Chapter 33 Sam
SAM
“You have an opportunity to make things right. You can tell us who you were working with, and we’ll let you live with the understanding that you never set foot in this town again or come within a thousand feet of her,” Holden says calmly, stepping back from him.
I pop my knuckles, adjusting my stance as I face him. “Or I keep working on my left hook. It’s getting really fucking good. So, I’m kinda hoping you don’t sing like a bird just yet.”
My boots are set wide in the dirt of the Redfords’ barn.
Stanley is shaking so bad that his teeth are chattering.
His arms are pulled tight above him by my ropes.
Tying the knots only made me think of Dolly and how fragile she was, coming home from the hospital, which made me think of how pissed off I was that he’d been helping someone traumatize her further, which made me think about what Cain had done—the father he met once and yet was hell-bent on avenging.
Any sympathy I felt for Stanley has long since dissolved.
Duke, Cash, and Sterling are behind me, all watching the show and adding to the threatening aura. I thought Stanley had a set of balls until he pissed himself ten minutes after I started.
“You don’t get it. He’ll kill me.” His voice is barely a whimper. “He’s already been to jail once. He doesn’t care if he goes again.”
I bend down, dropping to one knee beside him so my face is level with where he dropped down to his knees.
My voice is low. “Do you think … I won’t kill you?”
He blinks at me, his bottom lip quivering as he whimpers again, shaking his head.
I wet my lips, a smile spreading across them. “Do you think I don’t care if I go to jail? Or any of them? Hmm?”
He sucks in a ragged sob. “I just wanted to avenge my dad! My uncle told me he was murdered in cold blood and he didn’t deserve it!
He didn’t deserve to die! Someone has to pay.
I sent the letters, and I lied about my age, and I tricked Dolly into thinking I wanted to date her.
And I was supposed to take her out to the river where Cain had been killed and make her suffer.
I was supposed to do what I could until he got there to finish it. ”
“Your uncle?” Cash asks, stepping forward. “Who’s your uncle?”
Stanley shakes his head.
I lunge for him, wrapping both my hands around his neck and squeezing. “Tell us now, or you die.”
“Matthews! He works here sometimes!” He gargles. “He’s a daily ranch hand.”
I loosen my grip, staring at him. “Matthews is your uncle? On Cain’s side?”
He nods, shaking his head and crying. “He was Cain’s half-brother. And he’s the only family I have. He took me in when I aged out of foster care. He bought me a truck.”
He’s crying softly now. I turn away, wiping my knuckles on my jeans. Duke is studying me, his eyes on my bloodied hand. Sterling says something to him that I can’t hear, but Duke doesn’t acknowledge it.
“Isn’t Matthews the one you fought in the ring last time?” Duke asks.
“Yeah.”
“So, he was talking about her, about Dolly.”
I look him directly in the eyes, nodding. I brace for the impact of his fist to my face, but it doesn’t come. He turns to Sterling.
“Then we’d better go find him. He’s worked here for years when we need extra help and hire day hands.”
Duke turns back to me briefly, something calculating in his blue eyes.
Someone’s phone rings. I turn toward the noise, seeing Cash answer it.
“Hey, baby.” His eyes jump to meet mine. He shakes his head. “Where are you?”
Seconds later, a distant, piercing scream tears through the air.
Dolly.
We all take off running in the same direction out the open door of the barn. The sun is already turning the sky orange on the horizon, which means it’ll be dark soon.
“He took her,” Cash says.
Adrenaline is surging through my veins like a drug. I could rip a person in half right now. Holden grabs a hunting bow that’s mounted on the wall and tosses it to me. He and Cash both grab rifles and the hunting knife we use to skin the deer we shoot.
Duke and Sterling are running toward the closest truck—an old beat-up white one they use for ranch work. Sterling jumps into the driver’s seat while Duke hops in the bed.
They speed over to us. Holden climbs into the front seat, and Cash and I join Duke in the truck bed. Cash hands me the arrows that we shoot hogs and deer with. I have the best aim.
“We’re almost there, baby. Hold on. Try to breathe.” Cash is still on the phone with Monroe.
Duke’s gaze is on the dirt road ahead. It weaves through oak and cedar trees, so our visibility isn’t far. Finally, we see a spot of pink. Sterling slows the truck and stops beside a hysterical Monroe.
