Text (Take It Off) (10 page)

“Formally introducing myself so you’ll let me under your shirt.”

I laughed. “I usually don’t let men I just met under my shirt.”

“I’m irresistible.”

I smiled. “And so modest.”

“Now you know all about me. Your turn.”

I lifted my eyebrow. I knew all about him? I highly doubted that. In fact, Nathan Reed seemed like a guy with many layers. But I played along.

“I’m Honor Calhoun. I’m a writer. My favorite color is blue, and I also like football.”

“You like hot wings, Honor?” he asked like it was the most important thing he needed to know.

“Who doesn’t?”

“Nice
,” he drawled. He had quite the southern accent going. Every time he talked, I felt a little giddy and I hung on every word he said. I was waiting for him to drop his first “y’all.”

“All right,” he said, gesturing to my shirt. “Lift it up. Let’s see it.”

“You suck at foreplay.”

He caught my wrist in his oversized palm and towed me a little closer. His face came close to mine, so close that I was able to see that he had blue eyes and a scar across one of his cheeks. “That, sweetheart, was not foreplay. When we get to that
, you’ll damn well know it.”

Well
, alrighty then.

Shamelessly
, I wondered when we might get to the foreplay.

He released my wrist and tugged at the hem of my shirt and jacket. He wasn’t going to relent, that much was clear. I sighed and slapped
away his hand. Then I opened up the jacket. Before I could get the zipper down, he was sliding up my jacket and shirt, bunching it up beneath my breasts, and then the tiny light clicked back on.

When the beam met with my torso
, breath hissed out between his teeth. “What the fuck did he do to you?”

I glanced down long enough to see purple and black splotches all over my creamy skin. The area was puffy and grotesque looking
, and I turned away. I didn’t want to see it. Feeling it was bad enough.

“He kicked me.”

A low growl ripped from his throat.

I glanced at him, expecting to see rage taking over his face, but instead he wore a frown. Ever so lightly
, he brushed the tips of his fingers over the area and I winced. Even his soft caress hurt.

And then he did something I didn’t see coming.

The flashlight fell from his fingertips and rolled into the crack of the seat, plunging the backseat back into darkness. Nathan’s newly free hand wrapped around my lower back, his palm spanning my waist as he ducked his head and pressed his lips to the injured area.

He trailed barely there kisses across the extremely tender flesh.

Who the hell needed a Band-Aid when he was around?

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, looking up. “I’m not the one who did this and I can’t take away the pain, but if I could
…”

He didn’t finish the sentence, but the unspoken dangled there between us and made me forget every ache that coursed through my body.

In that moment, I fell just a little bit in love with him.

Nathan

Her injuries pissed me off.

And what pissed me off more was the fact that
she didn’t whine or complain about them. No, I didn’t want to hear some whiny female sniveling all over the place, but fuck. She earned it. I can’t even imagine the crap she’d been through in the last fifteen hours.

She was going to end up like me.

Messed up.

She deserved better than that.

I didn’t know her, but I knew enough to realize that kind of life wasn’t what I wanted for her. Hell, I wouldn’t wish this shit on my worst enemy.

Okay. Maybe I would.

But not her.

Never Honor.

God. Just her name in my thoughts was enough to stir up things in me that had laid dormant to the point I thought they went extinct. It was a freaking dandy time for them to show up out of the blue.

Especially in this situation.

Especially given what I had to do.

I fished the flashlight out of the crack between the seat and straightened. “We need to go.”

“Go?” she said. Her eyes widened and looked like two large white marbles.

“We can’t stay here. We’re sitting ducks.”

“It’s raining.”

Yeah
, it was. “Exactly.”

“You need to explain
,” Honor said, pushing herself up a little higher in the seat. She tried to hide the grimace of pain that crossed her face. I saw it. It pissed me off further.

“Lex slashed my tires. He wants us stranded. He wants us vulnerable. He’s out there. He’s going to be looking for us. He doesn’t want us to get out of these woods alive.”

“He’s going to kill us?” The veiled fear in her words caused my gut to tighten.

