“You talkin’ ‘bout that ranch? ‘Cause I ain’t stupid. They’d kill us on sight. Try again, you dumb bitch.”
“No. Not the ranch. Somewhere else. My people. They’ll help you out. Set you up with everything you need. There are some empty houses nearby, and you could set up camp. I … I can’t do anything about your family, and I’m sorry,” she lied. Because she wasn’t the teensiest bit sorry after what they’d done to Lia. “But I’m running from the ranch people, too, and we can help each other out. But they won’t help you if you hurt me.”
He stepped back, eyes narrowed. “How’d I know you ain’t lyin’?”
“I guess you’d have to trust me. I mean, what do you have to lose. If I’m lying, you’ll know soon enough. But if you’re worried about the ranch guys, you might want to decide quickly, because they’re probably coming after me. They were … holding me prisoner. I escaped.” Ro did feel bad lying about that particular point, but felt it was completely justified. If these guys were busting ass to get to the farm, they weren’t stopping and raping her. It was a win-win in her book.
Then Ronny spoke up. “A place to stay, food, and gear? Come on, Len. That’s not a bad deal.”
“Shut up, Ronny! I’m thinking,” Len snapped, tapping the blade of the knife on his yellowed and uneven teeth. Then his stomach rumbled. Hunger was a great motivator.
“If you’re lying to me, I will make you regret it for the rest of your life. Which won’t be fuckin’ long.” Len’s hand whipped out and grabbed the rope, jerking her to her feet. The sharp tug of the jute cut into her wrists. “Let’s get the fuck out of here.” He shoved her forward. “Lead the way.”
Ro looked around, confused and completely disoriented. “Umm … which way is northeast?”
Len grunted and pointed. Ro didn’t waste time heading off into the woods. She couldn’t believe her crazy ass deal had actually worked. Now she just hoped her dad would read her mind and shoot them on sight.
“We’ve got a problem,” Jamie said, crouching low and pointing to the dirt.
Graham jerked to a stop, and Zach stumbled into him.
“What do you mean, ‘We got a problem’?”
“I think they caught up to your girl.”
“What? How?” Graham asked. He bit back the automatic ‘She’s not our girl’ retort.
Jamie pointed to scuffed dirt. “Someone was dragged.” He stood and followed the marks to a stand of trees about twenty feet away.
Zach shoved Graham aside and scouted the area around Jamie. “I’ve got some wrappers over here. An MRE and a … peanut butter Power Bar?”
Graham pictured the grin on Ro’s face when she’d spotted the stash at the gun range, and he swore silently. “It was her. Or at least her backpack. I’d lay money on it.”
“Got knife marks in the tree. Like someone was using it for target practice,” Jamie said.
Graham hated to ask, but needed to know. “Blood?”
“No. Got tracks leading away from here, though.”
“Let’s move.”
Ro stumbled over a downed sapling trying to keep up with Len as he jogged through the pitch-black woods. After becoming frustrated with her slow pace, Len had taken the lead, tying Ro’s bound hands to his belt with another piece of rope. It was like being dragged by a pissed off mule. Despite his appearance as a lazy redneck piece of shit, the man could cover some ground. She’d recognized the last major highway they’d crossed, and estimated they were within fifteen miles of home. Home. Knowing she was finally going to make it there was … surreal. Even if it wasn’t exactly how she’d planned, Ro was thankful to be making it there alive. Another stumble. Another bite of pain. Another curse from Len. Ro hurried to keep up, not wanting to feel the burn of the jute digging deeper into her torn and bleeding skin. Len and Ronny each had a headlamp to guide the way, but Ro’s feet were bathed in shadow. Another yank. Another stumble. Ro fell to her knees, the rope pulling Len to a halt.
“Get up, bitch.” The light blinded her as he turned. A brown stream of tobacco juice spattered the edge of her face.
The exhaustion that had been dogging Ro all day crashed down. She tried, tried, to find a second, third, even a fourth wind. But there was just nothing left. She was tapped out. She considered her options. Keep stumbling through the dark and get home, but endure the searing pain in her wrists. Sleep for a few hours and hope like hell they don’t rape her. As choices went, they blew, but Ro’s screaming muscles wouldn’t last another hundred yards, let alone another fifteen miles.
“Look, we’re close, okay. Really, really close,” she said. “But it has to be after midnight. Is there any way we can take a break for a couple hours and get some rest? It would be better to show up at dawn rather than in the middle of the night. I’d hate to find myself on the wrong end of my dad’s shotgun by accident.”