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Gurgling blood, Aubrey clutched her throat.
Charlie reeled back in horror, but Eklund’s tight hold on her didn’t let her take more than two steps.
“What the...” The lawyer stumbled away from the firepit.
Seth shoved Aubrey backward, over the top rail into the pen.
The pigs surged, swarming all over the body, in a snarling, squealing frenzy.
Disgust and rage rolled through Charlie.
“Have you lost your mind?” the lawyer screamed. “You murdered her. This is crazy!”
“Shut up, Alcock.” Seth pointed the switchblade at him. “I’m working. Trying to clean up this mess.”
“I didn’t sign on for this!” Alcock started hyperventilating. “You’ve made me an accessory!”
“Now your hands are just as dirty as ours,” Eklund said, sneering. “Covered in blood.”
Alcock swore. “You dragged me here to set me up?”
“Be quiet,” Seth ordered.
The men stopped arguing. The sound of jostling, grunting and squeals drew everyone’s attention to the swine in the pen.
“Did you know pigs are opportunistic omnivores?” Seth asked, now stalking toward her. “They’ll eat almost anything they can chew. Even bone.”
Charlie’s stomach heaved. She thought she might puke.
Stepping in front of her, he obscured the light of the fire. He was a big guy. Broad-shouldered and muscular. A dark nightmare. “I have my brother keep them a little hungry. For times such as these, when I need them for disposal. Even with twenty-six of them, it’ll take hours for them to finish. They haven’t eaten this good since I fed them Teddy.”
Oh, God.Teddy really was dead. Not missing. Haley had been telling the truth.
Alcock put a hand over his mouth like he was going to be sick.
Still holding the bloody knife, Seth gripped her chin, and she flinched. “There’s no way out of this for you Charlotte.”
Hearing her full name that no one ever used sent a fresh jolt of fear through her.
“You’re as good as dead,” Seth said, and a knot swelled in her chest, tightening through her rib cage. “Buthowyou go is up to you. I can strip you naked. Cut your Achilles tendons and toss you in the pen with your hands bound. That’ll be agonizingly slow. Excruciating. But fun to watch.”
Her skin turned to ice.
“I wouldn’t wish that on anybody. Or...” He paused as a smile stretched across his ugly mouth. “It can be quick and painless.” Releasing her chin, he put the knife away. He pulled a pack of cigarettes from his cargo pants. Tapped one out. Lit the cigarette from the fire in the stone pit. All while the pigs did their ghoulish work, the sound of crunching bone piercing the night. “Your choice,” he said, his tone taunting as he prowled back over.
Pulse pounding at her temples, her head aching, she wished her hands were free and this was a one-on-one fight.
Seth sucked in a deep drag on his cigarette. Held her gaze. Exhaled through his mouth, blowing a cloud of smoke in her face.
She’d held her breath but coughed, nonetheless.
“All you have to do is tell me where I can find Haley,” he said, like a used-car salesman trying to make a deal that only benefited himself.
Seth reached for her and ripped the duct tape from her lips.
Fire bloomed across her mouth. She sucked in a breath. Gasped from the lingering smoke in the air.
He bent closer, reeking of gin and sweat that almost made her gag as her stomach clenched. “So, what do you say?”