“We’re not safe yet. You might be out of that hole
, but he still wants us dead. Now more than ever. If we get out of here, there’s going to be a manhunt for that bastard, and I’ll lead the team.”

“I already called the cops.”

“That’s good. I’ll call them too, have them send someone out here.” I probably should have called them when I got here, but I hadn’t wanted to call if she wasn’t here. I wanted to find her first. Of course, once I found her, I was too busy to call anyone.

“We know who he is. What he’s done.” Honor seemed to be reasoning it out for herself so I didn’t bother to reply. I watched as she reached under my jacket and pulled out the necklace I saw in the photo. “He’s done this before,” she said, her voice wavering. “We have to stop him.”

“We will. It’s why we can’t stay here. He will be expecting us to take refuge from the rain. He’ll expect you to be too weak to go on foot.”

“I’m not weak.”

I smiled a little. She was like a kitten with a really big roar. “I know you aren’t.”

“So what’s the plan?”

“The plan is to get moving, work our way to the road.”

“It’s dark. How will we know which direction to go?”

I was insulted. “Sweetheart,” I drawled. “I was trained for this. I could find my way out of a pig’s ass.”

“How the hell would you get into a pig’s ass?”

“Exactly.”

She snorted. It wasn’t very ladylike. It was cute as hell. “You make no sense.”

“You’re going to make me into one of the characters in your next book, aren’t you?” I couldn’t help but tease her.

“Yes. He’s going to have no teeth and one eye.”

I chuckled. “Wow, you got good eyesight. I was hoping the dark would disguise my ugly ass ‘til morning.”

“Whatever
,” she tossed out.

As much as I wanted to sit here all night in this godforsaken tiny
-ass back seat, I knew we had to go. We’d been here too long as it was. Before, I just didn’t have the heart to make her run off in the rain. She’d been standing there with this lost, hopeless look written all over her, and I could see the dark smudges of dried blood on her skin.

I knew I needed to assess her injuries and she needed a moment to rest.

But rest was over.

We had to move.

I picked up the water bottle she abandoned and handed it to her. “Drink some of this.”

As she drank
, I pushed up out of the seat and climbed back up front. “I know you’re looking at my ass,” I told her as I moved.

I heard the sound of water spraying out of her mouth. “It’s too dark too see anything in here.”

“Didn’t keep you from looking anyway,” I quipped as I slid into the driver’s seat and opened the center console. I grabbed the rest of the power bars and the second bottle of water. “Put these in your pocket,” I said, handing her the bars.

Then I stretched over into the passenger side and felt around under the seat until my hand closed over the extra pistol I kept there.

“You know how to shoot a gun?”

“Nope.”

I passed it back to her. “Safety’s off. Point it and then pull the trigger.”

“What if I shoot myself?”

“Don’t.”

“Thanks for the lesson.”

“Anytime, babe.”

Her muffled giggle made me smile.

“You ready?”

All trace
s of the joking, friendly air that surrounded us up until that point now vanished.

“Yeah.”

Just as I was about to open the door, the sound of a blasting gun cut through the rain. Honor screamed as a bullet tore through the back of the ragtop.

“Get down!” I roared, flinging open the door and rolling out of the Jeep and across the ground. From my roll
, I moved right into a low crouch, with the pistol cocked and ready in my hand. My eyes scanned the darkness and my ears trained on every single sound I heard.

I duck
-walked toward the Jeep, keeping my back to the vehicle and my eyes open. Another bullet cut through the night, and I turned my head in the direction of the sound. Then I edged my way to the back side of the Jeep and fired off three rapid shots in the direction the bullets came from.

“Let’s go!” I whispered to Honor, leaning in the back seat and reaching down to the floorboard to practically yank her onto the ground.

She stumbled a bit but recovered quickly.

“If anyone
, and I mean anyone, comes near us, freaking shoot them.”

She nodded sagely and I backed us up so we moved around the front of the car. All of a sudden
, a bunch of thrashing in the woods behind us caused my heart to leap.

I fired off another shot and then
dragged Honor off to the side and crouched behind some overgrown trees and shrubs.

The rain was still falling in heavy sheets, my clothes were soaked through already
, and the wind made it feel a lot colder than it really was.

