KADE
7
I’ve never understood how people say they drive places on autopilot because I tend to be very aware of my surroundings. Fucked if that isn’t exactly what’s happened, though. Pulling up the Lilac Meadows driveway without a single fucking recollection as to how I got here, a soundless chuckle huffs from me. The logistics of the disposal of Toby’s body occupies every thought in my mind. There are so many options. Do I bury him? Do I feed him to the pigs? Maybe I could put him in a slurry tank. “Do you think he’d decompose in there?” I nod. “I s’pose he would.”
Cutting the headlights so as to not attract unwanted attention, I put the truck in park, then pull on my work gloves before grabbing the box of Sage’s belongings. No fingerprints. I stare down at the things I’d collected and hope it makes sense that Toby would do this. The reality of the situation is that after sending the texts earlier, I have no other choice but to follow through. Has she seen the messages from her former boyfriend yet? I shake my head. I hope the fuck not. She needs her rest after the night she’s had. Will she think he’s really going to try to be a better man? Debatable. Somehow that asshat has managed to worm his way back into her heart more than once already. I chuckle low. It’ll be really hard to do that from where you’ll be buried, asshole.
But that’s what he gets for laying his hands on her.
After depositing the box on the porch, I stand there for only a moment, seeing a vision of Sage in my mind’s eye. I’m rapidly developing a sick, relentless, undeniable obsession… with her.
Five minutes later, after dragging myself away from Sage’s family home, I pull up to our house and park beside Rhett’s truck. He must have finished up with whatever issue that poor horse was having in birthing her foal. At the door leading directly into the kitchen, I take a deep breath. Gotta figure out how to handle this, how to make Rhett see that I’d come to the only logical solution to the Toby problem: killing that motherfucker. “He left me no choice.” Rhett and I might not always see eye to eye, but we always have each other’s backs. Now, I simply have to hope that extends to offing dickheads who abuse women.
I let myself in through the side door with hardly a sound to find Rhett still up. His ass is propped against the counter in front of the kitchen sink, a mug of coffee in his hand. His brow twitches, and he appraises me with a careful eye. “Where ya been?”
With a casual shrug I reply with a clipped, “Out.”
“Oh yeah?” He shoots me a devilish grin. “Was that you I saw earlier dropping Sage at her house?” He only gets to wriggle his brows for a fraction of a second before I hold up a hand, shaking my head.
“No,” I growl. “That is… yes. But it’s not what you’re thinking.”
The tone of my voice forces the growing smirk from his face. “I think you’d better tell me what’s goin’ on.”
“You should sit down for this.” Exhaling heavily, I gesture to the table and pull out a chair for myself, dropping onto it.
“Fuck. More than what went on before I left the bar?” At my stiff nod, Rhett tips his head toward the full pot behind him. “Coffee?” I’m fucking exhausted, and there’s no way I’m sleeping anytime soon, so I nod. It’s all I’m capable of while I gather my thoughts. Rhett slides a mug in my direction and sits down with his own. I’m silent for almost a full minute, then finally take a sip of the steaming-hot brew before meeting my brother’s eyes. He knows it sometimes takes me a beat to get my shit together.
I exhale hard. “I stayed, like we agreed was necessary. Was going to walk Sage to her truck when her shift ended.” The muscle in my jaw twitches as I remember the terror that’d slid through my veins when she went missing.
“He came back?” The fact that Rhett has guessed that much doesn’t surprise me. “Tell me he didn’t.”
Working my jaw to the side, I stare down into my coffee mug. Finally, I lift my head. “He beat the shit out of her, Rhett. Found her huddled in a ball between the dumpsters in the alley.”
Rhett stares steadily at me for several seconds before biting out, “Mother. Fucker.” He wets his lips as he shakes his head in disbelief. “How? Where were you?”
“She went to take the trash out. When she didn’t come back, I went to check on her. That motherfucker waited until she was all alone.”
“That slimy piece of shit,” Rhett grits out. “Is she okay?”
“I took care of her. Took her home. She was so banged up, we ended up leaving her truck and bag at Boozin’ Boots because she didn’t want to walk back inside.”
The more I tell him, the more Rhett looks like he’s about to stomp out of here to go find Toby himself. And as much as I appreciate that, the memory of my brother going after Sage when she ran to the bar’s bathroom also grates on my nerves. I sigh. Even with all that fresh in my mind, Rhett is the one I can really count on when the wheels fall off. We’ve been there for each other more times than I can remember, whether it was kids picking on me at school or fistfights when we were older. He’ll help, I know he will. I just hope he’s ready for this… since there’s no Toby left to deal with. Unless we count his dead body.
I clear my throat and rub a hand over the heavy stubble on my cheek. “I could use some help later this morning.”
“Talk to me.”
“Oh, just whenever Billy texts me back to tell me it’s okay, I’d like to grab her things, and like I said, we left her truck there, so I want to bring it home for her.” At the reminder of her upset and fear, my insides twist uncomfortably. It’s a tough call as to whether I’ll ever forget the events of the last six hours, but at least he can’t ever touch her again.
Rhett sighs. “I wonder if I’ll see her later today. I’ve gotta go back to check on the mare and her foal.”
“She might not venture far from the house for a bit. Gonna need some time off work after the beating she got.”
“Is it that bad? Fuck.” He sucks in some air through his teeth. “I could kill that fuckin’ bastard.” You don’t say… “But yeah. We can swing into town, no problem.” Exhaling hard, he pushes back his chair and stands. “I’m gonna head to bed, see if I can catch a few hours of sleep.”
