Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
MELODY
Word spreads quicker than wildfire about our relationship.
It’s only been a month or so, but every single person in Haven knows damn well that Traeger and I are together.
Some people look at me in confusion, probably wondering if Austin is forcing me to be with him.
Some people smile warmly, seemingly happy, or at least accepting.
And there are plenty that look with downright hostility.
I don’t know if they’re pissed that I slept my way to the top—in their opinion—or if they don’t think Austin deserves any kind of happiness.
Probably a combination of both plus a host of other things.
But I couldn’t care less. I’ve jumped headlong into this thing with Austin, letting myself be completely all in.
No walls. No fears. No hesitations. If there’s one thing we both know, it’s that life is too fucking short, especially in this world.
Every heartbeat is a gift and we don’t want to waste a single one.
“There you go, much better!” I say, smiling and nodding encouragingly at Jenna.
I’d volunteered to help train some new members of the security team out at The Farm.
Jenna had asked if I could teach her how to throw knives because she’d heard rumors that I was really damn good at it and she thought it would be a handy skill to have.
I’d agreed easily, wondering who had spread that particular rumor. Probably Wynn.
“Thanks,” Jenna says, smiling a little shyly, but there’s pride in her eyes when she glances back at the row of practice dummies—burlap sacks stuffed with straw to vaguely resemble a person and targets painted on their—across the field beside the barn where we’ve been practicing.
“Ok, this time, try releasing just a little bit later—”
“Help!!” someone cries. Jenna and I both turn towards the sound, my hand flying to the pistol at my hip and Jenna tightening her grip on her knife. A man is sprinting towards us, looking panicked.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, stepping forward. I can’t remember his name, but I know I’ve seen him around The Farm before. Paul maybe?
“She fell,” he pants. “Out in the woods just past Field Eight.” He points over his shoulder to the trees in the near distance. “It must be an old storm cellar or something, but she fell through and I think she’s really hurt.” He’s frantic, eyes wild.
“Who fell?” I ask.
“Sarah,” he chokes out.
“Oh God,” Jenna gasps beside me. “That’s Terry’s daughter. She’s only ten.”
I’m already grabbing the guy—Preston?—by the shoulder and running towards the field and the trees beyond.
“Go get more help!” I call to Jenna over my shoulder. She nods and takes off in the opposite direction, back towards the big farm house.
“Hurry. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. She’s just a kid. I think she’s hurt, she wasn’t moving…”
“It’s ok, she’ll be alright.” I’m not really one to pray much these days, but I send one out into the universe all the same that my words aren’t complete and total bullshit. Not a kid. Come on, not a little girl…
We run across one of the field, trying not to trample whatever’s growing—I honestly can’t remember what Field Eight is set up for, though I know I’ve seen the list and map a handful of times—and through the trees lining the other side.
My lungs are burning a bit by the time I see an old truck and a couple of other guys standing around a hole in the ground, splintered wood sticking up from the edges like jagged fingernails reaching out of the earth.
“There!” the guy pants. Fuck what is his name? “She fell through right there!”
I dash to the edge, barely sparing a glance at the other guys. I look down into the hole, bracing myself for what I might find, but…there’s nothing there.
Searing hot pain erupts through my skull, turning my vision to a blinding white for one terrible, intense heartbeat before everything goes dark.
“I don’t like this.”
The voice is male, low, and anxious. My head is throbbing, a burning pain still radiating through my entire skull, and something coats the left side of my face.
Blood. My head is bowed, chin leaning on my chest, and I keep it that way, keeping my eyes closed as I take a few deep breaths through my nose and figure out what the fuck is going on.
I clear my head, forcing the pain to quiet and take a back seat while I inventory everything I know:
I was attacked.
Reason? Unclear.
I’m in a chair. Wood. Like the kind you’d have at your kitchen table.
I’m not tied to the chair, but my hands are secured behind my back with no shit handcuffs. Where the hell had they gotten these things? The metal bites into my wrists.
I’m inside, but the way the sounds are shifting around me, I don’t think it’s a house. The space feels too big, too open. A barn maybe.
