by KB Winters
Thankfully, Cruz’s endless questions interrupted that particular train of thought.
“This still don’t make sense, man. Why shoot at Aspen, and why now? It’s been weeks since they broke up, and Ken’s been to the club a few times with a few different women. None of them Aspen. Anyone watching him or her would know that.”
As much as I wanted to tell Cruz to shut up, he asked some good goddamn questions. “You saying you think this was all just a diversion?”
Cruz shook his head. “Maybe, yeah, but that doesn’t make sense either because now we’re all here, just a few feet from Peaches. This Farnsworth dude would definitely know that in advance. It’s got to be something else, but I don’t know what. Yet.”
“I can’t find any flaws with that,” Wheeler said, sounding half put out he hadn’t thought of it. “As a precaution, we should keep everyone in the house, even Martha’s evil spawns. No one leaves the ranch until this shit is over, right Gunnar?”
“Fuck yeah.” Gunnar rounded the desk and went to the door, pulling it open. “Get what you need, go in groups to make sure the house is covered and then come back in five.”
The office emptied out quick enough, leaving me alone with Gunnar. “What’s on your mind, Prez?”
He snorted a laugh. “Stop beating yourself up. Aspen is fine. Scared as hell probably, but fine.”
“Yeah, no thanks to me.”
Peaches knocked on the open door. “Sorry to interrupt the pity party, but I’ve got some footage you guys might want to see. Or I can come back after you’ve finished braiding each other’s hair?”
Anything but that. “Whatcha got?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Aspen
Ever since Peaches said the word lockdown, I was itching to get to the bunkhouse for a few creature comforts. No place had felt like home in a long time. Holden’s cabin had started, for the briefest of moments to feel like it, but that failed in the end. He’d made that clear. Still, would a change of clothes and a hairbrush be asking too much?
Of course not. The minute the boys’ little powwow down in the front hall was over, I used their departure as a cover to head to the bunkhouse. Alone. It might not have been the smartest move, but I had an errand of my own. I appreciated Holden’s help and the help of the Reckless Bastards and even Peaches, but I needed a few damn moments to myself.
Is this what my life had become now, being shot at and protected by bikers? Had my taste in men gotten so poor that my ex was now trying to kill me? That thought pulled a laugh right from the center of my belly, as ridiculous as it was. Ken didn’t give a shit about me, certainly not enough to try and take my life.
Then again, my taste had improved only slightly with Holden. Sure, he was a nice guy. A good guy even, but he was also lightning quick to believe the worst about me. It was a shit lesson to learn, that I couldn’t outrun or outgrow my past, especially when my fall back plan had been to return home to Vance. Fat chance of that happening now. Daddy would enjoy making sure I knew just how deeply I’d disappointed him.
No, thank you, anything but that.
Was it too much to ask for someone to have had a little bit of faith, of confidence in me?
Pity party for one, please.
No, I needed to have some belief in myself and to stand on my own, to find my path in life. That, I vowed, was what would I spend the next few days working on.
While hiding out from a killer.
I crept up to the bunkhouse and slipped inside. As I expected, I found it quiet and dark with all the lights off except for the yellow light from the common room lamp that seemed to shine a spotlight on the fact that Wheeler had brought his stuff back. I briefly wondered why, but I respected his privacy more than I wanted to help. As if I could, anyway. That was when I noticed that it was too quiet in the bunkhouse. Too dark, too.
There was a weird charge in the air, and just as my instinct to run kicked in, a familiar voice spoke.
“You’re not such hot shit. Practically ordinary,” she snarled.
I turned, expecting to see a familiar pert nose and freckles that were the only feature not shared by the twins, but it wasn’t Evelyn.
“I never claimed to be anything of the sort, Adrian.” She was the quiet twin, just as bitchy as Evelyn, but she didn’t wield it like a machete, so she flew under the radar. Way under the radar.
“You walk around like you think you’re the hottest shit around.” The disdain in her voice was evident, but it was the fire burning in her eyes that took me aback. It was hatred.
