ALWAYS (A Wolfe Brothers Novel) (8 page)

“
Then why do you carry
it?”

“
If I’m not in the middle
of the woods, miles from civilization, it’d give me time to get to
the hospital.”

“
I don’t need it.” Maggie
shook her head. “I don’t want it.”

“
Sorry, babe.” He drilled
the needle into her thigh.

Her body jolted. “Bastard!”

“
It’s your own damn
fault.” Cam tossed the empty canister at his backpack, sat on his
butt, and draped his forearms over his slightly bent
knees.

Maggie hugged her knees into her chest.
“There’s only one sleeping bag.”

Yup. She had no recognition of her
surroundings. “It’s October in Texas. It’s close to eighty degrees,
if not warmer. I don’t need a sleeping bag. You take it.” He laid
down facing away from her, using a bent arm for a
pillow.

“
I can still feel them
biting me.”

“
It’s your imagination. Go
to sleep.”

Cam sensed she made a face at his back.
She was entertaining if nothing else.

Sleeping in the tent with Maggie wasn’t
an option, so the plan was to wait for her to fall asleep then
leave, make a fire and wait for dawn. Cam could just tell her the
truth and leave the tent now, but he was ashamed of his problem. If
possible, he’d keep his violent sleeping seizures his little
secret.

Then he fell asleep.

# # #

“
You drunk fuck!” Cam
rolled to his stomach, punched, kicked and screamed.

Maggie scurried from her sleeping bag
and crawled to the corner. “Wake up.”

He scrambled to his hands and knees and
stared at her. His chest rose and lowered with dramatic form. Heavy
breaths hissed through his clenched teeth. Sweat saturated his hair
and clothes. His black messed hair only added to his rugged
handsomeness.

“
Are you okay?” she
asked.

He leapt at her.

Maggie jumped back but he snatched her
wrist and dragged her under him. Saliva dripped from his snarling
lips. Her eyes widened. Instinct told her not to struggle. Surely
he’d wake at any moment, but as the sound of his labored breath
reverberated throughout the small tent, she began seriously
doubting her decision to come on this trip. What the hell was she
thinking?

Cam lowered his head.

Maggie winced and held her
breath.

This man was crazed, not the man who
confiscated her hairspray just hours ago.

The weight of his large frame collapsed
over her trembling body. The air from her lungs whooshed from her
body. He covered her mouth with his, drowning her screams. The
strength of the kiss pinned her head to the tent floor. His tongue
forced its way inside her mouth, exploring with a primitive
desperation.

The feel of his weight on hers, his
course palms on her face, the scent of the salt in his sweat drew a
guttural groan from her. If Maggie’s head wasn’t spinning from the
scent of his minty breath, she probably would have questioned why
he changed his mind about her. Right now, she planned to devour
every inch of his massive muscular body.

Cam’s fingers walked down her thigh and
slid under her shirt. “You feel so good.” He pushed her shirt above
her breasts and covered her hard nipple with his mouth. He licked
and sucked while a hand slipped down her panties. Sliding two
fingers inside her, he stroked, his fingers plunging and
withdrawing at a tortuous and slow pace. “You’re so fuckin’
wet.”

She arched her back and tilted her
hips, urging his rocking fingers to sink deeper, move
faster.

His head jerked back. He tugged her
shirt to her waist. “Maggie?”

“
What's wrong?”

Cam dashed from the tent.

Maggie jumped to her feet. Whipping the
tent flap open she followed.

Pacing, his hands covering his face, he
growled, “Don’t ever wake me from a nightmare.”

“
It didn’t feel like a
nightmare”

With his head down, he sprinted for the
woods and vanished behind the shadows of the night.

Maddening!

She could kill him, that was if she
didn't want to fuck him so badly.

When Jags told her Cam was pent up from
sexual frustration, she could hardly believe it. Cam was rather big
and rough around the edges which made him somewhat scary, but the
man was hot as hell. And apparently practiced
abstinence.

When she assured Jags Cam's vow of
celibacy was on the brink of collapse, she did so with confidence.
Absolute certainty.

Here she stood, in the middle of the
woods, dressed in a T-shirt and panties, albeit wet panties, as
sexually frustrated as Cam.

Maggie crawled back into the tent. The
plan was to stay awake until he returned.

Then she fell asleep.

Chapter Nine

If this day was like the others, Jewel
would take the seven to eight aerobics class and leave between
eight-twenty and eight-thirty.

Rane waited in his car with his black
gloved fingers squeezed around the steering wheel.

Elation shivered through
him, balanced with an equal level of terror, worried he'd get
caught. He’d done this many times before, but usually he took a
woman from a bar, this was new territory. The only exceptions he
made were for the mothers, sisters and wives of the members of
the
Hell Pack
.
The capture of Ajay’s mother and grandmother was a particularly
lucky score. He snagged them on Highway 45 traveling
north.

An hour and twenty five minutes passed
before Jewel finally emerged from the large square building, Rane
slithered from his car and crouched behind hers. Her car lights
blinked and the click of the locks releasing resounded.

When she opened her door and climbed
behind the wheel, he caught the door, snatched her wrist, and
covered her mouth. He yanked her from her car. Her feet kicked at
the pavement, her hands gripped at his fingers.

To no avail.

Rane dragged her to his back seat and
slugged her in the head, knocking her unconscious. Using the rope
he bought earlier, he tied her hands and feet then covered her with
a gray blanket.

Driving in the slow lane on Highway
45, he repeatedly slapped his palms against the steering wheel,
releasing some of the adrenaline surging through his
veins.