It smells dank and musty, not horrible, but like somewhere that hasn’t been cleaned in a while.
“Pipe down, Dominic. You knew what you were signing up for.”
Another man.
“You said we’d use her to get his attention,” Dominic hisses quietly. “Not…not this.”
“You’ve got a problem with it? Fuck off then, pussy.”
“Fuck you, Manny.” Dominic doesn’t leave, so he must decide that he doesn’t want to be seen as a pussy, or maybe he’s just afraid of this Manny guy. Who knows.
“Message has been delivered and Craig just checked in.” I know this voice. Pete. That’s his fucking name. The asshole who lured me into a trap, pretending a little girl was hurt. Fucking prick. “She awake yet?”
“Not yet,” Manny says.
“Well, let’s just move this along, shall we? Our guest will be arriving shortly.”
I hear him walking closer and then my cheek explodes with pain. The fucker backhanded me. My eyes pop open as my head rocks to the side. It feels like fire licking across my face and I clench my jaw, tasting blood. I turn back to face him and he smiles. A sick, twisted smile.
“Welcome back, sleepy head,” he mocks.
“You hit like a bitch,” I say, spitting blood on the floor—a mix of rotted straw and mud.
Pete huffs out a small laugh at that. I glance around.
It’s an old barn, just like I’d thought, with boards missing from the roof here and there.
The large doors at the end have seen better days: one is rotted almost completely through at the bottom and the other hangs crookedly on its hinges, like it might give up its fight and finally collapse at any second.
And to the left, beside a young guy with dark red hair who must be Dominic, stands a table laid out with a variety of knives, tools, and even an old blow torch.
You said we’d use her to get his attention.
Oh. It all clicks. They plan to use me to hurt Austin.
Well, this should be fucking fun. Pete’s still smiling when I meet his gaze again.
“Let me guess, use me to get to Traeger?” I say, quirking a brow in a derisive way that tells him I think he’s an idiot.
Pete crosses his arms over his chest, but clenches his jaw.
I snort and shake my head. “Trade my life for his maybe? It’s a stupid fucking plan.
We might be together, but he wouldn’t risk his life for me, you idiots.
” I say the lie as smooth as butter, knowing how fucking wrong it is.
He will burn this entire fucking world down to get to me.
“You really think that he’ll…what, exactly? Give you Haven? Is that what you want?”
“I don’t give a shit about Haven,” Pete growls.
He leans down and braces his hands on the armrests of the chair, getting right in my face.
I don’t flinch away and a flash of surprise flits through his eyes.
They’re such a dark brown that they look black, and there is an intense, cold hatred there.
He blames Austin for something terrible, I know that much, though I have no idea what.
“I want him to suffer. I want him to die screaming while I fucking laugh.”
My nostrils flare and heat rises in my chest, that red haze threatening at the corner of my vision. No one threatens what’s mine. Pete takes my reaction to mean fear, I guess, because he smirks and pushes himself away.
“And you’re going to help us with that. It’s nothing personal, Mel.
He cares about you—as much as a monster like that can care about anyone, I guess—so, we’re going to have a little fun with you first to fuck with his head, and then when he comes to trade his life for yours, we’ll start the real party. ”
“He won’t come, you prick,” I spit.
“Of course he will. He’s already on his way. Craig has him trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey for us and they’re headed here now. So, we better get started.”
He walks to the table and trails his fingers along the line of instruments. He picks up a boning knife, the blade long and thin, and twirls it in his hand.
“That’s going to go through your left eye before this is all said and done. Just a warning.”
Dominic looks spooked, eyes wide as he glances between me and the other two men, taking one small step backwards.
I feel bad for the kid—it’s obvious he doesn’t really want to be a part of this, but he’s still here and not stepping in to stop it so…
well, whatever happens, happens, I guess.
He made his bed and now he’ll have to lie in it.
Manny quirks a brow, not fear, but interest in his eyes, and Pete just laughs.
Pete turns from the table and walks back towards me, knife in hand.