Wind River Wrangler (Wind River Valley #1)

It was there that Anton could feel the blade sinking into Shiloh’s soft, rounded abdomen, wreaking havoc, slicing her open, gutting her. He’d open her up so that she suffered in agony for days before she’d die. Gut wounds were always the worst. It was a slow, painful, and grisly death. He would keep Shiloh alive, tape her mouth shut so she couldn’t scream, tie her hands up above her head, then watch her writhe in nonstop agony. Yes, he was going to enjoy every minute he spent with Shiloh, watching her slowly die over a three-day period. She’d die of peritonitis, septic poison finally reaching her circulatory system and going to her heart. Once it did, she’d die of cardiac arrest.

Anton was going to enjoy this so much, and he smiled more deeply, appreciating the serrated teeth on this specially made knife. He’d dreamed of this for years. There wasn’t a day that went by when he wasn’t creating a strategy to find her, stalk her, and then gut her. She’d put him away. He wished that she would live more than three days but under the circumstances, it wouldn’t happen.

As he sat there, listening to the birds sing around him, his hide covered with green netting so that it was impossible to see, he thought about other scenarios. It would be easy to get her out of the cabin and back to his hide. He’d spent one full night with his small military shovel, digging out a rectangular hide. It was two feet vertically and six feet wide. Last night, he’d dug it deeper, five feet deep. Anton was waffling between gutting Shiloh right away or waiting and cutting her here and there, making her suffer like he’d suffered for so many years. She’d slowly bleed to death and he could control how long she remained alive. Maybe he needed to take another look at his plans. Anton knew when she disappeared, there would be a manhunt. But he’d take her in such a way that no one would be able to track him back to his hide. He knew how to do it from past experience.

He would have to make sure Shiloh was kept silent. She would have to remain in the hide with him, undetected. He’d have to feed her, give her water because he wanted her alive and alert. There were a lot of other considerations to change in his plans, but Anton would give his right hand if he could extend her suffering. He’d lived too long for this one moment in his life.

Sliding the SOG into the black nylon sheath, he set it aside. He’d brought plenty of MREs and there was a creek nearby. Luckily, he had purification tablets on him.

Anton knew a grizzly lived around the area, and Pine Grove was her territory. When he finally allowed Shiloh to die, he’d dump her body near where he had seen bear scat and leave it there. The grizzly would be getting one hell of a meal eating her up. Bears ate bones as well, so there would be very little of Shiloh left when it was all said and done. One day, someone might stumble upon a few bone fragments up on this hill, but that could be years from now and he would be long gone. Out of this country. Back to Africa, his first love. He would live like a king there.

So, what should he cut on her first? Anton didn’t want her bleeding out. She’d die too quickly that way. No . . . it had to be something that would terrorize her, but not kill her. Something that would cause her agony. His mind ranged over numerous ways. He was used to skinning and gutting his African animals he’d taken down with his gun. Skinning. Hmmmm, that had possibilities. Skinning Shiloh alive. How perfect. It would cause her horrific pain. It might even make her faint from the pain, but he’d stop the procedure and wait until she became conscious. And then, he’d continue the job.

*

Shiloh’s hands trembled as she rinsed off her lunch dishes to put them into the dishwasher. Her mind was going wild, leaping from here to there. She’d been able to identify the two guns for Roan that Leath had in their apartment when her mother was alive. Roan was pleased and sent the JPEG images directly to Sarah at the sheriff’s office. Then, he’d told her to get workout gear and meet him in the gym. There, he’d shown her some Special Forces close quarters combat moves that could incapacitate someone who was charging her, trying to grab and capture her. She’d worked an hour getting accustomed to the moves until Roan was satisfied. Her muscles were tight afterward. Inwardly, she felt trapped once again.

And now, Roan had gone into town because Sarah had asked to see him. She’d seen him hesitate at the request because she knew he didn’t want to leave her alone. At the same time, Roan didn’t want her seen out in public, so she couldn’t ride into town with him. Shiloh had persuaded him she’d be all right, feeling that Anton would never know she was here. How could he? Roan wasn’t fully convinced of her argument, but reluctantly left, promising to remain in cell phone touch with her once an hour to make sure she was all right. Shiloh felt he was overreacting. This cabin was hidden from everyone. Very few people even knew it existed.

Lindsay McKenna's books