Chapter Thirteen
Hawk
“Fuck, sweetheart, get back in the house!” I bark toward Rosie who’s taken to parading out onto the farmhouse lawn in my Harry Potter tee and bare feet. She looks cute as hell, but she shouldn’t be out here.
“I have to do this.”
“No.” I jog after her, gripping her tiny wrist in my hand as Moose steps out onto the front porch with a shotgun in his hand. If I was to guess, that guy is the descendant of a viking, and it’s never more obvious than when you put a weapon in his hand.
Rosie wiggles and squirms against my frame. “Seriously, I’m just gonna scream. The sheriff is gonna see me, anyway. Look, he’s already seen Moose.”
I shrug. “You’re gonna have to scream then.”
She stares toward me, her gaze hooded, her brows narrowed. “Don’t make this harder! I can fix this.”
“He’s a psychopath. You can’t make sense of someone else’s crazy. That’s not how life works. Some people are just gone.”
“Well, fuck me. If it isn’t the prettiest little virgin in Colorado.” The sheriff is a tall, wide man who spends a lot of time in the gym. As a fellow gym enthusiast, I can appreciate the dedication he has to every muscle in his body. A lot of dudes spend time working their shoulders or their arms, but they skip hamstrings and delts. The sheriff looks like he keeps a strict rotation, which tells me a few things about him. First, he likes structure. Second, he’s highly disciplined and focused. Third, he’s intense with a subsect for perfectionism that most people don’t have unless they’re trying to compensate for something else.
I know this because of the people I’ve met at the gym. Sadly, men like this usually lack self-esteem and create a distorted sense of self-worth based on the gifts they believe their bodies are bestowing on those around them.
Thankfully, I’m one of the dudes that forgets about leg day far too often.
I tuck Rosie behind me and step toward the sheriff. “You can leave now, and we can all pretend like this didn’t happen, or I can turn you in. Come on, man. Let’s not do this.”
The sheriff laughs and brushes back his dyed black hair. “Your buddy came over tryin’ to be a hero. Too bad he was dumb enough to let me follow him right back here. Guess you’re a fuckin’ idiot too.” He cocks a stupid ass grin up onto his face. “You’ve got two choices. Kindly give me the girl I paid for, or I’ll fuckin’ take her.”
I’m focused on the overbuilt gorilla in front of me when the sound of a bullet resonates like a sudden intense boom, leaving a ringing in my ears. Rosie clings to me, holding my arms.
“Get the fuck off my property. Last chance,” Moose demands.
I’m not sure where the bullet went, but the sheriff doesn’t seem to be bleeding.
The trespasser looks at Moose and laughs. “I’m not going anywhere without the girl.” He fires his gun toward the porch, embedding a bullet hole in the siding. “I can shoot too. Pretty well, actually. Don’t know if you’re aware, but cops get pretty top-notch training with these things.”
Normally, this is where I’d take cover. I’m unarmed, and the last thing I’m looking to do is wait in the line of fire like a sitting duck. Unfortunately, at this point, if I try and take off with Rosie, who knows what will happen.
Where the hell is Owen?
“I know what you did,” Rosie says, stepping out from behind me. She holds her shoulders back and walks confidently one foot in front of the other, as though she’s been in ten thousand shoot-outs, and she knows exactly how to get him to stop.
The cop narrows his gaze and laughs. “Oh yeah? What did I do?”
Rosie draws in a deep breath and turns her phone toward the man in front of her. Damn the girl is brave. “Did Owen show you this picture?”
His face contorts, and he reaches out for Rosie, but a gunshot drops him to his knees, a heavy breeze carrying the faintest smell of gunpowder between us.
I expect the bullet to be from Moose, but he looks like he’s as alarmed as anyone. I glance toward the tree line to see Owen holding a rifle as he trudges forward.
“What the fuck? I figured you were bleeding out somewhere.”
He doesn’t answer. He’s focused on the cop now lying in the mud where he belongs.
