Bare Back (8 page)

“I have to do this Dodge. I’m fine. I can handle myself. I have a knife, a gun, and a mean ass Kin Geri.” He smirks at that.
“Nice, well if all else fails Kel, use that Kin Geri and knock his nuts into his throat.” Patting me on the back, he stands and the men all begin to move into position.

Standing at the edge of the tree line, Dodge hands me the bag. I slowly walk to the front porch that just hours ago I had dove off of in a mad rush to freedom. Now I’m back. I must be stupid, but when it comes to Mitch, I always feel dumber. It’s like he fries my brain cells. The moment I emerged from the woods it was Jones signal to get moving. So the slower I move, the more time I eat up. Dodge warned me that they may have surveillance on the property, but that when all eyes are on me, they’ll miss seeing Jones. About a hundred yards from the porch, the door opens. Cameron, Ricky, a limping Paul and Don emerge. All four men looking large and imposing, lined up, arms all crossed except Don. He stands there, a smug smile gracing his lined face. Cameron has fresh blood and a swollen nose, and a deep gash where I sliced him. Paul is holding his cracked ribs. Smiling, I wave at them.

“Changed your mind, did you?” Don asks me, unable to keep the cockiness from his voice.
“Where’s Mitch? Let me see him,” I yell at him, stopping where I stand. There’s no point in getting any closer if I don’t have to. Knowing that they are all here, and Jones has a clear shot at the window, gives me a boost to my confidence.
“Give me the money then you can come inside and we’ll discuss Mitch,” Don says.
“Aw, Daddy Gessatti thinks I’m as dumb as his kids,” I laugh. “I don’t think so. Where the hell is Mitch? I want to see him before I give you anything.”
“You calling me dumb, bitch?” Paul shouts at me, raising his gun at me. Don places a hand on his arm, forcing him to lower the gun back down.
“Well you are, but Cameron sure has you beat there. That asshole couldn’t even rape me the two times he tried. Guess girls just don’t do it for you, do they Cam?” His face turns beat red, his fists clenched at his sides.
“I’m going to love fucking you before I kill you, whore.”
“Knock it off, all of you. Girlie, you must have a death wish. I won’t stand in the way of that, I just want my damn money. Give it to me now.”
“Not until I see Mitch,” I say through gritted teeth. From where I stand in the yard, I had a great view of Jones rushing to the side of the cabin. Trying to not let the men on the porch see, I search out of the corner of my eye for him to return. Placing my hands on my hips, I glare at them.

“Cameron, go get her. It’s chilly out here. I am tired of playing games,” Don says. Cam takes a step off the porch as I see Jones diving for the trees.

Chapter 13

Mitch

My whole body aches. My arms are starting to lose all feeling.
Groggily I try to snap awake. Who knows how long I’ve been here. It’s still daylight out, so it could only be a few hours or it could have been a whole day. The door creaks open and Cameron enters the room. Jingling keys in front of him, like a toy, he smiles. The sight of him makes me sick to my stomach.
“You rotten bastard. This is how you treat your family?” I shout at him.
“Family? None of you have treated me like family for as long as I can remember. You’re not my family. The Gessatti’s are. Don treats me like a son, and it helps that I’m not a fuck up like his own kids. This right here, this moment, I’ve been waiting years for. I’m going to enjoy it.” He steps closer to me.

“What about mom and dad. You can hate me for whatever made up reason you have, but you’re their son. What have they done to deserve this?” He just looks at me a moment before answering.
“Well Golden boy, why don’t you tell me, what have they done? Besides ignore me because they had to get to your football games. Push you towards Penny. I loved her Mitch. Did you ever stop to think about that? I loved her,” he says, his voice trailing off.

“I never wanted her Cam.
Seriously? All this hate over a girl I didn’t even want?”

