Page 57 of Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

17.

Livvy

The first good sleep I’ve had since Michael took me, I wake up cocooned by Gage. Even in sleep, he uses his body to protect mine.

I stretch even as I try not to wake him. Everything I told him last night was the truth. Each truth he not only earned the right to hear but deserved to.

We need to move. Staying out here any longer than necessary, even hidden inside a lookout, exposes us to greater danger until Houdini is caught. We haven’t had cell service for hours and his battery is almost dead.

He looks so peaceful in sleep. Golden waves fallen to hide his closed eyes. He makes it hard to resist touching him, if only to swipe the hair back and get to feel the silky smooth strands. But as I reach to him, the lookout begins to sway. Gentle at first, like from when a breeze hits it, just before a voice breaks the absolute silence.

My body goes rigid even as it shakes.Shoot—shit—shoot. God, I think I might pee myself. How I have the wherewithal to peek down and not expose my location at the same time, I’ll never know.

Shorter than Houdini, he has less strength and power about him, sporting head-to-toe camo. There’s a rifle slung over his shoulder. The thing pressed to his ear is tinier than Gage’s smartphone and has an obvious signal, judging by the thick, blunt antenna and that he’s talking on it, so it’s stronger than his too—which means it has to be of those sat phones.

If we could get our hands on that sat phone.

Closing my eyes, I breathe in, swallow the mouthful of saliva filling up and threatening to drown me, open my eyes and take a chance.

“Hey,” I call down to him. His body jerks on the rungs. He hadn’t noticed me yet. Though without voicing agoodbye, he shoves the phone into his front pocket.

“Well, this is a surprise,” he says, raising an eyebrow like he thinks he’s some sort of Casanova able to seduce me with a glance. I get the feeling he doesn’t have my best interests in mind.

His smarmy voice coats my skin in a slick fear. “Come out so I can see you,” he orders.

“No. Stop. Please, I just… Can I use your phone?”

Behind me, Gage stirs awake. I feel him pressed to my back though he stays quiet. The squeeze to my hips is my assurance he’s listening to our exchange, ready to pounce if need be. I guess that’s another benefit of living the club life. Most men would speak first, a ‘good morning’ or ‘hey baby’. But not Gage, on alert; taking in his surroundings first.

The stranger smiles, showing all his teeth. “I do something for you, what’ll you do for me?”

What is wrong with this guy? “I’m stranded and you want to coerce sex from me?”

“Tit for tat, little lady. I have the tat you want. Guess what you have that I want?”

He keeps climbing.

“I’m not having sex with you to use your phone. You aren’t going to touch me.” My voice quivers at the end. Dammit. I want to sound strong. Confident. I’m tired of asshole men thinking they can hurt me just because they’re men.

He laughs at me. Laughs. His head turns from the left to right, then his eyes land on me again. One handed, he swings the rifle strap so the butt rests against his ribs and his finger moves to the trigger.

“Who’s going to stop me?”

Gage shoves me out of the way, takes aim and shoots. “I am, fucker.”

It happens just that fast. The man’s eyes go wide for a split second at the sound of the Glock. Wide just before his body slumps and falls to the earth below.

I should be horrified. Gage killed a man. Killed him right before my eyes.

But he was going to hurt me.

And once he saw Gage, that asshole would have tried to kill him first. I have no doubt.

The pool of blood forming under the man doesn’t affect me as much as I think it should. Maybe I’m becoming too hardened. Maybe I’m too tainted to feel empathy any longer.

But this guy might have a family out there somewhere, waiting for him to come home.

Maybe he’s only a gun-toting potential rapist on the weekends. Like the army reserve, but for psychopaths.

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