Cash hops out of the truck and wraps his arms around her. “Are you hurt? Where’d he take her?”
She’s hiccuping and sobbing, her pink tracksuit covered in dirt. Tears stream down her face, but she manages to lift a shaky hand and point toward the river bottom up ahead. “Th-that way. He took her that way.”
Cash pulls her closer and tosses Duke the gun he was holding. “Go.”
Sterling takes off toward the river bottom. It’s almost pitch-black now. The headlights are the only thing leading us on.
“Stop it! Get off me!” Dolly’s panicked screams reach my ears.
Red-hot rage courses through my veins. As the truck approaches the river bottom, we can’t see them in the darkness.
Silhouettes of trees and boulders block our view until the truck pulls all the way down to the river, revealing Matthews and Dolly.
He has her on the ground, holding her down by her hair while he tries to undo his pants with the other hand.
Her shirt and pants have been torn off, and she’s left in her bra and a thong in the freezing night.
Time stands still. My hands move on pure instinct as I string up the bow. Sterling drives as far down as he can without the truck getting stuck in the water, but they’re on the other side. They must have crossed over on the low crossing.
I look down the arrow, pulling back the string and letting it loose before I have time to think about it. Right as Matthews turns toward the truck lights, the arrow strikes him in the shoulder, jerking his body backward.
“Ah!” he bellows.
He doesn’t let go of Dolly’s hair. She jerks back with him from the force of his pull on her head.
She screams, falling back against him on the sharp rocks of the riverbed. I’m afraid if I try to hit him again, it could get her now that she’s right on top of him. My aim is deadly, but I won’t risk hurting her.
Matthews’s shoulder is gushing blood, but he manages to pull Dolly in front of him, releasing her hair and wrapping his forearm around her throat.
“Come any closer, and I’ll snap her neck, Redfords.” He presses his lips to the back of her head of dark hair.
I jump out of the back of the truck before stringing another arrow and pulling back on the bow string.
He jerks her even closer, covering almost his entire body with her small, shivering frame.
She reaches up to grip his forearm in a feeble attempt to break free.
I’ve fought Matthews, and I know he’s a strong son of a bitch.
Her eyes are wide, tears streaking through the dirt on her cheeks. “Sam,” she whimpers.
My chest caves in at the sound of her trembling voice. I clench my jaw, pointing the sharp tip at the sliver of his face showing.
It’s too close. She’s too close.
Her brothers have fanned out around me, guns raised.
Holden chuckles beside me. “Is it really worth it, Matthews? All to avenge your dead, piece-of-shit half-brother?”
“Was it worth it to you? To kill an innocent man and leave two boys as orphans in the process?” His eyes shine bright in the headlights of the truck as he moves to the side so his voice isn’t muffled by her hair.
His gaze moves to me. “I know he doesn’t regret taking a father from his kids, but you will regret this … son.”
My hand shakes. I stare at him, at the eyes that look too familiar. He grins. “So you didn’t know? I guess I’m not surprised your shit-hole grandfather never told you.”
He spits in the dirt near her feet. My blood feels like it’s draining out of me. “I’m surprised Wyatt didn’t say something, or hell, one of his boys. They all knew, Sam. They all knew I was your father.”
His eyes pierce into mine, and it’s disturbingly like looking in a mirror.
“Just another inch,” I whisper. One more fucking inch, and I’ll be able to hit his eye.
He might think his confession would make me change my mind about killing him, but all it does is fuel the rage already boiling inside me. Not only did he abandon my mother and me, he’s been living here within a few hours of me all this time, and he never made an effort to be in my life.
“He’s lying, Sam. I didn’t know. Maybe Pops did, but you’re a better man without this scum in your life,” Holden says.
Sweat drips down my forehead.
“I wanted to make contact, now that he’s finally dead. He paid me off. He’d give me money so I stayed away from you.”
I tune him out. I don’t want to know why. I don’t need details that will make me question the man who raised me.
Matthews wasn’t there, ever. That’s all I need to know.
I grit my teeth, tilting my hips just a fraction to the left.
Duke has seen me hit a deer twice as far away right in the eye. But this is different. Missing this far has much steeper consequences.
“You can do it, Seymour. You can hit him,” Sterling whispers.
“I need another inch.”
“Keep him talking, Holden,” Duke murmurs.
“You think Cain was innocent, huh? Just like I’m sure you think you and the boy you convinced to do your dirty work are too.”
