Stranded with My Stepbrother Chapter 30: Ground Rules

-Caleb-

I didn’t go find Stumpy, even though he was overdue for a punch in the face. I went to find Girard instead.

The men had all trundled into the cook tent and were loudly calling to Stumpy for grub. When Stumpy, standing behind the camp range, saw me enter the tent, he was suitably shaken. I guess I must have looked pretty foreboding.

Good.

I walked straight over to Girard and plunked down on the bench across from him, forcing two people to move to make space for me.

“Something on your mind, son?” Girard asked.

“Stumpy does not get to play grab-ass with my girl. None of you do. I swear, I will drown us both if it happens again. I’m not going to let her get gang-raped,” I hissed.

Girard raised an eyebrow. “How did we go from Stumpy grabbing a handful to gang rape?”

“I’m telling you before we get there. I don’t want there to be any ideas. None,” I said firmly.

“It’s hard to punish a man for his thoughts,” Girard shrugged.

“How about for his actions?” I snapped.

Girard shrugged again. “He’s in his eighties. How much action do you think he’s going to get?”

I slammed my fist down on the plank wood table. “He doesn’t get to paw my girl.”

“Why not?” Girard asked.

I stared at him. “Excuse me?”

“Why not let him get a little while he’s still got some lead in his pencil?” Girard continued. “She’s a good-looking girl. Kind, understanding type. Think of it as charity.”

My mouth hung open. “You’re insane.”

“And you have no choice. You’re lucky I don’t bring her in here now and let all the men have her for dinner,” Girard sniffed.

Rage boiled up in me like I’d never felt before. Rage and desperation. “I’m not kidding. I will kill us both before I let you hurt her that way.”

“I know. That’s why I haven’t done anything like that. Yet. You keep being a good worker, and we won’t have any problems, will we?” Girard said.

By the end of this, my teeth weren’t going to have any enamel left. I ground them hard. “No. No problems.”

“Good. Now why don’t you get your girl out here so she doesn’t starve to death? Stumpy said she didn’t come out for lunch,” Girard told me.

“What’s the cost of lunch, then, a pussy grab?” I asked bitterly.

Girard sighed. “I tell you what. You play nice, and I’ll have a word with Stumpy.”

I regarded Girard for a long moment, then nodded. “I’ll go get Jacey.” I stood from the table and went back to the tent. “It’s me,” I said this time before unzipping the door. From the look on her face the last time I’d come in, I’d scared her half to death.

Jacey threw her arms around me, and I held her close for a moment, breathing in her hair. She flinched when I did it.

“What?” I asked.

“No, it’s not you it’s just… he smelled my hair when he wrapped me up in the towel,” Jacey replied looking down.

I tilted her chin up. My anger was a blazing fire threatening to get out of control, but that’s not what Jacey needed. She needed my reassurances. “Listen, Girard’s going to talk to Stumpy. None of that should be happening again.”

“Okay.” Jacey made a sound suspiciously like a sniffle, and I kissed her wet cheeks, thumbing the tears away.

I rocked Jacey for a while before informing her we had to go to dinner. “I’ll be with you the whole time,” I assured her.

“I know.” Jacey kissed me, then threaded her fingers through mine. “Okay. Let’s go.”

I went first, pulling Jacey out behind me. In the setting sunlight, I could see what the men would be ogling in a few short moments, and shrugged my outer shirt off to wrap around her.

Jacey pressed her forehead to my shoulder. “Thank you.”

“Anytime, love. Anytime.” I brought her to the cook tent.

The looks of disappointment told me either Girard or Stumpy or both had promised a flash of nice tits. I just gave them all a triumphant smirk and brought Jacey through the food line.

Stumpy was wise enough to take a step back when I passed.

“We won’t be having any more problems, will we?” I seethed at him.

“No, sir. No problems,” Stumpy said quickly.

Jacey’s back relaxed under my hand at those words. We took the only two side-by-side spaces left then started working on our hamburgers.

I could feel the stares of the men on us. Or, rather, on Jacey. I’d never considered myself to be the caveman type, but right now I wanted to beat every single one of them with a club.

“So, what do you do? Or what did you do before getting knocked up and coming here?” the logger to Jacey’s left asked.

“Uh…” Jacey swallowed a bite of burger. “I was going to college.”

“Bet baby put the kibosh on that plan,” the logger across from her sniggered.

Jacey blushed. “Uhhh.” She looked up at me.

“We’re figuring it out,” I said quickly. I didn’t want us to get caught in the lie.

“Yeah, because you’re leaving here someday, right?” someone else chuckled.

Jacey looked at me, then down at her food, then pushed it away. “I… Caleb, can we go back to the tent now?”

Wordlessly, I picked up her plate and mine. Jacey put her hand in my back pocket until I handed our plates over to Stumpy. Then I took her hand in mine and we went back to the tent.

“We’re never going to get out of here, are we?” Jacey whispered once the tent door was zipped shut.

I gripped Jacey by the arms. “Don’t talk like that. Of course we are. We wait. We watch. We listen. And eventually, we will get out. I promise.”

I released my grip on Jacey’s arms and sat down on the air mattress. Jacey curled into my lap.

“Is anyone even looking for us?” Jacey asked. “Do you think?”

“The Mounties will be. Hell, even Hank must be worried by now. We just have to get to the nearest bit of civilization and ask for help. That’s all,” I said.

Jacey sighed. “Oh, is that all?”

I sought Jacey’s lips and kissed her. “Baby, you’re my partner in this. We need to be strong and have hope. Okay?”

