Page 19 of Fight for You
Leith held up his hands. “You’ve got a point there. While you’re so busy playing the saint”—he sniggered the name—“how about you turn an assessing finger back on yourself? There comes a point in life where you’ll have to cut the crap, Jamie! Aye, our family is not normal. We’ve bust our butts for you in the past. So-so, what?” Leith asked. “You’d not need us after the rigorous training you’ve gotten. That doesn’t matter, Jamie! We are still your family, and we love you.”
“That girl needs me, and she just walked out, Leith. How about you give me time before you initiate phase two of the intervention of Jamie Mack?”
“It’s MacKenzie!Andthis is that broken bird scenario all over again. Jordyn isn’t an animal. She’s human. Clearly, she doesn’t want saving!” Leith turned around and dropped his head. Despairtightened his features. I hadn’t seen that look on someone since I’d spent three weeks at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina while swimming in full military gear. All while under food restrictions.
What do I do?I couldn’t untwist the harsh look on my face. Couldn’t get past how my family hadn’t been there for Jordyn. After all these years, I’d brought her out of captivity to lose her the second we had a chance to talk? I thought surely that my willingness to set fire to pretty much my last penny of savings would get her to stay. To at least hash things out with me.
Drowning in desperation, I heard Leith’s disappointed dismissive. “Alright, I suppose we’re done here.”
Many hours later, I hadn’t spoken a single word, not even to activate the blinds in my house. I hadn’t felt this spaced out in a while as I sat on the custom couch in the living room. I debated whether I should’ve just chloroformed Jordyn, then thought better of it.She’d never trust me. The lights from the television reflected throughout the open space and onto the dark glass walls. In no time, a nightmare of the past held me under.
Mam had always givenCamdyn the usual reprimand about the public bathrooms at the park. At eight years old, almost nine, he was larger than life. With Jake concealed beneath a nursing blanket, she glanced over at my other two toddler brothers, then wagged her finger at Camdyn. “Keep an eye on yourbràthair.”
I knew I was safe with my big brother Camdyn at my side. We darted past where Lachlan and Rory played on the little slides. I wasn’t nobairnanymore and had gone down the big kid slide a few weeks ago. Happy about the accomplishment, I’d even told our eldest brothers, Brody and Leith.
But that didn’t stop me from staring up at the climbing rope ladder. Seems like it extended a mile high. “I’ll?—”
“No.” Camdyn had clapped a hand onto my shoulder. “You went up the stairs the last time. Are you aweanlike Jake?”
“No!” The shout burst from my chest like that auldBraveheartmovie Brody loved. When he was a teenager, he said the movie taught him clan business. But, see, he was mean, brutal, just like that movie I watched with my palms over my eyes, for the most part. By the time the actor—with the funny voice, pretending to be a Scot—saved the day, I’d thrown up.
“Alright then!” Camdyn had slapped my shoulder.
I reached for the rope, tugged myself up, and gulped.No fear. Laughing and climbing, we went up the jungle gym. The sunlight streamed down on us as we went through tunnels and made our way to the castle that led to the largest slide.
I was doing this.
I was now a man?—
Giggling, I scrambled into the dusk playground castle on my hands and knees. My eyes flicked up from the holes in the concourse—the ground sat almost two stories beneath me—and straight into the eyes of the devil.
“Ye wee …”—the man’s voice sounded far away as fear gripped me—“… from Clan MacKenzie are gonna die!” But he was so close, his breath assaultive.
Behind me, Camdyn scrambled backward on his butt. He slammed his head on the tunnel ceiling. “Jami?—”
The man lunged and caught me, leaving us tangled inside the tiny area. He grabbed Camdyn’s foot and tried to bring him down too. Mybràthair’sfoot slammed against the man’s face. A bright blue light from his light-up tennis shoes brightened the space, allowing me to get a better glimpse of the man we needed to get away from. But I was terrified. I was?—
The man shuffled back on his knees, taking me with him. With a scream stuck in my throat, I went down the slide with him pulling and tugging at me.
Once he stood up off the slide, I bit down on his thumb as he tried to cover my mouth. A fist, larger than my face, smashed into my eye and cheek. Indescribable pain surged through me. I couldn’t tell Camdyn to stop. To stay where he was because he rushed down the slide after us.
Once more, a fist slammed against my face, and when I came to, my head bounced on the inside of a car. The door opened.
I groaned, only able to see through one eye. “Cam?—”
The car chased off like a predator in the jungle. The person on the other side of me tugged me down to the floor of the vehicle and pinned Camdyn’s arm in the door, trying to shut it.
I poppedup from the couch. “Noooo!” That nightmare. Why had it come back? I’d rather the ones where I’d made a fool of myself when trying to steal Willow from Camdyn in high school. At least then, she talked me down from losing the last bit of mind I had. She’d understood why I’d wanted to build a jungle gym in her backyard for her baby. I wanted to save?—
A feminine scream pierced through the darkness.
I strode to the glass wall facing the ocean and glanced over the darkened shore. My palm pressed against the cold glass.There.
Jordyn. Moonlight glinted over the steel briefcase she wedged into the sand. She ran toward the waves, removing clothing with every step.
Though she was a stone’s throw away, I didn’t even think military defense mapping would help me see the real her. Not with that stonewall facade around her heart. But I’d be damned if I didn’t try.
9