“I don’t think that. The fact that you think so says more about you than it does about me. And you know what? I don’t give a damn what you think.”
Now was as good a moment as any to start refusing to take any shit from anybody.
“What the hell did Kenny ever see in you anyway?” She gave me an assessing look as she flicked on the floor lamp in the corner, lighting her face almost like the beginning of a terrifying campfire tale. “He says you’re boring in bed, you know.”
That didn’t surprise me at all. “That’s what all men say who don’t know how to please a woman. Why should I experiment when he can’t even satisfy me with normal, vanilla sex?” It didn’t surprise me that he’d moved on. Ken was never one to spend too much time on his own. It gave him too much time to think, and to him that was a fate worse than death.
“When the charm wears off, that tiny cock won’t be so satisfying. Trust me.”
“You take that back, bitch! Kenny is a generous lover. And as soon as I take care of you,” she snarled, her eyes wild, crazed as they darted around the room. “When I take care of you, we’re gonna live a big life together. The biggest!”
Those were Ken’s words if I ever heard them. “Let me guess. In the big city?” I laughed, a sound that was sharp and bitter, even to my own ears. “Yeah he made me that same promise, and a few weeks later we ended up here.”
Adrian didn’t like the reminder that she wasn’t Ken’s first. “Yeah, well I’m not like you, a stuck up ice princess not willing to do anything to help out.”
Those were definitely Ken’s words. I’d heard that speech enough times to recite it in my sleep. “You’re right. You aren’t like me. I have my own money, which means I never had to participate in his latest scheme, because that’s what he is, Adrian, a schemer.”
“You’re a liar! You’re just saying that ‘cause you want him back!”
She stood up and scraped her knuckles across one side of her head, looking agitated. Worried.
“Ken is the last thing I want in my life. If you were smart, you’d run in the opposite direction.”
“If you were smart you would shut your fuckin’ mouth.”
A switch flipped inside of her. The wild-eyed Adrian was replaced with a calmer, though just as shaky-handed version. The most noticeable difference was the shaky-handed version now held a gun.
“Kenny was right. You don’t know when to shut the hell up.”
“You’re the perfect little parrot of him,” I said. Was this really happening to me twice in one night? “He must be so proud of you, Adrian.”
She raised the gun and aimed it at me, and all the blood drained from my face and my hands, leaving me cold with a pounding heart and a deep urge to run.
“Still talking?”
It wasn’t smart, but I had a feeling I was dead either way. “Yeah, I am. Because you seem to think Ken is some savior, but he’s not. He’s broke, owes money to every gaming room and casino from here to Maine. And now some spy owns most of his debt, and that fucker is crazy.”
I told her all about my encounter with him, mostly to stall for time, but also if I could save another woman from Ken’s clutches, I had to try. Even if she had a nine-millimeter pointed at my head.
She smiled, and it wasn’t a happy or satisfied kind of smile. No, it was on the wrong end of the crazy spectrum.
“That’s where you’ll come in handy,” she said.
Th
e hand with the gun motioned for me to head toward my things. I did because she had a gun trained on me.
“So this is a robbery?” It was a novel idea, rob your ex-girlfriend to pay for his next one, but there was a major flaw with it.
“You could say that. Or you could think of it as a donation to true love.”
The laugh erupted from me before I could stop it, and yep, it pissed Adrian off. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to, it’s just…you really love Ken?”
“Don’t worry about me and Kenny. Just write down your PIN numbers for your bank and credit cards. Online banking info, too.”
She rattled off a long list of items that Ken had probably drilled into her head, and I realized that Adrian was just another pawn, and she was too stupid to realize it.
“He’s using you.” To be fair, Ken used everyone, but it was all clear now. The reason he kept me around and put up with my refusal to engage in his schemes. I was his escape plan.
“No honey, he’s using you. We both are.”
“Except Ken’s not here, is he? You are, and my guess is you tried to disable the surveillance on the property.”