I placed a finger over my lips and looked at Honor. She rolled her eyes as if to say
, “Well, duh.” She mouthed the word “run” to me, and I shook my head.

Running wasn’t my style.

Outsmarting idiots was.

We sat there for a while
. The waiting game was long and arduous, but I knew eventually I would win.

It was probably an hour when I caught the first sign of movement near the Jeep.

Lex was creeping up to the back. I raised my gun to take a shot, but he quickly moved, rushing to the opposite side of the Jeep, hiding him from view.

I watched as he walked slowly, his head appearing over the hood. “Come out, come out, wherever you are
,” he called.

Did he really think we would listen? Idiot.

I realized then that he was enjoying this. It was like a sport to him. It was likely the reason he dumped Honor in a hole and left her there. He liked the anticipation. Knowing she was down there, knowing he could have her whenever he wanted.

And now he anticipat
ed a hunt.

I watched him move
. One side of his body was a little lower than the other. He seemed to favor the right side over the left.

I knew then I
’d managed to shoot him. It couldn’t have been that bad of a wound if he was still up and walking around.

But at least he was injured. He would get tired faster. He wouldn’t move as quickly as us.

He stopped at the hood of the Jeep and stared off into the woods just ahead. He seemed to listen for some kind of sound, but the heavy rain drowned out whatever he hoped to hear. Finally, he began walking again. I thought about taking the shot, about trying to drop him right there.

But what if I missed?

What if he managed one last shot after I hit him? What if that shot hit Honor??

Any mistakes I made
could cost Honor her life. I couldn’t live with another death on my conscience. Maybe it wasn’t very Marine-like, but our best bet was to run, to get away. Outsmarting him was one thing, but engaging in enemy fire with some desperate crazy man wasn’t a good idea.

When Lex disappeared from sight, heading the way he thought we went, I made my move. I took Honor’s hand and stealthily led her in the direction
from which Lex had just come. I didn’t think he would double back the way he just came.

Of course, I wasn’t one hundred percent sure… but it was a chance I was willing to take.

Honor

Nathan walked behind me. I knew it was because he intended to block any bullets that might fly our way.

I thought he was crazy when he suggested we leave the protection of the Jeep and set off on foot, but once the shooting started, I realized maybe he was right. He said he was a Marine. That was a good thing, right? I mean, any time anything bad happened in the news or a new war broke out; it was the Marines that were called in.

I found myself wondering what he looked like in uniform.

Yes, they were inappropriate thoughts for a time like this. But my brain needed a break from all the killing and the people wanting me dead stuff. Imagining Nathan in a uniform was a good distraction.

The rain still hadn
’t let up. My Nikes were soaked through and caked with mud. My pants were drenched and my hair was plastered to my head in what I knew was probably most unflattering.

At least it was dark.

Every step I took caused pain to radiate through my middle, and the scrapes on my face burned when the rainwater dripped into them (which was pretty much every single second). We didn’t talk; we just walked. Nathan set a pace that was at times punishing. I didn’t complain because I knew he was just trying to get us out of there.

Hell, the faster we got out of th
ese godforsaken woods, the faster we would be safe.

I wondered about Lex and where he was. Every odd sound I heard, every snapping of a branch
, would send me into a panic as my body readied to leap out of the path of a barreling bullet.

My foot
plopped down in a slick puddle of mud and my arms shot out from my sides, trying to balance, trying to prevent me from falling. But then my other foot started to slide around and I knew I was going down.

Just before I landed in a heap of mud
, Nathan caught me around the waist and pulled me close.

“Careful,” he whispered, helping me back onto my feet. He held onto my arm as I stepped out of the mud and onto sturdier land. “Come on,” he said, leading me off to the side, beneath a very large tree.

The branches overhead still contained enough leaves to shelter us from the worst of the rain. I don’t know if it was my imagination, but it seemed warmer under here.

Or maybe it was because Nathan was inches away from me and his body heat was sinful.

He leaned up against the rough bark of the tree, planting his feet wide. I was close enough to see the outline of his hard chest and torso through the wet shirt that was plastered against his frame.

