Cajun Protection (22 page)

Hawk

Something isn’t sitting right. Andrew seemed
too damn calm when he was in front of the judge. He even smiled at
us both when he left. Seemed like that guy has a death wish when he
asked if Zoey would visit him in jail. Wolf had to pull me back
before I clocked him. Now I’m drinking a beer at the local bar
waiting for Eddy to show up. It’s a little early for a drink, but
shit if I didn’t need one now.

“I gotta bad feeling, man,” Wolf states as he
takes a gulp of his beer.

“Me too. But I can’t put my finger on it.”
But before I could try to determine what it was, Eddy comes busting
in through the door.

“Fuck, you need to see if they got Andrew at
the jail.” I look at him, but he seems out of sorts. Pulling out my
phone, I make the call. And when I ask the question, and get the
response, my blood freezes. He never made it to his cell.

“Someone was bragging about how Andrew
planned to get caught, then escaping when he was on the way to
jail.” I freeze and before I can call Shay, Wolf’s phone is
ringing. It’s Shay.

“Fuck, yeah we’re on our way.” I look at him,
dreading what he is about to say.

“Zoey’s missing, backdoor is open. She said
someone distracted her and they took her. It was Andrew. She fired
a few shots at the back of his car, cops are there now. But he’s
got her, man. Andrew took Zoey.” Fuck.

I turn and look at Eddy who looks like he
needs to say something.

“What?”

“I heard he was going to try to take your
girl.”

“Where?” I yell.

“The swamp, he got a boat and he was gonna
feed her to the gators.” I turn and find the wall in my way.
Reaching back, I punch, sending my hand through the plaster.

“We need to go, now.” Wolf pulls me out of my
fit of rage and focuses on me. He’s right; we need to get Zoey
back.

“Let’s go huntin’, brother.” That’s all I
need to say as everyone follows me out of the bar.

Zoey

“Just let me go, or shoot me, you piece of
shit.” I’m tired, I hurt from the smacks across the face, and I’m
worried about Shay. I don’t even know why I am talking to him. When
I was with Hawk and Wolf, they showed me that I can be more, do
more than just smile pretty. I’m not gonna let him get to me
anymore. Shay is safe, and I know the guys are. That’s all that
matters.

“Where would the fun be in that? No, I have
another idea. You like fucking them wild men, huh. Well we just
might have to clean you up, or play. Whichever comes first?”
Tugging on my hands, I do my best to get the rope loose, but he
tied them too tight. We are sitting on a boat, a small one, and
making our way down the bayou.

“You’re crazy you know that,” I spit at him.
But he just laughs at me and starts steering the boat further into
the water.

“Are you gonna be mine?”

“Go to hell.”

“Oh you will play with the devil, and when
this ends, you will be mine.”

“Do you have mental issues? I won’t ever
consent to being with you, ever,” I sneer.

“I think you will change your mind. I will be
your one and only. No sit still while I get to where we are going.”
But I don’t listen, I struggle to move, and manage to free my feet,
I stand up in the boat to kick him, or find a way to get away. But
he sees my attempt and pushes me in the water. Screaming, I fall
into the swampy gator infested water. I know this part of the
swamp, and I also know this is where my dad used to go gator
hunting trying to find the rougarou. He never did, but that didn’t
mean he didn’t lurk in the waters. Doing my best, I try to stay
afloat. I hate not being able to swim like someone smaller, but the
truth is, with all my extra chub, I float better. Being that my
hands are tied, I can't actually swim too far.

"You stupid bitch, did you think I would let
you get away from me? Nah, you just saved me a step. Hope you don't
mind losing a little here and there. Heard them gators get pretty
hungry this time of year."  And before I could process what
the hell he means the boat starts to shoot forward. I never saw
that though. My hands are tethered together with another rope
that’s wrapped between them tied to the boat. My arms jerk forward
making my face slam into the murky water. The taste is foul and I
do my best to not swallow it down. My eyes burn as he drags me
along the bayou like a piece of fish attracting gators. The sick
son-of-a-bitch is using me as his own bait. I can't pull back, or
swim while I'm being dragged, pulled into the depths of the swamp.
I can’t see anything around me, and swamp weeds now cling to my
body. I do my best to bring my head above water gulping in clean
air before I get plunged back into darkness.

The boat slows and I start to sink, making
the rope go slack.

"You ready to give in and be with me?” I gasp
trying to process everything he is saying, but I’m waterlogged.
Everything seems muffled, and before I can answer, we are moving
again. This goes on three more times before I feel something brush
against my leg in the water. I do my best to shift, avoiding
whatever it is.

“Come on, Zoey, give in, or I let the gators
get you.” I turn my head the best I can, catching my breath, and
see scales and eyes of a giant ten-foot gator barreling down at
me.

“Pull me in.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think you quite
understand everything you put me through. Maybe we should just see
what happens when I do this.” And before I can clear the crap out
of my eyes, I hear a gunfire land near my head. “Oh come now, Zoey.
Don’t want to move too much, might get you and not your new
pal.”

“Just pull me in, Andrew.”

“I don’t think so.” I see the wicked gleam in
his eye, and I know I’m gonna die. There is no way I’m not. I can’t
hold myself up anymore. My arms feel like lead, and hurt from being
pulled. My eyes burn, and I know I have some water burns. My only
prayer is to be eaten by a gator at this point. At least a gator
will bite, pull me under, and drown me, ending my life quickly. But
the boat never moves. I started to sink when I hear my name being
called.

