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Red Dog’s hand on his shoulder tightened. “You know all that garbage coming out of his mouth was bullshit, right?”
Cole looked back at him, but couldn’t bring himself to agree. His eyes dropped back down to Taz’s lifeless body, and he ordered, “Tonight, bring some guys back and bury his body where no one will find it.”
Green and Dog both nodded wordlessly.
“And bring me his cut.”
“You got it, brother. He got off too easy.”
“I’d have strung him up from that fucking tree and tortured him all night, but I don’t have time to waste another minute on this piece of garbage. We need to get to the hospital.”
Cole turned and headed back to the campsite and Crystal. She stood with her arms wrapped around herself, her body trembling. He figured shock was starting to set in. He took her in his arms, holding her tight, his hands rubbing up and down her back. “He?
??s dead, sweetheart.”
“I heard so many shots. Are you all okay?”
“That was all me.”
“Oh.”
Cole glanced around the campsite. “What did you and Wolf touch? I need to know everything you put your hands on. We can’t leave any traces of either of you being here.”
“But all that blood. Wolf’s DNA…”
“We’ll bury the blood soaked dirt. What else?”
She pulled the gun from her waistband, and Cole took it from her, shoving it in his own waistband. “What else?”
She glanced around. “The keys, the van, the knife—it’s still in the van, I think. Umm.” Her eyes fell on the whiskey bottle, its glass shining in the dying embers of the fire.
“The bottle.” She pointed and Cole’s eyes followed, seeing it lying on its side in the grass.
He pushed away from her and moved, bending to pick it up. “What else?”
She pointed to another tree at the other side of the fire. “The chain.”
That got Cole frowning, his eyes searching the ground. They fell on the thick chain and padlock. Jesus Christ. “He used that on you?”
She nodded. “It was around my ankle.”
Cole’s jaw clenched, wishing again he had the time to string Taz up and make him pay for all this shit as he moved to gather up the chain in jerking movements he was sure revealed his anger. He paused, turning toward Crystal, his shoulders slumping under the weight of what had happened here. “How the hell did you both get free? I mean, Christ, Wolf’s strung up to that tree, you’re chained to this one…”
Crystal hugged herself. “Wolf talked me through it. I was getting hysterical. Taz got a call on his cell and walked off to take it. That gave us a few minutes to talk. Wolf calmed me down. Got me focused. Told me what to do.”
“And what was that?”
“He told me I had to use the only weapon I had. Sex.”
“Shit.”
Crystal shrugged. “I did what I had to.”
“Darlin’.” Cole didn’t know what to say.
“I gave him a blowjob, when his guard was down, I pulled him off balance and to the ground. And then I hit him with the bottle. Got the keys and freed myself. Wolf wanted me to run, to leave him and save myself. But I couldn’t do that. I would never have left him.”
She said the words loudly, as if she needed to convince him. Cole reassured her that wasn’t necessary. “Crystal, I know you’d never leave him.”
