Jess crouched low. That fucking Greg was a tough bastard, she had to give him that. She hadn’t even made it to the damn road before he burst out of the house, bellowing for her like a bull. She wished she had thought to search Karen for her keys, but she was in such a panic to get out of the house the thought hadn’t even occurred to her until it was too late. By then Greg had stumbled out of the house. He wasn’t moving well, but he had something she lacked: wheels. There was no way to outrun him to the mini-mart.

 

She had changed her plans and doubled back, running across the field and plunging into the woods for cover, but being a city girl, it hadn’t taken her long to become turned around and lost. She knew the woods weren’t that big, and if she were to just walk, she would probably pop out somewhere. Then she could try to make her way to someplace for help.

 

So she had gone to ground, waiting on nightfall to reduce her chances of being spotted. Sitting on a log, she had gone through the shakes and the tears once the immediate danger had passed, and she was fine now. Well, as fine as she could be while being lost in the woods with a man looking for her as he bellowed that when he found her, he was going to fuck her, kill her, then fuck her again.

 

When Greg began to get close, she would slip away in another direction. It was relatively easy to avoid one man, but now there were a lot of men looking for her, and they were closing the noose on her. She looked at the sky through the trees. Evening was on the way, and she crossed her fingers that darkness would find her before Val and his men did.

 

***

 

Scott and his men fanned out, heading into the woods. They had heard occasional shouted voices among the trees and assumed it was Val and his men looking for Jess. He knew the chances of finding her were small, but he would settle for picking off Val’s men, one by one, to reduce the chances of them finding her, as well. The voices were pretty deep into the woods and appeared to be in a line. Val’s men didn’t talk often, but they did speak enough for Scott and his men to keep tabs on them.

 

***

 

Jess picked up the sound of movement. It was faint, but distinct. With a pout she stood and crouched as she began to move away from the noise. Val was driving her. She knew that now, herding her to where he wanted her to go. As she stepped, watching where she placed her feet to keep the noise as low as possible, she tried to think of a way out, but nothing she thought of seemed likely to work.

 

She was exhausted. The fight with Karen a few hours earlier, along with the lack of food or water since yesterday sometime, combined with stress, was taking its toll on her. She knew she wasn’t in danger of passing out or anything as drastic as that, but she was beginning to get a headache and she worried that her lack of focus would cause her to make a mistake.

 

When she could no longer hear movement behind her, she turned and began to move at a right angle to the direction she was traveling, trying to get around the end of the men searching for her. She was no woodsman, but it made sense to her that if she could get the men to pass her, she could slip away in the opposite direction. Where she would exit the woods, she hadn’t the slightest idea, but that was the least of her concerns at the moment.

 

“Over here! She’s running!” a voice to Scott’s left bellowed. The voice was loud enough to hear clearly, but still distant. His first instinct was to run toward the voice, noise be damned, but he forced himself to stop and think. He could blunder about in the woods and miss his quarry completely or…

 

Scott pulled his phone and typed furiously, sending out a group text, calling his men back. It was time to stop chasing Val, and let him come to them.

 

***

 

Jess was crashing through the woods, Greg hot on her heels. For such a big man, he could move with surprising stealth. He was almost on top of her before she heard him, and as she tried to creep away, he had spotted her.

 

“Over here! She’s running!” he bellowed as he gave chase. She turned, running around a thicket before bursting out onto an overgrown track. Without trees and branches to slow her down, she began to pound up the road. She had no idea where she was going but she didn’t care, so long as she wasn’t captured.

 

She screamed, as Val stepped out of the woods in front of her. She tried to stop, but slipped in the grass and fell, and he was on her before she could even regain her feet. He reached down and hauled her roughly to her feet by the arm. She fought, kicking and struggling but she might has well have been tangling with a bull.

 

“Stop it!” Val roared, wrapping her up in his bear like arms and holding her against his chest. Panting hard, Jess stopped struggling and Val put her down. “You have caused a lot of trouble, little girl.” She stared at him, not giving him the satisfaction of seeing her fear. “I tried to treat you right, and what do you do? You put my vice-president in the hospital; you break my stuff. So you want to be treated like every other club bitch? Well you’ve got it,” he snarled into her face. He turned to the panting Greg. “Round everyone else up and have them meet back at the house. We have some business to attend to.”

 

Greg nodded and put his two pinky fingers in his mouth and blew a loud shrill whistle before stomping back into the woods. “Back to the farm!” he bellowed as he moved into the woods.

 

“What are you going to do with me?” Jess demanded.

 

“What I should have done a long time ago,” Val sneered, giving her a push to start walking, but not turning loose of her arm.

 

***

 

Scott heard the whistle and the shouted command and his heart sank. That could only mean one thing. This was going to be their last chance to grab Jess back from Val. He quickened his pace, wanting to get to the farm ahead of Val’s men and get ready. He was going to save her, or die trying.

 

***

 

“Going somewhere?” Rick asked as he stepped out from behind a tree, his weapon pointed at Val’s head.

 

“You motherfucker,” Val growled. “I knew I couldn’t trust you.”

 

“Yeah, looks like you were right. You okay, Jess?” She nodded, unable to believe her change in fortune. “Let her go, Val.”

 

“Or what?”

 

“Or you’ll die in these woods.”

 

Val drew himself up to his full height. “You haven’t got the balls.”

 

Rick squeezed the trigger…and heard only a click. His eyes went wide in surprise as he quickly racked the gun and tried again with the same result.

 

“You stupid fuck. Did you really think I would let you walk around me with a loaded gun after the stunt you pulled? You fucked Lisa, then she fucked you,” Val sneered as he reached for his own gun.

 

Rick hit Val in a flying tackle, knocking all three of them to the ground. Jess scrambled away and bounded to her feet as the men struggled. With a roar, Val pinned Rick to the ground with his weight and threw a hard punch, the man dodging enough to deflect the bulk of the blow. With a heave, Rick threw Val off of him and tried to scramble to his feet. He was just turning to face Val when Val tackled him, the men going into the dirt again.

 

Jess watched in horror as Val leaned on Rick, his massive hand on his face. Rick twisted, and kicked, and finally managed to get Val off balance enough to throw a punch. The punch was weak and Val shook off the blow with ease. Rick threw another punch, hitting Val in the cheek, and that one must have hurt, because he was able to topple Val off of him. Now on top, Rick threw two hard punches, both solid hits before Val grabbed Rick’s head with both hands, and with a bellow of defiance, jerked him down, smashing into his face with his forehead.

 

Blood exploded from Rick’s nose, the blow stunning him. Val changed his grip and dug his thumbs into Rick’s eyes as he rolled him over. When Rick began to scream in pain, his hands on Val’s wrists, his feet flailing as Val pressed into his eyes, Jess knew her rescuer was defeated so she turned and began to run. When she heard the gunshot, she turned and saw her uncle standing over Rick, his weapon pointed at his body. As she watched his gun barked again, then he stood there a moment before returning his weapon to the holster and looked in her direction.

 

***

 

Scott jumped when he heard the two quick shots. He began to move from his cover, intent on killing every Angel he came across, but Ed took him by the arm and gently pulled him back with a shake of his head.

 

“Don’t go off half-cocked, boy. Wait and see how it plays out. There will be plenty of time for killing later.”

 

Scott stared at the grizzled man a moment then stepped back behind the pile of firewood with a nod.