Chapter 8
Eight
Blair
Ihaven’t been sleeping for long, maybe a few hours at most, but as I open my eyes, I feel well rested.
Sore as hell, though.
“Holy shit,” I groan.
My breath hits a warm wall of flesh. I blink slowly then stare at Rhett’s bare chest. Memories of last night resurface and I smile.
“What is it?” He mumbles as he shifts, twisting so that he can bury his face into his pillow.
I force myself to sit up and I wince.
“I’m going to walk like a damn cowboy for a week,” I complain.
His tired snicker is muffled by the pillow.
“Stop that,” I glare at his back. “This is serious.”
Rhett’s body shakes, letting me know he’s not taking this seriously at all.
Asshole.
I climb over top of him and get out of the bed.
It takes a few minutes to find my clothes and get dressed.
When I’m done, I slip out of the van and do a quick sweep of the area.
It’s early—the park is certainly not open yet, but it will be soon.
No doubt a ranger will drive by soon enough as they do their rounds.
We need to be out of here before then. Quickly, I relieve myself in the woods and come back to find Rhett sitting with the van’s side door open lounging in the opening with his legs outstretched in front of him on the ground.
“Huh,” he mutters. “You really are walking funny.”
I flip him the bird, and Rhett chuckles softly.
“Are you ready to head out soon?” I ask, coming to a stop before him. “I don’t like lingering in any place for too long.”
“Yeah, but before we go… The burner phone’s charged,” he says. He tilts his head to look up at me through dark strands of his hair. “You ready to call home?”
Home.
The word stirs up so many feelings that I can’t seem to settle on one. They tangle up inside of me and work their way up into my throat, where they get lodged and leave me speechless.
I’ve never had a real home before.
The thought of hearing Wes and Santi’s voice brings on a wave of longing and homesickness which only confirms that they’re what I consider home.
I nod, unable to do more than that.
Rhett picks up the burner phone, flips it open, dials a number, then puts it on speaker phone. The phone rings. And rings. And… rings. My shoulders are about to fall, sure that it’s about to go to voicemail, when a gruff voice on the other end answers.
“Hello?”
“Santi, it’s us,” Rhett greets, his own voice more gravelly than normal.
There’s a pause. The silence is short-lived though as a loud erratic gasp follows it.
“Rhett? Ohmygod, Rhett!” Santi shouts, all audible evidence of sleep now gone. His voice seems far away as Santi shouts, “Wes! Wesley! They called! Get up!”
Santi’s excitement does nothing to help me work the knot out of my throat. He’s been waiting to hear from us. For someone who’s struggled to find her place in the world for so long, somehow I’ve found it with some incredible men.
Santi’s voice moves closer to the phone as he bombards us with questions, “Where are you? Is Blair with you? Are you guys okay? Have you—”
“Santi,” Rhett interrupts, his voice calm. “Breathe. Yes, Blair’s here and she can hear you—you’re on speaker phone. We’re both alright.”
“Blair?” Santi sounds so hopeful that I can’t help but smile.
“Hey, you,” I greet, my eyes dropping to the ground in an attempt to hide the tears shining in my eyes.
“Oh, thank god, you’re both alright,” Santi says, his voice breaking into a sob. “We’ve been so fucking worried.”
Rhett huffs. “No need to worry. I have a badass woman by my side who’s been killing assholes left and right. She makes this look easy.”
My head jerks up and I find Rhett staring at me, a small smile tugging at his mouth.
That same mouth had been all over my pussy last night.
Those hoop piercings on his bottom lip made the experience more intense than I’ve ever had before.
I look away from Rhett before I can entertain thoughts of last night.
A deep voice says something in the background on Santi’s end and he says, “Yeah, it's them. I’m putting you on speaker phone so Wes can hear you.”
There’s a second of silence before I hear his voice.
“You guys somewhere safe?” Wesley asks.
The sound of his deep, rumbling voice so full of worry triggers tears. Two manage to escape and race down my cheeks. Two more follow. Of course this would be his first question.
