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“I love you, Fox. If something happens to me, you love our little girl with every single thing that you have inside of you, and you tell her how much I loved her too. Every day.” And then I ended the call.
Heaven fucking help me, I had to get there in time to end this all before it was too late.
Chapter 36 – Delilah
Present
IpulleddownmyAunt’s long driveway to her private ranch as fear and dread tried to consume me. What would I find now that I arrived? What if he had killed them? Or tortured them?
How would they ever heal and forgive me?
I parked outside of the main barn and looked around, but the place seemed deserted, there were no workers or animals milling about. I slid the gun into the waistband of my pants with shaking hands and got out.
“Delilah.” Taz called out and I whipped my head towards the horse barn and saw his greasy face sticking out of the barn door. “Get in here.”
I shouldered my heavy purse and followed his commands. As soon as I was close, he grabbed my arm and yanked me into the barn before slamming the door shut behind us and bolting it. “Where are they?” I hissed.
“Shut up.” He shoved me forward and pushed me further into the barn, with a long, scary-looking knife in his hand. The metal of the blade flashed in the overhead light and crimson blood stained the sharp edge.
“Penelope!” I yelled, “Maddie?”
“I said shut up!” He pushed me again, holding the knife up towards my face as I turned around to fight him. “Let’s just get to the point here and then I’ll be on my way, eh?” He shoved me again and I walked through the stalls as curious horses stuck their heads out to see what the commotion was.
When we got to the end of the barn, the largest stall door was open and I gasped when I saw Maddie and Suzie curled up in the corner with their hands and feet tied together and gags in their mouths.
Maddie’s face was bleeding from a laceration on her forehead and her skin was pale. Her white shirt was crimson stained around her stomach. “Maddie!” I yelled and ran to her, sliding my hands over her face as she whimpered and cried into her gag. “I’m sorry.” I whispered, looking over at Suzie and finding her mostly unscathed, though anger burned from her eyes towards the man behind me. “Where’s P?” I asked but they both shook their heads and dread poured down my spine like ice water. I turned back to Taz. “Where is my daughter?”
He smirked at me and flicked the knife over the tip of his finger as he stood in the doorway to the stall. “You’ll find her when I’m good and gone.”
“No.” I snapped, standing up on my feet and facing him. “Tell me right now where she is.”
“You don’t get to make demands!” He screamed, his smirking face contorting with rage. “I’m in charge here, you fucking cunt! Now give me my money!”
I played this exchange in my head over and over again on my way here and I knew if I just gave it to him, it could go one of two ways. He’d either take it and run, or he’d go back on his word and kill us either way.
“Now, Delilah,” He barked, taking a step forward, “Pretty little sister there doesn’t have much longer with that gut wound I gave her.”
I whipped my head back towards her and noticed how her eyes were half-mast and clouded.
Fuck.
I took my purse off my shoulder and dumped the money out onto the stall floor. “Take it.” I snapped, “Just tell me where P is and take it and fucking go.”
His eyes rounded at the cash that was laid out on the floor and he eagerly fell to his knees and scooped it up, stuffing it into a bag he pulled out of his waistband while still holding the knife out like I was going to attack him. “This is going to set me up for quite a while, D.” He smiled with enthusiasm, and I cringed.
“Where’s Penelope?” I asked again, growing more agitated the longer she was missing while he had what he wanted. “Just tell me where she is, Taz.”
He stood up and hoisted the bag over his shoulder and smiled at me. I could read through that smile instantly.
He lied.
“I think I’m going to take the little girl with me for a while, make sure that no one ambushes me on the way out of here or follows me.”
“No!” I roared, and took a step forward as he took one backwards. “That wasn’t the deal, Taz."
"You’re not in the position to give demands, D.” He sneered again and then made a break for it, running out of the stall and slamming the door shut behind him and locking it. I threw myself against the door seconds after he slid it shut and tried desperately to reach the bolt through the bars. “Ha!” He laughed in my face and then ran from the barn.
Maddie and Suzie screamed through their gags as I struggled to reach the lock, finally giving up on it and jumping up to climb over the bars. My side screamed in pain as I scaled the tall wall but I didn’t stop. I had to get out and get him, he couldn’t take my baby. He made it out the main door as I cleared the top of the stall and threw myself over, landing in a heap on the ground and taking a second to throw the lock open on the stall door as Aunt Suzie nodded to me, crawling across the floor.
