Page 5 of Force of Nature

“But those guys were assholes,” she said.

I pressed on Willow’s lower back, encouraging her to walk faster. “It doesn’t matter. The last thing we need is for one of them to take your offensive gesture personally.”

“You don’t think they deserve it?”

Of course they fucking deserved it. They deserved a hell of a lot worse than a simple fuck-you. Anger throbbed in my temples as I recalled the way those bastards had salivated over my teenaged daughter. I didn’t have to be psychic to discern the fucked-up fantasies playing out like porn in their minds. They weren’t just checking her out. They were tracking her, hunting her, skinning, field dressing, and devouring her with nothing but their eyeballs.

“That’s not the point.” I glanced back to make sure we weren’t being followed. “Reacting aggressively would have escalated the situation. They were baiting us, and you just gave them exactly what they wanted.”

“A one-finger salute?”

“An excuse,” I said firmly.

“So now it’s my fault if they come after us?”

I forced myself to take a few deep breaths before I continued. “That’s not what I meant. None of this is your fault. I’m not angry with you.”

“But you are still angry,” she mumbled.

I wasn’t just angry. I was furious, but Willow didn’t deserve to bear the brunt of my wrath. I fell into step beside her as we emerged onto the main trail.

“Yes, I’m angry, Willow. But it’s not because of anything you did or said. If either of us should feel responsible for what happened, it’s me, okay? Not you.”

“Why should you feel bad?”

“Because I let the situation drag on longer than it needed to. I should’ve gotten you out of there as soon as that nosy bastard started asking questions.” From the moment I locked eyes with Duke I could tell that something wasn’t right about him. I tried to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but an alarm went off the instant I shook his hand.

Warning. This fucker is pure evil.

I wasn’t a religious man. I didn’t believe in angels or devils, just people who did bad shit for selfish reasons. Lately I’d been trying to rein in my inclination to jump in and take charge of every situation, at least where Willow was concerned. I knew I could be overprotective and that wasn’t going to help her make good decisions when she was on her own.

But boy, did I regret not listening to my instincts about Duke and his friends.

“What made you decide to get up when you did?” she asked.

Relief washed over me. I let my shoulders relax a little. If she was asking about it, then that meant she hadn’t seen it.

When I realized those assholes were hemming us in on purpose, I began mentally searching for a way out. I fought hard to keep my shit together; I didn’t want to make Willow more nervous than she already was. All the while, my body was preparing to either grab my girl and bolt or start throwing punches.

Then that bald fucker—Martin, I think was his name—decided to find himself a better vantage point. He thought he was being stealthy, but I caught the ripples his underwater movements stirred up and saw how his arm trembled from all the frantic tugging. The red-faced piece of shit was jacking off to my kid right in front of me, eye-fucking her over the frames of his fogged-up glasses.

Never in my life had I come so close to inflicting serious bodily harm. I wanted to separate his pathetic organ from the rest of his body with my bare hands.

“Dad,” Willow said when I hadn’t answered her after a while. I shook my head to loosen the muscles in my neck, dispersing some of the tension.

“I saw a chance to get out and I took it,” I said. In the end, it was a blessing that Martin had decided to switch spots because it opened a safer pathway out of the pool. As much as I wanted to teach those fucks a lesson in hot-spring etiquette, removing Willow from the situation was priority number one.

And let’s be real, I wasn’t convinced that I could take all four of them on my own. Maybe if they’d been horny frat boys drunk on too much Fireball, I would’ve stood a chance. But these guys were predators. I wasn’t about to risk letting Willow become their next meal.

Christ, if they were shameless enough to harass her in front of me, who knew what other sick shit they were capable of.

About half a mile down the main trail, I motioned for us to stop. I needed to put my socks back on to avoid getting blisters and I figured I might as well put on a shirt.

“Drink some water,” I said to Willow, knowing she hadn’t had a drop since before we reached Mr. Bubbles. She didn’t argue. Her hands shook as she worked to unscrew the cap on her water bottle. I laid my hands on top of hers. “Hey, it’s over now. You’re safe.”

She glanced in the direction we’d just come from. “What if they come looking for us?”

“They don’t know which site we’re headed to or which direction we came from.” I smoothed the stray hairs around her face that had come loose from her ponytail. “Forget about those guys. Focus on moving forward.”

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