Chapter 37
Rhett
“You’ve got to be wrong,” I say earnestly.
Santi shakes his head slowly. “I’m not.”
“Blair’s been with us for weeks!” I remind him. “Why hasn’t he tried to kill her if he’s behind all of this? Why would he have all of us watching her back if he intended to murder her?”
“I don’t know, Rhett!” he snaps. He lets out a hard sigh. “And what’s worse is that this isn’t the most pressing issue we have to concern ourselves with right now.”
“What could possibly be worse than knowing this?”
How could anything be worse than learning that Ledger, the man we all trust with our lives, has betrayed the closest people to him?
The reality of this situation makes me sick.
Why would he do this to Blair? And if he wanted her dead, why not do it himself?
Why lead her here to Caddawalk? And why get us all involved? Why bring trouble to our doorstep?
I wait for a momentary wave of bitterness to wash over me but it doesn’t come.
Whatever resentment I’ve held onto about Blair being here, and the trouble she posed, has vanished.
Instead, fear of the possibility of her getting hurt creeps forward.
My heart squeezes in my chest as denial rings in my head.
We can’t let anything happen to her.
Unfortunately, she will get hurt. This news will devastate her.
She and Ledger are as thick as thieves despite the fact he’s been keeping his distance from her.
There’s a comradery between them that only two people who’ve gone through some shit together can have.
He’s been by her side most of her life. To learn that person who should’ve had your back stabbed it instead, can destroy even the strongest person.
And, shit, Blair is the strongest person I’ve ever encountered.
Fuck… Who’s the poor asshole who’s going to have to tell Blair the truth?
Santi looks back down at his phone. “My software found another room, a private one, and I managed to hack into it. It belongs to Dixie. According to the conversation in this chat room, another hit has come down the line from him. Someone took the contract from him and is on their way. That was two days ago.”
I groan as my grip tightens on the steering wheel.
“Are you saying that there’s another hitman coming after Blair?” I ask him.
Santi nods wildly, his eyes growing even wider with panic. I try not to let his fear become mine. My head is reeling from all this information. It would be easy to panic. But I can’t. One of us has to stay calm.
“Call Wes,” I tell him. “Call him now and tell him everything. He’ll be able to help us. Tell him to slip out discreetly and meet us at your house.”
Up ahead, bright LED headlights blind me as I round a corner. I wince. With an annoyed huff, I flash them my brights, trying to tell them to turn off theirs.
“Okay, I can—”
The phone in Santi’s hand lights up before he can make the call, cutting him off. Immediately, he answers it, putting the caller on speaker phone.
“Hey, is everything okay?” he asks.
“Actually, I think I have a problem,” Blair says, her voice tense. “There’s someone coming up behind me and something just doesn’t feel right about—"
The sound of glass shattering and a scream comes from the other end of the line. The wretched sound of tires screeching and metal bending follows. Then everything goes silent. Both Santi and I tense, sitting straight up in our seats.
“Blair!?” Santi and I shout in unison.
I check my rearview mirror.
My heartbeat thunders in my ears. I slow the truck to a crawl. Her headlights aren’t there. We’ve rounded a bend, maybe it’s just taking her a second longer to come around?
“RHETT!” Santi shouts in horror.
I pull my gaze away from the mirror only to lock eyes with the bright LED lights that are now coming at us in our lane. My stomach drops at the same time my heart skips a beat. I jerk the wheel to the left and peel into the other lane only to find a second vehicle already driving there.
Santi yells in terror.
Bracing myself, I jerk the wheel again and our truck veers off the road and into the woods.
Grimacing, my foot slams down onto the brake.
The tires stop but the vehicle doesn’t as it slides over grass and mud.
There’s no stopping our truck as it careens toward a tree. I whip the steering wheel and we spin.
The bed of the truck hits the tree, bending around it and taking us with it.
My head cracks against the door’s window, making my vision blur.
When we finally come to a complete stop, I stare straight ahead breathing like I’ve just run a marathon.
My knuckles are white as I grip the steering wheel, my heart thundering loudly in my ears.
“Rhett! Rhett!”
I hear my name being called but it takes a second for it to register. Slowly, I turn my head to find Santi tugging at his seatbelt.
“We have to go help her!” Santi screams. “Shit, I can’t get the belt off!”
