Split You Open (Gnarly Pines Duet #2)

Chapter 1

One

Wesley

It takes me three passes before spotting Santi.

He waves his hands in the air, and the light from his cell phone catches my attention. I pull over. Rather than wait for him to climb into the truck, I jump out and hurry over to him.

“Santi! Are you okay?”

Before he can answer, I throw my arms around him and hug him to me. He grunts in surprise, then lets out a weak chuckle.

“I’m good, Wes. Just a few scratches.”

“Thank goodness,” I breathe out in relief.

I drop my arms and step back to get a good look at him. He’s got a cut by his right brow and a split lip but otherwise appears to be unharmed, just like he said.

“We need to go after them, Wes,” Santi says as he takes me by the arm and drags me back to the truck. “We can probably catch up with them if we hurry!”

We climb into the truck but rather than barrel out of here and give chase like he wants, I sit in the driver’s seat and stare straight ahead.

My heart is racing. Even with Santiago here with me, it won’t settle.

There’s too much going on. Too much out of my control.

There’s got to be a way to fix all of this.

But right now, I don’t know what the fuck to do.

“Wesley!” Santi shakes my arm as he stares at me from the passenger seat. “Did you hear me? We have to go. Rhett and Blair need us!”

Yes. They do.

Unfortunately, we’ve run into a problem.

“We have no way to track them, Santi.” I reach up and pinch the bridge of my nose.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I try to push away the fear, panic, and anger warring in my chest. It’s making it hard to think.

“They didn’t take one of our trucks and Rhett tossed his phone in the woods somewhere near here—trust me, I’ve tried tracking it. ”

Santi groans. “Wes, we have to do something.”

I swallow hard. What the hell are we supposed to do?

“Right now, we have to clean up any evidence of our presence here,” I tell him, trying to think fast. “We need to tow your truck out of the woods.”

Santiago growls with frustration. “We can just set it on fire and be done with it.”

“And draw attention to it? So close to the more than a dozen bodies a quarter of a mile away?” I shake my head. “No.”

“Yeah… I saw that. It’s bad over there, isn’t it?” Santi confirms in a low, pained voice. “Rhett didn’t have a gun on him, Wes. That was all Blair. Do you think she’s okay? Rhett would’ve said if she wasn’t, right?”

I shrug. I don’t have an answer to that.

“Come on, help me get the chains on your truck and get it to the cabin. We’ll come up with a plan once we’re—”

“Go back to the cabin?” Santi whips his head back and forth fiercely. “No. I’m not going back there. I can’t pretend that I don’t know what Ledger’s done. He’ll see right through—”

“He’s not there.”

“What? Where…” He must see something on my face because his question trails off as he stares at me. “No. Please tell me he doesn’t know that I know.”

I wince, wishing more than anything that I could give him better news. “You were on speaker phone. He heard everything.”

“What?!? Why didn’t you—"

“Ledger held me at fucking gunpoint while you were talking! I couldn’t warn you to stop.”

Santi’s fist hits the dashboard. “FUCK!”

I reach up and rub my eyes as I try to frantically push back the despair threatening to consume me. There’s no time to fall apart. I have to do something but… what?

“Damn it!” Santi’s strikes the dashboard again, this time repeatedly as if it’s the reason Blair and Rhett are gone. “We’re totally fucked. Fucked, fucked, fuc—” He gasps, his fist freezing halfway into the air. “Wait, you said Ledger’s not at the cabin. If he’s not there, then where did he go?”

I grimace. “He went after Rhett and Blair. He’s the only one who knows where Blair is right now. We have to let him find her.”

Santi sputters, confused. “What? How? I thought you said there’s no way to track them—”

“He’s… tracking Blair,” I hedge carefully. “He put a tracker in her.”

Santi opens his mouth, closes it, scowls, then shakes his head.

“In her?” He repeats. At my nod, his scowl deepens. “He’s a real piece of shit.”

I can’t agree more.

“Then… then we still have a chance to help!” Hope brightens his expression as he leans over the center console. “We’ll go after Ledger. He has his truck, right? They all have trackers, so all we have to do is follow him and we'll find them.”

God, if only it could be that easy…

I shake my head slowly. “I checked before coming, Ledger’s turned off tracking on his phone and truck. I don’t know where he went.”

Santi groans. “Wes, he’s going to kill Blair!”

“No.” I shake my head, confident in this. “He’s not.”

“How can you say that? He put a hit out on her—”

“Whatever reason he had to do that, it wasn’t to kill Blair,” I object sharply.

Santi gapes at me, his eyes widening with horror. After a sharp inhale, he hisses, “You don’t know that.”

“I DO! I FUCKING DO! When it comes to Blair, there’s no one safer than with Ledger!”

Flipping out on Santi isn’t going to help the situation. I suck in a deep breath to calm down.

Okay, I need to focus.

We need to get out of here. I glance out my window into the darkness, searching for Santi’s truck.

I spot it a few yards past the tree line, its hazard lights faintly blinking in the dark.

Shoving open my door, I climb out to head for the back of my truck.

With a grunt, I grab the chains. Hopefully getting his vehicle out of the woods won’t be too difficult.

Santi climbs out of the truck and follows me into the woods without a word. He says nothing, but I can feel Santi’s gaze burning a hole in the side of my face. I’ve never lashed out at him before. No doubt I’ve surprised him.

It’s not until I hook up the back of Santiago’s truck and attach it back to mine that he finally speaks. He grabs my arm before I can climb into the driver’s seat, forcing me to look back at him. There’s a glitter of something feral in his eyes as he glares at me.

“Are you helping Ledger?” His question is spoken soft and without inflection.

