Chapter 23
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Della
“Why are you mucking out the stalls?” Shadow asks in my ear. His voice rough and gravelly through the phone, making me smile.
I didn’t need him to be in front of me to know he’s stressed.
I could hear it in his voice. Plus, it’d been written all over him yesterday and early this morning when he left to head back to the clubhouse to meet with his brothers and get back to it.
There was a lot going on, so I tried to make sure he didn’t have to worry about me.
With me being at the ranch, he has nothing to worry about.
I’m safe out here. There’s always someone around between the ranch hands, my brother, and Judy.
Though, Judy headed for the farmer’s market this morning, right before Maddox started Dylan’s lesson.
She wanted to get some fresh produce, and some more of the jam I really like.
I asked her to pick up two jars, one I can take to Shadow’s house, and some other things.
The woman had a list a mile long of what she wanted to pick up.
I also wasn’t telling him that all the guys were out working away from the barn and house. Maddox had gotten a call from Tyler about a hole in the fence that needed to be fixed before any of the cattle roamed over there and ended up off the property. This had cut into Dylan’s riding lesson.
So it was just Dylan and me.
“Well, I’m giving Dylan a lesson in taking care of your horse.
You can’t just learn to ride without doing the rest of the work that goes with it,” I explain wholeheartedly.
I was having a great time. Dylan and I were laughing and joking.
I even shown the kid how Rex stomped his back hoof when I scratched just right behind his ear.
“And you’re teaching my cousin how to clean stalls?” Shadow chuckled.
“Yep,” I confirm. “It’s something everyone who comes to the ranch should learn to do. It’s basic knowledge when you have a horse, they need tending to, this includes the not-so-fun parts.”
“If you say so, little mouse.” At the sound of his amusement, I close my eyes and savor his words. “I’ll be by later to see you.”
“I’ll be here.” I promised him this morning I wouldn’t go anywhere without him. Not that I was. I knew what he was dealing with, and I didn’t want him worrying about me. After what happened at the bar and what he said yesterday, I was doing everything I could to give him a sense of ease.
“Catch you later, little mouse. Don’t work too hard,” he says and disconnects before I can say something of the sort.
I liked that even though he had a lot on his plate, he took the time to connect with me, even though he’d told me yesterday he wanted me to text him periodically, even if he couldn’t return texts or call me.
It was sweet of him, and I love that he did it.
“So, you’re Shadow’s girlfriend?” Dylan asks as I shove my phone in my back pocket.
“I guess you can say that.” I smile in Dylan’s direction, seeing him dump more of the soiled wood shavings into the wheelbarrow.
This morning, I told my brother I’d handle the mucking out of the stalls today since the guys had their hands full.
Today’s mucking, though, meant cleaning out the entirety of each stall and putting down new shavings.
This was fine with me, and from the look on Dylan’s face, he didn’t seem to mind helping.
We’d already done two stalls and were on our third with three more to go.
“Are you okay with that?” I knew Dylan was close with Shadow.
Amelia, after her parents had died, lived with Shadow’s parents, him, and his sister, Taylor.
Shadow hadn’t really talked about his sister, other than telling me she’d be home in a few weeks to visit their parents, and I’d see her then when we had dinner with his parents.
He also shared the reason we hadn’t seen them yet is because his parents were on one of the many trips they take a year.
They’re enjoying retirement, traveling all over.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Dylan shrugs and scoops up more. His question breaks through my thoughts, and I have to admit it’s a good one. One I didn’t know how to answer. Before I can, Dylan continues, “If he’s happy, that’s cool.” He pauses for a beat. “My mom’s happy too.”
“That’s a good thing, isn’t it?”
“Well, yeah. My mom works hard and does everything for me. She tries to play it off like she’s okay, but until Maddox came around, I could tell she was lonely.” He scoops another shovel full of shavings. “She smiles more. I like that.”
That’s pretty amazing for this kid to say. His words hit me square in my chest, and my heart hurts at the fact I’ve missed so much of his life. I used to spend time with him and Amelia when he was a baby. Looking at him now and with what he said, I want to wrap him up in a hug.
But it’d probably freak him out, so I clear my throat and set my pitchfork to the side. “I better take this around the barn to dump. You get the next stall door open, and I’ll be right back.”
“All right,” he mutters, almost similar to how his uncle would say those two words.
Grabbing the handles of the wheelbarrow, I guide it out the back doors and toward the stockpile of manure. It’s not the best smell in the world, but it can be used again for other purposes on the ranch. Just like with cow manure.
