Chapter 17 Carter
CARTER
The hum of the wheels on pavement and the rumble of the truck engine roused Carter. He frowned, eyes still closed. Shouldn’t they be back home by now? “Rey?” he mumbled, slowly blinking his eyes open.
“Rey’s dead” came from Carter’s left, bringing him fully awake and jerking him upright in his seat in horror. Darryl sat in the driver’s seat, sneering at him. “I told you I’d find you, my little whore.”
Darryl backhanded Carter abruptly across the face, causing his head to slam backward and into the passenger-side window with a loud crack.
He couldn’t stifle the cry of agony he let out, his ears ringing at the double blows.
His lip split, and blood trickled down his chin.
Huddling against the door, Carter tried to remember how he came to be in Rey’s truck with Darryl, but nothing came to mind.
Then Darryl’s first words repeated in his head. “R-Rey’s d-dead?” he whimpered.
“I killed the son of a bitch,” Darryl taunted, laughing cruelly.
His eyes were wild with anger. Dark circles ringed Darryl’s eyes, and Carter could see how bloodshot they were.
The man had to be on some kind of substance or, at the very least, drunk.
His normally vibrant dark mahogany hair appeared greasy in the dim lights of the dashboard, and Darryl had lost weight, his face gaunt in a way it hadn’t been before.
It had been only two months since the night Darryl almost beat him to death, but the time hadn’t been kind to his ex.
Tears welled up, spilling down Carter’s cheeks to mix with the blood from his lip. Rey couldn’t be dead. His wolf would know it. But Darryl seemed so certain. “Why can’t you just let me go?”
“Because you’re mine,” Darryl snarled, reaching out and grabbing hold of Carter’s hair in a painfully tight grip.
He yanked Carter’s head back, drawing another whine from Carter.
“If you hadn’t been such a slut, I wouldn’t be on the run from the cops right now!
I wouldn’t have spent a month in prison! ”
“I didn’t—”
Darryl cut off Carter’s protest by shoving his head into the passenger window for a second blow to the glass.
“Don’t lie! I saw you with Ben! I went back and killed him, did you know that? And it’s all your fault! If you hadn’t been such a cock slut, I wouldn’t have had to end him for touching you!”
Horror filled Carter at the thought of Darryl having murdered their neighbor. An innocent man, no less. No one deserved to die for cheating, but even less so when there hadn’t actually been any cheating going on.
“And now this Indian fucker? He had to die, too.” Darryl tightened his grip even, so far gone in his rage he obviously didn’t care if he killed both of them.
His attention wasn’t on the road, and Carter could see the needle of the speedometer edging toward ninety.
If he got closer to a populated area, he wouldn’t kill just them, either.
Terror flooded Carter. Why hadn’t he seen the psychotic, jealous tendencies in Darryl before?
Had he hidden it so well during the first months before they moved in together that Carter couldn’t see it?
Or had he been so desperate not to be alone he’d ignored the signs?
Now at least one person was dead, maybe two, if Darryl really had killed Rey.
Rey? Please, Rey, talk to me!
His wolf whined in his head when no response came.
Was his mate dead? Had Darryl really killed Rey, too?
Or were they too far apart for the telepathic link to work?
The bond didn’t feel broken, but he wouldn’t know what a severed bond felt like.
The thought of never seeing Rey again, never feeling his warm muscular body wrapped around him or hearing his deep, rumbling laugh, sent shards of sheer anguish rushing through him.
No one else had ever made him feel so loved or cherished, or as if he mattered more than anything else in the world.
Not like Rey. Even when Carter rambled on about nothing, his mate listened.
He didn’t rush Carter or ignore him. He never made Carter feel as if he were worthless.
Rey’s gorgeous sienna brown eyes, fiery with lust during their last lovemaking earlier that day, flashed before his eyes.
The low groans rumbling in his mate’s chest echoed in his ears, drowning out the madman’s ranting.
His huge, sexy, kindhearted, amazing mate couldn’t be dead.
Anger filled Carter, rushing through him.
His wolf snarled in his head, rising inside of him.
“Where are we going?” Carter asked, tone flat as he contemplated the best chances of getting away from the sick bastard next to him.
He wouldn’t let Darryl take him away from his mate.