“Yes,” I manage to get out, though it comes out as a soft whisper. “We’re safe. For now, at least. We’ve got to get moving soon.”
“Come home,” Santi says at once.
Before either Rhett or I can object, Wes adds, “Santi’s right, you need to come back.
He managed to deplete Dixie’s bank accounts.
They’re empty which means whatever trouble’s on your heels might be the last of it for a while.
He can’t send hitmen after you if he can’t pay them.
So come back here and we’ll help eliminate this last wave of killers. ”
“Yes!” Santi agrees. “Between the four of us, we can easily take out whoever’s on your tail now.”
Rhett and I look at each other in surprise. Go back to Gnarly Pines? Is that possible?
“I don’t know, Wes,” I hedge, breaking the brief pause. “We’ve barely been ahead of most of the trouble following us. I wouldn’t want to bring that back for you guys to deal with.”
“Just trust us!” Santi says, practically tripping over his words to get it out. “Get back here before Ledger or the rest of the assholes Dixie has sent, find you. You know we can help keep you safe!”
I flinch hard in shock as Rhett scowls darkly at the phone. It’s Rhett that asks, “What do you mean before Ledger finds us?”
“He’s tracking Blair,” Wes says, his voice low and urgent. “I’m surprised he hasn’t caught up to you yet. But he will, it’s just a matter of—”
The shriek of rage and surprise erupt past my lips before I can stop it, startling Rhett who scrambles to his feet. I stumble away from him, turning to cover my face with my hands and let out that same retched sound.
“Blair what’s wrong?!” Rhett demands.
The tracker… How could I be so fucking stupid? How could I forget about it after how pissed off it had made me when Ledger tagged me like a damn cow.
“Rhett…” I drop my hands to my side but don’t turn back to face him, too ashamed of myself to look him in the eye. “In all the chaos, I forgot Ledger put a tracker in me.”
“He what?”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t even think about it given—”
“This isn’t on you, Blair!” he snaps.
How can he even say that? I’m luring Ledger right to us!
I squeeze my eyes shut as I attempt to choke back the anger that’s boiling in my veins.
At the same time, a chill is trying to rush through me.
What do we do if Ledger shows up? He’s unpredictable and untrustworthy. What happens if he tries to kill Rhett?
A mental scream echoes in my head.
No.
I won’t allow it.
Ledger won’t take him, or anyone else away from me. He already sentenced Dad to death. Who knows what’s happened to him? I won’t let Ledger destroy what I have with anyone else I care about.
My fists tremble at my sides as I allow rage to consume me. Dad might not be impressed that I’m letting my emotions take over but I don’t give a fuck. He’s not here to scold me. And this rage? I’m going to need it.
“We don’t know where Ledger is now, he turned off anything that could be tracked, but I wouldn’t put it past him to be close behind you,” Wes says, his voice grim. “If you can get him back here… Well, we can eliminate the threat he poses to you.”
Eliminate the threat he poses to you…
I don’t know what that means to Wesley, but I know what “eliminate” means in the world I grew up in. Is Wes capable of looking his friend in the face as he kills him? I don’t know.
Am I capable of doing it?
The fury billowing through me gives me the confidence to say yes.
Even as my heart withers at the idea.
“If that’s not possible, do what you have to do to survive,” Santi adds, speaking quickly. “You two have to make it back here in one piece and alive.”
“Kind of hard to make it back alive in two pieces, Santi,” Rhett replies, his teasing dry.
There’s a short pause before Santi says, “I miss you guys.”
He says it so quietly that I almost miss the pain in his voice.
My soul echoes that same heartache. I miss him too.
I miss him and Wes more than anything. I turn to face Rhett and the phone.
The expression on Rhett’s face nearly has me falling to pieces.
He looks like he’s in absolute agony as he stares at the device in his hand.
“We miss you, too,” I tell Santi when Rhett says nothing.