I recoil in surprise. “What? Santi—”

“If I find out that you’ve been a part of this scheme to kill Blair, Wesley, I swear to god—”

“Santi, I would never hurt Blair!”

Santi remains eerily still as he studies my face. The air on the back of my neck rises.

“I don’t—” he growls between clenched teeth “—believe you.”

His words are a gut punch that steals my breath away. It hurts almost as much as it did when Ledger pulled his gun on me. My shoulders slump as I stare at Santi. He must realize that I’m withholding information. A sixth sense or something.

Or maybe my guilt is just written all over my fucking face.

“I didn’t know Ledger put out the hit on Blair and her father, Santi, I swear.”

His eyes narrow. “And yet… you’re positive about his motives. Explain why I should trust you?”

Other than the fact that we’ve known each other for years?

Then again, we all thought we knew Ledger, too. I guess Santi’s wariness is valid.

I let out a heavy sigh. “I know Ledger won’t kill Blair because he’s done something crazy like this before. Get in the truck and I’ll tell you everything.”

A deep, menacing growl rumbles in Santi’s chest. When he takes a step away from me, I heave a sigh of relief. I don’t think Santi would kill me, but you never know. He’s unpredictable and—most notably—pissed the fuck off.

A month ago, I would’ve bet my life on the fact that I had nothing to fear from the men I’ve been living with. Now, I’m not so sure. Loyalties are being tested. I only hope that Santi will see that I’m the same man I’ve always been: someone who looks out for the people around me.

We both climb back into the truck. As I shift it into drive, I brace myself for the confession I need to make.

Before I can speak, Santi asks in a voice low and menacing, “You were involved with Ashleigh Burr’s kidnapping, weren’t you?”

I jolt in surprise. How the hell does he know about Ashleigh? I look over at him to find Santi’s dark eyes pinned to my face. He’s about as far away from me in his seat as he can get but he’s coiled, ready to strike. His whole body vibrates with tension.

Santi must see the shock on my face because he explains through clenched teeth, “I saw the photos on Ledger’s computer. Then I called her. She was pissed and terrified that I would reach out on behalf of Sparrow to check on her.”

I wince. “Ledger used his alias with her—I guess that was one of his smarter moves when he bought her.”

The hiss that Santiago lets out causes me to tense.

“Bought?”

“It’s not what you think,” I assure him quickly. “Ashleigh was a prostitute in the area. Ledger bought her time—a lot of her time.”

“Why? Because she’s a Blair lookalike?”

Santi really has done his homework. Sometimes I forget that there’s more to him than jokes and smiles.

I nod once. “It had taken me a while to realize that Ledger was hiding a woman in our basement. Too long, if I’m being honest. It wasn’t until I found Ashleigh that I realized something was wrong with Ledger.

Like an idiot, I allowed him to keep Ashleigh around—he said it was her, or his best friend’s daughter.

At least Ashleigh was there of her own accord. She could’ve left if she wanted.”

Taking a hand off the steering wheel, I reach up and attempt to rub my temple.

This night feels never ending.

“It wasn’t until Ledger stopped coming up from the basement to eat and sleep that I had to put my foot down and stop the madness,” I admit. “I had Ledger send Ashleigh packing. With her gone, he returned to his normal self.”

Santiago’s body doesn’t relax. He doesn’t say anything either. I’d hoped my confession would make him see that I’m not complicit, but I’m realizing that’s not the case. My hand falls back to the steering wheel. Unable to resist, I force myself to look over at Santi.

He’s still glaring, body rigid and jaw clenched.

“If I had known Ledger had set all of this in motion I would’ve stopped—” I choke, my throat squeezing up.

My breath catches and my heart screeches to a halt. If I finish the sentence, I know it will be a lie. I turn my attention back to the road, but when I speak, I make sure there’s no room for misinterpretation.

“Look, has Ledger fucked up? Absolutely. I’m not denying that.

But damn it, Santiago…” I glower at the road.

“I’m so fucking glad Ledger’s fucked-up obsessiveness brought Blair into my life.

She’s so incredible—I will do anything for her.

Even if that means sending Ledger after Blair so he brings her back to me.

I get why he is the way he is with her because I would move mountains, battle gods, tear through universes for Blair. She’s mine, Santi.”

The words come easily, my passion reverberating in the small cab of the truck. My heart is racing, and my realization about this woman whispers in the back of my head.

I love Blair.

A wave of emotions—ranging from awe to dumbfounded to joy—explode inside of my chest and leave me breathless.

I. Love. Blair.

The revelation settles something in me. The panic and fear that’s been clinging to me since Ledger ran off after Blair is still there, but it’s manageable. Clarity pushes through the chaos. I’m smiling by the time we get back to the cabin and I cut the engine.

“Alright, Wes,” Santi says, breaking the silence. “I believe you. You didn’t help Ledger put all of this in motion.”

My shoulders sag in relief. I didn’t realize I was waiting for this response but now that I’ve heard it, I’m glad that Santi and I are on the same team.

“But you’re wrong about something,” he adds.

I look over at him, confused, and find Santi giving me a wane smile.

“She’s not your woman. She’s our woman.”

My laughter is soft and short-lived. “You’re right, Santi. She’s ours.”

“We’re going to get her back,” he promises, his smile fading. “There’s nothing Ledger could do to keep us away from her.”

I nod. “When he gets back, we’ll take everything from him—most importantly, we’ll tear Blair away from him.”

Santiago’s eyes flash with something bright and dangerous. When he grins, it’s without mirth and it’s all teeth.

“Perfect, then let’s prepare for their arrival.”