Clearly, he worked out. A lot.

“Come here,” he said quietly, holding out one of his arms and inviting me close.

I hesitated a fraction of a second and then stepped between his legs as he pulled me
in so I was leaning right up against him. Even though he was soaking wet, he still radiated heat. My icy cold fingers curled closer to him from within the sleeves of his fleece jacket.

“Why don’t you rest for a minute
?” he suggested right into my ear. “We’ve been walking a long time.”

My legs were shaking. From the effort of walking? From the fear of being hunted? From being so close to him? I didn’t know. But no matter how stiffly I held myself, they refused to stop.

Nathan slid down the trunk of the tree until his butt hit the pile of fall-colored leaves. He tugged me into his lap and used his hand to tuck my cheek against his chest.

It was an awfully intimate position. But he was so warm and his presence was so reassuring. I didn’t want to move. So I stayed.

He used his fingers to pull the wet strands of my dark hair off my face and tuck them behind my ear. The steady rhythm of his heartbeat caused my eyes to droop closed. I was so incredibly tired. My body felt like a bowl of Jell-O, all wobbly and loose.

“Do you think he’s following us?” I whispered.

“Maybe.”

“How much longer until we hit the road?”

“We should have hit it a while ago, but I had to double back because I thought I heard him heading in our direction.”

I glanced up. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

I felt him shrug as he pushed my head back against his chest. “It wouldn’t have changed anything,” he replied, running his fingers through my wet hair. “Besides, you’re scared enough.”

“I’m not scared enough for
you to keep the truth from me,” I snapped.

His fingers paused. “I wasn’t trying to lie.”

I sighed. “I know. I’m sorry.”

His fingers began stroking me again
. My eyes slid closed. “We have maybe a mile or two before we hit a road. We will follow it until we find someone.”

“Should we call the police?”

“I’ll call them when we hit the road. I’m not sure how near he is, and I don’t want to make too much noise. Plus, it will be easier for them to find us.”

Every once in a while
, a big fat rain drop would drip off the leaves above and hit me on the cheek. It would trail over my skin like I was crying, even though I wasn’t.

“I’m going to get a puppy
,” I announced, not really sure why I was bringing this up again.

“Oh yeah?” he asked
. His voice vibrated in his chest and tickled me.

I nodded against him. “Yeah. I’ve always wanted a dog.”

“What kind of dog do you want?”

“I have no idea.” I giggled. “I didn’t know I wanted one so bad until today.”

“Staring down death has a way of making things clear.”

“You say that like you understand.”

He didn’t reply.

“How long have you been a Marine?”

“Six years.”

“How old are you?” I asked.

“Twenty-four. I joined the Corps right out of high school.”

“I didn’t know there were Marines in this area.”

“I’m stationed in Allentown. It’s a very small reservist base.”

“You live out in this area?” I asked, curious.

“Mmmm,” he replied. “I like to get away at the end of the day.”

“Are you from the
South?”

“You like my accent?” he asked, a smile in his voice.

“Maybe,” I said, smiling.

He chuckled. “Born and raised in North Carolina.”

“This your first time being stationed up North?”

“Yep.”

Without realizing it, I cuddled in a little closer and he tightened his hold on my body. I felt his chin rub the top of my head, and I took a deep breath. “You smell like a Christmas tree.”

“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”

“My favorite holiday is Christmas,” I said shyly.

He started stroking my hair again.

“Not many people would have come looking for me,” I told him, wondering what he would say. Because of me, he’d been shot at, punched, stranded in the woods, and now forced to hike through the rain with an injured woman.

“The police were busy.”

“You could have left them all the information and gone home.”

“I don’t leave
behind people in trouble.”

Again, I sensed more behind his words than he said, but I didn’t feel like it was my place to ask. “Well, whatever your reason… thank you.”

“You already thanked me.”

“Words are never enough.”

“Aren’t you a writer?” he asked, amusement in his tone.

I laughed
. It hurt my ribs. “Yeah.”

“Bake me a pie.”

“What?” I asked, wondering how the topic turned to food.

“You can thank me by baking a pie.”

“You like pie?”

