Chapter 3 #2
My first mistake was ignoring him, I learned that the moment he jabbed my knife past the bars and sliced my arm. My second mistake was taking my eyes off the two in front of me, the blonde fucker tased me and with my skin as damp as it was, that son-of-a-bitch lit up my whole body.
I was still twitching when they were pulling me out and even catching the gate with my left hand, I was barely strong enough to hold it—not that I could once blondie stomped on my hand.
They dragged me another ten feet or so before attaching chains to each of my wrists, and that’s when the shit really hit the fan.
I was in a BDSM club once and one of the dommes had caning as an option on her menu. It didn’t sound fun to me then and it sure as fuck wasn’t when the man masquerading as a sheriff started walloping the backs of my legs, slowly moving upward.
Thankfully, I passed out. For a while at least.
My arms were still stretched as far out as they could reach, except they had lowered my burning backside onto a chair. A slap across my face got my attention.
“That’s it, open your eyes,” a deep voice coaxed me back to consciousness. “There we go!”
Too late, my groggy mind realized he needed my eyes open to access my phone.
“Perfect,” he drawls out the word. “I’m looking forward to catching up with Eddie and that brother of his.”
Once he releases my hair, my head lolls forward, my neck doesn’t feel strong enough to hold it up. Eddie? Does he mean Gravedigger? Bull’s dad has been gone for years, and his Uncle Damien’s been dead at least a decade. Where the hell did this guy come from?
“I hope you understand that explosion you set off yesterday is going to cost you more than a simple caning,” he says, as he scrolls through my phone barely sparing me a glance even before he turns to walk away. “But why don’t you just sit tight for now?”
Was it only yesterday?
After I saw the van out at Mills’ place, I hit the faint outline of a dirt road on his ATV and followed it back to what looked like an old mine. The entrance had been reinforced with fresh beams and there were boxes stacked immediately inside the opening.
Considering the region is dotted with abandoned mines, my first thought was that someone found a live vein and wanted to keep the government out of it. That idea would also track with needing Mills off his land, which he would never willingly do.
I shot a text to Bronco since Thunder was out on a job and I didn’t want to bother Bull, on account of him being out with the Tucker girl.
Entering the mine solo was stupid as fuck, but I did and using the flashlight on my phone, I got about a half mile in before the narrow path opened into a large chamber.
Thankfully, the man in the room had his back to me, the handful of seconds that I had before he realized he wasn’t alone saved my skin.
Hell, even if he made it to the gun he looked at, I’m sure I would have been buried alive with the report it would have made. Not having time to reach for the knife in my boot, I grabbed a crowbar that was sitting on top of a nearby crate and threw it at him, catching him upside the head.
He went down like a whore in Tijuana, but some people have zero luck. When I went to check on whether he was still going to be a problem, he had cut his head open on a rock when he landed and based on the flow of blood seeping out of the wound, I was fairly certain he wasn’t getting back up.
I paused in the two entryways that led to other tunnels but couldn’t make out any other sounds so I decided not to follow the paths further into the mine. Instead, I retrieved the crowbar and started digging around the crates.
They were an assortment of drugs and weapons. The boxes and bags all had some sort of Asian language stamped on them, so I took a small sample to see if Bull or any of the guys had seen anything like this before, and that was around the time I heard some yelling coming from one of the passageways.
If they were shouting for the man who caught the crowbar with his neck, getting out of here without them on my tail was going to be a bitch.
Grabbing a flare from near where the dead guy was, I set it off in a box of pills and with that diversion, headed back out the way I came.
A little fire, no harm, no foul, right?
Except something exploded right around the time I was starting up the ATV.
The man who seemed to be the brains of the operation went back toward the door where he exchanged a few words with the cocksucker wearing my cut.
Once the shorter man looks in my direction, I know the rest of my night is going to hell.
Thankfully, I pass out within the next hour.
Everly
By the end of the next day, I’d delivered a calf and checked all of Eda’s livestock.
Try as they might, I refused to change my mind. The way I see it, Jessup’s life was my responsibility and even if I had to search the county for him, I wasn’t going home until I knew he was alright.
Then the current sheriff showed up right before we decided to stop for lunch.
