11. Blackheart
11
Blackheart
I want to torture that damn girl. As soon as Montana’s out of earshot, Dallas goes over to greet Peyton, Fara, and Clementine. “I guess you two aren’t getting along very well are ya?”
I keep my eyes on Violet while I answer him. “Not at all. It’s hard to get along with someone you tried to shoot.”
Dallas whips his head around and faces me. “You tried to shoot her?”
“Don’t sound so shocked. It’s what I’m getting paid to do.”
He scratches Fara’s ears. “Yeah—but did you point your gun at her?”
I lean up against Peyton’s stall, rubbing her nose. “Yeah. And attempted to fire. But the damn thing locked up on me, and she was not happy.”
He laughs like a hyena. “That girl is going to kill you in your sleep. ”
I step away from him. “I’ll kill her first.”
I give him a moment with his horses while I head back to the house. The next few days with Montana will be filled with suffering. I wanted to wring her neck so bad for trying to escape me last night. But spanking her made me even angrier.
Her ass is so damn soft. It’s firm as hell, but it’s soft. It bounced a little with each slap, and I wanted to spank her plump little rump until the sun came up.
Seeing her blood made me feel even more crazed. I could smell her when I pulled down her lace panties and saw her bloodstained pad. The hand of God kept her safe from me. If it weren’t for His voice in the back of my head, I would’ve fucked her until her blood was pooling around her feet.
But then she fell back asleep and turned into my little bunny again. The one I want to fix and repair. I was on edge for the extra two hours she slept, praying she didn’t have another terror. I changed the bandage on her head so she could have a fresh one when she woke up, and seeing her sleepy hazel eyes look back at me made me forget how much she drove me up the wall. But I was reminded quickly when she started mouthing off at me.
Then she touched her. She went to Violet’s stall again, and I couldn’t take it. All I could think about was Margaret and how I’ll never see her again. Then I thought about how angry she’d be at me if she saw how I was treating her horse, and I started to feel sick.
I’m embarrassed to say it, but in the past twelve hours, Montana’s given that horse more love than I have since I got her. And the way that horse responds to her, it’s just like how she was with Margaret. Dallas tries to spend time with Violet, but she won’t entertain him. And seeing Violet’s eyes light up when Montana’s in front of her makes me want to throw myself in front of a train. After all these years, I still hate that damn animal. I still want to get rid of her. I still want her to die.
I hear Dallas’ footsteps pick up behind me, and I head into the house, trying to calm down before he gets in here. He knows I have a temper, but I hate losing it in front of him. He’s so controlled and relaxed. I’ve never seen him out of control.
When I step into the kitchen, Montana looks over her shoulder at me and scowls. “Your breakfast is almost done, sergeant. What should I do for you after? Lick your boots?”
I lean back in my chair and watch her prepare our meals. “You could. Or I could shove a bar of soap in your goddamn mouth for all the filth that comes out of it. ”
She keeps her back to me while she fixes three plates with fried eggs, toast, and bacon. One plate with extra crispy bacon. Dallas comes in the door as soon as she puts everything down on the table, and he grabs his plate from her with a smile on his face while he takes a seat. “This looks delicious. Thank you, Montana.”
Her eyes widen, and she gives him a small nod before grabbing the back of her chair.
I pull it back in with my boot. “Get me another cup of coffee.”
Her soft little eyebrows draw together and she shakes her head at me before going up to the pot and grabbing a mug.
Dallas’ jaw drops, and he takes a bite of his bacon. “When did you get so mean?”
Montana gets herself a water from the fridge and nearly dumps my coffee all over me when she sets it on the table. “He’s been this mean since I met him.”
Dallas laughs and scarfs down his food. “You never were good at making friends. I couldn’t believe it when Margaret asked me for your number.”
Montana looks between him and me, and I sip my coffee slowly. “Yeah. I couldn’t believe it either. Too bad she’s dead. ”
Dallas’ smile drops and he looks between me and Montana. “I’m sorry.”
I ignore him, and we all eat in a painfully awkward silence.
Once our plates are empty, I stand up and clear them like I always do while Dallas tries to get to know the woman at my table.
“Why did your father hire someone to kill you?” Unlike me, Dallas is interested in hearing about people’s lives and how they ended up in the situations they’re in.
She opens her mouth like she might answer him, but when I look at her, she closes her mouth and then looks past us both. “My father doesn’t need a reason to do anything. He does whatever he wants whenever he wants. No one gets in his way.”