“Who doesn’t?”

He had a point. He was probably one of those bachelors who never cooked… Wait a minute…
bachelor.
“Are you married?”

“No.”

“Girlfriend?”

“No.”

“I find that hard to believe.”

“You haven’t really seen my face yet
,” he replied, amused.

I didn’t need to see his face. I knew he was beautiful.

“What kind of pie do you want?” I said, getting back on topic.

“Apple.”

“Apple pie it is.” Nearby, a branch snapped. Nathan’s entire body changed. He went from relaxed and playful to tensely gripping the gun. He moved swiftly, placing me between the trunk of the tree and his body as he scanned the area around us.

When no gunshots rang out
and Lex didn’t appear, he reached around and took my hand. “We need to keep moving.”

As we walked
, he felt in his back pocket and pulled out his cell phone. The cell phone that started it all, the cell phone that kept me alive.

He pressed the button at the bottom
, but nothing happened. He did it again and again. Nothing. He stopped walking and we both stared down at the inoperative phone.

“Shit,” he swore. “It got too wet.”

“How much longer?” I worried.

He looked through the dark
. Off in the distance was an obscure, hulking shape. Fear made my belly bottom out.

“Thank
fucking God,” he said and took my hand, dragging me along behind him. His legs were much longer than mine, and I had to practically run to keep up.

“What is that?” I asked between gasping for breath. I kind of assumed it wasn’t something bad like I
supposed before, judging from the way he used breakneck speed to get there.

I stared through the pounding rain again and realized what it was he was so anxious to get to.

A car.

A truck to be exact.

A black pickup truck sitting right there in the open.

For some reason
, a memory of banging around in the bed of that truck washed over me. I tripped and stumbled. Nathan tried to haul me up, but I fell anyway, landing on my knees on the soaking ground.

“Honor?”

“It’s Lex’s,” I whispered, feeling sick. I barely remembered anything about the trip here.

Until I saw that truck.

Memories washed over me and I started to retch. The protein bar I’d eaten hours ago came up with violent force.

A string of cuss words came from above me
, but I barely heard them. I was too busy barfing. Tears leaked down my face. I wasn’t crying, but the force of my heaving pushed them out of my eyes.

Nathan dropped to his knees beside me. It was like he didn’t care about what I was doing at all. His warm hands gathered the loose, wet strands of my hair and pulled them back while he murmured words that were meant to comfort me.

Finally, thankfully, I stopped.

I would have collapsed in the mess I just made, but he caught me and hauled me into his lap. I really liked sitting in his lap.

I hated being so vulnerable. Yet my body couldn’t take anymore. I was a strong person, but everyone had their limits.

He rocked me back and forth, holding me close while the rain fell in sheets around us. He didn’t tell me I was being a baby. He didn’t tell me we had to go. He acted as if we had all the time in the world and he would hold me as long as I wanted.

I couldn’t even properly appreciate that because I was being assaulted.

Assaulted
by images I had no doubt my mind had pushed away to protect itself.

I hit the bottom of the truck bed
. The rough Rhino liner scraped my knee. He had tied my hands behind my back and then rolled me so I was lying on top of them.

He stood above me, staring down… hatred and lust glittering in his cold eyes.

I didn’t know lust and hatred could ever go together.

But there was no denying the lust.

Because he unzipped his jeans and pulled out his very hard penis. I gagged at the sight. Fear of what he planned to do overwhelmed me.

I struggled
. I tried to pull my hands free. I tried to protect myself.

He dropped to his knees, straddling my chest
. He shoved himself in my face, demanding I take him in my mouth.

H
is satiny skin pushed at my lips, trying to get me to open up, trying to get me to let him in.

I opened up all right. And I screamed my head off.

My captor looked around sharply, like he was afraid someone would hear. Then he trained his angry gaze back down at me, took a handful of my hair, and slammed my head into the floor.

I blinked, trying to recall what happened next, but I couldn’t. I must have blacked out from the hit. Automatically, my hand reached up to the back of my neck and delved into my hair. There in the center of my head was a bump.

I thought my headache was because I was hungry and weak.

But now I knew differently.