the man’s head and held the gun execution style. I would have pulled the trigger, of that I was certain, if not for William. I still wanted to. I still wanted revenge. I wanted blood so bad I could physically taste it, and it tasted good.

The shadows were creeping in darker than ever before.

“Please, baby,” William whispered.

It was the fear in his voice that sobered me. The fear I wouldn’t come back from this dangerous edge I was walking.

I lowered the gun and my head. The sobs came unbidden. My body wracked with the stress of the night, the misery at this happening again, and the thought that if anything had gone differently William, or I, or both would now be dead.

Before I could crumple to the ground William was there, holding me against him. Crying with me. Soothing me, petting me, looking in my face and kissing every inch.

“Never do that again, Jessica! You are to
never
sacrifice yourself for me again! Do you hear me? I could not live with that. Never again!”

We sank in a heap, my body firmly held in the arms of William. He was rocking me back and forth, trying to sooth me, kissing me, trying to ease my mind. All I could do was hold on and close my eyes. Tonight was more of a nightmare than I had ever experienced. Than I ever would, God help me. William as well.

The tires crunched as the Aston Martin turned into the Davies’ farm. I was crushed into William’s chest in the back-seat, my tears dried in black streaks down my face. I couldn’t shake the events of the night. I couldn’t turn my mind away from the feel of the gun, or the look of pain in William’s eyes.

After William had gotten the gun away from me, the police showed up, followed shortly by Tom and Scotty, the lawyer. Apparently William had a panic button on his phone—all the Davies kids did—and when Tom heard what was happening, he looked up the location via GPS and alerted the authorities, Adam and the lawyer. Adam and Moose got there first because they knew the location, helping the others by leaving flares at the turns.

Originally William had been trying to stall, waiting for help to arrive. That was before Dusty deciding he didn’t need to leave William alive. And it was clear when I looked back on it—Dusty had nothing left to loose.

It turned out he’d robbed a gas station then stole a car before he even made it to us. He’d planned to rape me, something I couldn’t think about without shivering, but hadn’t thought about William until he was faced with him. He probably thought the second man would take care of it, and when that didn’t work out, figured he would off us both and get the hell out of dodge. We’d been lucky. For me, that was twice. It was more luck than I usually had. I couldn’t help but think I was on borrowed time.

The worst thing about that night was being separated from William to tell my version of events. Scotty, being dynamite at his job, somehow made it so we didn’t have to head to the police station. He couldn’t stop the questioning, though, and he couldn’t keep William and I together. Or maybe he didn’t want to, because I was a poor mess of a girl as I stood in my brown blanket, makeup all over my face, hair disheveled, barefoot, because I was having a hard time balancing on heels in my state of disorder, and crying hysterically. I was probably the star witness. I was showing well in a lawyer’s eyes; there was not one man that didn’t want to pick me up and whisk me away to safety, cops included. I was treated with kid gloves throughout the questioning, had pictures taken of the extensive damage, and then given into Tom’s care without further debate.

Tom then passed me off to Adam so he could look after his son. Adam nearly squeezed my insides out until it was Moose’s turn to hang on to me, and then I could barely breath.

They did finally finish with William. He’d done some serious damage to both Dusty and the other guy. Serious damage. The nameless guy would need surgery, but still might never walk properly on that leg again. Dusty nearly died. If I was a betting woman, I would say that was the reason Scotty made sure every cop there talked to me without William present. William was my strength—not Tom, not Adam, not Moose, certainly no cop. Without him, I was a shaking, terrified mess. Afraid one minute for my safety, afraid the next for William’s. Through my fear-induced haze, I could see the compassion on all the faces I talked to; they hated to see a woman look like I did. As men, those police would do anything in their power to stop it. Like William had.

Scotty knew what he was about, and to keep William safe, I would play my part. When I finally felt his arms again, though, I completely let myself go. I curled up into him and let my mind shut off into a catatonic stupor. I had nothing left.

I had a long list of terrible first dates, but this one took the cake. Absolute worst first date in history. Truthfully, I might never accept another date from William again.

“Wait Jess,” William said as I stepped out of the car.

It was then that I noticed the dog. Hard not to—it was huge. And a Doberman Pincher. Huge and scary.

“He needs to smell you.”

I nodded and waited patiently, no explanation desired. Icing—a dog bite. Who was I to say
boo
?

When William put his arm around me, I let him lead me toward the house on numb legs. Tom waited long enough for us to get in before he climbed back in the car.

“Do you want to go straight to bed, Jessica, or would you like to watch TV or something?”

“Can we get in the hot tub?”

“Anything you want, love.”

“Do you have any alcohol? Anything will do.”

“Of course. Champagne or something stronger?”

“Stronger.”

We stopped by the kitchen and got Scotch, then went out the door to the hot tub. We were met by two more of the same breed of dog. Apparently there was a pack of them, and were let loose to roam the property. I wondered if this was a normal thing, or a tonight specific thing.

William answered my question without me having to ask, “I breed Blue Healers and Doberman Pinchers. Blue Healers are suburb cattle dogs, so naturally I wanted to work with those. Doberman just plain fascinate me. They guard the ranch when we’re not here.”