“Bastards.” Reeve ties off the bandage on his left arm with his teeth. “Don’t worry. I’m ready.” He wipes the soot from his right hand onto his jeans, then reaches into the backseat and grabs his favorite shotgun. He ejects an empty shell, then loads it up again. With a single pump, it’s ready to go, and then he refills the magazine on his 9 millimeter.
I can’t seem to make the truck go fast enough. Even at full speed, the engine whining as I tear up the mountain, I feel like the minutes are ticking by. Minutes when Orchid’s father and that fucking toad Jeremiah could be hurting her.
My knuckles go white on the steering wheel.
“We’re almost there. Come on, let’s work on a plan.”
“Don’t need one,” I grunt. “I’m going to kill them.”
“We.” He smirks. “Don’t leave me out.”
“If they’ve hurt her …” I swallow my fury. “If they’ve hurt her, we’re going to do them slow. You hear?”
“Like old times.” He stows a long knife down the side of his boot. “I’m liking the sound of that.”
I turn hard onto the winding gravel road that leads to my cabin. Reeve bounces off his door, but he doesn’t complain. In fact, I think he’s having more fun than he’s had in a long time. We may have turned our backs on the rough life, but we haven’t forgotten it. What we did at that godforsaken compound proved it.
We took no prisoners. Anyone with wrinkles and a dick got the axe. The women, the children–we let them go. None of them tried to fight us. I think they were relieved. Some of the women definitely were, because they came up to some of the men’s bodies and spat on them after we were through.
“Places like that shouldn’t exist.” I take a hard curve, the back tires skidding then finding purchase as we careen up the mountain.
“Agree.” He reloads my Glock and hands it to me as we crest the hill closest to the cabin. That’s when I see a shitty Dodge Ram out in front of my place. That alone would get anyone an ass kicking.
“Hold up. Let me out up here on the salt ridge.” He points to the white outcrop of rock that looms over the valley below. “I’ll head down the hollow. Come at them from the back.”
I stomp the breaks, skidding to a halt.
Reeve jumps out, then grabs his shotgun and another rifle. “Meet you up there.”
I give him a nod, and he slams the door. They know we’re coming. With the way sound echoes in these hollows and ridges, they probably heard us when we turned off the country road.
When I reach the cabin, I turn hard and spray gravel at the piece of shit truck in my driveway, then open my door and jump out, running to the back as the front door swings open hard and gunfire erupts.
“Stop!” Petal screams from somewhere inside.
“Come on out, heathen. It’s time for you to stand in judgment.” Her father fires a few more rounds.
“I’ll handle this.” Jeremiah’s nasal tone grates on my ear.
My front door slams, and then I hear footsteps on the stairs.
I peek out, and the little bitch fires into the side of my truck.
“She’s not yours. She’s mine. She’s always been mine. God ordained it.”
“If that’s true, then why am I the only one here who knows what she tastes like?”
He fires again, wasting his bullets just as I intended him to do.
“More than that, I know how velvety soft she is inside. She was so wet for me I could’ve fucked her for a day straight.”
More shots as I duck around to the other side of my truck.
“Liar!” he yells. “You’re lying. She wouldn’t lower herself to a man like you.”
“She lowered herself onto me quite well, if I remember correctly.”
That sets him off, and the idiot comes barreling around the truck at me. I fire, hitting him in the chest with three rounds.
When he staggers back, I realize the little shit is wearing a vest.
“God gave her to me.” He fires one more shot–his last–and it hits me in the side.
“Tell God I said hi when he sends your ass to hell.” I aim up and pull the trigger, nailing him in the forehead as he falls back, his arms splayed out.
I touch my side, my fingers coming away bloody, but I don’t bother with my wound. I have to get to Orchid.
I hurry up the front stairs and enter the code. Peeking down the hall, I don’t see anyone, so I hug the wall and move along until I see shadows in my living room.
“Don’t come any closer,” her father yells. “I’ll kill them both!”
“Let her go! She’s not your property!” Orchid’s mother shoves her father. “And neither am I!”
He turns the gun on her.