Dallas gives me a look like he wants to warn me, but instead, I leave him at the table while I head for the stairs. “Don’t let her move. If she does, shoot her. I’ll be right back.”
His obnoxious laughter fills my ears while I go up to get our things for our trip.
When I get back downstairs, he’s hovering over Montana with his hands cupping her face.
“Mind telling me what the fuck you two are doing? ”
He steps away from her with a wadded up white cloth in his hand. “I was just removing her bandage. I took a peek, and I think it doesn’t need to be covered anymore and might heal a little faster without it.”
Like me, Dallas is good at helping wounded creatures. You have to be, living in the middle of nowhere. It’s not like we have a pet hospital down the road.
I look at Montana, realizing this is the first time I’m seeing her fresh-faced without mud in her hair. Her wound from yesterday is now a small scar, and her loose dark brown waves that are just a few shades darker than her skin fall over it, framing her angelic face.
Slinging my gun over my shoulder, I pick up my bags and call out to her. “Come on. We’re leaving.”
She stands up and smiles at Dallas before joining me. I don’t tell him how long we’ll be gone, and I know he doesn’t care. If he needs me, he’ll call.
Montana holds up her dress while we walk across the yard to my truck. It’s light pink with white daisies and has cap sleeves like her dress from yesterday. Yesterday feels like it was weeks ago. It’s crazy thinking that I found her butt naked in a stream and now we’re going on a road trip together.
I toss our bags in the back, and when I get seated in the vehicle, Montana puts her hands on her hips and yells at me through the passenger window. “You’re the rudest man I’ve ever met.”
I start the car, confused at what she means when she yanks open her door and shuts it aggressively.
I get the air adjusted to my liking and rest a hand on the wheel. “I want to be rude. I want people to think I’m a jerk because it’ll make them want to stay the hell away from me.”
She smoothes her hair off her shoulders and puts her seat back. “Mission accomplished.”
I double-check to make sure I have my shotgun, two spare pistols, and my ID. Once I’m good to go, I take off down the main road to get on the interstate.
The first place we’re headed to is Colorado Springs. It’s somewhere I’ve always wanted to go but have never been, and it’ll get us over a third of the way to our destination.
Montana sits in her seat quietly while I drive. She’s more quiet than I’m used to, and it’s driving me nuts. I don’t like listening to music while I drive, so I try to get a conversation going with her instead so she can rattle off and maybe it’ll make the journey go faster. “You ever been to Colorado?”
Her entire body locks up like she’s going into shock, and she covers her face. “We’re going to Colorado?”
“That’s our first stop. ”
She crosses her arms and looks out the window, hiding away even more.
“What’s wrong with Colorado?”
“Nothing.” She glances at me and looks straight ahead with a blank expression on her face.
I hope to God Montana has some useful survival skills because lying isn’t one of them. “What happened in Colorado?”
I take a glance at her and see her eyes watering, and I wait for her to answer. Minutes pass, and she doesn’t say a damn thing. “I expect you to answer me when I’m asking you something, Montana.”
She scoffs. “Blackheart, I don’t know shit about you, and you avoid my questions like they’re bullets, so you can fuck off.”
If I weren’t in traffic, I’d pull over and remind her who the fuck’s in charge, but the faster we get to where we’re going, the faster we can part ways an I can be free of her unruly ass.
Almost an hour passes without a word between us when she looks over at me. “Who’s Margaret?”
Her question catches me so off guard that I nearly blackout on the road. “Just some girl.”
Bile rises in my throat as soon as the last word leaves my lips. Margaret was more than that. She wasn’t just some girl. She was Dallas’ baby sister. I dated her for three years. We lost our V-cards together. I thought I was going to marry her. She was pregnant before my father killed her. Only eight weeks, but still. She’s probably rolling over in her grave at me talking about her like she was a nobody.
Montana pauses, and I think she’s forgotten about the entire thing until her voice softens. “And she passed away.” She says her words so cautiously, but they feel like a knife to my heart.
“Yep. She was murdered.”
Montana sighs and places a hand over her heart. “You got her horse the day she died.”
I speed up while I drive, not wanting her to see how hard this is for me. I guess my secret isn’t as big of a secret as I thought. It’s not hard to see I can’t stand Violet. But I don’t know how the fuck she guessed that she belonged to Margaret. “How do you know that?” My blood boils, thinking it was Dallas who told her when I was out of the room. He loves talking about his sister as if she’s still alive. I don’t like talking about her at all.