Jacey looked positively miserable. “I don’t think I can go another day with Stumpy. I don’t care what Girard said about fixing the problem.”

“Fair enough,” I murmured. I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to think of how we could possibly get out tonight. “I just… don’t think we have enough information yet to be able to get out of here successfully. I’m sorry, Jacey.”

“I would swim the lake if I had to. It was just so… awful,” Jacey whispered.

I thought of the 4-wheelers. “You’re sure you’d risk it? We might not make it out alive.”

Jacey put a hand over her belly. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “I-I… I just can’t do it again. I can’t.”

I nodded. “I’ll see what I can do.” I kissed Jacey’s forehead. “Wait here.”

My heart thudded in my ears as I stepped back out of the tent. I looked around carefully, trying to see where the keys to the 4-wheelers might be kept.

“Don’t do it,” Girard said from behind me.

I jumped.

“You’ll never get away, and we will shoot you,” Girard continued. He was tossing a ring of keys in his hand, taunting me.

Rage boiled up inside me. “You can’t keep us here.”

“I can, and I will,” Girard said flatly.

I rounded on him, my hands balled into fists, prepared to punch the bastard in the face and run. “Look, you sonofa-”

There was a shriek from inside the tent.

I turned and ripped the door off the zipper, expecting to see someone had snuck in the other side.

It was worse. Much worse.

Jacey was shaking, her hands bloody. There was blood soaking up the pants they’d given her, inside her thighs and up the middle.

“I’m bleeding!” she gasped.

“Fuck,” Girard muttered.

I dove into the tent. “Where are you hurt?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Down there,” Jacey whispered. “I-I… it’s too soon for my period and this isn’t…”

“This isn’t period blood.” I stuck my head out of the tent. “I… I think…” Realization dawned. “I think she may be losing…” God, had she really been pregnant?! “... the baby…”

Girard raised an eyebrow. “And that’s a problem because…?”

“For FUCK’S sake, man, she’s bleeding out!” I yelled.

Girard sighed. “Get her out of the tent. We need to take her to a doctor. Now,” Girard barked.

For once, I didn’t argue with him. I got out of the tent then gently lifted Jacey into my arms.

Girard pulled out a cell phone and called for a seaplane.

“Two hours,” he grunted, disconnecting the call.

Two hours? I watched as Jacey’s color became ashen.

“Two hours may be too late.” Jacey read the truth on my face.

“Tough,” Girard said. “That’s the best I can do.”

“I swear, if it takes me the rest of my life, I am going to kill you,” I spat at Girard.

Girard shrugged. “Take a number.”

It was actually Stumpy who got Jacey settled on a stretcher this time not touching her inappropriately at all. He didn’t even have a lascivious comment.

I still wanted to kill him, too.

“Son, you’re an in the moment kind of guy. You’ll do what needs to be done. But you’re not a cold-hearted killer,” Girard said as though reading my mind.

“We’ll find out, won’t we?” I muttered.

Girard snorted. “Yeah, I suppose we will.”

I held Jacey’s hand, helpless to do anything else. I threaded my fingers through hers while she moaned in fear.

The seaplane arrived two-and-a-half hours later. I’d been gritting my teeth for the extra half hour, wondering where the hell it was.

“Sorry,” the pilot said when we brought Jacey on the stretcher to the seaplane. “Technical difficulties, but it’s all fixed n–shit, that doesn’t look good.”

“No shit,” Girard snapped. “We need to get her to a hospital now.”

The pilot began flicking buttons and warming up the engine.

I started to get into the plane, but Girard pulled me out. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asked.

“To the hospital with Jacey,” I said between my teeth.

“No can do. If I let you go, there’s no reason for you two not to go wandering off ag-” Girard began.

I punched him, then reached behind him and grabbed his gun. “All right, Girard. You can tell me right now. Do you think I can shoot you?” I hissed, pointing the gun at his chest.

Girard stared at me, holding his nose, which was now dripping blood. “You’re going to regret this, son.”

“Not before you do. And I’m not your son,” I ground out.

The pilot looked from me, to Girard, to the gun, and back again. “Um…”

“Take them to a hospital,” Girard growled, even as other loggers were pulling out their guns. “Stand down, guys, I’m pretty sure the kid’s prepared to do it.”

Guns were holstered and I kept Girard’s gun pointed at him even while I crawled into the seaplane. Then I put it to the pilot’s head. “Get us to a hospital,” I ordered.

The pilot didn’t need to be asked twice. He taxied away from the dock and took off.

Jacey whimpered and held her stomach as we pulled up into the air. I kept the gun trained on the pilot, not daring to look back and be distracted.

“You know, Girard’s not a bad guy…” the pilot tried to tell me.

“The love of my life is fucking bleeding out right now.” And might be dying, I didn’t add. “He’s never going to get a gold star in my book.”

“No, I kind of figured not. But if you could see your way to not shooting me…” the pilot gulped.

I scowled at him. “You see your way to landing us at a hospital or somewhere nearby, and I’ll consider it.”

The pilot nodded. He grabbed his receiver and talked to someone in French.

“What’s that all about?” I asked.

“Just letting them know we’re coming,” the pilot said.

We landed on an airstrip that seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. I opened my mouth to protest, but the pilot quickly interrupted me. “I sent for some guys to come pick you up and take you to the hospital. I can’t land just anywhere, you know.”

I saw SUVs pulling up to the airstrip and decided to let it go.

When the plane stopped and the door opened, I saw a Mountie with a gun pointed right at me.

“Drop it,” he said.