Chapter 40
Parker
Turns out finding Sheriff Strauss hadn’t been that difficult. With my foot stuck on the gas, I caught up to him fairly quickly. Doing my best to remain concealed, I followed him throughout town.
He lived modestly on the other side of town. The houses weren’t stacked on top of each other, so there was a modicum of privacy. The neighborhood was quiet, and it seemed to be home to many older couples.
Strauss exited the car with ease. Not an ounce of paranoia in him. He just walked into his house like it was a normal evening.
The illogical part of me wanted to run up on him and thrash him until he told me where Evelyn was. But I had to keep my cool. I waited this long for him to resurface, so I had to play my cards right.
He spent another fifteen minutes inside the house, then returned with a few more bags that looked like they held food.
It was time to see where he was headed.
Forty minutes and twenty miles later, he had finally stopped driving.
I rolled the car into the tall grass off the shoulder of the road and just watched.
We were miles outside of town in the farm lands on the outskirts of Brenton. The sun had set, and the only thing lighting the night was the moon.
Sheriff Strauss was none the wiser of my presence, and I hoped it would stay that way.
I gave him a wide berth as he trekked through the grass and into the rust colored barn that sat in the field.
Evelyn had been gone for eight hours already, and I couldn’t let my mind think too much about the state of her. Everything in my body was telling me I needed to get into that barn and do it quickly, but this wasn’t the time to make decisions fueled by emotions.
Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I turned on my location and shared it with Danny, knowing that he would drive here.
I couldn’t stand by and wait for someone to show up.
The whole ride here, I kept thinking about every moment I spent with Evelyn.
In the past few weeks, she had become my rock and my safe space.
I thought coming up with the list idea would help her open up. But it did something for me, too.
Each moment I spent with her, I realized how empty my life had been. I worked harder than most, and even when I reached new heights in my career as a firefighter, I never stopped to rest. My life had turned into this predictable cycle.
At this point, I couldn’t say that I didn’t follow in the footsteps of my father. My only enjoyment came from the poker night that Danny dragged me to every month. My Brooklyn brownstone barely saw me. My entire life was at the firehouse.
Now it felt like my entire world was in that barn. The moment I realized Evelyn was gone, I felt like someone had my heart in a vise, refusing to let go.
My feet slowly carried me toward the barn doors. The sound of a single gunshot stopped me in my tracks for a beat before I raced through the barn doors with my gun cocked. I didn’t think. I just reacted.
My mind was reeling when I came face-to-face with Evelyn. She was tied to a chair with blood trickling down her face to her chest, and a man stood beside her with a gun still raised in the air. That’s when I noticed Sheriff Strauss lying there on the ground with a gunshot wound to the head.
The man pointed the gun toward me while walking in my direction, and I set my aim on him. He stopped short a foot away from me.
Charles.
He had an athletic build and appeared close to the same height, wearing grey cargo pants, a black t-shirt and boots. The smile he wore reeked of arrogance. His clothing didn’t match the haughty look on his face.
“Welcome to the party, Parker,” he said, tilting his head to the side with a curious expression.
At the sound of my name, Evelyn shot up. She’s no longer sobbing softly, she’s screaming.
“No! Parker. Leave! Go!” The words leave her mouth in quick succession. She’s hysterical, and I felt my body push forward again.
“Ain’t no way in hell I’m leaving you here, Ev.”
“Uh uh. Don’t take another step unless you want to see Evelyn’s pretty face blown off. You think about shooting me, and it's over for her.”
As badly I wanted to close the distance between us, I would not risk her life. I stopped myself from going to her, but kept my gun raised.
“Charles, he has nothing to do with this. Please just let him go,” she said, her voice breaking as she fought her restraints.
Charles turned toward her and caressed her cheek.
“Evvie, I’m going to make sure I take everything that you love. If I can’t be happy, neither can you.”
Before I could register what was happening, he spun around and fired the gun.
I pulled the trigger, but I didn’t see if it landed because pain exploded in my abdomen, and my legs buckled.
My body met the floor, and fire spread through my stomach, knocking the wind from my lungs.
All I heard were Evelyn’s screams as Charles stood over me, sneering.
Kicking my gun away, he raised his leg and his foot came down on my knee. I couldn’t bite back the groan that bubbled out of my mouth.
“Now that you’re here, you can watch.”
Charles pressed his foot into the wound once more before tucking the gun back into his pants and producing a small knife.
He turned his back on me, refocused his attention on Evelyn.
“Now, where were we?”
He takes his time circling Evelyn like a predator stalking his prey. She had stopped screaming even though he took the blade to her skin. Once over the shoulder, then once across the torso. She just held my gaze in silence.
“We’re going to get out of here.” My voice came out strained. This couldn’t be the end of us. I needed her to fight.
She was retreating into herself. Her mind was protecting itself the only way it knew how.
I could tell the silence was angering him. He began taunting her, trying to get a reaction.
“Maybe I should have some fun with your little boyfriend instead. You’re boring me,” he said as he bent down and got eye level with her.
She blinked and stared blankly at me as tears trickled down her face.
I tried my best to stand, but my body refused to cooperate. Everything felt heavy. Pressing a hand to my side, it came away bloody. Gritting my teeth, I pushed down, applying pressure.
Charles disappeared from my view for a second but reappeared with a gasoline tank. He started dousing the hay. He was whistling a tune as he did it. I couldn’t place it, but it sounded so familiar.
My body was giving up on me, and I couldn’t get to Evelyn.
Charles moved on to showering Sheriff Strauss with the accelerant, but not before saying, “Thank you, Dad.”
My mind struggled to process this new information.
It had me thinking of my father and wondering what part he played in all of this again.
Did he really just want a background check on Evelyn, or was there more to it?
Strauss had been appointed as the sheriff several months ago.
The town knew him and may have even loved him.
All this time, he was Charles’ father—the father of a killer.
The sound of my phone ringing returned Charles’ attention to me.
“Ah, what do we have here?” he mused as he squatted down to fish my phone out of my pocket.
My breaths were becoming shallow, I wanted to lash out at him, but I barely had the strength to keep pressure on the wound.
He rotated my phone toward my face and unlocked it with ease.
“Danny boy says he’s on his way. Tsk tsk.”
Standing, he dropped my phone to the ground and crushed it beneath his foot.
“I guess we’ll have to speed things along. Let’s liven things up a bit. I’m sure that will wake sweet Evvie right up.”
He broke away from my line of vision again, only gone for a moment.
Charles came back with a crowbar swinging in his right hand, whistling as he crossed the barn to me.
He stopped in front of Evelyn first, though. “Have you ever seen a fibula?” he asks, receiving no response again.
Once he stood in front of me, he took one last look at her before he brought the crowbar down on my leg. “Yeah, me neither. But we’re about to.”
I screamed in agony as he brought the crowbar down on my leg twice and then a third time.
Sweat coated my skin as the pain from the blows and the gunshot wound left me breathless. I can’t help but call out to her, “Evelyn.”
Before the pain takes me under, I see her eyes snap to mine.
I thought this was goodbye. My heart shattered along with my bones. I thought I had more time.
I love you.