Page 101 of Nixon’s Promise

“Yeah. I’m just gonna go see if she needs help. You stay here with Mandy. And call Duke, I don’t want him following me.”

The dog chasing him would slow him down. The damn animal liked to run beside anytime he rode.

“Sure.” The skepticism in Zack’s voice couldn’t be missed, but Nixon didn’t have time to reassure the boy.

“Hold on.” That was the only warning Nix gave before he shot out of the yard like the hounds of hell were nipping at his heels.

Uncaring he was trampling the seedings, Nix cut through the field Mr. Adams had planted. The closer they got to McKenna’s, the tighter his gut got.

They pulled into McKenna’s yard and the first thing he noticed was that the porch door was askew.

“Fuck!” He swung his leg clear over the handle bars and sprinted to the broken door.

The kitchen door was wide open, giving Nixon an unobscured view of the overturned chairs.

“Fuck!” he roared, not needing to go any farther into the house. He knew.

His worst fear had come to fruition.

McKenna was gone.

39

“I told you, you were fucked,” Sheriff Dillinger seethed and once again pain exploded and radiated from the side of my face, moving swiftly to my neck as it snapped back from the force of his blow.

All I could do was whimper. I’d fought hard back at my house but I was no match for the overweight man. His protruding belly hadn’t slowed him down—if anything, his size had helped him gain the upper hand. That, and shock.

When he came through the door, I hadn’t expected him to hit me. Once the surprise of the first punch had worn off, I’d gone on the attack. But when he slammed my face into my refrigerator, then tossed me into the dining room table like I was nothing more than a rag doll, I was defenseless.

My head ached and my vision blurred, and when he’d picked up one of the chairs and viciously slammed it down on my prone body, I’d lost consciousness.

When I woke up, I was in the back of Dick’s SUV and he was using my foot to yank me out. I hadn’t regained enough awareness to put up a struggle when his fist slammed into my face again and everything went dark.

Now I was being dragged through the woods by my hair. I was stumbling, not able to see out of one eye that was mostly swollen shut, and I still couldn’t get my bearings. Each time I’d start to come back to myself, he’d land another punch and my head would swim.

I had to find a way to defend myself before it was too late. If it wasn’t already. I had no idea where we were or where he was taking me, but the mere fact we were walking deep into the woods was not a good sign.

He stopped in front of a dilapidated shack, if you could call it that. It looked more like a fort a kid would make, if the kid had some sort of building skills. Dick swung the door open and before I could react, it slammed into my already injured shoulder.

There was no time to recover before I was shoved through the opening and landed hard on my hands and knees.

“Get the fuck up.” The kick to my stomach punctuated Dick’s demand.

With the wind knocked out of me, I rolled to the side, doing the best I could to cover my face. I couldn’t take anymore blows to my head. I had to stay awake and alert and be ready to fight when the opportunity presented itself.

He couldn’t keep up the level of beatings for very much longer. His breathing was labored from anger and exertion. Dick had done most of the work as we’d trudged through the thick brush of the woods. He had to be getting tired.

I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing. If he decided he’d had enough playing with me before I either had the strength to fight or Nixon found me, I’d be more fucked than I already was.

“I’m finally gonna lock that asshole in a cage where he belongs.” Dick stood over my body and cold fear washed over me. “I’ve been waiting years to take him down. It’s almost too easy. The Navy SEAL who came home from war and snapped. Killing his poor little girlfriend.”

“That’s not going to work,” I croaked. “No one will believe he did this to me.”

“Everyone will believe it. Hell, half the people in this town expect him to go off the rails. They’re waiting for it. He was a hothead in high school with a short fuse. They’ll eat this shit up, war hero with PTSD, just another sad sap who succumbed to his violent tendencies. And you being found in the famous Swagger Fuck Shack, icing on the already easy day.”

Swagger Fuck Shack?

I glanced around the room with my one good eye. There was a table that’d seen better days, two chairs that matched in that department, and two sleeping bags that were covered in dust and debris rolled up in the corner.