Page 56 of Harper's Song

“Yeah, well, you’re a bunch of useless idiots, so what else did you expect?” I shout back, wishing I could come up with something cooler to say, the way the Devils always seem to, but I suppose that’s just one more way in which I don’t measure up. Whatever. In about five minutes none of that will matter anymore. There’s over twenty of them and more are coming.

Snake’s face twists into an ugly, offended grimace so I guess I hit my mark anyway.

“Grab him and make him shut up,” he barks at the men encircling me and then they all start rushing towards me. I have enough time to make sure the cabin’s side wall is against my back before they’re on me, but that’s about it.

Still, the axe does some damage.

I use it to smack the first guy who comes at me across the face, a satisfying crack telling me I’ve broken his nose. The second guy gets a broken arm.

Then I keep swinging the axe in a half circle around me, preventing the cowards from getting close enough to take it from me.

But the axe is dull from all the wood I’ve already split and I don’t even know why I’m fighting them so hard and prolonging the inevitable. They just keep coming, more and more of them crowding around me as I swing my axe. I guess I should be honored that they thought this many men were needed to take me down. But mostly I’m just hoping they’ll take my body with them when they leave so Harper doesn’t have to deal with that.

I broke her heart by just leaving. What’s this gonna do to her?

Sweet, beautiful Harper always looking for— and finding—the best in everything, even the most damaged and broken things. But I don’t think she’ll be able to find that here.

“Just fucking take him down you bunch of useless pussies,” Snake yells.

And in the next moment a shot rings out, echoing like thunder over the trees and off the mountains. My side is suddenly on fire, but for two more swings of the axe, I can stay upright. But as my knees collide with the hard earth the pain in my side almost makes me black out.

“You fucking idiots,” Snake screams. “Alive! We need him alive.”

I try to stand back up but my legs won’t take my weight again. And in the next moment they’re on me, at least three pairs of hands trying to rip the axe from my hand at the same time. They succeed.

And then Snake’s nasty serpent-like face is right next to mine.

“You’ll give us what you owe us,” he hisses, while what feels like ten pairs of arms restrain me and lift me off the ground.

“I’ll never give you Harper,” I hiss back.

And that makes him laugh like a madman. But it’s a forced, fake sound.

“Oh, her,” he says amid exaggerated little chuckles. “We already got her.”

The blood in my veins turns to ice so cold even the burning pain in my side stops. I try to get free, thrash and kick, try to free my arms, but they’re holding me too tight.

“She called for you, just so you know,” Snake says and chuckles again. “Almost broke my heart hearing it. But it’s her own damn fault, falling for a loser like you.”

He really should’ve stayed quiet. Because his words give me enough strength to wrench my right arm free and swing it at him, a satisfying gush of blood erupting from his nose as I deck him. But then I hear a thud deep inside my head and a second later, pain blossoms and makes the world go black.

But even as I lose consciousness I know exactly what went wrong.

I burned through my entire life’s supply of luck getting and being with Harper this time. So now there’s nothing left.

How the fuck did these dumbasses manage to find us here?

20

Harper

I was driving fast back to the cabin cutting the curves in the road to prevent the speed from pulling me into the pine trees that come almost right up to the road here. I saw the log lying across the road just in time to avoid dying in the collision. Not in time to avoid hitting it tough.

My head hit bounced off the side window and hit the steering wheel and hot blood was running into my eye, blinding me as I realized I was in fact still alive and climbed out of the truck on shaky, but unbroken legs.

The road felt like water beneath my feet, the world was swirling and going in and out of focus as it does when I get drunk, but my fuzzy vision still showed me that the truck was most likely totaled. I hit the log from the side because I swerved, but the front was still all smashed up and smoke was rising from the engine.

This tree was not here half an hour ago when I first passed this way. This spot isn’t far from the cabin. I can walk there.

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