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Patti held back the urge to point out that if Brandon hadn’t immorally gained access to her email, he’d have never known about the trade in the first place.
“At first,” Brandon continued, “I tried to reduce the value of the ranch subtly. I released coyotes onto the land. Sabotaged some of the fences. But when Takis refused to sell, I knew that I had to get serious.”
Patti’s head was reeling. Coyotes on the land? Broken fences? That stuff had happened ages ago. Brandon had been working on this for a long time.
Brandon paused for a moment, holding Patti’s gaze. “Benjamin, the foreman, was my inside man,” he said, his voice low and menacing. “I bribed him to spread cryptosporidium in the animals’ feed, over-supplement with selenium, and... set the fire.”
Benjamin? The foreman? Patti’s felt the betrayal like a knife in the back. Takis would be furious. Trent would be devastated. She could barely believe it.
“Benjamin,” she said, her voice trailing off.
“So you see,” Brandon continued, a malicious grin playing across his lips, “you don’t need to blame yourself. It’s all down to me. It’s always been me.”
Patti’s stomach churned with disgust, but she forced herself to smile sweetly. “Pretty impressive,” she said, the words catching in her throat.
“Not as impressive as what I’ve got down my pants for you, Patti,” he leered, reaching out to touch her. “Come on, sweetheart. You owe me.”
She edged back. She couldn’t take this anymore. Couldn’t keep the act up. “Don’t you dare touch me, slimeball,” Patti snapped, her smile giving way to a look of pure disdain.
Brandon recoiled, surprise flashing across his face. “Slimeball?” Brandon said. “Watch your mouth.”
Patti shook her head, slowly. “Oh, Brandon. Don’t you think you should be watching yours? Although, it’s a little late for that.”
Brandon’s eyes widened, and his face turned crimson with rage. “What are you talking about?” he snarled, his voice barely more than a whisper.
Patti shook her head, a sly smile curling the corners of her lips. “You really think I’d only bring two recording devices with me?” Her heart pounded in her chest, but she refused to let her fear show.
“What?” the word was sharp and strong.
“Have youseenwhat a modern bug looks like? People don’t wear wires anymore, Brandon. Not unless they purposefully want them to be found.“ Somehow, Patti managed to keep her voice steady. “And modern bugs... they’re perfectly capable of transmitting audio in real-time to the local police force.”
The room seemed to shrink as Brandon’s fury filled the space.
“You... you fucking bitch!” He reached into the pocket of his jacket, and to Patti’s horror, he pulled out a gun.
Her breath caught in her throat. “Br-Brandon. You don’t need to—“
“Shut the fuck up.” He cocked the gun, and Patti let out a small yelp of fear.
Why had she turned down Takis’ offer of backup? Why was she here, alone, with a psychopath who’d clearly been trying to ruin her life for years? She was going to die. “Please,” she said, her voice small, quiet. To think that she might die without ever seeing Trent again. Thoughts of him filled her mind. Damn. She loved him so fiercely. She wanted him to be the last thing she ever thought of.
“You think you can do this to me? After what you’ve already done? I’m gonna fucking kill you. I—“
But before he could finish the sentence, there was a click from behind her. She saw Brandon’s eyes widen.
“Who the fuck are you?”
“I’m the fucker who’s gonna shoot you if you so much as move a muscle.”
It was Trent.
*
It was Patti.
And she was safe.
He looked at his poor, terrified Little girl as she sat in front of the odious man whose voice he’d been listening to for the past few minutes.