She sniffles and wipes her face. “It’s the way you look at her. When you look at Violet, you just have this . . . this look. Like you’re so disgusted. It’s the same look you had on your face when Dallas mentioned Margaret. And then you shut him up. It wasn’t hard to put two and two together.”
Montana hasn’t done anything particularly wrong, but I’m furious with her. Can’t she tell I don’t want to talk about any of this shit? I grip the wheel, digging my nails into the worn material. “Anything else you wanna add, Sherlock?”
Montana turns her head to me slowly while I reduce my speed so I don’t slam into the car in front of us. Tears spill down her face, and she wipes her eyes. “I’m sorry.”
You should be sorry. Prodding and prying in my business. She probably feels embarrassed. She doesn’t know a goddamn thing about me or Margaret or what happened to us. Wanting her to feel worse, I push her further. “What are you sorry for?” I expect her to apologize for being nosy. Or to tell me to screw myself. But her next words hit me harder than I expect.
Wiping her eyes, she faces her window. “For your loss.”
We’re halfway to town when I can’t bear the silence any longer. After I made my little fox cry, she kept her mouth shut, and so did I.
But I want to hear her annoying little voice for some reason. It scratches an itch in my brain I can’t explain. “Are you hungry?”
She looks over at me like I’m speaking German. “What?”
“I asked if you were hungry, Montana. Do you need food?”
She adjusts one of the sleeves of her dress that starts to slip down. “I could go for something light.”
I roll my eyes and slow down when I approach the next exit. I don’t know why women say that shit. I could go for something light. Sure. And as soon as I get a big meal, she’s going to want some of it. I’ll order for her and save myself the hassle of her begging later on. “Fine. We’ll stop at this diner up ahead. Bring your lady shit because we’re not taking another bathroom break until we get to the motel.”
I’m sure Daddy’s little princess is used to staying at the Four Seasons, but I don’t want to blow all of my vacation money on day one.
She nibbles on one of her lips. “Could we stop in Denver before we go to Colorado Springs?”
Denver. This girl has not wanted to say a word about Colorado, and now she wants to make a pit stop in Denver. “What for?” I pull off the highway and drive down some road in a little town .
She frowns. “My friend’s apartment. I have some things there that I need to get.”
Another thing women do too much is forget shit. “Why don’t you have these things already, Montana?”
She rolls her eyes this time. “Because I was knocked out by my father after he killed my best friend and dragged me out of her apartment. I think you can recall I didn’t have my purse when you met me.”
Her father killed her best friend and my father killed mine. Maybe Montana’s right. We do seem to have some shit in common. “Montana, honey, I doubt your stuff is still there. From what I’ve heard of your father, he probably had the place cleaned after he took you.”
I don’t know why I called her honey, but my cheeks are burning because of it. I hope she didn’t notice.
Her throat bobs. “Could we at least check? I’m just asking you for this one thing, Blackheart. I’ll be a good girl the rest of the trip. I promise.”
Montana really hasn’t asked for anything since I found her. And I’ve asked her for everything. And I’m planning to take all of her money. I guess this is a small request.
I doubt she’ll be a good girl though. I don’t know much about my little fox, but I know for a fact she’s a bad girl. I can smell her wickedness .
I take a moment to think about it while I park. “Fine. We’ll eat, and then we’ll see if we can get your shit.”
Her eyes light up. “Thank you.”
I get out of my car, and she grabs her door handle. I slam my hand on the hood, getting her attention. “Get your hand off the door.”
She lets go as if it’s a poisonous snake, oblivious of what I’m about to do next. Wanting to prove her wrong that I’m not a completely uncouth bag of bones with a penis, I go over to her side of the truck and open her door. “Out. Don’t forget your shit.”
She looks up at me suspiciously and goes to the back of the truck for her things, holding them in a small cosmetic bag that she got as a free gift with her clothing yesterday. When she comes back to my side, she looks me over. “No shotgun?”
I grab her hand, making her flinch. “I don’t think this establishment will like me bringing it inside. If anyone asks us anything on this journey, you’re my girlfriend.” I grip her soft hand a little tighter, loving the feel of it. “Hold my hand back and act like it.”
Montana laces her dainty fingers through mine while her brand new boots make noise on the concrete. I lead her up to the door of the diner, and I hold the door open when we step inside.