by Bella Jewel
Rhett grunts. “You’re goin’ to be sadly mistaken.”
“We’ll see. Anyway, I was coming to find you to ask if we could give the hike a miss today, everyone drank way too much last night and want a rest day.”
Rhett shrugs. “Your retreat, you do what you want. I’ve got a shit load of work to do today anyway, I’ll be in town for most of the day. Got business to take care of.”
Business involving the man they were trying to remove the kneecaps of last night?
That dude?
I wish I could say something, but I don’t.
I open my mouth to ask him if I can come along when I hear a scream.
It’s a shrill scream, one that I’ll hear for the rest of my days.
Rhett’s head whips in the direction of the barn and I turn that way, too.
I just came from there. Everything was fine.
“Someone down there?”
“Ah,” I say, hesitantly. “They may or may not have done a dare last night that the guys could stay in the barn. I just checked them all, they were fine. It must be a snake or something.”
The screaming intensifies.
That doesn’t sound good.
“Catch up,” Rhett calls and kicks Diablo forward.
The horse gallops in the direction of the barn.
Great. Thanks for the lift, buddy.
I guess I’ll run.
I take a deep breath and then jog toward the barn.
When I get there, Grace and Maria are both on the ground, hanging onto each other. Rick and Nathan are both pale, staring at the barn where I’m assuming Rhett is because he’s not on his horse. I rush over to the girls, confused. What the hell is going on?
“What’s happening?” I ask Grace, taking her shoulder in my hand and shaking her a little.
She’s crying a lot.
“It happened. It happened. It was only meant to be a dare and it happened ... it wasn’t supposed to be real,” she wails.
My heart feels like it lodges in my throat. “What isn’t meant to be real?”
“Taj ... he’s ... he’s ... dead.”
Everything stops.
Rhett walks out of the barn, phone pressed to his ear, frantically talking to someone.
I stare in horror as his eyes meet mine.
“Is ... is it true?” I whisper.
He nods. “He’s gone.”
No.
This can’t be happening.
It can’t be real.
Oh god.
It was only meant to be a joke. It wasn’t real.
Right?
Someone tell me it wasn’t real.
WE ALL STAND IN A ROW as the police carry Taj’s body out of the barn in a black body bag. I’ve seen that a thousand times in the movies, but never in my wildest nightmare did I ever expect to see it in real life. I’m standing beside Emily, holding her hand, and we’ve all been crying so much there is nothing left to do but just stare blankly.
All the guys are here, they were forced to call the police. This could ruin everything they’ve created here, all because we decided to do something stupid, but we didn’t think it was real, we didn’t think anything would actually happen. If we believed it, we never would have come here. I don’t understand what happened, nobody has told us how Taj died or why. All we know is he’s gone.
“He was okay when I went to sleep last night,” Grace sobs. “He was okay, I said goodnight to him, we made a joke about all the ghosts. He was okay.”
The police officers speak with Rhett, and when they’re done, Rhett walks over to us. “You’re all goin’ to have to answer some questions. Taj has a head wound, a bad one, that’s what killed him. It’s likely he fell, hit a rock, but you gotta know they’re goin’ to ask questions so if anyone did this ...”
“We didn’t do anything!” Maria cries. “We only sent him in there as a joke.”
“Was he drinkin’?” Rhett asks.
“Yes,” Nathan answers, his voice somber. “He was drunk. We all were.”
“Then there’s a solid chance he might have passed out and hit his head.”
Maybe, but I can’t help but wonder ... why was there a blanket covering him then? I saw him lying on the ground this morning when I peeked in, it looked like he was sleeping and that blanket was most certainly over his body. If he fell, how would the blanket get there?
My stomach twists, but I say nothing.
I know all of these people, none of them would hurt Taj.
They wouldn’t.
Could it have been someone else? Was it one of the guys? I don’t understand.
“We’re goin’ to the main house; the police are goin’ to question all of you. Don’t leave until they have.”
Slowly, we all go back to the main house. Emily goes in first, being the oldest and the one in charge. She’s only in there for about twenty minutes when she comes out, eyes glassy, and they call in Nathan. One by one, they get through us, when it’s my turn, I stand and walk into the bedroom where they’re using a desk to conduct the questioning. We’ll have to go to the station, of that I’m sure, but for now I guess they’re just trying to figure out what happened.
I sit down and the officer asking the questions introduces himself as Steve.
“Where were you last night?”
I tell him all my movements last night and inform him I went back to my room where Rhett helped patch up my knee. He leans around the desk and looks at my knee, then proceeds to ask me exactly how I got said injury. I tell him the truth, because it is the truth, I fell. He then asks about my movements this morning.
“I went and checked on them early, maybe six am. Grace, Maria, Nathan, and Rick were all sleeping in the tent. I peered into the barn and saw Taj lying on the ground, I thought he was asleep.”
Steve narrows his eyes. “Is it normal for Taj to sleep with blood coming out of his head?”
I want to slap him, because he’s being a dick, but instead I look away nervously. I’m not great on a good day with law enforcement and my nerves, now being questioned about the death of a friend, I have no doubt I look guilty as hell, even though I’m not. “He had a blanket covering him.”