As I start back toward the barn, I hear Dylan shouting and crying out for help. Dropping the handles of the barrow, I take off running to find two masked men hurting Dylan.
“Let me go,” Dylan shouts and tries to fight the man holding him captive.
“Let him go,” I scream. Not thinking better of it, I rush at them. When they don’t listen, I shout, “I said let him go.”
“How about we don’t?” one of them says, turning in my direction, moving to block me from seeing Dylan. Beady eyes stare at me through the mask. “How about we just take you both?”
“What?” I stammer, skidding to a halt out of his reach. To get to Dylan, I need to play this right. I need to protect him.
The guy holding onto Dylan chuckles. “I think that would be a good idea. Take them both. That’ll teach them all.”
“Look, if you want to take someone, take me. Leave Dylan alone. He’s just a kid.
Leave him be. I’ll go with you. I swear I won’t fight you.
Please.” To keep Dylan safe, I’ll do anything.
I couldn’t bear to look into Amelia’s eyes if something happened to him.
Let alone Shadow’s. This is his family. I don’t even want to think about how Maddox would handle it.
He loves this kid. I could see it earlier when I was watching him teach Dylan to ride his horse, the way Granddaddy taught us.
The two men share a look before the one in front of me nods. “That works for us. Taking you will drive the message home deeper.”
“No, Della, Maddox will be back soon,” Dylan shouts, eyes wide with panic. I love that he trusts my brother so much, but I won’t risk him. Not if I can save him. I don’t know how long my brother will be.
What message?
The one holding Dylan by the bicep tosses him to the side as if he were nothing more than a bag of horse feed. Dylan cries out, and my heart aches for him. I hate hearing him cry.
I take a step toward Dylan to check on him, only to be blocked by one of the men. One of them slams a fist to my face, knocking me to the ground.
“You have no clue what you’ve just agreed to, bitch.” The other laughs and pats me down, taking my phone out of my back pocket, tossing it across the barn. “Can’t have you bringing that with you.”
Everything seems to happen in a whirlwind as both my feet and hands are zip-tied, duct tape slapped over my mouth, and I’m thrown up and over the first guy’s shoulder.
Neither said names nor spoke any other word as they carried me out of there.
It didn’t matter to me here or there what they did.
I didn’t care about my safety. All I wanted was to make sure they didn’t take Dylan.
It was a chance I took when they tied me up.
They could have still grabbed him, but thankfully, they seemed to be fine with taking me in his place.
“You know that kid’s gonna tell someone,” the one with me over his shoulder grumbles once we are far enough away from the barn.
“Yeah, that’s the whole point.” The other snickers. “They won’t locate her or discover who took her. They’ll dismiss it, just like what happened at the bar. Hell, right now, those bastards are all scratching their heads trying to figure it out, but they won’t. We’ve got this shit in the bag.”
It wasn’t smart for them to brag while I was awake, but with duct tape on my mouth, I couldn’t point that out. I didn’t think they’d care either way.
After a long while of them walking, they stop, and I find myself none too gently thrown in the back of a van. The door slams closed, drowning out my whimper of pain from being tossed against the wheel well.
Here I thought the worst thing to happen to me was me being raped, until now, I think that was the case. These men, though, they’re going to kill me unless Shadow finds me first, which is what I’m betting on.
Once Shadow finds out I’m missing, he’ll do whatever it takes to find me. He’ll never stop until he does, and that’s what these men don’t understand about what they’ve just done in taking me. My man was going to hunt them down.
* * *
Hours pass by, and the only reason I know is by the setting of the sun.
My body hurts, and it’s all I can do to stay awake.
The men have both taken turns kicking, punching, and hitting everywhere they could.
According to them, I wasn’t pretty enough to fuck because the sight of me didn’t do it for them.
This worked for me. I didn’t want to go through that form of violation from them.
This didn’t mean they didn’t take enjoyment out of cutting my clothes off me.
They taunted me while they did so, and it made my stomach coil tight.
With the tape over my mouth still in place, I haven’t been able to cry out or scream, though I still make noise.
I’ve had to swallow back bile several times from the impact of the blows they’ve delivered to me.
I’m not sure how much more I can take before they end up killing me, which they confirmed was their end goal. To leave me as a message to my brother. Not to Shadow. But to my brother. All of this is over land. A land that he and I both wanted to protect.