Tag: dark

Jacob stirred just in time to hear shots fired but where from he had no idea.

He tried to turn his head.

Tried to get his body to obey his commands.

Tried to cling to consciousness.

But he failed.

Failed himself and Elle.

The darkness closed in on him again and the world faded away.

“Jacob. Jacob.” The voice hissing his name was getting progressively urgent and he forced himself to grab hold of it and let it guide him out of the emptiness where he had been trapped.

Elle.

It was her voice.

“Jacob,” she whispered again. “Hurry up and wake up, you weren’t the only one who got shot you know.”

Those words were enough to haves eyes snapping open. They were still in the woods, he and Elle were side by side, propped up against a tree trunk. Voice were nearby so the men who had been hunting them were obviously still around.

His side throbbed badly, and his t-shirt was wet and sticky with his blood, and when he blinked to clear his vision he saw blood streaking Elle’s pale face.

“About time you woke up,” she snapped. “I said we should face this as a team not for me to do it alone while you napped.”

Her words shocked a huffed chuckle out of him but then his eyes narrowed. “You said you’d been shot.”

“I tried to grab you when you fell out of the tree, I fell too, broke my arm when we landed, then when I tried to hit one of them they shot me in the shoulder then knocked me out. Between my head, my arm and shoulder, and my chest from earlier I can honestly say I haven’t been in this much pain in my life, but I got what you needed.”

His head was still a little fuzzy from blood loss so he asked, “What I needed?”

“Proof they killed the judges and their families. They bragged about it to me, how they gang raped the judges wives then made them clean themselves before slitting their necks, how they tied the judges to chairs and made them watch, they weren’t expecting the granddaughters, smothered them with their own pillows. Monsters,” she growled. “Thats what happened right?”

She was right, which meant she could testify against the MC club. Which would put Elle in even more danger the she was already in. They could lie, say he was the one who heard their confessions, but he had a feeling Elle wouldn’t go for that.

“I’ve still got the gun you gave me, Jacob,” Elle whispered urgently. “They didn’t think to check if I was armed, but they tied my hands behind my back so I can’t use it. They didn’t tie you up because you were unconscious, you can get it, its in my waistband. Shoot them, Jacob, while their guard is down because they think you’re still out.”

Bullets started pinging into the branches where she and Jacob were hiding.

The men knew they were here.

They were firing at them.

How were she and Jacob going to get out of this?

Although she was angry with him for all his lies that didn’t mean she didn’t love him, and Elle wanted a chance to at least see if they could work things out.

“Jacob,” she whimpered turning terrified eyes in his direction. He’d moved closer, cocooned her body inside a protective shell, his own body, he was putting her life before his own.

“Its okay, sweetheart, I won’t let them get you,” he whispered, then brushed his lips across hers.

“Jacob, don’t …”

Her protest that he not do anything stupidly heroic was cut off when he grunted and then he was falling.

He’d been hit.

Elle didn’t even think, she just grabbed for him, then she slipped and they were both falling.

She hit the ground with a painful thud, pain slicing through her arm as she landed awkwardly on it.

Three men stood above them.

Jacob wasn’t moving.

One of the men reached for her and she didn’t even think she just swung a fist at him, determined to do anything she could to protect herself and Jacob no matter that the odds were against them.

A bullet fired.

Pain burned in her shoulder.

“Nice try, sweetheart,” a voice said as someone leaned in close, his hot, smoky breath against her skin turned her stomach. “She’s hotter up close,” he said to his friends. “The boss is going to love her.” Then he slammed the butt into the side of her head and she was tossed into oblivion.

Jacob muttered a curse under his breath. They were surrounded and no doubt out gunned, and with an injured Elle there was no way they were going to be able to take down the three MC members.

Elle’s slender hand in his filled him with guilt. She was in this mess because of him. He’d put her in danger because he couldn’t say no to the case. He never should have agreed to go back under cover, it had cost him the love of the woman who owned his heart and now it may cost her his life.

No matter the odds he wasn’t giving up.

He couldn’t.

“Do you remember how to climb a tree?” he asked Elle.

She was breathing hard, her free arm braced against her ribs, but her green eyes were focused. “I can climb a tree. Whatever we have to do to get out of here alive I’ll do.”

It was nice to hear her say we instead of I, and he’d like to think it was because on some level she still thought of them as a team but it was probably wishful thinking. “You get up there and I’ll keep running, lead them away from you, once I do you get yourself out of here.”

“What did I just say?” She planted her free hand on her hip and glared at him. “We’re in this together. A team. I know you don’t like to play with others but suck it up.”

With that she ripped her hand from his, stalked to the nearest tree and began to climb up it.

Pride at her strength and determination flushed through him and he followed her up the tree. He wasn’t nursing broken ribs and a near drowning and was soon above her, holding out a hand to help her up. Elle reluctantly took it and just as the lights from their pursuers began to glow beneath them they were high enough that they could hopefully remain hidden by the leaves if anyone should look up.