Steve jots that down. “Did you move the blanket?”
“No, I didn’t go in there.”
“Did you see anything, anything that might indicate someone had been in there and hurt Taj?”
“No, everyone was asleep.”
“You said you woke during the night and checked if your roommates were home. Were they?”
I swallow.
I have had this on my mind for the entire interview, how I was going to answer this question. If I lie, then someone might get away with having murdered Taj, but if I tell the truth and that person is innocent, they could get put away for something they didn’t do because it looks bad. That person is my best friend.
But she wasn’t in her bed when I woke up.
She wasn’t in the cabin.
There is a period of time during the night where she wasn’t at the tent, and she wasn’t in the cabin. She said she was drunk and it took a while to get back, but could she be lying? I’ve known Kara a long time, and as far as I know, she wouldn’t hurt a fly, but what if it was an accident? What if they got into a fight? The two of them are known to squabble, and the fact that they’re both up for first chair makes me feel even more uneasy.
“No,” I say softly, hating myself, hating that I’m telling on my best friend. “Kara wasn’t in her bed.”
“Kara is your friend?”
“Yes, my best friend. She was there when I woke in the morning.”
“What time was that?”
“Around five.”
“But she wasn’t there during the evening when you woke up?”
I shake my head.
“Would there be any reason Kara would want to hurt Taj?”
“No, she is the kindest person I know, the two of them don’t see eye to eye but ...”
“How so?�
� he interrupts.
“It’s just they’re both going for first chair, and Emily is the one to decide, I know how much it means to both of them but it’s not something she wants bad enough to hurt another person over.”
“Perhaps she didn’t hurt him intentionally ...”
“She would have called for help, she’s not a monster,” I argue pointlessly.
Steve nods, and then asks a few more questions before telling me we’re done for now.
For now.
God.
Did I just put my best friend in the hotseat?
I hope I did the right thing.
Sometimes the truth ... it feels so much worse than a lie.
11
“You all will stay here, continue as normal. At this stage, it looks like an accidental fall but until they’ve looked into it further, we won’t know. They want us all in the same place if they need to ask further questions. Taj’s family has been notified. For now, you can go back to your rooms until we know what will happen,” Rhett tells us all after the police have gone.
We slowly turn, filing out of the house and back toward our cabins.
Nobody says anything, what is there to say? We’re all wondering what went on, wondering if someone did this to Taj, wondering if we’re walking amongst someone who could hurt another person and not get help. It’s hard, but I don’t want to believe anyone here could do that. They’re all ... they’re all like family.
“The officer asked me why I wasn’t in the room,” Kara says to me, her voice low. “Did you tell him I wasn’t there?”
I want to scream, the guilt is already consuming me. “I just told him the truth. I also told him you’d never hurt anyone. That we were all drinking and I walked off on my own, too.”
She doesn’t say anything for a few minutes.
“I’d never hurt Taj ...”
I stop and she does, too, turning toward me. God, looking at her now, I feel bad for even having doubted her. “I know you wouldn’t, but maybe it was an accident ...”
“I had nothing to do with it, Lei. It pains me that you think I do.”
I shake my head. “I never said that. I only told the truth, Kara. I had to do that.”
“I know you did, but you have to know I didn’t do it.”
I want to believe her, god, I really do. But she’s the only one that wasn’t around last night for that period of time. Still, she’s my best friend and I have to at least give her the benefit of the doubt. I can’t just assume she’s lying, maybe she isn’t and it just looks bad. Until we know more, I need to be on her side. I already feel bad enough for having told them the truth, that truth could potentially get her into trouble.
“I know,” I say softly. “Everything is going to be fine.”
“Maybe he did fall,” she goes on.
Yeah, maybe.
We all get back to our rooms and everyone just goes off on their own. I guess we’re all still in some kind of shock. I sit for a while but find myself restless. My mind is swimming with possibilities. I can’t help but think about what went down and the fact that someone went out of their way to make it look like nothing had happened. The blanket making him look like he was sleeping, someone put that there. They had to. What are the chances of him falling with a blanket on?
I get up and put my shoes on, then I go out of the cabin and start walking down the path toward the river Rhett showed me. It takes me nearly half an hour on foot to get there, but the walk does me good and when I arrive, I see Diablo tied to a tree. I pause, wondering if I’ve interrupted something, and then I see Rhett walking out of the river ... butt naked.
I gasp and my eyes widen as I stare at the incredible specimen walking toward me, his eyes on mine, his body fully bare, masculine energy radiating off him. His cock actually swings as he walks and my eyes fall to it, unable to look anywhere else. I shiver, remembering how good it felt in my hand the other night. The way he growled. God damn.
“You can take your eyes off my dick now,” Rhett says, his tone gruff but slightly playful.
I snap my eyes up and stumble backward, awkwardly stammering, “I-I-I didn’t know anyone was here, I’m sorry.”
I turn to go rushing off but his loud, commanding voice orders me to stop.
I pause, breathing rapidly as I feel him approach. His hard, cool body presses to mine and he growls into my ear, “Clothes off.”
