Hanging On (Jessica Brodie Diaries #2)(31)

With the free hand I tried to pull him off, or slow him down. Tried to get him to stop before he was the one causing man-slaughter. I was sure Dusty didn’t have much longer.

That was when I heard it. A car. It skidded to a stop, rocks flying.

Fear shot threw me. No one knew we were here but Dusty and his friend, and Dusty had planned to share me. Gang rape?

I clutched the gun tightly, holding it up with both hands like I’d seen on TV, backing up in front of William. The headlights glared, blinding me, so all I could see were big shadows running around the car. One thing was for sure; they were men’s shadows!

“Stay back! I have a gun! I’ll shoot you where you stand!” I sounded so damn calm.

“JESSICA!” A man screamed. “Jessica, it’s me. It’s Adam. Jessica, lower the gun!”

Two shadows came toward me with hands in the air. The voice didn’t sound like Adam.

I squinted through the lights, conscious that there were only seconds left before William caved in Dusty’s head or went over the cliff. But Adam hadn’t known we were here, and if he had, he wouldn’t have shown up when his buddy planned on getting me naked. Stories weren’t connecting, and I would not be raped this night!

“How do I know? Prove it!”

“Jessie—it’s me…You won the dance off, Jessie. Willie pissed you off that night. He took you here to tell you he liked you. Lower the gun! It’s Adam.”

Blinking tears out of my eyes, I did. I lowered the gun, ready to raise it again if I had to.

The two large men burst into action. I very nearly did raise the gun again, my hand putting pressure on the trigger, when I saw a clear picture of Adam’s cowboy boots. There was no one else in the world that had boots that looked as worn in, ugly, but comfortable as those particular cowboy boots. I commented on them enough times to know.

“Oh thank God!” I cried. “Help Adam! Help! Get William off! He’ll kill him!”

The boys, the other I now saw was Moose, came rushing by me and grabbed William, each by a shoulder. William struggled and grunted, not wanting to let up on Dusty, then turning in mid-air to confront the new attackers. Moose went down like a sack of potatoes, William having connected with all his strength. Adam, seeing it coming, got a glance across the shoulder before he was able to wrestle William away, stalling long enough for Moose to jump back into the fray, both men needed to restrain a battle raged William.

A red haze still over me, I walked toward the piece of unfinished business. He hadn’t gotten far. Bent into a bush, rocking back and forth clutching his knee, the other man that planned on raping me was begging for aid.

I stood over him with the gun, half intending to pull the trigger. My bubble had long since burst and my head was swimming with the events of the past half hour. The unbelievable fear for William and myself. The hate at being the victim yet again. The injustice in the world that I was saved, but some women were not.

Seeing him there made me flash back to Dusty touching me. Dusty’s hands on my panties from the last time. The gun on my breast from earlier.

I could tell my sanity was ebbing but I didn’t care; I wanted blood. I wanted revenge. I wanted to kill him. I wanted killing him to take the pain away.

“Jessica,” I heard calmly behind me. It was William. “Jessica, that is not the way to do it. He isn’t going anywhere. He isn’t going to hurt you now. Lower the gun, baby.”

This man was bad. He was slimy and evil. This f**king man right here. He didn’t deserve life. He deserved my judgment.

“Jessica.” A calm but worried voice I barely recognized as William’s. “It’s over Jessica. You are safe. Please baby. Please come back to me. I almost lost you tonight. Please come back to me.” His voice cracked and I realized he was silently crying. I realized I was crying. I was broken. Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

It was like a bucket of ice cold water dumped over my head. I blinked a couple times and realized I had walked right up to the man’s head and held the gun execution style. I would have pulled the trigger, of that I was certain, if not for William. I still wanted to. I still wanted revenge. I wanted blood so bad I could physically taste it, and it tasted good.

The shadows were creeping in darker than ever before.

“Please, baby,” William whispered.

It was the fear in his voice that sobered me. The fear I wouldn’t come back from this dangerous edge I was walking.

I lowered the gun and my head. The sobs came unbidden. My body wracked with the stress of the night, the misery at this happening again, and the thought that if anything had gone differently William, or I, or both would now be dead.

Before I could crumple to the ground William was there, holding me against him. Crying with me. Soothing me, petting me, looking in my face and kissing every inch.

“Never do that again, Jessica! You are to never sacrifice yourself for me again! Do you hear me? I could not live with that. Never again!”

We sank in a heap, my body firmly held in the arms of William. He was rocking me back and forth, trying to sooth me, kissing me, trying to ease my mind. All I could do was hold on and close my eyes. Tonight was more of a nightmare than I had ever experienced. Than I ever would, God help me. William as well.

The tires crunched as the Aston Martin turned into the Davies’ farm. I was crushed into William’s chest in the back-seat, my tears dried in black streaks down my face. I couldn’t shake the events of the night. I couldn’t turn my mind away from the feel of the gun, or the look of pain in William’s eyes.