“I’ll kill her,” I hear Andrew yell, but I
don’t have a clue why he is telling me what I already know.

“Zoey, I need you to listen to me.” I’m
trying to stay above the water, but I’m going under, my weight has
finally done me in. “Damn it, Zoey, stay up, we’re coming.” I hear
voices, Wolf and Hawk are yelling. I hear shots, guns going off,
I’m kicking my legs hard. But the harder I kick the more I slip
under. My chest hurts from swallowing so much water.

I’m moving again, but not being dragged by
the boat, I’m being pulled, slowly, then it stops. My eyes burn,
but I see Andrew is in the water, swimming to me, and Wolf is too.
Hawk is shouting, yelling at both of them. Wolf drags Andrew under
the water; bubbles erupt in a large mass. My arms jerk again, but
all I see his green moss while I get brought back to the surface
again, and then my hands are cut free.

“I gottcha—” but his words get cut off as he
goes under the water again. But my arms are free from the other
rope, and I have a sudden surge of adrenaline, I start kicking,
making my way to the shore. I can see there aren’t any gators on
that side, but Wolf never comes back, and Andrew is emerging,
yelling at me, swimming to me. I kick with everything left in me. I
can’t see Hawk or Wolf. But now that my hands are free, I have a
chance to get out of here. I make it to the shore, well a large
log. I start to pull myself up, my arms burn, I see Andrew, but
before I can start to run, something hits my side. Crying out,
something hits my thigh. My pants have fallen off when Andrew
dragged me. The gravity wouldn’t keep them on. I can’t see what it
is. Too small to be a gator, and Andrew is too far away for it to
be him. My leg starts to burn more than before.

Shots ring out, over and over again. I make
my way to dry land, only to find I can’t stand and my body starts
to tremble. Looking down to see what’s wrong, I can’t. I’m covered
in mud and swamp weed. I hear my name being called over and over
again and I’m floating once again. I try, I really don’t comprehend
what’s going on around me, and the world spins into a deep
darkness.

Hawk

We got the information about Andrews’s
location by using his family. It’s amazing when you threaten to
press charges against anyone who helps him, oh and having Gunner
and Snake milking their connections it’s funny how fast people give
you what you need. On the boat ride, my blood ran hot seeing Zoey
in the water. We shout, and fired. Wolf dove in to get Zoey, while
I tried to kill Andrew. There was no way I would ever let him live
after this. But the fucker jumped in the water after Zoey too. Wolf
and Andrew fought and I yelled for her to swim, seeing her sink was
killing me, but I needed to stay to get Andrew away. When Wolf went
under all thoughts stopped. Pulling my gun out, I shot at Andrew
over and over again after seeing that Zoey was swimming to the
embankment. I watched as the muddy swamp water started to turn red
and he went under. But what I couldn’t account for was Zoey crying
out. There were no gators right there, and one was making its way
to Andrews’s now floating body. Wolf appeared above the water
several feet away, almost on Zoey. I steer the boat to them. Wolf
is holding her, but she isn’t responding.

“Shit, something’s wrong. I can’t see what it
is. The mud is covering her,” Wolf is sputtering, while helping me
lift her into the boat before he jumps in as well.

“Get us out of here,” I yell while grabbing
bottles of water and start throwing it on her body. Her body
temperature was lowering, but unless I find why she is shaking, I
can’t help her. While I pour the water on her right thigh I see two
puncture marks. Fuck, a snakebite. Looking around, I can pretty
much guess the type of snake. Wolf is speeding down the river as
fast as he can.

“Cottonmouth. She got bit. We need to get her
to the hospital, now!” I yell. Wolf doesn’t say anything. I find a
blanket in one of the cubbyholes and cover her. I pull out my phone
and tell Gunner to get the hospital prepped for anti-venom. I don’t
know how much got in her, but judging by the redness, the snake
struck out and hung on for a while.

We make it to the dock closest to the
location and see an ambulance already waiting. They help me pull
Zoey out of the boat and onto the stretcher. I jump in the back as
Wolf is already in the truck with Gunner and Snake flying to the
hospital.

“How long has she been under?” The paramedics
start asking question upon question, cutting the remains of her
clothes off, inserting warm IVs in her while speeding through the
streets. I do my best to answer while I look at her. Her skin is so
pale it’s almost translucent. Her breathing has become shallow
despite her fast heart rate from the venom. We almost make it to
the hospital when she starts shaking uncontrollably.

“Shit she’s seizing. Step on it.”

I watch in horror as she doesn’t stop and he
pushes something into her IV and the shaking stops. The ambulance
stops suddenly and the doors open. I can’t even process as they
grab the stretcher, running with her into the emergency room. My
feet start working, but the nurse stops me while I try to make into
the room they took her.

“We need to work. We will come get you when
the doctor has her stable.” She points to a small area for me to
wait. I see Shay there already. She runs into my arms and starts to
cry. Cry, is that what I need to do? I don’t know what to do. I was
worried when she was taken at the apartment, but now, I’m fucking
scared. I might lose her. Both Wolf and I could lose her forever.
For the first time in my entire life, I don’t know what the hell to
do.