When he arrived home, he parked and
exited his yellow pickup truck. Reaching behind the driver’s seat
and into the extended cab, he gripped Jewel under her arms, dragged
her from the vehicle, through the tall grass and into his
single-wide trailer.

The front door swung open. Rane gave
his balding, short friend a nod. “Hey. I got her. Give me a hand.”
Kipp grabbed her feet and together they carried her through the
kitchen into Rane’s bedroom.

“
Let’s do the swing
thing,” Rane said. They tossed her onto the black
comforter.

Kipp took a seat at the small kitchen
table.

Following Kipp out of the bedroom,
Rane gripped the top of the door frame. “You like her?”

“
Yes.”

“
I knew you would. What’s
not to like?” He grabbed a pair of scissors from a drawer. “You
want to do the honors?”

Kipp walked to the bedroom and cut the
garments from her body.

Rane flipped around and
curled his fingers around the top of the door frame. A mixture of
intrigue and lust pulsed through him. He grabbed a black sharpie
off the top of the bureau, elbowed Kipp out of the way and climbed
over her. On her stomach, he drew an arrow pointing down and wrote
the words
my sweet
.

“
Let’s have a bite to
eat,” Rane said. “She might be out a while. You goin’ to watch
us?”

Kipp dipped his head forward, one slow
nod.

A carton of chocolate cupcakes were
set on the counter. Rane offered one to Kipp. A white plump cat
jumped to the table, purred and rubbed against the side of Rane’s
face.

“
Cupcake.” He trailed his
hand from her head and down her tail. With his mouth against the
cat’s cold wet nose, he gave her a kiss. “I missed you.” He
scratched Cupcake behind her ear. “We have a guest. When she wakes,
I’ll introduce you.”

He ate a cupcake and peered around the
corner but Jewel was still out. He drank a glass of water and
refilled the glass.

With a cupcake in one hand and a glass
in the other, he walked to the bedroom and tossed the water at her
face.

She gasped and opened her
eyes.

Rane climbed over her. “My sweet.” He
pushed the cupcake at her lips but she turned her head and
screamed.

He slapped her. “There’s nobody for
miles. Nobody will hear you scream. Regardless, it irritates me so
don’t do it again.”

Tears poured down her face.

He moved the cupcake toward her lips.
When she only nibbled, he shoved the cupcake into her face. Blood
gushed from her mouth. Gagging, she spit out a tooth.

With a snarl, Rane grabbed a hunk of
her hair, yanked her head back and licked blood off her chin. “My
sweet.”

Chapter Ten

Maggie's tent started to shake. Her
lids flipped open. “What?' she groaned.

“
Time to go,” Cam
said.

She stumbled from the tent to find the
camp packed up, all except the tent she was just sleeping
in.

Minutes later, he had the tent packed.
The hike resumed without a word from him. And she was too tired and
hungry to fight with him.

When they climbed the slightest of
slopes the muscles in Maggie’s legs quivered. She placed her open
hand on her thigh. Nope, her skin hadn’t burst to flame. She willed
her body to continue without complaint.

Her efforts failed. “My legs feel like
spaghetti.”

His back to her, he said, “If I use the
hairspray on you, will you stop pestering me?”

“
Why don’t you just let me
land on you? What’s the worst that could happen?”

“
You could sting me.” He
spoke without looking at her, still trudging forward.

“
Occasionally, but you’re
thick-skinned. You’d survive.”

Cam shook his head. “But you might
not.”

“
What does that
mean?”

“
My knee-jerk reaction
would be to flatten you.”

Maggie stepped forward and gave him a
swat on his ass. “You could try, but this pest is quick and always
comes back for more.”

“
You don’t get
it.”

“
Explain it to me. After
last night, it’s the least you could do.”

He turned and stalked toward her.
“Flatten you.” The words lingered from his lips as he closed the
distance between them. Backing her into a tree, he wedged his knee
between her legs and wrapped his calloused warm fingers around her
neck. He turned her head and whispered close to her ear. “Flatten
you.”

Maggie drew in a shaky
breath.

Cam smiled. “Now you get
it.”

# # #

The sun peeked over the horizon. For
what felt like days, they walked in silence, until Cam finally
veered off the trail.

“
We camp here.” He dropped
his backpack and reached for hers, but she pulled it from his
reach. “I can set up my own tent.”

Cam nodded and headed for the
woods.

Sighing, she dropped to the ground and
crossed her legs. Her dry eyes burned from physical and emotional
exhaustion. The painful desire she felt just hours ago, turned to a
generous portion of revulsion, thanks to him threatening her. But
her body ached from strenuous activity and hunger.

Maggie curled on her side and hugged
her knees against her chest. Never again would she find herself
vulnerable to anyone. Much less a man. Despite her body’s
objections, her conscience couldn’t tolerate one more second with
this excuse of a man.

Snatching her backpack,
she ran.
How hard could it be to follow a
marked trail?
Once she was a safe
distance, she’d pitch her tent, get up in the morning and finish
this damn hike on her own.

# # #

Cam dropped the wood he'd collected and
scanned his surroundings but she was no where in sight. She could
be doing her business, but based on the little she'd drank and ate
that day, he doubted it.

He sprinted down the trail. His face
flushed, not from exertion, but from rage. He wanted to wrap his
hands around her scrawny little neck and shake her. How could she
be so stupid? Didn’t she realize wandering alone through the middle
of the woods was dangerous?

Cam ran faster.

Turning a corner, he caught a glimpse
of her red tank top. “Maggie!”

She peered over her shoulder, and their
eyes met. Her head whipped back.