“You see where they went?” asked bad guy number one.

“They were right here,” bad guy number two replied.

“They couldn’t have gone far,” bad guy number three added.

“If we don’t find them the boss is gonna be mad,” bad guy number two said.

“Once we bury the girl’s body we can get Viking back to the boss,” bad guy number one said.

“We should bring him the girl too, she’s pretty, he might be able to do something with her,” bad guy number three suggested.

Jacob tensed at his words, no way in hell were these men getting their hands on Elle. He’d caused her enough trouble, once he got her out of this it was probably for the best that he walk away, let her live her life, wasn’t like she was going to take him back anyway.

The men all agreed on that plan and the lights moved away, Jacob was about to tell Elle that they should wait a few more minutes before making their escape when bullets started flying.

“You still remember how to shoot a gun?” Jacob asked as he pulled one from his backpack.

“Yes,” Elle replied firmly. “I go to the shooting range once a fortnight.”

“Take this, don’t hesitate to use it,” he said, thrusting a gun into her hand. Elle took it, checked it, then when she went to tuck it into her waistband realised all she was wearing was a bikini and one of Jacob’s shirts. “You got any pants in there?”

“Your wish is my command, sweetheart.” He threw her a grin then pulled out a pair of sweatpants. “They’ll be too big on you but at least you’ll be warm and covered.” His eyes stared at her bare legs and even in the dark she could see the heat in his dark eyes.

“What else you got in that bag of tricks?” she asked, peering inside it as she stepped into the sweatpants, she was hoping he had spare shoes because traipsing through the forest in bare feet wasn’t going to be fun. “That’s a lot of raisins,” she laughed when she saw several boxes of them in there.

“They’re my favorite,” Jacob said defensively.

“I know,” she laughed, then sobered, “you knew I was in danger, you were here to watch over me, how long were you planning on doing that?”

“Until I knew you were safe. Look, Elle-“

“Not now okay, later,” she said cutting him off. “How many of them were in the cabin?”

“Three.”

“Do you know who?”

“No, I didn’t see their faces but it doesn’t matter, they’re all bad news.”

“So are we trying to get out of here or do we take them out?”

“When they find the body of their friend and no sign of you they’ll know that it was me.”

“Your cover is blown, you won’t be able to go back and find who killed the judge.” She knew Jacob well enough to know that would eat at him.

“At least you’re safe.”

Elle was about to thank him for saving her even though it had messed up her case when she saw a light bobbing through the trees. “Jacob, look.”

He looked where she pointed then slipped his backpack on. “We have to move.”

Jacob took her hand and they began to move. Her ribs protested the fast pace he set, and her feet screamed with each step on the rough group but she wasn’t going to be the reason Jacob got hurt.

“Another light,” she said a few minutes later pointing ahead of them. Jacob cursed and changed direction, bringing her along with him, but they hadn’t gone far when they spotted a third light.

That made one in the north, another in the south, and one to the east.

They were surrounded, and from the looks of it their pursuers were closing in fast.

Jacob shoved the window up, climbed through it then held his hands out to Elle.

She looked at him for a moment, hesitated, then sighed and let him help her through the window. She was shaking and he wished there had been time to let her change, she was still dressed in nothing but the wet bikini and the temperature had dropped.

Inside the cabin he could hear at least three sets off footsteps, they had to leave now.

Because he knew that Elle had to be struggling, he’d only just performed CPR on her an hour ago, and he’d dumped a boatload of emotional baggage on her, so instead of asking her to run he put her over his shoulder and did the running himself, the whole time praying to get to safety.

For once Elle didn’t complain, just curled her fingers into his shirt and held on.

Jacob stopped when he figured he’d covered about half a mile, it wasn’t much but he needed to do something about Elle, she was still shivering, still cold, and her chest had to be hurting her.

“Put this on,” he said, grabbing another shirt from the bag he’d managed to grab before fleeing.

She shrugged it on then shot him a defiant glare, even in the moonlight he could see determination etched into every inch of her face. “So what’s the plan?”

“I get you someplace safe.”

“And then what? You bail on me again, run off to do your job and then what?”

How did he answer that?

His plan, as much as there had been one, was to finish this job then pray for a miracle that would let him win Elle back.

Now?

He had no plan bar making sure Elle was safe.

“Don’t you see,” Elle said, “you keep underestimating me, you throw me away because you think I’m not strong enough to handle things, but I’m stronger than you give me credit for.”

Her words cut deep, mostly because there was a lot of truth to them. He didn’t think that Elle was weak, quite the opposite, but he had underestimated her, had taken the choice out of her hands and made decisions for her.

That had been a mistake.

“So what do you suggest?” Jacob asked.

“That we face them together,” Elle answered fiercely.