Right… Blair. Swallowing hard, I reach down and unfasten my seatbelt. I go to open my door but it’s stuck; pressed against the trunk of the tree. The glass in my window is gone too. I look down into my lap to find it all there.
“Rhett!” Santi bellows.
His terror snaps me out of my shock. I reach over and try to undo his seatbelt but it’s locked. He slaps my hands out of the way.
“Go, go, go! I’ll get out of this. Just save Blair! Get her before they do!” he cries out frantically. “Please, for the love of god, go!”
“Alright, I’ll go!” I promise. “But I’ll be right back, okay?”
He shakes his head as tears spill down his cheeks. “Not without her! Don’t come back without Blair!”
I climb over him, opening his passenger door and literally falling out of the vehicle.
My shoulder hits the ground and I grunt in pain but force myself to scramble to my feet.
It takes a second for my legs to stop wobbling, so I use the edge of the bed of the truck for balance.
As I get to the end, I see my axe. I reach for it and push away from the truck.
“Call Wes!” I yell at Santi over my shoulder. “Call him, Santi!”
“Save Blair! Save Blair!”
The minute my feet touch pavement, I’m sprinting in the direction we’d been coming from. Panic and adrenaline have me running faster and harder than I ever have in my entire life. There can’t be too much distance between us. She was right behind me for most of the journey.
She was right there.
And I couldn’t keep her safe; just like I hadn’t been there to save Abby.
I push the thought away, refusing to spiral into despair. Blair’s not gone, she can’t be.
Over the sound of my heavy breathing, I hear gunshots. Multiple gunshots. It sounds like a warzone. Screams pepper the night and they grow louder as I draw near. My grip on the axe tightens.
Great, I’m bringing an axe to a gunfight, smart.
But it’s all I got so an axe it is.
As I turn the corner, I slow.
There, stopped in the middle of the road, are three black SUVs.
Doors are open but there’s no one inside them.
Bodies litter the pavement, blood is splattered and pooling everywhere.
There has to be about fifteen dead men. They’re all dressed in black but I can see where bullets have cut through the material.
Holy shit.
I gape at the grisly scene, unable to understand what transpired.
Blair took out fifteen men? On her own? I’m not sure if I should be impressed or terrified.
Shock wins—it takes over and helps numb the whirlwind of emotions battling inside me.
It helps me focus. If these men are dead, then Blair has to be alive, right?
Hope flares hot in my chest. My eyes whip over the scene again as I try to find her. The tail end of the car she was driving is sticking up from a ditch. The lights are on and the door hangs open.
“Blair?” I call out. “Blair!”
“I’m here.” She stumbles out from the bushes to my left, breathless but alive.
A wave of relief hits me at the sight of her.
I hurry over, frantic to help in any way that I can, but as I approach I can see she didn’t come away unscathed.
There’s blood trickling down from her forehead.
Up close I can see where glass has ripped through her clothes.
Some shards still protrude from her skin.
Scrapes mar her face and hands. As she moves, there’s a slight limp in her gait.
“Oh shit…” I whisper in horror as I come to her side. “Blair—”
“Are you okay?” she asks, cutting me off. “Where’s Santi?”
“We were run off the road but we’re both okay. He’s back at the truck calling for help,” I assure her as my eyes travel over her wounds. She staggers a bit as she takes a step forward, and I catch her by the arm. “Here, I can carry you back and we—”
“No.” She pulls her arm free and straightens. “Go back to Santi and head for the cabin. I heard them radioing in for back-up and they’re nearly here. You have to go, Rhett.”
I blink, confused, as she takes a step back from me—away from me.
“We.” I correct her. “We have to go, Blair.”
She doesn’t look at me as she takes another step away. Her gaze sweeps over the lifeless bodies littering the ground. She bends down and steals a gun from a corpse. Clicking the clip and finding it full, she shoves it into her waistband.
“This isn’t your fight,” she says as she repeats the action with another corpse and another gun.
“Hey!” I stomp forward and grab her by the arm to stop her.
Blair’s head whips around and our eyes lock. I nearly recoil at the emptiness in hers. I’ve never seen anyone so devoid of emotion. Her face is an unreadable mask. I hardly recognize Blair like this.
“I’m leaving, Rhett. I’m not safe in Caddawalk, and neither are the rest of you if I stay,” she says, her voice cold and hard.