“So, are you coming back?” Wes asks. “Please say yes.”
My heart trembles under the crushing weight put upon it. I’m being called home. I have a home to go to. I have people there who miss and care about me.
It’s everything I’ve ever wanted.
Rhett looks up at me, and I stare back at him.
The pained expression has lessened but it’s reflected loudly in his gaze.
He would stick this out with me. Rhett would run with me until the end of time.
I get that now. He would allow time and miles to separate him and Santiago just to make sure I was safe, and I’m sure he wouldn’t complain about it.
But I don’t want that for him.
I don’t want that for myself.
This damn tracker… Ledger claimed that it was for my protection. Another lie. Every word, every gesture, all of it was a lie.
My heart starts to seize and for a second, I can’t breathe.
Up until recently, Ledger was my everything. I thought I meant something to him.
The fact that he could do this to me is staggering. The betrayal off the charts. It would be so easy to curl up and cry. Give up and let him kill me. The pain from his betrayal is so great I probably wouldn’t even notice.
But I’m realizing now that it’s not just my life he’s ruined.
Not just my life that he put at risk.
Rhett. Santiago. Wesley. They didn’t ask for any of this. It’s one thing to hurt me, but them? That’s absolutely unacceptable. The rage in me turns molten, hotter than I’ve ever felt before, and it burns through the heartache and takes center stage.
I won’t let Ledger get away with what he’s done to all of us.
Holding Rhett’s gaze, I answer Wes, “Yes, we’re coming home.”
We say our good-byes, promising to contact them soon and then Rhett hangs up. He’s barely ended the call when I begin to shimmy off my pants.
“Looking to get round two in before we head off?” Rhett asks with a smirk.
Ignoring him, I reach down for the knife in my boot and pull it free from its sheath. I lift it up, ready to get the tracker out but Rhett leaps to his feet and lunges forward.
“STOP!” he yelps. “What the fuck, Blair?!”
Rhett catches my wrist before I can stab the knife into my hip.
“I have to get that tracker out of me,” I snarl.
He glowers at me. “You can’t just stab yourself!”
“Watch me.”
He wrestles the knife from my grip and holds it over my head when I try to snatch it back.
“Or,” he counters. “You let me do it.”
I blink, thrown by the offer. “Really? You’d—”
“Cut you open, dig around under your flesh for what I assume is a tracker the size of a piece of rice? Yeah.” He gives me a lopsided smirk. “I’m willing to do that for you.”
Despite his teasing, I can see the seriousness flicker behind those dark eyes. Rhett will do this for me if I want the help. No doubt he wants the tracker gone as much as I do. With a deep breath, I concede with a nod.
“Alright, if you’re sure…”
“I get to stab you, hell yeah I’m sure,” he drawls. “Payback for trying to shoot my balls back at the quarry.”
I can’t help it—I snort a laugh at that.
“Fine, fair enough.”
Rhett gives me a half-smile but it’s short-lived as he adjusts his grip on the blade. “Once I’m done, we’ll figure out our next steps, okay?”
Before the knife even touches my skin, the sound of gunshots peppers the air. Rhett’s head jerks up and our eyes meet for just a second before I’m moving.
I climb up on top of the van to use it as a vantage point. There, coming up the road we’re on, are four different vehicles. Three black SUVs and a familiar white truck right on their tail.
“Oh, shit…”
“What?!” Rhett asks. “What is it?”
“Ledger’s found us—and so have Dixie’s people.”
Rhett swears as I climb down. “Is there any other way back to the main road?”
“Nope.” I scan the area. “We’re going to have to fight our way out of this.” An idea forms and I grin as I look back at Rhett. “And while we do that, we’ll catch a traitor and bring him home.”
Rhett laughs but the sound is strained. “Alright… Tell me where you need me and let’s do this.”
“First, cut this damn tracker out me.”
He lifts the knife in his hand and says, “We need to make this quick. It’ll hurt.”
“Just do it, Rhett.”