Page 29 of The Butcher

I grit my teeth as I lean toward her face, brushing a few matted strands from her forehead, and as the light from the match dwindles, I swear I catch sight of a small breath leaving her parted lips.

No.

There is no fucking way she survived all this, not—there, that was another one. I know I saw it. So, I lean in closer, the match burnt out between my fingers so I quickly strike a second and hold it by her chest.

Watching closely, I see a short, shallow movement at the same time I feel a tiny puff against my cheek.

“Zeke!” I shout as I toss the match and immediately scoop her into my arms. “Zeke, you son of a bitch, get the tow rope!”

Getting to my feet, I turn and look up toward the road, searching the darkness for my dumbass brother while I slide backward a few inches in the snow.

Fuck me, how is she still alive?

I crouch down again, balancing her on my lap so I can open my coat then shift her around to tuck and zip her inside against me the best I can.

“Hang on, honey.” Her breathing is so shallow, and she’s been out here for what I can only guess is a couple of hours but if her will is strong enough to keep fighting, who am I to stop her? “Zeke, you bastard, where?—“

“You know we aren’t supposed to take the bodies out of the ravine, right? They go in and stay there.” He shines a flashlight on us and I can see the exact second things register in that thick skull of his. “Jesus, fuck, ok, yeah hang on.”

He disappears for a few minutes followed by the headlights of my truck lighting up the side of the road above us. I get to my feet as a rope is tossed my way, my brother’s shadow moving back and forth as he secures it to the tow hook. I wrap it around my waist, securing it the best I can around both of us before I hear Zeke get in and rev the engine.

“Go!” I shout as I hang on tight to both the woman and the rope.

He starts backing up slowly, pulling us up in time with my steps, my boots digging into the snow, the tread barely getting enough traction to walk up the hill.

We get there, though. Slowly but surely, Zeke pulls us up and as soon as I breach the side of the road, I unhook myself and hurry toward the passenger side.

“Driver’s seat,” Zeke grunts as he hops out. “You take her back. Tus is on his way, he can help me with the coolers.”

I blink at him, holding the girl tighter for a beat before I nod.

This throws a wrench in things for sure but just because I found a living person amongst the corpses doesn’t mean we can abandon our mission completely.

That would turn all of this into an even bigger mess than it’s become.

My brother reaches into the backseat and pulls out the emergency blankets, laying out over the passenger seat while he waits for me to put her inside. “How the hell did you even notice her?”

I just shake my head.

I have no fucking clue how this unfolded the way it did but I can’t deny that fate must have been involved on some level.

We get the woman in, Zeke holding her for a few seconds while I go around and jump behind the wheel. As soon as I’m seated, I blast the heat then open my coat, my brother not hesitating to position her against me before wrapping the other blanket around the rest of her body.

“You should call Nan,” Zeke says as he stares, eyes bouncing between me and the woman. “And wake up the boys. Don’t hide this from them. They can help, they’ll want to help, even if they’re mad as fuck over what happened.”

I nod as he slams the door, more grateful for my brother in this moment than I have been in a long time. I’m not a fan of leaving him on the side of the road, alone in the middle of the night, but Titus is on his way and I know Zeke is going to empty the coolers so he’s ready when our baby brother gets here. They’ll be fine, I know they will, but I can’t help the part of me that doesn’t like one fucking thing about any of this.

Pulling a U-turn, I gun it toward Obsidian Falls, fishtailing at first before I straighten out and go as fast as I can without losing control, and not just of my truck.

Whatever happened to this female, whatever she went through before nearly meeting a fate similar to the ones I dish out on a regular basis, it has me raging on the inside and the only goddamn thing keeping me level is the slow heartbeat and shallow breathing I can feel against my side.

I tighten my arm around her as I book it to town.

There’s no guarantee she’s going to survive this, that she’ll pull through once I get her home and under Nan’s skillful hands, but I’m gonna try.

I’m going to try because the thought of someone as strong and resilient as a woman who went through Hell and had the will to come out of it alive impresses the shit out of me, and for some fucked up reason, I want, no, I need to make sure she survives.

The poetic irony isn’t lost on me, either.

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