“That’s just it Mitchell, if you had wanted her and she was happy, then I would have dealt with it. But you made her sad
and upset. So she turned to that douchebag Jessup and ignored me. She said seeing me opened her pain all over again. You’ve always gotten everything you wanted, everything. While I had nothing. Now it’s my turn to make you feel a little of what I’ve been through. Then, I’ll take my turn with Kelli. You’ll know what it’s like to lose someone you love. I thought I took care of that with all those letters I stole, but hell, you two managed to find each other again. That’s okay. I’ll fix it this time.”
“Where is she? Let me see her. I’ll tell your boss everything, but he has to let her go.”
“Don’t be stupid Mitchell. You know there’s no way in hell either of you are getting out of here alive,” he says. As if to emphasize his point, he punches me, snapping my head sideways. Glaring at him, I spit, landing the phlegm in his face. As he wipes it from his cheek, his face turning red, he clenches his fat fist again. Bending my legs on the wall, I push my body forward, extending my leg, kicking him in the gut. He bends over, sucking for air. My body slams into the wall, my arms strained. I’ve almost lost all feeling in them, which is a bad sign. Standing back up finally, Cam comes towards me.
“That was pretty stupid little brother,” he laughs. Hit after hit slams into my stomach. He lands a few hits on the stab wound gracing my leg. I can do nothing more than grunt. I refuse to howl with pain and give him that satisfaction. Suddenly he stops and I realize Ricky has come in and stopped him. I hang my head, staring at the ground, gasping to catch my breath. They whisper to each other, then leave the room without a word to me. I can feel Cam staring at me as he retreats, but I refuse to look up and acknowledge him.

After a few moments, a knock on the window draws my attention. Jones. It’s Jones. Oh god, we’ve been saved. Smiling at him, he gives me a thumbs up and gets to work. Hoping they have a plan, I close my eyes, preparing myself for the battle that’s sure to ensue. I try to quickly assess my injuries, so that I can get patched up and back on my feet. I’m going to kill my brother. There’s no way around it. Counting to myself, I wait for the blast that’s sure to come. Jones doesn’t disappoint. The man could blow the cap off a soda bottle in a china shop without damaging anything around it. He’s a genius. The explosion is sure to draw attention to this room, but hopefully he moves fast. It will take whoever comes a moment to unlock the door. A smoke canister flies into the room and I take a deep breath as the room fills up. Through the grey fog a dark shadow of a man nears me. Another thumbs up and Jason reaches up, snapping the cuffs from the chain with a small bolt cutter. As my arms lower for the first time in hours, they throb as the blood rushes back through my limbs. Stumbling, I fall to my knees.
“Come on man, we gotta run,” Jones says to me as gunfire erupts. Footsteps pounding on the floor as someone rushes towards the room pushes me into action. Moving slowly after so long being hung from the ceiling, I make my way to the blown hole in the wall. A pair of arms come through, and I try to raise my arms. Seeing that I’m having trouble moving, Jones wraps his arms around my waist, picking me up. Benton grabs at my shoulders, pulling me through and I cry out in pain. Finally unable to hold it inside. Laying on the ground as Benton helps Jones out, I look around. The smoke coming out of the hole surrounds us. I can’t see anything but I can hear guns being fired and muffled shouts.
“Kelli,” I yell at Jones. “We have to find Kelli. You guys need to get inside and search this place.” Rocking myself to my knees, I try to stand, only to fall again.
“We got her, don’t worry. She’s the one that told us where to find you and how to get you out. Come on man, let’s get out of the way.” Both men help me stand, lifting my sore arms, I wince, gritting my teeth through the pain. Settling my arms around their necks, they practically drag me into the woods. About a hundred yards into the tree line, they set me down. Benton turns, watching our six as Jones looks me over.

“Damn Calhoun. Looks like you were hit with a meat tenderizer.” His fingers probe into my shoulders and I scream out.
“Yep, shoulders are out of socket,” he says moving down to my leg. He rips my pants apart looking at the large gash in my leg. Since I can still move it, there must not be any muscle damage, but it looks pretty rough. Ripping part of his shirt off, he ties it around my leg. Moving around and being drug through the woods has reopened the cut. Trails of blood down my leg show that I’ve already lost quite a bit, and need to stop from losing too much.
“Jones, there are no ladies around here. You didn’t need to take your shirt off,” I laugh, fighting to keep my eyes open. “Where’s Kel?” I ask, as my head keeps nodding down. I don’t even hear a response before I’m out.