It’s now or never. I rub my hands over my thighs before getting up and crossing to him. “Actually, I have one more little thing I could use some help with.” Our eyes connect, and mine bore into his so he knows I’m not fucking around .
His brows knit together. “Yeah. Okay.” He pauses, waiting on me.
“Come on outside for a sec. It’s easier to show you.” On our way out, I glance back at him, figuring I have to start somewhere. “Do you remember that thing we did when we were younger when we’d be trying to get out of trouble with Grandma Jo and we would help each other. No questions asked…?”
This particular brotherly tactic had begun one time when we were wrestling in the living room like we were on WWE SmackDown. Rhett had shouted, “John Cena!” as he came down on top of me, and we’d wiped out Grandma Jo’s favorite lamp in the process, smashing it to pieces. We told her the dog did it and never spoke about it again. Ever since, whenever we need to communicate that we have each other’s backs, but we’re not discussing a damn thing, we simply say?—
“John Cena.” He stops, and I have a feeling the blood has just drained from his face. “Kade… what the fuck did you do?”
I hesitate at the back end of my truck, pulling down the tailgate slowly, but keeping my eyes trained on my brother. “Did you get around to burying that dead calf yesterday?”
Rhett frowns, rubbing his temples with his right hand. “No. Why?”
I pull back the canvas just enough to allow him to see the bungee cord-wrapped tarp. I don’t say a word, simply let him process for several seconds.
“Kade, please tell me that’s not what I think it is.”
I shrug, working my jaw to the side as I peruse my handiwork. “I did what everyone else wanted to do. Don’t look at me like that. Not two seconds ago, you said you’d like to kill him.”
“Figuratively, Kade, not literally.” Shaking his head rapidly, he blusters out, “There’s a dead fuckin’ body in our fuckin’ truck.”
“John Cena, Rhett. John fuckin’ Cena.”
Rhett rubs both hands over his face, seemingly trying to process the mess I’ve created. “Are you fuckin’ serious? You’re certifiable.”
“We own thousands of acres, there are dozens if not hundreds of animals buried on this property.” I give a nonchalant shrug. “What’s one more pig?”
“Kade. We own a cattle ranch.”
As we drive through field after field, I steal peeks at my brother in the rearview. I’m in the Chevy with Toby hanging out in the back, and Rhett’s trailing me in the skid steer with the dead calf. It’s as if he’s pulled a mask down over his face to disguise his true feelings about the situation at hand. Stony. That’s how I’d describe his expression. He’s not giving a damn thing away.
But if I know my brother, I’d say he’s confused by his own feelings on the matter. Did I kill that bastard rolling around in the back of my truck? Yes. And is Rhett pissed about it? Definitely. However, I can tell he understands why I did it. He may even be questioning if he’d have done the same damn thing. When it comes down to it, I have no doubt Rhett would make a similar choice, though I’m unsure he’d enjoy it as much as I did.
Shifting my focus from him, I survey our surroundings. There’s nothing as far as the eye can see. This spot is about as remote as it gets. No one will be coming out here anytime soon. I cut the engine, exit my truck, and wait for my brother to catch up. As I open the tailgate, my gaze narrows on the tarp-wrapped weasel. “Toby, we’ve come to the end of the road, you and I.”
Rhett pulls to a stop, dumping the calf from the bucket before he shuts off the skid steer and climbs from it. Hands on his hips, he looks around, clearly avoiding eye contact. “This is as good a place as I think we’re gonna find.”
I nod curtly, bobbing my head. “Better than the motherfucker deserves.”
Exhaling hard, he gestures to the ground in front of us. “ I figure we dig down pretty deep, put him in, layer the lime, then drop the calf on top.”
“The lime’s gonna help with decomposition, and the calf carcass will disguise the human bones.” I grit my teeth.
“Agreed. Let’s fuckin’ do it.” Rhett gets back into the skid steer and begins to dig while I lean forward into the bed of the truck so I can reach Toby in his tarp. I grasp the corner of it and put my entire body into pulling his lifeless form to the edge. With one final hard yank, that useless cunt is on the ground. “Shit, Tobes. Didn’t mean to dump you on your fuckin’ head, man.” I smirk, then look up as Rhett joins me. I dig Johnson’s phone out of my pocket and toss it, letting it land in the dirt hole. Together, we roll him into his grave, bidding him one last farewell.
Was this my preferred method of disposal? No. Personally, I’d rather dismember him and turn him into pig feed. It’d make my heart happy to toss that sleazy cunt piece by piece to the hogs—I’m sure Miss Piggy and Sir Piggins would appreciate the natural, organic buffet. Unfortunately, Rhett talked me out of it, saying that burying him is a far cleaner option and less deranged. Rhett’s always playing dad, taking the fun out of everything. Eventually, because we’re overachievers, we’ll plant a protected species on top of ol’ Toby so no one will ever be able to dig him up.
I study our work. It takes a surprisingly short amount of time to make someone disappear from the face of the earth. No one’s gonna find him.
Rhett wipes the sweat from his brow with his forearm. “I don’t want another John Cena outta you for a long time, ya hear me?”
“Yeah.” I scrape my teeth over my lower lip, nodding my understanding. “I know it was a big ask. But when you get a look at Sage’s pretty face, swollen and cut up the way it is, you’ll understand why I did it. And if you look into her eyes, you’ll wish you’d done it yourself. Trust me.”