Chapter 7
You can lead a llama to water, but you can’t make her drink.
“We’re not taking off our clothes,” Blue Shirt, also known as Hank, whimpered.
Hudson sat on the back of Scout’s tailgate and simply moved his weapon once in their direction. He’d driven them out to a swamp with no one around for miles. He’d used this particular dumping ground before. “If you decide to make a run for it, the gators will definitely get you.”
The other man, Lane, began stripping first. “Just tell us what you want or kill us,” he snarled as he stripped down to his boxers.
Hudson didn’t push on him taking those off. He might later if they were resistant to answering questions. But for now, he had them afraid.
Which meant they would talk without torture. Something he hated anyway. Plus he’d already sent their pictures to Lorna—and she’d sent him back enough personal information that he could threaten them with words.
“You want to know what I want? Okay. I want answers. Why were you at Scout’s farm trying to burn her place down and kill her animals?”
The two men stared at him, the sound of crickets, water lapping in the nearby pond, and their rapid breathing the only thing cutting through the quiet night. Or morning, since it was three a.m.
“Not feeling talkative?” He pulled up his phone, glanced at one of the incoming messages from Lorna. “Hank, how’s that sister of yours? Leah, is it? Oh, she’s got two kids—”
“You mother—” Hank took a step forward, showing a lot more balls than he had moments ago.
“Nope.” Hudson pinned him in place with a glare and his pistol.
“Not one more step. I don’t want to hurt either of you.
If I’d wanted to, I’d have let those llamas run rampant over you.
Or shot you. Or I’d have started cutting off your fingers, one by one.
” He ticked his fingers off to drive the point home.
It got their attention.
“We weren’t going to hurt the woman,” Hank finally said. “Just her dumb animals.”
“You brought a can of gasoline.”
“Well yeah, just to burn down some of her stuff, that’s all.”
That’s all. Fuck them. It would have destroyed Scout to lose those animals. And she’d just lost her grandfather. Not to mention fire spread fast in the right weather conditions. These two were lucky they were still breathing. “Why?”
Hank exchanged a look with Lane. Then sighed and looked back at Hudson. “We were ordered to scare her into selling off part of her property.”
“Yeah, it’s too much for her to handle anyway,” Lane said, almost indignantly.
Hudson had thought that there might be more to it than that. “And you thought damaging her property and killing her animals would scare her into selling?”
“Well, yeah.” Hank was earnest now. “And it’s not like he wants to buy all of her property, just a couple hundred acres. That’s it. Not like she’s using it.”
It also wasn’t anyone else’s business what she did with her land.
“Yeah, her grandad left it to her anyway. She’s just wasting her time with that ranch,” Lane added.
Hudson was silent for a long moment, then slid off the tailgate. “I’m a little torn right now. I told her I wouldn’t kill you. But it’s the best option.” He looked between the two of them, saw the fear bleeding into both their expressions as they stared back.
Standing there in their boxers next to a swamp in the middle of nowhere, facing down their mortality, would scare most people.
He looked down at his pistol, sighed.
“We won’t tell anyone,” Hank said quickly.
“I’m not worried about that.” Hudson looked back up at him.
“I’m worried that you’ll agree to leave Scout’s farm alone, then when you get back to your real life, some of that fear will fade.
You’ll start to feel brave again, think you can come after me.
After her.” He looked between the two of them.
Then he recited most of the message that Lorna had sent him about their respective families, listing their relatives’ names and ages and what would happen to them if they visited Scout’s farm again. When he was certain he’d scared them enough, he tucked his pistol away.
There was no flicker in their eyes, no move to attack him. If they’d tried, he’d have just killed them, but it was clear that they were cowed. For tonight. He’d let three people go in the past and had never regretted it. Normally he was good at reading people, but with these two…
“I found out all this information in the last hour. Imagine what I’ll find out once I have time to really dig into you.
” He paused, letting his words sink in. “There’s nowhere you can run from me.
And if you two dumbasses somehow manage to kill me, I don’t work alone.
You need to remember that. Whatever you’re thinking right now, I work with people a hell of a lot scarier than me.
So this is what’s going to happen. You’re going to return to town—however long it takes you to get there on foot.
Then tomorrow or whenever you get back, you’re quitting the ranch and you’re leaving Scout Harlowe alone. Got it?”
They both nodded in unison.
“And if you see Scout or me in town, walk the other way. Cross the fucking street, jump down a sewer drain, I don’t care.
You don’t get within fifty feet of her.” He spoke quietly, injecting enough menace that they heard the threat in his voice if they couldn’t see it on his face.
“And don’t make me regret this decision.
Because your family members are the ones who will pay for it first. I’ll get to you eventually, but you’ll lose everyone you care about first.” A lie, but they didn’t know that.
They both nodded again, the fear rolling off them practically rancid as he picked up their clothes.
“Wait, you’re just leaving us here?” Hank asked as he dumped their clothes in the back of the truck. He’d burn their stuff later.
“Yep. Watch out for gators.” He slid into the driver’s seat before they could argue. Not that he thought they were going to. They should be thankful to be alive.
For their sake, he hoped that fear stayed with them.
They were only alive because he’d told Scout he wouldn’t kill them.
As he drove away, he wasn’t sure what the hell was going on with him. It shouldn’t matter what she thought or said or wanted. Except all of that mattered.
They’d just met; he should just leave. Head to his boat in Miami and get back to his real life.
“Real life?” he muttered to himself. What life? He hung out with friends, took a lot of solo trips to reconnect with nature, but… He was only existing between jobs. Nothing more.
And that was no way to live at all.
He was staying to take care of Scout because it was clear she needed someone to look out for her. And her llamas didn’t count.