Before I could turn away from her, she was pulling my arm in the direction I’d told her to go in. “You can’t leave me on my own, I might get lost or something. And what if someone finds me? I’m sure I heard footsteps walking past me earlier…”
Tearing my arm out of her grasp and catching her arm instead, I pulled her around to face me. “I’m going to ask you one last time – what are you doing here?”
Nervously licking her lips as her eyes darted around, she stammered, “I wanted to go for a walk, and it’s so dark that I… I…”
“You live a long way from here,” I snapped, calling her out on her bullshit. “And this is private property, so you’re trespassing. Now tell me what the fuck’s going on.”
I heard the footsteps behind me just before I felt the hand clamp down on my shoulders.
“There're noises in the trees over there, man,” Jackson whispered in my ear, and I watched Kari’s eyes widen when she saw him. “Tate’s coming up on our left, he’ll watch this one, we head that way. You with me?”
Not answering, I kept my eyes on her until Tate appeared. “Don’t let her out of your sight, man. She’s up to something.”
“She’s involved,” Jackson told me, saying out loud what I was already thinking. I wasn’t sure how he knew for sure, but her being here was no fucking coincidence.
Not sparing her another glance, I turned and started jogging through the trees behind Elijah. We’d been moving for five minutes when I heard it – the sounds of something being dragged and a deep voice mumbling.
“Could’ve had it all, but she had to fuck it all up,” the voice I recognized as Retter’s said, sounding out of it. “Wake up, bitch.”
There was a sharp smack and then a low cry followed it. Not thinking, I pushed past my cousin to get to where they were and stop him from hurting her again. Grabbing my arm, he yanked me back and covered his lips with his finger as he shook his head at me and motioned for me to follow him.
Squatting down as low as we could, we used the trees to get to a small bush near where they were, and peeked over the top of it. I’d thought I was struggling before, but the sight in front of me tipped me over the edge.
Lottie was on the floor in a crumpled heap wearing just her jeans and a white t-shirt which was covered in dirt, mud, and blood. Her arms were around her head as she protected the rest of her body with her knees, but there was little strength in her position. A normal person doing that would have their legs tightly up against their stomachs, but hers looked like they were only staying there because she couldn’t move them.
“On three,” Elijah muttered, pulling his gun out.
Doing the same thing, I braced to move, when another tall figure beat us to it, and grabbed Retter by the neck with one hand then punched him in the stomach with the other.
“Enjoy hurting women, do you?” my cousin Wesley growled, punching him again and dropping him to the floor.
Skidding to my knees beside Lottie, I picked up one of her hands, freaking out when there was no resistance at all.
“Lottie, it’s Levi. I’ve got you, baby.”
Jackson jogged up beside me and picked up her other hand, taking her pulse with a frown on his face. “It’s weak. Elijah, can you check her over and make sure she’s safe to move?”
Dropping to his knees beside me, Elijah started doing his job, all of us ignoring the scuffles going on behind us. “I’m worried about her neck and head, there’s no knowing if he dropped her on it. But she needs medical attention ASAP so we’re going to have to risk it. Noah’s gone to get one of the vehicles and when he gets back, we’ll move her. Jackson, support her head and neck.”
“Not so fast,” a female voice ordered, and we all turned as a woman I didn’t recognize walked out of the darkness with a gun pointed at us. “Hands in the air, gentlemen.”
Turning to glare at his brother, Elijah snapped, “Really? All of those years you’ve bragged about nothing getting past you and having the reflexes of a cat, and that,” he gestured with his thumb over his shoulder, “you didn’t see?”
Not looking bothered or moving his hands from where he was supporting Lottie’s head, Jackson shook his head. “I saw it.”
Wesley stopped hitting Retter as soon as he heard her voice but didn’t put his hands in the air either. He did, however, put them on his hips as he watched her walk closer to us.
“I said, put your hands in the air.”