Moose climbs down off the porch and makes his way toward us with a squared off jaw as though he’s pissed he didn’t get to take the shot. “Take her inside. I’ll figure this out.” Moose’s tone is doing that thing where he means business.
“No! I’m not going.” Rosie bends down to the ground where the meathead rests, searching his pockets as the rain that’s been relentless this week begins to fall again. “Press the button!” There’s a bite in her tone that hadn’t been there before as she shows him the screen of his phone.
He laughs, though his face doesn’t wrinkle. Is this dude getting Botox, too?
She grins. “Click it.”
“Sure, I’ll click the button… when you ride this cock. I paid for a tight little pussy and I’m gonna—”
Rosie reaches back, grabs Owen’s gun, and instantly aims the barrel at the man’s throat. It’s a quick maneuver that has me wondering if she really has been in a lot of standoffs. I drop to my knees and hold his hands back, letting the badass girl I’m quickly falling in love with take the lead.
“I’m usually a really nice girl, sheriff. I love drawing, painting, and sitting out in the field with the chickens. I love a long, quiet hike in the woods, and I don’t bother anyone. Unfortunately, times are tough. I invested my money in a flower shop that went under, I’m mooching off my best friend, working for minimum wage, and I don’t think I’ll ever have the money to pay for school to make any of this better. I know none of this is your problem, you just wanted a good time, but now, things are different. You took that girl, didn’t you?”
The cop starts to move, and it takes Moose and Owen working together to hold the monster down. “Get the fuck off me. You don’t have fuckin’ proof of anything. You know how much trouble you’re headed for, fuckin’ with the law like this?”
Rosie grins and grabs her phone, pulling up something before showing him the screen. “April Bernard. She look familiar?”
His jaw locks. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Seriously, does this face look familiar, sheriff, because she hasn’t been seen since February of last year, and Cowboy78 was friends with her. He bid on her and, hell, I even see that he won.” She grins. “So, I think maybe you’re hiding more than you’re letting on. And call me stupid, but I’d think the police station would’ve questioned the weirdo who bought a girl’s virginity the night before she disappeared, right?” Rosie cocks her head to the side. “Unless… they’re taking bribes, which is also against the law.”
“Hey, Sherlock,” he groans under his breath, “relax. She’s alive. She wanted to stay with me. She hated her house and her life, and she chose me.”
Chills run up my spine at the line of bullshit he’s just laid down. What the hell is going on?
“She’s alive?” Rosie’s voice shakes as she says, “Where are you keeping her?”
“Let me up and I’ll show you.”
“You really think I’m a fuckin’ idiot, don’t you?”
The sheriff nods, and Moose knees him in the ribs. The man flops and squirms like a bloated worm as they struggle to hold his arms in place in the pouring rain.
What the hell is going on here? A week ago, I was an author trying to find a plot for my novel. This week, I’m living one.
Rosie bends down to the sheriff, and pushes his finger on the verification button, confirming the payout for services, which deposits the payment into her bank account. “Now that we’ve got that settled, I should let you know that I’ve sent this information to the police. Not the local police, because apparently, we can’t trust them. I’ve sent the info to the state police. There are people on their way to your house right now. If April is alive, they’ll find her, and your games are over.”
“You know, I’ve gotta say, my dick is hard. I like a strong woman.” The sheriff lifts his hips up and down as though he’s thrusting into her, and something inside me snaps. It must be the same thing that snaps in the rest of the guys because I’ve barely moved Rosie away from him when Moose and Owen begin driving punch after punch into the man’s face and stomach.
Rosie stares up at me. “I thought I’d be wrong about April. Jen had been doing research, but I didn’t expect this.” Tears stream down her face as though her emotions have broken through the wall she’s built. “Do you really think she’s alive?”
I shake my head as I grab the sweetest girl I’ve ever known, cuddling her into my chest as police sirens whir in the distance. “I’m not sure, sweetheart, but whatever happens, you’re safe now. I promise.”