Even if Rey were really gone from this world, Carter would do anything to make his mate proud of him, and he wouldn’t allow Darryl to cause him to disappoint Rey.
Nothing would keep him from returning to his mate.
Then, if Rey really was dead, Carter would follow him into the afterlife, reuniting their souls for eternity.
“We’re going somewhere no one can find us,” Darryl said.
Carter huddled close to the door, waiting for any chance to jump out of the truck.
They’d already left Senaka, and Carter couldn’t be sure how far away they’d gone before he’d woken up.
His heart leaped into his throat when he saw they were approaching another vehicle on the highway.
Darryl didn’t slow down. He went around the vehicle, a black SUV.
Carter sat straighter and banged on the window, trying to get the driver’s attention.
“Help me!” he shouted, his gaze locking with the shocked male in the driver’s seat.
Darryl roared with anger, grabbed Carter by the hair again, and yanked him down away from the window.
The truck jerked slightly with Darryl’s actions, and Carter’s stomach dropped when the back end of the vehicle fishtailed into the SUV, causing the driver to slam on his brakes.
Tires squealed so loudly even Carter could hear it through the closed windows of the cab.
Unfortunately, the damage wasn’t significant enough to stop the truck, but he saw the SUV veer off the road and into a nearby ditch.
He prayed the driver was safe and unharmed.
“You little fucking bitch!” Darryl snarled, slamming Carter’s head into the dashboard, causing black spots to dance across his vision. “You think you can get away from me that easily? I should go back and kill that fucker. Is that what you want? Huh?”
“No,” Carter whimpered, a trickle of blood trailing down his cheek where the air-conditioning vent had cut him. “Please don’t.”
“Then stop trying to get someone else hurt and just sit there!” Darryl screamed, releasing Carter’s hair with a rough thrust of his hand and jolting Carter’s head enough for it to pound even harder.
Nausea forced bile into Carter’s throat, and he worried he had a concussion with the multiple blows to his head.
He figured staying quiet might prevent another one, which would knock him unconscious for sure, so he kept his mouth shut, waiting for his chance to get away.
Darryl didn’t give any indication of stopping for at least another hour until finally he cursed and slammed his palm into the steering wheel.
Carter peeked at him from the corner of his eye and saw that Darryl had his gaze fixed on the speedometer, or rather the fuel gauge. They were almost out of gas!
Darryl turned off the highway and into a gas station, pulling the truck up to a pump. He glared at Carter. “Try to get away and I’ll shoot every single person in this place. Try to scream or shout for help, I’ll gut them right in front of you. You got me?”
Carter bit his lip and nodded. He hadn’t seen a gun, but that didn’t mean Darryl didn’t have one.
Darryl hit a button on the dashboard, and Carter heard a little click as the gas tank cover popped open.
He bounced his gaze between Darryl and the surrounding area.
There was another car at the next pump over with a woman in the front seat while a man pumped gas.
A dark gray sedan sat in front of the station, the owner no doubt inside the station.
He saw a big rig parked to the side, and he could see a hulk of a man through the glass windows of the semi eating.
Would the guy be able to help him? Carter looked over his shoulder to where Darryl stood facing the pump.
Holding his breath, he grabbed the door handle with a shaky hand and slowly tugged, almost ready to piss himself, when the door cracked open with an audible noise.
He glanced at Darryl again, but Darryl didn’t appear to have heard the door.
Praying Darryl didn’t really have a gun, Carter eased the door wider and slipped to the ground, closing it enough to where Darryl wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking that he’d gotten out.
Heart thrashing in his chest almost as loud as the pounding in his head, Carter crouched beside the truck, looking for the best avenue of escape.
He hesitated, uncertain if he could really leave the innocent people at the gas station to fend for themselves. What if Darryl really hurt them?
The man at the next pump gave him a curious glance but got into his car and started the engine.
Carter breathed a sigh of relief. At least the couple would be out of harm’s way.
Taking a chance, Carter waited for them to drive by and took off, racing toward the semitruck.
A loud shout from Darryl alerted him to being seen.
“I fucking told you not to run, you little slut!”
A loud bang behind him sent Carter’s heart nosediving into his belly. Darryl had a gun! But it was the searing pain tearing through his shoulder that wrenched a scream from Carter. He stumbled but kept going. If he stopped now, he’d never get away.