“You’re here because we can protect you, Blair. You can’t just—”
“Rhett,” she scoffs. “You and I both know it would be stupid for me to stay. You’ve been saying that from the very beginning, since I got here. So let go and—”
“But I was wrong!” I shout as fear surges forward again. “None of this was your fault. You didn’t bring trouble to Caddawalk—this was all Sparrow’s fault! He put the hit out on you and your dad. You’re innocent in all of this. You—”
Blair recoils. She jerks her arm out of my grasp and stumbles away from me, as if she’s been shot. Her eyes nearly bulge from their sockets, and her mouth drops open as she takes a few more steps back.
“Whose fault is this, Rhett?” She asks, her voice nothing more than a thin whisper.
“Sparrow’s and he—”
“No!” Her head whips back and forth in denial. “No, you’re wrong. He wouldn’t do that. Sparrow—”
“Is Ledger, right?” I cut her off, grimly.
Blair opens and closes her mouth as she stands there, gaping at me. When she tries to speak again, still nothing comes out. She swallows and tries for a third time. Finally, she manages to choke out, “Sparrow is Ledger’s alias.”
“Santi just discovered all of this right before you called,” I tell her, my voice laced with pain. “I didn’t want to believe it either, but it’s all there. Ledger, he’s behind all of this.”
Blair’s eyes water and the shock on her face melts into despair. The sound she emits is a low, heart wrenching wail that sinks beneath my skin and causes my soul to shiver. Blair bends at the waist, bracing her hands on her knees as she sucks in a shaky breath.
“Why?” she breathes out.
I shake my head, wishing I had all the answers for her. “I don’t know.”
Blair sucks in a shallow breath before straightening. One glance at her face and I’m a little alarmed at how emotionless it is again. It’s like she can turn everything on and off at the flip of a switch.
Shit, that’s scary.
Without looking at me, Blair turns and heads for an SUV. I jog after her.
“You got to go, Rhett,” she calls over her shoulder. “That SUV is still running, which means the keys are in the ignition. I’ll take it and head out of here. If Ledger is behind this, I can’t go back to the cabin.”
“Blair! I’m not letting you go!” I don’t mean to yell but the adrenaline in my veins is making it hard to remain calm.
She starts to protest but is cut off by the sound of a phone ringing. My phone. I look around for it and find it a few feet away on the road. I dive for it and answer when I see Santi’s name on the screen.
“Santi, I have Blair. She’s—”
“Get out of there now! Three more SUVs are coming your way! Go, go, go!” he says so fast that I can hardly understand him.
“Get as far away from here as possible with Blair. Break your phone so Ledger can’t track you.
Get a new one, call me, and then I’ll meet up with you somewhere soon.
I’ve called Wes and he’s going to come find me, so don’t worry about me. ”
He hangs up before I can reply.
Holy fuck, what are we going to do? I stare at the blank screen for a full second before turning to Blair. She’s studying my face.
“What is it?”
“Trouble’s here, we need to go now,” I tell her.
My mind begins to race as I push away the panic. That will only get us killed. There’s no time to lose it.
First things first, I need to get Blair out of here. I’ll figure out where to take her after we’re in the clear.
Determination straightens my shoulders and pushes any doubts aside.
Hurrying over to her side, I open the passenger door of the SUV that’s running and practically shove Blair inside.
“Rhett, what are you doing?” she demands as I slam the door and sprint to the driver’s side.
I climb in, swing the door shut, and adjust all the mirrors.
“Rhett! Get out!” She shoves my arm. “Go back to Santi. Go back to the cabin! Just pretend you don’t know about Ledger. Tell him I abandoned you to escape trouble. Life will go back to normal and Ledger won’t be the wiser—”
“Stop it!” I shout, furious that she would even suggest such a thing. “I’m not leaving you to face this shit on your own.”
“But—”
“You didn’t abandon me in my time of need, Blair. Now it’s my turn to repay the favor. Now shut up and keep an eye out for trouble behind us.”
Just as I throw the SUV into reverse, headlights cut through the darkness.
Oh, fuck…
With a curse, I whip the SUV around and gun the gas.
Tires burn and scream, then we’re off, barreling down the road, into the darkness.
I roll down the window and toss my phone out.
As I roll it back up all I can think about is Blair and how the hell I’m going to save her from a monster like Ledger.