Oh god.
That wasn’t what I came here for.
My friend just died, murdered possibly, and he wants me to take my clothes off? I can’t.
“I can’t. Taj ... he just died. I just wanted to clear my head.”
“I’m not goin’ to fuck you after you friend died, Lei. Now take off your clothes and trust me.”
I swallow. “I don’t ... I have a chubby tummy.”
“Take off your damned clothes,” he growls.
I turn around and face him. He’s close, so close my body is still touching his and I can feel his penis on my leg. “Your penis is touching my leg.”
He steps closer, squashing it against me. “Didn’t bother you the other night. Stop your bullshit and take off your clothes.”
I hold his gaze and find myself doing something I never thought I would. I take off my clothes. Never taking my eyes off his, I slowly remove every item on my body before standing there, fully naked, unsure what the hell has come over me. I guess it’s the fact that he’s so certain he wants to see what I’ve got to offer, that I have actually come to believe that he wants all of me. Every wobbly piece.
He steps back and then looks down, his eyes darkening in a way I’ve never witnessed in my short life.
“Fuck,” he growls, “curves in all the right places, you have a fuckin’ beautiful body, just the way a woman should look, a little soft, a whole lot curvy.”
Oh god.
That’s the best compliment I’ve ever received.
“Close your eyes.”
I swallow.
“Trust me, I can make your mind turn off for one second, and I know you need that right now.”
I exhale, and then close my eyes.
His hand carefully lands on my shoulder before sliding down my arm and taking my hand, then he carefully pulls me toward the water. When I reach the edge, and I can hear the soft flowing, he leans into my ear. “For one minute, forget everything in your head. Just listen to the water, I want you to feel absolutely everything from the coolness to the way it makes your skin prickle. Focus on nothing else but the sounds and feel. Take a step.”
I do as he asks, taking a step.
My foot lands in the water and when I turn everything else off and just focus on how that feels, I realize just how little time we spend really putting our attention on these things. Not only is it cool but it flows against my foot, causing a slight tickle. The rocks beneath my feet are smooth and something squishy is touching my big toe. The sound is soft and peaceful and in the distance birds can be heard chirping.
I exhale and relax into it, taking a second to forget the world around me for one moment and just be right here, in the river, with a gorgeous man behind me.
Rhett steps up behind me and his hard body presses against mine, his hands run down my arms and his fingers lock into mine, then we stand there, both of us in the water, his chest against my back, our hands entwined, just feeling the moment for what it truly is—blissful. I keep my eyes closed and fall into what almost feels like a meditation, my breathing becomes heavy and peaceful and my body sinks into Rhett’s.
It’s only when I get a little chilly that I shake myself out of it and turn toward him. I look up at him, and his eyes hold mine, and in that moment I’m completely open and vulnerable, and because of that ... I lose it. I can’t help the tears that burst forth and roll down my cheeks. My friend is dead. Yesterday he was here and now he’s gone, just like that, gone. My body starts to shake, and Rhett grabs me, pulling me in close and wrapping his big arms around me.
There he holds me, ugl
y crying, making sounds I don’t even think I’ve heard before, and yet none of it seems to bother him. He holds me until that crying stops and my body quits trembling, only then does he step back and look down at me. “I’m sorry you lost your friend at a place where you were meant to find peace.”
“It’s not your fault,” I croak. “It’s ours. We dared him to go in there, we thought it would be funny. At no point was it funny to send someone into a place that wasn’t safe. He’s dead because of us.”
“Taj was a grown man, Lei. He didn’t have to go in there. He chose that. You can’t hold yourself accountable.”
“He’s a man, and he wasn’t going to let us hold that over his head forever. He was going in there because his pride told him to, because a dare was made.”
“It was an accident.”
“Was it?” I whisper.
He looks down at me, eyes narrowed. “You don’t think it was?”
“He had a blanket over him.”
Rhett seems to process this for a minute. “He didn’t when I went in there.”
“Who found him?”
“Grace. She must have taken it off.”
“Well, when I looked this morning, he had a blanket over him.”
“Doesn’t mean he didn’t fall, sweetheart. He could have had the blanket wrapped around him, it was cold out. He might have tripped and fell, takin’ it with him. That barn is full of old rocks and timber with nails. It’s dangerous.”
Maybe he’s right.
Maybe I am overthinking this whole thing.
Yet something inside me just doesn’t feel right.
I feel as though I’m missing something.
I just don’t know what yet.
But I intend to find out.
IT IS NEARLY A WEEK before the police arrive back to the ranch. We have gone into town to give them a statement, otherwise we have spent our time just chilling out around the ranch and taking a moment to mourn our friend. When they finally arrive, we’re all desperate to hear what they have to say. I’ve gone over it a thousand times in my head, and nothing about it seems right to me, I want to know what they found.
“We wanted to come out in person and let you all know that an autopsy was done, and it has been ruled an accidental death. There were high amounts of alcohol in Taj’s system, enough to cause him to pass out and fall. There were absolutely no signs of a struggle or any other damage on his body, and the fall is consistent with him going backward and landing on the rock we found him laying on. We wanted you to know.”