by Tess Oliver
The metallic taste of blood filled my mouth and I spit at his shoes. I managed to splatter them nicely with spit and blood. I stared down at him. “Now you’ve proved that you’re pretty good with that fist as long as you’re facing down an opponent whose hands are tied behind his back.” In my haze of pain, I tried to figure out my next move.
His face reddened with rage, and he lifted his fist again. I braced for the impact, but the girl stepped between us. “I’m bored and it’s getting cold.”
She stepped directly in front of me and peered up at me. “What a shame to mess up that pretty face of yours.”
I glared down at her. “I really hate it when people call me pretty. But hearing it come out of your mouth, makes me hate it even more.” A drip of my blood landed on her tight tank top. “Oops.” She looked down in disgust and stepped back.
Her lips curled up. “Why would a millionaire’s daughter have anything to do with a loser like you?”
I shrugged and glared hard at her. “Maybe I’m a million dollar fuck.”
“I’ve had enough of this cocky asshole,” the man said. He grabbed the gun. I closed my eyes, wondering if I should just run and let them shoot me in the back. But before I could decide, a sharp pain shot through my head and everything went black again.
CHAPTER 25
Finley
The entire house, including my four-legged sidekick, had still been sleeping as I crept out the door. Mandy had texted me at five in the morning to see if I could come work at the barn, and I was pleased to help. Between the adrenaline rush of having my dad safe and sound at home, and the opposite feelings of utter despair brought on by Rett walking out of my life, I’d spent the few hours in bed tossing and turning. I was going to feel my sleepless night at some point in the day, but at the moment, I was wide awake.
Mandy and Joe were pushing wheelbarrows of hay down the line of mare motels as I drove up. Mandy waved as I got out of my car. She pulled a spare pair of gloves out of her pocket as she walked toward me.
“Thank you so much for coming to help. Our two regular volunteers both called in sick, and, as it is, we’re shorthanded.” She stopped and her brow creased. “Is everything all right at home?”
“Couldn’t be better. My dad is back home and everything has been cleared up.”
Her shoulders relaxed. “I’m so glad.” The smell of hay filled my nose as she gave me a brief hug. “I know you were really worried.” Several of the horses pawed impatiently at the ground. “I guess we should continue with the feeding. They’re all waiting.” We walked back to the wheelbarrow. “Oh, and if you can feed the calf that would be great. She’s doing really well with the bottle, and she’s growing fast.”
“I was hoping you were going to ask me to do that.”
I helped with feeding the large animals and then filled the nursing bottle for the calf. She greeted me with a flicking tail and a loud moo. “Look how much you’ve grown.” I stepped inside the stall. The familiar, comforting scent of pine shavings surrounded us as the calf greedily took hold of the bottle with its mouth. “I guess you don’t need any coaxing this time.” For several years, I’d wondered what I would do with my life. The idea of just living a rich, rather lazy, purposeless existence had always sounded awful to me. My anxiety had kept me from starting college, but even if I had gone, I would have majored in something that had to do with animals. Being out at the barn had made me realize that this was what I was made for, and since I was lucky enough not to have to worry about earning a living, I planned to use that good fortune to help the four legged creatures that I was so connected to. While the calf drank its breakfast I thought about the day when Barrett had come to the barn with me. Everything seemed so right then. I couldn’t figure out how I’d misjudged it all so badly. It was a mistake I never wanted to make again. But that prospect, the notion of meeting someone like Barrett again, seemed wildly far-fetched. Maybe I was just better off alone, with my family and animals to keep me company.
Mandy knew that one bottle would not be enough, and good barn mother that she was, she came to the stall with a new bottle just as the calf drained the first one.
I took the new bottle from her. “I can’t believe how much she’s grown.” The calf latched on, and I nearly had to brace my feet to keep her from pulling me over in her enthusiasm to drink the milk. “Quite a different attitude about the bottle than when I first came in here.”
“I’ll say.”
I thought about the quick mention of having my own barn to my dad the night before. “Last night, I sort of let out my idea about running my own rescue barn to my dad.”
Mandy’s eyes widened. “What did he say? It sure is needed. We had to turn down two horses today. They were track rescues. I’m hoping that Meredith over in Riverside will take them. Otherwise, their fate is not good,” she said sadly.
“It was probably unfair for me to bring it up so soon after he got home from his nightmare week, but he didn’t seem opposed. Either way, I’m determined to do it. I can usually talk him into anything.”
She shook her head. “It’s still always so weird for me to think about you having a little heart to heart chat with Nicky King.”
“You’ll have to meet him someday. He’s a pretty regular guy.” I thought about the week we’d just gone through. “Actually, there’s nothing regular about him, but he’s easy to talk to. And I give him high marks for dadsmanship. If that’s a word.”
“Don’t think it is, but I can’t wait to help you get started on your own place. It’s a lot of work but it’s worth it.” She glanced up at the ceiling of the barn. “I need a handy man badly to come patch things and do some random repairs. I’ve put a plea out on the website for someone with skills to volunteer, but no takers yet.”
“Let me see if my brother knows anyone.”
