Page 19 of Force of Nature

“I’m going to find your daughter and drag her back here so that you can watch me fuck her in every hole she’s got before I put a fresh one in her head.”

He spat on me and then hit me again.

Everything went dark.

Chapter7

Willow

My lungs burnedas I ran through the woods. I didn’t slow down for anything as I headed in the direction of the old fire tower. I barely felt the branches scratching at my bare skin or the rocks and sticks on the ground that bruised my feet.

Adrenaline fueled me. I had to get away from those monsters at any cost.

My life depended on it.

I had a pretty good idea how to get to the fire tower from our campsite, but panic scrambled my thoughts. I paused at the edge of a meadow just long enough to use the stars to navigate. Polaris—the North Star—sat close to the horizon this time of year but I found it using Ursa Major as a reference, the way my dad had taught me.

A sob lodged in my throat at the thought of my father, but I forced it down. I couldn’t fall apart until I was safe.

I didn’t hear anyone chasing after me. I was sure that at least one of them had pursued me from the campsite. The darkness and my familiarity with the area had undoubtedly helped me evade whoever was after me. That, plus my dad’s distraction.

But those gunshots I heard… What if he hadn’t been the one to fire them?

No. I can’t think like that.

Crossing the river naked was a lot easier than crossing with a pack. I didn’t care about how much of my body ended up wet. I crouched low in the water and used my hands to pick my way across so that I wouldn’t have to worry about balancing on slick rocks in the dark.

Finally, the fire tower came into view. What had once been the clearing around the tall structure was overgrown, but I still booked it from the tree line to the stairs in case someone was watching. If this were a normal situation where my dad and I got separated, I’d wait for him at the base. But I couldn’t risk that. I needed the high ground so I could see anyone coming.

The tower had originally been used by lookouts to report wildfires in the surrounding forest. They would spend months at a time living in the tower, watching for signs of wildfires or lightning strikes in stormy weather, calling in if they saw any trouble. The base consisted of massive wooden stilts surrounding a staircase with a cabin at the top, surrounded on all sides by a platform. Dad said the tower had been closed for at least a decade; it was clear that no one was maintaining it. On my way up the stairs, I passed several signs illuminated by the bright full moon telling me that the tower was dangerous and I wasn’t allowed to be up here.

Well, it was pretty dangerous to be on the ground right now, too.

In its prime, this place had most definitely sported a railing all the way around the platform, but when I reached the top, half of it was missing, probably rotted away. I took careful steps around the cabin in case some of the platform’s beams had rotted as well, keeping close to the sides of the cabin. This high off the ground, the wind was a lot colder and more intense; it whipped my damp hair into my face and made me shiver.

While I much preferred being cold up here to being a sitting duck on the ground, I was still completely naked. When I’d checked each side of the tower three times and saw no signs of pursuit, I decided to break into the cabin to get out of the wind. The door was locked so I needed to find another way inside. Although the walls were made up entirely of windows, not all of them opened. More than a few sported promising cracks in the glass, but I didn’t want to risk cutting myself. Instead, I tested the latches on the frames that were meant to open until I found one that felt like it was barely holding on.

Climbing onto the sill, I pushed on the frame until the latch came loose and then squeezed my upper body through the open window, using my hands to stop my fall onto a table below. There wasn’t much furniture in the cabin since the place had sat empty for so long. There was the wooden table and some old radio equipment—dead, I checked—plus a cot and a scuffed metal cabinet sitting on its side on the floor. I opened the cabinet, expecting to find nothing but spiderwebs. To my surprise, I found a man’s T-shirt, a pair of pants, and a plastic first aid kit. The clothes were old and a little musty, but it was better than being naked and vulnerable. I pulled on the shirt, which fell to my thighs. The pants were way too big for me, but they’d fit my dad well enough.

Come on, come on. Where are you?

I sat on the floor in the dark, dusty cabin, worried that I’d be too visible on the cot. As the wind rattled the windows, I took a moment to catch my breath. I was alive. I was safe—for now, at least.

Suddenly, everything that happened to me in the last few hours washed over me.

The terror I felt when those men beat my dad, the horror of their hands on my body, Zeb’s cock choking me—

And finally, the fact that my dad had been forced to take my virginity.

Tears poured down my cheeks. There was no stopping them, but I managed to cover my mouth with both hands to muffle the sobs.

My body could hardly contain the cocktail of emotions coursing through me. I cycled through my feelings like seasons. From anger to grief, from grief to panic, then panic to anger again. I was furious at my dad for making me leave without him. I grieved for the loss of our innocence, just as I grieved for my own gullibility and faith in people’s innate goodness. I panicked over not knowing where he was or if I would ever see him again.

Beneath the sharper emotions there oozed a thick, stodgy undercurrent of shame. Shame for doing nothing while those men groped and entered me, for getting on my knees for them. Not talking back, not fighting harder… My dad said I was brave, but I didn’t feel brave crying alone in a dilapidated tower. I felt like a coward and a victim, but worst of all, I felt like the thing those monsters had called me: aslut.

What else do you call a girl who comes while her own father screws her?

Hugging my legs, I rocked back and forth to soothe myself. The memories burned just as much coming up as they’d seared going down. I had endured the men’s perverse attention for what felt like hours by the time Duke announced he wanted my dad to be the first to have me. By then, I was already broken, helpless, and desperate for any scrap of comfort.

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