Sweat beads on my forehead. The strain of holding the bow taut for this long is making my arm cramp up. Hunting bows are powerful weapons, and the strength it takes to shoot them isn’t something every man has.
“Just another inch,” I say again, peering down the arrow.
He’s spewing some kind of hateful words, but I tune him out. I try to blur her in my vision, focusing only on his visible right eye. Her face is still only two inches from my target, but if he senses I’m about to shoot, he could jerk her to the side, and it would hit her.
I can’t risk it.
His arm tightens around her again, eyes darting from me back to Holden.
“I want y’all to leave! Go back to the house. I’ll let her live if you give me a chance to escape. She can walk back. I swear, I’ll let her go. You can’t kill your own father, son. You’ll never be able to forgive yourself. Just like I don’t forgive myself for abandoning you.”
The brothers and I don’t answer, and it’s clear that Matthews is already a dead man. Any one of us would sever his head from his body if we had the chance right now.
“Okay. Ha-ha. Okay then. Well, I’m just sorry Stanley isn’t here to witness this. Because he deserved to see his father’s death be avenged by the death of the bitch who—”
My eyes focus back on Dolly. She’s staring at me like it’s the last chance she’ll ever get to. I make a subtle movement with my head, hoping she’ll understand what I’m trying to tell her before my arm muscles give out and I can’t hold the bow for another second.
Her eyes focus on me, and she moves quickly, throwing her head back and whacking his jaw with it. His grip on her neck loosens, and she ducks down, giving me the window I need.
I let the arrow fly. I hit my mark, dead center on the bull’s-eye of his right eyeball.
Blood spews out of the wound, coating Dolly with it.
She screeches, jumping away from his body and rolling to the side over the sharp rocks.
I hold the bow up for a few seconds to make sure he’s actually dead, my heart nearly pounding out of my chest. He doesn’t move.
Duke jumps in and starts wading across the river.
I drop the bow and dive into the icy water.
I swim across quickly, beating him as I crawl up to the shoreline where she’s trying to stand.
My arms sweep down around her, relief washing over me.
I reach down, scooping her up in my arms. She sobs into my neck, her body shivering with adrenaline and the freezing cold night.
“It’s okay, baby. I got you. You’re safe now. He’s dead. He’s gone.”
Duke checks his pulse to make sure he’s really gone. I look down at his body one last time, the arrow still protruding from his eye, his mouth slacked open. I feel nothing aside from relief.
All this time, he was so close, just a few hours away living his life. My emotions feel distant and numb, like I’m floating outside myself. All I feel is relief and the aftershocks of adrenaline.
We’re shrouded in darkness when Sterling pulls the truck away to drive over to the low crossing so he can reach us.
I rock her bath and forth, attempting to soothe her.
We’re both shaking from the wet cold by the time Sterling and Holden are able to drive the truck around to us.
Holden jumps out of the passenger seat so I can set Dolly inside.
She won’t let go of my neck, so I scoot in with her, settling her over my lap.
I try adjusting the heater to warm us up.
“Doesn’t work,” Sterling says. He leans forward, ripping off his button-down flannel and covering her with it.
She’s still vibrating, and I’m worried her heart can’t take the amount of adrenaline she’s crashing down from. Her teeth are chattering.
“Let’s take her to the hospital,” I say.
“N-no. I’m fine, just c-cold.” She presses closer to me, trying to feel my body heat.
We’re almost back to the ranch house at the speed Sterling is tearing down the road. He pulls the truck up right by the back door in the middle of the backyard. Monroe, Cash, Pops, and Rosie are there around the firepit.
Cash and Rosie start running toward us. Monroe stands, but she’s wrapped in a blanket with a cat on her lap. Pops looks confused by everyone jumping up.
“You stay here with her. We’ll take care of it,” Cash says.
I want to go with him and watch Matthews get buried in an unmarked grave, but I know Dolly needs me. I step out of the vehicle. Rosie gasps when she sees Dolly, who is still covered in dirt, blood, and now has tiny scrapes and bruises all over her body from rolling over the rocks at the river.
“Oh my God, oh my God.” Rosie’s voice is panicked as I stride toward the door.
Cash jumps in the truck with Sterling. The sound of the tires squealing away is all I hear before entering the house.
“Is he dead?” Monroe asks behind me.
“Yeah. He’s dead.”