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I lowered my flashlight and stomped toward the place. How had they even gotten inside? And Jesus, I knew Ruth was adventurous, but coming out here in the middle of nowhere to fuck Buck of all guys? I wasn’t usually judgmental when it came to my coworkers, but Buck was by far the weakest link at the farm, happy to slack off work whenever he could. And the way he spoke about women… well, yeah, I was surprised Ruth would dally with him no matter how pissed I’d made her.
Brambles pulled at my slacks and I barely dodged a large cactus as I made my way toward the structure. Getting closer didn’t help me figure out what it was meant to be used for any better.
But I did see a door, cracked a little, and I could see light pouring out from within.
They were in there.
I swallowed hard.
A bigger man would have turned around right there and gotten back in his truck. But I wasn’t a bigger man. I needed to see for myself, even though the image would torture me.
So I pushed open the door.
And realized that yet again, I’d been a complete fucking idiot who had completely underestimated the situation I was in.
Because as I opened the door to the most fucking horrific scene of Ruth struggling uselessly, duct-taped to a chair, the Winstons unconscious or worse on the ground, the unmistakable feeling of a gun barrel pressed to the back of my neck.
“Step inside and don’t make a single fucking noise,” Buck’s voice came so close I could smell his alcohol-soured breath from behind me. In fact, the fucker smelled so bad, he must have intentionally been standing downwind. These Texas boys grew up hunting and tracking. How long had he been stalking me? Ever since I got out of my truck, stomping around and flashing my presence like the big dumb bastard that I was.
“Okay,” I said, lifting my hands up in the air. “Not sure what I’m walking into here, Buck, but I’m sure we can work something out.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Buck said, digging the barrel of the gun more painfully into the back of my neck until I took a step forward into the small hut. Which looked uncannily like something out of Dexter’s wet dreams, apart from the fact that it was missing plastic spread out everywhere. But I couldn’t tell if the two elderly folks on the ground were even breathing. I wasn’t a fan of Charlie’s mom and dad or anything, but I hadn’t wanted them dead.
“Ruth?” I asked. “You okay?”
She just looked at me with wide eyes like, are you kidding? Fair point.
“On your knees!” Buck shouted from behind me.
I stayed standing, not moving an inch. “So you can execute me? I don’t think so. Let’s just take a second and talk this thru. Is it money you’re looking for? Cause I’m worth a lot more than Ruth here. In fact, if you let her go and keep me, this would all be a lot more easy to handle. One hostage instead of three, it’ll be a breeze. And Xavier, my employer, is wealthy. He’s like a father to me and he’ll pay if you just—”
And then I turned and tried to yank the gun out of his hands. I was taller and larger than Buck, and physically superior. But the bastard must have been on his guard. He pulled the trigger and even though I was able to yank the gun up so the shot landed in the ceiling instead of my forehead, all my focus was on the gun.
I didn’t even see him pull out the needle until he’d shoved the shot into my thigh and depressed the plunger, right as I knocked the gun out of his hands.
I started to scramble after it, but only made it one single step before crumpling to my knees.
Ruth’s muffled screams against the duct-tape at her mouth were the last thing I heard before the world went dark.
19
Ruth
I couldn’t believe this was happening. It was already so horrible, being caught and manhandled by Buck of all people, him babbling at me the whole time between taking swigs from a seemingly endless supply of beer bottles from a cooler he kept in the foot of the passenger side footwell of his truck—babbling about how I’d ruined his life.
His driving had been terrible and I had the slimmest hope that a cop would pull us over for reckless driving. But he was taking backroads, not the highway. I’d felt another hope rise when I heard the sound of another truck and the rustle of someone outside.
But Buck had just put his finger to his lips, grinned maniacally at me, and then slipped out of the cabin.
The next thing I knew, Jeremiah—Jeremiah, of all people! How had he found me? What was he doing here?—had somehow appeared at the door. I’d tried to scream and warn him but it was too late.