“That would be great.” She turned to leave but then stopped. “How is it with that new guy, Barrett? I saw him in a few pictures. He sure is photogenic. And it was so sweet the way he crawled right into the stall with you and the calf.” She looked over at me. “Oh, sorry. Things aren’t good, then?”
I took a deep breath. “It’s over, unfortunately.”
“I’m sorry to hear that. You two looked really suited to each other. He was sort of the yang to your yin, if you know what I mean?”
“I do.” The calf finished the bottle, and I was ready for a new topic. “What do you need me to do next? My dad will be sleeping most of the day. Time change, jet lag and all the other stress of the week will keep him in bed. So I’ve got all morning.”
“Great.” She grabbed a mucking fork off the wall. “If you don’t mind shoveling poop, it would really help me out.”
“Don’t mind at all.”
CHAPTER 26
Rett
The gritty feeling of sand between my teeth woke me. My head pounded and my face felt sore and swollen. There was a dull ache in my rib cage and my throat was parched.
I glanced around. Even in daylight, the landscape looked barren as if I’d landed on some uninhabited planet. I was pretty sure it wasn’t heaven, and I had a different idea of what hell looked like. Although this was close, and damn hot. It seemed I’d been spared a bullet in my head. But the handle of the gun had done a number on my skull. I could feel dried blood caked on my face, the side of my head and my still bound wrists.
The sun was fairly high in the sky. I’d been out cold for several hours. I couldn’t see the highway from where I sat behind the trees, but I could hear the morning traffic whizzing past either on its way into or out of Palm Springs.
I could walk up toward the highway and wait for someone to spot me, which would not take long, or I could spare myself the long, boring day of answering police questions and call someone to pick me up. Jimmy’s questioning would be even more brutal than the police, so Dray was my obvious choice.
I pulled my arms but the wires just dug deeper. My phone was unreachable. As numb as my hands were now, I could tell tha
t the wire holding them was thin and brittle. I slid on my ass over to a rock that jutted from the ground. The top edge looked sharp enough to cut my hands free.
Fresh blood dripped over my hands and knuckles as I sawed away at the wire. My ribs and head ached with every movement. When the binding snapped and my hands broke free, I nearly collapsed from relief. My shoulders were tight with pain as I moved my arms to get life back into them. My hands tingled and blood was smeared halfway up my arms. I reached for my phone. It was ten in the morning. The battery was low but I had bars. I pressed Dray’s number.
“You’d better be close to death,” Dray snarled. The bottle of whiskey came back to me.
“Sorry man, I forgot you were sleeping all day.” The pain in my face made talking a chore.
“You sound like crap.” He was more awake now. “Where are you?”
I looked around. Ahead I could see the tops of massive windmills. “You know that sprawling wind farm off the ten on the way to the desert?”
He was silent for a second. “Yeah.”
“I’m about a mile from there, on the side of the road.”
“What the fuck, Rett? Why are you out there?”
“Kind of hard to talk because my face is sort of beat up and my head is about to explode with pain. But I definitely know that I never want to be famous. Could you come pick me up?”
“I’ll be right there.”
“Oh, and Dray, remember that horrible thirst we had down in Mexico?”
“I’ll bring some water. It’s going to take me some time to get there, so find some shade. If there is any.”
“Thanks man, I owe you.”
“Damn right you do, but frankly, I’m looking forward to the story behind this. Should be good.” The warning beep of a low battery sounded as he hung up.
The desert provided few comforts, but I scooted under the scraggly branches of the trees and rested against a trunk. This latest fun episode might just have been the final wake up call. I’d always figured my luck would run out eventually when it came to girls, but this really beat everything I’d imagined. The two clowns who had drugged me and shoved me into their car were easily creepy enough to shoot me. This time I survived, but there would always be another time. That horrible dream I had about being chained to the bed by a crazy woman had been my conscience telling me to stop this shit.
My phone vibrated and I answered it quickly figuring there wasn’t much more time on it. I’d expected it to be Dray, but a different voice floated through it.
“Here’s the thing,” she said without any hello, “sometimes I’m really selfish, and I don’t think about anyone’s feelings but my own. And I know it’s bad but I haven’t figured out how to stop it because I’m still just figuring out how to cope with stuff. But I wasn’t shutting you out that morning, Rett.” Hearing her say my name made my dry throat tighten. “I’d just gone into my self-pity cocoon. But you mattered that morning. It felt better just having you near.” She continued with hardly a breath. “Sometimes I let my emotions splatter all over the place. But you’re like this giant, solid rock that I can hang onto in a storm. I miss you so much, Rett.” She fell silent for a second. “But since you’re not saying anything, I guess this call was a mistake.”
“No, Finley,” the throbbing in head and the swelling in my face made it hard for me to decided what to say, “it’s just that it’s been a wild night.” And, of course, I’d chosen the wrong words.
“Oh,” she said, “then I’ll let you go.
“No, Finley, I didn’t mean—” my words were cut off by the annoying jingle of my phone shutting down. I stared at the black screen. “Sonavabitch.”