“Shut up!”
I smiled. “You did. So this will all look like his new girlfriend was jealous of the ex and killed her, but not before you give your precious Kenny all of my financial information. You’ll be denied bail until trial, and Ken will be spending my money on the next woman.”
It was pretty brilliant actually, and if he pulled it off, well I’d be impressed that one of his plans actually worked out.
“You’re wrong about most of it. The part where you’ll be gone, though, spot on, princess. Now get me those details.”
I took my time, digging through my bag even though my wallet was right there. Somewhere behind the lipstick and tampons was the switchblade my daddy gave me on my sixteenth birthday. He’d made the carved wooden handle himself, and I never went anywhere without it. “You know this won’t work, don’t you?”
Adrian shook her head. “I know that I’d say the same thing in your position.”
“Maybe so, but you’re not rich, so I wouldn’t expect you to understand.”
“Really? You do realize I have a gun aimed right at your precious face, don’t you?”
“That’s not what I meant.” She stepped closer, which brought the gun even closer. Though I grew up around guns, had a healthy respect for them. I also had an even healthier fear of the damage they could do to the human body.
“My money is from a trust. That means a certain amount is released to me each month, and I have to sign in person or do a video chat to receive it.” One of my granddaddy’s fail-safe measures to prevent this very thing from happening.
“You’re lying.” She wanted that to be the truth, but I was out of reasons to lie, and we both knew it. Adrian poked the gun into my ribs until I winced. It wasn’t the perfect moment, but it was the only one I had, so I pulled the knife from my purse and stuck it in her leg before taking off for the front door.
“Stop!” The word came out on an anguished grunt, but the gunshot stopped me.
“Oh, fuck, you shot me!” I fell to the ground in an instant. The bullet had only sliced through a few layers of skin and would require stitches but nothing else, but that didn’t stop the searing pain from tearing through my body.
“You fucking shot me!”
“When I say stop, you listen.”
“You’re one to talk,” I grunted from the effort of trying to get my feet under me so I could stand.
“Change of plans. You’re coming with me.” She waved for me to leave the bunkhouse, using the gun just to make sure I understood the stakes.
“Don’t be stupid. This can’t possibly work.” But Adrian was beyond listening, using the gun to push me out of the bunkhouse.
“The car is…oh, shit.”
Oh, shit was right. Gunnar, Holden, and Wheeler all stood in front of us, three big ass guns aimed our way.
Chapter Thirty
Holden
“See that sliver right there? It’s part of a car, some type of sedan.”
Peaches pointed to a dark triangle, and suddenly the form appeared. “This is the small camera on the Hardtail Ranch arch as you enter the property.”
“You said that already,” I told her. It was the tenth time we looked at the footage, and even Gunnar had bowed out five views ago. Nothing new had popped out. Yet. The car looked like a basic, dark-colored sedan. From the angle, it was a late, four door model, maybe a luxury brand. “Nothing on the model or the plates?”
One brow arched at the question I’d asked no less than a dozen times.
“Nope. I’ll need to update the surveillance out there so this doesn’t happen again.” Her tone was deadly serious and guilt-filled.
“Don’t take on this asshole’s guilt, Peaches.” Those fiery hazel eyes flashed gratitude before turning back to the screen.
“Thanks,” she whispered so low I wasn’t entirely sure she’d said anything at all.
“Okay, now look here.” She pointed at the screen, and the third angle appeared, the one right in front of the fences where I let the horses enjoy the warm days.
“Did you see it?”
“Yeah, but not clearly. Run it again.” This time I saw what my tired, anxious eyes had missed before.
“It’s a shoe. A goddamn shoe.” One of those fancy leather shoes that were a mix between a dress shoe and a casual one. “I’d know that brown leather anywhere.”
“You do? How?” Peaches’ interest was piqued, despite the circumstances.
“Aspen threw them at Ken at The Barn Door the night she caught him fucking someone else. Barely missed my head by an inch.” Even that seemed a lifetime ago.
