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“No, my, ah, boss mailed it. It had been in my car for like a week and when he mentioned he needed to make a post office run for stamps and to mail a package, I asked if he could take my box, too, because I hadn’t mailed it yet, so yeah, I don’t have it.” The stranger glared in his general direction, and Wyatt’s gut clenched with terror. “But he went at lunchtime and the office closes at one, because it’s a small town, so maybe it hasn’t been sent out yet.”
Encouraging a guy with a gun to break into the post office. Real smart, Gibson, real smart.
“Who’d you address the box to?” the guy asked.
“Jared. He wanted it.” And now Wyatt knew why, even if he didn’t actually know anything. Only that something valuable was in it, and this guy with the gun really wanted it back if he’d paid two people to try to retrieve it, and then come himself. Wyatt hated knowing whatever his idiot best friend had gotten mixed up in had brought danger right to Ramie’s doorstep. She did not deserve this.
MaybeI do, though, after hurting everyone with my secrets.
The stranger raised the gun, and Wyatt momentarily forgot to breathe. All the stranger did was use the pinkie of that hand to scratch his cheek, and if he thought that was intimidating...he was half-right. “This is a wrinkle I did not expect. Getting it from Jared in two or three days is too complicated, because of you two. I can’t exactly leave you here to tell the police about me.”
“Then take me with you,” Wyatt said without thinking.
“What?” Ramie squawked.
“Take me with you,” he repeated, ignoring her for now. “We can go to the post office and break in, you know, see if the package is still there. And if not, take me with you back to Jared’s house. Ramie won’t say anything about this to the cops, because she knows I’ll be your hostage and you could hurt me or whatever. She’s really good at secrets.”
“You are not going with him.”
Wyatt met and held her angry gaze, trying to tell her without words that this was a good plan. It didn’t sound like this guy was going to kill them if he didn’t have to, so going with him back to Glasbury meant neither of them being shot if he didn’t get his property back from the post office. Her own eyes seemed to yell at him in a big-sisterly way that he needed to stop trying to be a hero. He’d lied and broken her trust; he needed to do this. To try to atone for his sins somehow.
Plus, Ramie had to be late coming back from her break by now, so maybe if he got this guy to leave her behind, someone from the Roost would come looking for her. She’d be okay no matter what.
“I think the man with the gun gets to make all the decisions here,” the stranger said. “You both look like trustworthy people, but I don’t trust no one no more, not after this shit Jared pulled with my stash. So what I’m gonna do is tie the little miss up and stash her in a bedroom. Then you and me, Wyatt? We’re gonna go get my package. We don’t get it from the post office? All three of us is going on a road trip.”
The menace in the stranger’s voice sent a fresh bolt of terror through Wyatt’s gut, and he resisted the urge to retch. He had to keep it together, be strong for Ramie, and get them out of this.
“No complaints? Good.” He stood. “Both of you, into the bedroom.”
“Which one?” Wyatt asked.
“Like I care. Go.”
He and Ramie stood at the same time. She reached out, and Wyatt took her hand, hating the faint tremble he felt from her. He squeezed tight, trying to show confidence he didn’t feel. They went to her room, the stranger behind them the entire way, and once inside he produced a roll of duct tape. Wyatt had never stepped foot inside Ramie’s room before, only peeked in from the hall.
The stranger told Ramie to sit on the bed by the headboard and get comfortable. Wyatt watched with ice in his stomach as he wrapped her wrists and ankles in the duct tape, then used more to tape her to the corner of the four-poster bed. She endured the whole thing with sharp fury in her eyes and flushed cheeks. He imagined she despised being so helpless in such a dangerous situation, but it got that gun out of her house.
All Wyatt could do now was pray they broke into the post office and found that fucking package. If not... Nah, not going there. One step at a time.
“Be careful,” Ramie said to him seconds before the stranger put a piece of tape over her mouth. The sight of her like that broke Wyatt’s heart, but she was safer here than with them.
Wyatt winked.
“Let’s go,” the stranger said. He closed the bedroom door behind them.
Wyatt walked slowly into the living room, back straight and shoulders squared, hoping to display more confidence than he felt. “So, uh, should I call you something other than Scary Guy with the Gun?”
The guy snorted. “How about John Smith? Now let’s go, you’re driving.”
Fabulous.
Chapter Twenty-One
Brand had just finished cleaning up from his and Hugo’s dinner while Hugo searched for something for them to watch tonight when his phone rang with an unassigned ringtone. He preferred specific ones for people who called him a lot so he knew who it was as soon as it rang or chimed or made whatever sound or song he’d given that person. He’d left his phone in the office and had half a mind to ignore it until tomorrow, but sometimes businesses called after hours.
Annoyed at the interruption, he swiped the phone off his desk. The Roost’s main line. Weird. “Hello?”
“Hey, is this Brand?” a deep male voice asked.