***
I had no way to gauge how much time had passed, but the sun had moved directly above and it felt like my dehydrated brain was frying, even in the shade of the tree. The wind had died completely, and the only movement came from the occasional lizard or roadrunner skittering past. With the luck I’d been having, I was surprised that a rattlesnake hadn’t curled up by my feet. The sun was probably even too hot for snakes. My thirst was unbearable, and I couldn’t stop thinking about water.
I scooted around the tree so that only the occasional curious driver might spot me, but I still had a clear view of the east bound lane. Midday heat had cleared most of the Interstate Ten. Palm Springs wasn’t a place you drove to at twelve in the afternoon. Dray had recently bought himself a red truck. I hoped it would be easy to spot in the distance.
I leaned back against the tree. Shards of bark were lodged in my shirt, but they weren’t nearly as painful as the lump on my head or the pain in my chest. I tossed my dead phone on my palm. The damn things always seemed to fail or lose service at the most important times. I thought about everything Finley had said. She’d convinced herself that she’d been selfish, but I’d already come to the conclusion that I was being an asshole. She’d gone out of her way to let me know that she had problems coping with stressful things and then when something really shitty happened and she fell apart, all I could think about was my own ego. Somehow I’d convince myself that I had to be the most important person in her life even if she’d only known me a short time. It was a family crisis and she’d turned to her family and away from me. It was the natural response, and my conceit had gotten in the way of reason. And now she thought I was out partying with girls. Another fucking chunk of miscommunication getting in our way.
I looked up at the sound of a car. No Dray. All I could think about was that bottle of water in his car. I closed my eyes wishing I’d at least had my sunglasses when I heard another car in the distance. It was a red dot. I pushed to my feet and braced my hand against the tree to steady myself. The combination of the drugs, being pistol whipped and the lack of water in my blood stream made the desert landscape look wavy.
The red dot morphed into Dray’s truck. I trudged unsteadily toward the side of the road and waved my arm. Dust and gravel flew up as Dray pulled over.
I fell into the front seat and he handed me a bottle of water. “Sorry, but it’s warm.”
“Don’t fucking care.” My fingers shook as I twisted off the cap. I dropped my head back and guzzled the entire bottle without a breath. “Damn, that’s good,” I sighed. “I never thought I’d ever feel as shitty as I did down in that Mexican jail, but I was wrong.”
“At least you don’t have some slobbering, horny giant staring down at you like a piece of candy.”
“You always know just the right thing to say, you ass.”
He laughed and whipped the truck around to the westbound lane. “So, what the hell, Rett? One minute you’re stone sober at Nix’s party and the next you’re out here in the desert looking as if you just crawled out of three days at Coachella. That cut on your face looks gnarly. What happened?”
I shook my head not completely sure I had the strength or will to relay the whole story. I relaxed back and closed my eyes. The water and the shade of the car did little to relieve the ache in my head.
“On no, you’ve got to tell me. I was in a beautiful whiskey induced coma when you called, so out with it.”
The music was making my head pound more. I reached forward and turned it down. “I met some chick down at the pool hall. I was drowning my misery and thought I’d find someone to go home with to pull me out of my bad mood. She recognized me from all those fucking pictures on the internet. Bitch slipped something into my beer. Next thing I knew, I was being shoved into the backseat of a car. She and her boyfriend had come to the conclusion that if I knew Finley King then I must be rich.” I laughed once and pain shot through my skull. “Shit, that hurts.” I leaned my head toward Dray. “Is my head cracked open? It feels like that time I flew off my skateboard into a wall.”
He looked over. “Nah, looks like the little brain matter you had is still all there. Nasty bump though. A rock?”
“A gun.”
Very little shocked Dray but his mouth dropped open as he looked over at me. “Fucking hell, they were ser
ious.”
I lifted my bloodied arms. Thin red lines creased both my wrists. “They had me tied up with wire. They were such douche bags I’m actually surprised they didn’t just shoot me.”
“Do you remember the car? We could go after them or call the police.”
I shook my head. “They’re long gone. Besides, they didn’t get anything because as they sadly found out, I had nothing to give.” I relaxed back against the seat. “Finley called me while I was sitting out there, but my phone died before I could talk. So now she hates me even more.”
Dray looked over and even though he was wearing his shades I could tell that he’d rolled his eyes. “Right, she hates you. That’s obviously why she called.” He pointed down to his phone charger. “You can call her back, if you want.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll wait until my head isn’t killing me. I need all my wits because I always manage to say the wrong fucking thing.”
Dray’s laugh sounded like the blast of a fog horn in my aching head. “You always say the wrong fucking thing? Welcome to the world of relationships, my friend.”
CHAPTER 27
Finley
“Finley, we need to talk.” My dad was an expert at manipulating his British accent to fit the mood or the topic. At parties when everyone was drinking and socializing, the cockney, streetwise accent came trumpeting through, but when he wanted to sound fatherly he could tweak his accent just enough to sound like a stern, stodgy Englishman.
I looked up at him from my catalogue. Occasional gray clouds and an unusually cool breeze had not stopped Dad and me from sitting on the pool lounges. I pulled my sweatshirt hood up for warmth. I could sense that Dad had wanted to talk before we’d even sat down.
“You seem down about something. You’re not your usual lively self, and it worries me when you’re in a dark mood.”