Chapter Fifty
Jo
O ne hour earlier…
“Where do you need me? How can I help?” I ask Jackson, jumping out of the way when someone sprints past me, pulling a water hose.
There aren’t fire hydrants this far up the mountain, and that means water is scarce.
There are already three fire trucks on scene when a fourth pulls in through the gates.
There are too many cars and not enough room for the truck to get where it needs to.
“Start flagging all the volunteers to move their vehicles back into the field behind the house. We need this area cleared as much as possible.” He speaks into his radio, splitting his attention between me, the other deputies, and the flames billowing out of the guesthouse.
Thank God, Lochlan insisted that I stay with him in his house.
I pulled all my stuff from the guesthouse last week, so I didn’t have to go back and forth.
“I’ve got it under control. Don’t worry.”
“Hey, Jo.” Jackson stops me.
“Be careful,” he says offhandedly.
I’m not doing anything particularly risky, so I know he’s just saying it as an impulse, but it makes me wish I could be more helpful.
“Sure thing.” I smile halfheartedly.
I don’t really have a plan once I start directing the volunteer firefighters out of the way, but convincing people that you’re in control isn’t that hard to accomplish.
I’m flagging people to where they can park and coordinating with a couple of guys who are setting up a makeshift drinking water station.
“Excuse me,” a man’s voice comes from behind me.
“Yes,” I utter, turning towards one of the volunteers.
He’s wearing a firefighter’s helmet and coat, and it’s dark enough that I can’t quite see his features.
I have to lean in closer to hear him speak because of all the chatter around us.
“I was parking my truck when I caught my eye on a little girl. She’s hiding in the woods and was too scared to come out when I called for her. I reckon she belongs to you.”
I gasp.
“Take me to her.”
“She’s right through here.” He leads me a few feet down one of the paths that takes us away from the house, but it isn’t until I shout Emory’s name a few times that I realize how far we’ve walked.
“I don’t see her.”
He doesn’t respond, and I spin around, but my chest tightens…
He’s removed his helmet, and he’s looking at me with an amused grin on his face.
It’s creepy Jerry from the junkyard.
“What are you doing?”
“Luring you away was like dangling candy in front of a toddler.”
“Luring me away from what?”
“Not from anything, but towards something.” He chuckles, lunging for me and gripping my bicep forcefully before I can dodge him.
“What do you want from me?”
He yanks my arm, pulling me further down the path until my feet are stumbling over themselves.
Every worst-case scenario is filtering through my mind…
Is he going to hurt me?
Did he hurt…
“Where’s Emory? Is she okay?”
“Kid’s fine.”
Thank God.
“Where are you taking me?”
“Not too much farther.”
His responses are so calm, as if what he’s doing is at all rational.
“Lochlan will know I’m gone.”
“He’s out on a wild goose chase looking for that girl. I made sure of that.”
My blood chills in my veins.
This isn’t a spontaneous impulse he’s acting on, he planned to take me…
“You started the fires? And the barn fire a few months ago?”
“Fraid so, sweet cheeks.”
“Let me go.”
“No.”
My panic increases as we get closer to the bear enclosure fences.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Because I was paid good money, and that’s how the world works.”
“It doesn’t have to. You can stop whatever you’re planning, and we can fix this. I’ll tell them you had a change of heart, and it’ll be fine. ”
“I think it’s too late for that, but nice try.” He pulls a chain out of his deep pocket and wraps it around my waist, pulling me flush against him to tighten it and lock it around me.
“If you behave, I won’t hurt ya.”
“Behave?” Is he going to…
“Don’t move.” He loops the chain around the fence post and secures it loosely.
I could escape.
If he steps away a few feet, I could untangle the chain and run…
He grips the chain link fencing in both hands and peels a section back that he must’ve previously clipped, opening a doorway into the enclosures.
He steps through after he grabs my chain, tugging me along.
“Come on, girl.”
“You’re taking me in there?”
“Looks like it, don’t it?”
“It’s not safe.”
He rolls his eyes at me like I’m the unreasonable one.
“Come on.” He tugs me harder, making me trip through the hole, falling to the ground at his feet.
When I don’t immediately right myself, he pulls my chain, forcing the metal to dig into my waist, and bite me with pain.
“Please, don’t.”
“Get the fuck up, I’m tired of being nice.”
“Nice? This isn’t nice!”
“Pretty girl like you probably isn’t used to the real world, but guess what? Life isn’t nice,” he yells in my face, making me flinch away.
I’m too scared to fight as he tugs me a few feet along the fence line, farther into the bear enclosure.
My feet crunch through the dried leaves on the ground until my open-toe sandals squish against something soft and moist.
It’s cold against my skin.
Jerry sticks a small flashlight into his mouth, holding it between his teeth while he secures my chain around one of the metal fence posts.
I glance down with the extra light and squeal, kicking my feet.
Blood.
And what looks like brain matter is scattered all over the ground, coating my toes in dark red.