“So it is Ken? That son of a bitch.” Peaches growled his name. I joined her as one shot sounded. Close. “What the fuck?”
“Gunshots. Get low and stay here,” I whispered. “Gunnar?”
“Headed towards the bunkhouse,” he called out. “Ford, stay with the women.”
That was all I needed to hear to pull my piece out and jog down the stairs, ready to join him. If that fucker was still here on the property, I’d make sure he’d regret it.
I hadn’t seen Aspen since we left the storage shed, and that was over an hour ago. She hadn’t appeared in the kitchen for coffee and Martha’s delicious coffee cake, and she wasn’t watching TV with Maisie and Martha in the living room. Suddenly that shot made a lot more sense, and my feet moved even faster until I was the first one to arrive at the bunkhouse.
The door smacked open, and I was met with the most welcome sight, Aspen’s face. But it wasn’t twisted in anger or beaming with love. Her skin was pale, and her expression was fear or worry as she walked at an odd pace, stiff. Wooden.
“Don’t be stupid, Adrian.” Her gaze darted behind her, and I knew what she was saying.
Adrian. One of Martha’s evil spawn. “The car is…oh shit.”
“Oh shit is right, little girl.”
She gasped and peeked over Aspen’s shoulder with a lopsided smile and an erratic gaze. “Holden, Kenny was hoping you’d show up.”
“Bet he didn’t expect me to bring backup, did he?” The man was a coward. Who knew what he had in store for Aspen? “I can’t believe you’re doing his dirty work, though.”
She shrugged. “None of you guys were ever gonna notice me anyway, and she won’t need any money when she’s dead.”
Aspen winced and arched her back as the gun dug into her flesh. “Now back up or I’ll shoot her right here.”
“You do that, and you’re dead. No one gets the money, and Ken runs off with, what was that chick’s name, Aspen?”
“Paige,” she bit out, glaring at me like she wanted to shoot me herself.
“That’s right, Paige will get Ken, and you will be dead.” She didn’t seem to be moved by my words at all. “Look around, Adrian, there’s no way out of this for you.”
“Wrong again, cowboy. You out t
here, baby?”
I didn’t have to turn to know that half the Reckless Bastards now had their backs to the bunkhouse and to me, facing the land beyond.
“Two o’clock!” Aspen’s words were cut off by a cry of pain caused by Adrian sticking her finger into a bloody wound on her arm. “Ouch!”
Ken stepped out from the shadows, looking like the piece of shit scumbag he was in khaki pants and a peach golf shirt.
“I’m here, honey.” He waved his gun around like that shit was supposed to scare us. “Looks like Aspen is causing more trouble than she’s worth. Again.”
“Looks like you’ve bitten off more than you can chew. Again. Asshole.” That was my girl, deep in shit and unafraid to keep going for the jugular. I hoped it worked to her advantage for the next ten minutes.
“These bikers are no concern of mine. They have bigger, badder enemies than me. And if you give me what I want, we’ll get out of here so they can focus on their real problems.” Ken turned to me. “What do you say?”
Too much was happening, too much unspoken shit was being said, and I couldn’t focus on it all. Not and keep Aspen safe while trying to figure out what Ken was trying really hard not to say. “I say fuck you, Ken.”
He laughed. “Don’t stay for the money. The bitch is as cheap as she is frigid.”
It took every ounce of willpower I possessed not to charge the asshole and beat him to a pulp. “It helps when you feed her a steady diet of ten-inch cock.” A few of the guys laughed, but I knew they would.
“Bullshit.”
“It’s true,” Cruz added with a laugh. “We all call him Mah-Dick. I would’ve chosen anaconda, but it was already taken.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Ken frazzled was about as intimidating as a spinster aunt, but he was reckless and armed, which made him a clear threat. “I just want the cash I’m owed. I paid for everything.”
He bitched and whined about money while I played his words in my head.