Eda’s daughter-in-law had, unofficially, been placed as a lookout—and after a long day stuck in a tree stand, she radioed Eda to let her know that the sheriff had turned onto the drive.
After a lot of bickering, Dad had finally given in and left for his store this morning. Him taking an unexpected day off would look more suspicious than not, and in the time since then, Eda and I have been practicing our story.
Now, we’ll see how well we can perform.
“Everly, dear,” Eda calls out from the entrance to the barn. “Sheriff May stopped by to check on you. He was worried you might have been accosted at the Wolf’s Den the other night.”
Leaning back from a stall, I hold my hands out so he can clearly see the shoulder length gloves that I have on. That was not how I imagined this conversation going, but I decide to have some fun with this as I give him a polite smile in greeting.
“I guess all bars have their obnoxious drunks, don’t they?
There was this man who wouldn’t stop pestering me,” I tell the sheriff as Eda’s eyes go wide when I veer away from our practiced lines.
“He was a bit shorter than me, brown hair, receding hairline, and dark eyes. I moved away from him, but he seemed determined to follow me. There were quite a few families from around town, surely someone can tell you who it was.”
When his nostrils flare out, I know I’ve hit the mark. Having just described his deputy and pointing out that others would have witnessed his behavior, I’m interested in seeing where he’ll take this.
“Hmm, actually I heard there was a biker of some sort that caused the disturbance,” he replies, lacing his thumbs behind his belt.
“If I was the one who was accosted, which I wouldn’t go so far as to call it that,” I answer, briefly looking at the cow when she lets out a moo and stamps her hoof. “Don’t you think I should be the one to tell who it was that was bothering me?”
My eyes meet his and it’s all I can do to keep from looking away. There’s a cruelness in them, like the man at the bar, yet I didn’t see much intelligence in them. May plays chess, whereas Davis plays Chutes and Ladders.
“Anyway, I left as soon as my food was ready and I’ve been up to my elbows in placenta and shit ever since,” I say, suddenly desperate to wrap up this conversation. This is not a man I should have tried messing with and I understand why the townspeople are keeping their heads down.
He continues to study me for another moment before leaning forward to look at the cow in the stall.
“Better you than me,” he quips like we’re friends. “And since you’re saying no harm was done, I’ll leave you to it.”
As he proceeds Eda out of the barn, I rip off the gloves and head out the back way, staying out of sight as I make my way to the tree stand that Livy’s been stuck in most of the day.
“My turn,” I tell her, popping my head up through the trap door.
“Oh, thank God,” she groans, instantly pushing her knitting project into a bag. “I’ve been bored to tears.”
“Of course, just give it another moment until Sheriff May passes by,” I remind her, reaching for the scope that’s dangling from a nail on the wall. “Which way did he come from, anyway?”
“South,” she immediately replies. “Probably from the old Brewer farm that guy Rogan purchased. That’s where most of those men live. Assholes, every damn one of them, no matter how much money they flash around here.”
“Is that so?” Who knew Livy was such a wealth of information? “I don’t think I’ve heard of Rogan before.”
“Rogan Balo. He owns some kind of logistics company. That’s what he says anyway. The men that work for him don’t look like any truck drivers I’ve ever seen before.”
“Right. Oh, would you mind walking back? I might take the ATV out to check on the herd.”
“Sure, just don’t forget to fuel it up when you get back.”
I nod my head, distracted as I try to remember the terrain and the best path to take between Eda’s land and the old Brewer property. As the sheriff passes by, heading north this time, she hands me the key and starts down the ladder. I wait until they’re both out of sight before I head to the ATV.
*
Taking a circuitous route, I end up in the tree line near one of the outbuildings on the neighboring property. Thankfully, there doesn’t seem to be anyone around as I enter the closest building.
Christ on a cracker. I’m going to get myself killed.
Clouds have rolled in this afternoon so despite the skylights, it’s hard to see much of anything but I’m well acquainted with the smell of blood and for the first time in a long while my stomach starts rolling at the metallic scent.
Pulling my phone out of my coat pocket, I pan the flashlight around the space and jump when I see movement in the back corner. Holding the light close to my chest, I head to the closest wall and stick to the shadows as I approach the back of the room.