“What is this?” I scream, trying to get away from it, but he’s tightened my chain around the fence post, and I can’t move.
I can only twist a few inches left and right.
“Stop being a sissy. It’s ground beef and chicken livers.”
“Why?”
“It’ll attract the bears.” He laughs from deep in his chest, and my jaw drops.
“You want them to eat me?”
“Something like that.”
“I thought you said you wouldn’t hurt me?”
“Well, I won’t. Can’t say as much about the bears.”
“On no, no, no, no,” I mutter repeatedly, trying to twist free from the solidly locked chain.
He’s padlocked me in.
“Why? Why me?”
He shrugs.
“My brother wants power, and this place is like a gold mine. He thinks this will do the trick.”
“What?” My brain is not understanding his plan, and I don’t know who his brother is.
“If Mr. Dane’s fiancé gets mauled by the bears he cherishes so much, it’ll finally get him to shut it down.” He smirks, amused by this outlandish conversation.
“He won’t. It won’t work. He’ll never give this place up,” I cry.
“Something switches in a man when he loses the woman he loves,” Jerry murmurs.
“You’ve made a mistake.”
“No, I don’t think so. Chain, meat offerings, solid distraction.” He smacks his fire jacket, smiling at me disgustingly.
“Lochlan doesn’t love me. We’re only pretending to be engaged.”
His eyes narrow.
“I’m just his employee. I lied about being his fiancée, and he went along with it. That’s it. He might be sad I’m dead, but he won’t give this place up. I guarantee it.”
“You’re lying.”
“No, I’m not.” Tears stream down my face.
I am trying to force him to see the errors in his ways, but I’m not sure I’m not lying…
I’m not really Lochlan’s fiancée, and he’s already planned to say goodbye to me.
We’ve grown inseparable, but he’s not in love with me.
He can’t be; he wouldn’t allow it.
He told me as much.
“It’s a shame for you, then, I guess. Plan isn’t changing. Sorry, sweet cheeks.” He takes a few steps, and I realize he’s leaving me.
He’s leaving me here inside the enclosure completely defenseless and at the mercy of the bears.
I don’t want to be near him, but I definitely don’t want to be alone.
“Please, don’t do this.”
“I have to. A man has to feed his family.”
“I hope your family is ashamed of you.”
“They probably would be if they knew what I was doing… But all they know is that the bills are paid and they’ve got food in their bellies. A rich girl like you doesn’t understand something like that, but maybe these bears can show you wh at it means to be hungry.” He laughs deeply, stepping back through the fence.
He rights the chain link and twists it just right so it looks flush like it hasn’t been tampered with.
“I’ll scream until someone finds me.”
“Go ahead.” He rights his firefighter helmet.
“But I’m headed off to start some more chaos somewhere far from here.” He winks, holding a lighter and a small bottle of lighter fluid.
A sweep of light reflects off his face suddenly, and he drops, crouching away from it.
Curtis walks around the pathway, sweeping the trees until he notices Jerry in his path and jumps.
“Damn, dude, what the hell are you doing out here?”
“I was searching for the little girl.”
“CURTIS!” I scream, and his head swivels, searching for me.
“I’m in here, help!”
His gaze finally finds me, but he’s struggling to comprehend why I’m behind the fence.
He opens his mouth to speak, and Jerry lunges at him, taking him down by his waist.
“No!”
Jerry tries to climb on top of Curtis, but he swings his legs, kicking him off before he can.
A full-out brawl ensues as they fight for the upper hand.
Curtis kicks Jerry hard enough to give himself more space to get to his feet and swings a punch at him.
I see the pain twist his features when his scarred fist connects with Jerry’s jaw.
His hands are too damaged from his skin grafts.
Jerry stumbles to the ground, but when he stands back up, he’s holding a thick branch in his hands like a baseball bat.
He launches at Curtis, who dodges the first swing, but his head gets clipped the second time Jerry swings, sending him to the ground.
“Curtis! No!”
Jerry swings the branch down like an ax, striking Curtis in the back of the head, and his body flattens lifelessly.
“NO!” His blood pools around his head, and a guttural scream escapes me until my lungs run out.
My head is swimming as Jerry drops the branch and stumbles back a step, wiping the blood off his mouth with the back of his hand.
“What did you do?” I cry, banging the back of my head against the fence post.
“I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to fucking do that!” He yells.
“Fuck!”
“JO!” My name reverberates through the trees, and there is only one person that it could belong to.
“Don’t fucking breathe,” Jerry threatens, yanking my hair through the fence.
“Say a damn word and I’ll light this place up.”
I feel liquid soaking the skirt of my dress, dripping down my legs, and then the odor of lighter fluid hits my nostrils.
He’s dousing me in accelerant.
He empties the bottle along the fence line, spraying it back and forth along the path he originally brought me down, and then throws the empty bottle on top of Curtis’ motionless body.
He fishes the lighter out of his pocket and waits.