Chapter 14

Kelli

As soon as I hear the explosion, I dive to the ground. Cameron stops dead in his tracks and Don shouts for Ricky to go see what’s happening.
“She set us up,” Paul screams. Smoke begins billowing from the side of the house and I can’t see anything. Damn it, I can’t tell if they have him or not. As I begin to stand, a bullet whizzes by me, close enough I could feel the air. I throw myself back on the ground. Crawling with my elbows, I try to make my way back to the trees, dragging the bag behind me. Someone behind me grunts and I hear movement. Someone falls, someone yells out. I hope that the guys are okay. I’d never be able to live with myself if Mitch’s friends get hurt because of me. A hand grabs at my shoulder and spins me to my back. Pinning my shoulders to the ground, Cameron straddles on top of me.
“You owe me bitch. He took Penny from me and I’m taking you.” His fist connects with my cheek and my sight goes red. He stands, throwing me over his shoulder. Walking back towards the house, I hear shouting from Dodge. He can’t shoot because he might hit me. Resisting the compulsion to scream, I struggle to throw him off balance and let go of me. But he outweighs me by at least a hundred pounds or more and it doesn’t work. When he walks up the porch, I see Paul, shot in the forehead, eyes wide open. His death gaze is disturbing. Inside, Don and Paul are fighting with a few of the other Rangers. Cameron continues, carrying me up the stairs. Throwing me onto a bed, he climbs on top of me. Combating my wrists, Cameron tries to hold me down beneath him.

My gun must have fallen to the ground when I dove, the bag of money was off to my right. Lifting my leg, Cameron is too busy trying to rip my shirt with one hand to notice. Trying to reach for the knife in my leg holster proves harder than I thought it would be. I just can’t quite get there. Gun shots erupt behind us again and Cameron stills. He looks down at me wide eyed, blood beginning to drip from his mouth. Bucking my body, he slumps to the side. I scramble out from underneath him, looking in the direction the gunshot came from.

“Mitch,” I scream, running to him. Wrapping my arms around him I bury my face in his chest. He holds me while I sob. As my cries cede, I realize he’s shaking. Letting go of him, he stumbles backwards, falling on his ass.
“No, Mitch, are you okay?” Finally taking a good look at his face, I realize how bad off he really is. They did a number on him. His face is swollen, his arm never moved higher than my waist, his leg is bleeding. Jones rushes up beside him, helping him back to his feet. He reaches out, squeezing my hand and giving me that cocky smile of his. Now is so not the time to think of this, but that smile is the same one he gave me after we had sex. His eyes, though swollen partially shut, sparkle. Jones helps Mitch stand and walk past me, over to Cameron. He’s lying face down on the bed, and I notice again the bandage on Mitch’s leg, the way his arms won’t move and try to not start crying all over again. He’s been through hell, and it’s all my fault.

Lowering myself to my knees, I sob. The Rangers are all downstairs cuffing the Gessatti’s up, swarming around the cabin, talking on their walkies or cell phones, and calling in backup. Slowly, I climb to my feet, heading downstairs. Mitch needs a few minutes to himself. As I leave the cabin, someone is covering Paul with a blanket. Two ambulances and two black Suburban’s fly up the driveway, and in the air a helicopter circles around the place. EMT’s and more Rangers converge on our point. Holding my hands to my mouth, I sit there on the ground, just watching, unable to move. As someone carries Cameron past me, his eyes try to focus on me.
“Don’t worry Kel, we’ll have our time together. He took Penny from me and I’m going to take you. It’s just a matter of time,” he whispers. The Ranger shakes him, causing pain to his bullet wound in his chest. He takes him to the first ambulance. My cries escape against my will and tears flow down my face, burning the cuts from being hit.

Jones comes out, assisting Mitch in walking. He tries to smile at me, but his face is so swollen, it looks painful. Jones walks him past me to the second ambulance. Dodge comes over to me.
“I swear, I almost had a heart attack, but I couldn’t get past the shots that Ricky and Don were sending our way. You okay?” Nodding, I just watch as the EMTs load Mitch into their vehicle. Closing the doors, he’s taken away from me, again.
“Come on sweetie. Let’s get you checked out,” Dodge says, pulling me to my feet. He leads me to where one of his guys hands him a medical bag. He checks out my wounds, putting bandages here and there. Throwing me an ice pack for my eye, he leaves me to go handle wrapping up the scene for the investigators. One of them comes towards me and I sigh, knowing this is going to take forever.

Three hours later and having repeated myself four times, they finally let me go. Dodge drives me home.
“Want to stop by the hospital?” he asks me. Shaking my head no, I just want to go home and get some sleep. The ride is silent. We say goodbye and I drag myself up the stairs. Seeing my bed, I collapse on it, not even bothering to shower or strip down, glad it’s finally over.