Not that it mattered. All that mattered was that Kodee backed up the car and got us out of here, but he didn’t move.
The SUV’s doors opened, and men wearing dark suits climbed from each of them. I tried to get a look, wondering if I’d recognize any of them—were they the Capellos’ men or Joe Nettie’s? But I couldn’t get a good look at their faces. They were turned away or moving too quickly. I wasn’t sure. It was strange. I was terrified, yet somehow, I felt like I’d been expecting this. Just waiting for it to happen.
“We have to go!” I yelled again, slamming both hands down on the back of Kodee’s headrest. “Move!”
But he sat there, and so did the others, as though just waiting for the men to kill us. Did they have something else planned? I didn’t know what was happening.
I yanked at the door handle, desperate to get out. “Help! Help!”
But the door wouldn’t budge. Why was it locked? Surely, none of the guys would have locked us in? I stared around at them, frantic. Why were they just sitting there, not moving?
The men in the suits stepped toward us, approaching the car. One raised his hand, and in it was a gun.
Oh, no. Please, no.
He aimed it directly at the windshield, and still none of the guys reacted. They all had weapons as well. Why weren’t they protecting themselves?
A few more steps brought the man closer. I couldn’t make out his face, the features blurry, though I didn’t know why. My heart raced, confusion and panic overwhelming me.
He pointed the gun, aiming it at Ryan, the hollow muzzle seeming to take up all my vision.
The crack of a gunshot sounded, and the windshield shattered. Ryan slumped back against the seat. A second later, there was another gunshot, and a bullet hit Kodee as well.
I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out.
A man appeared beside the passenger door. Dillon was still sitting there, not even reacting to the shooting or what was happening.
He turned to me. “What’s wrong, Rue?”
I shook my head, my mouth open, staring at the man right behind Dillon, who was now lifting the barrel of his gun and pointing it at the back of Dillon’s head. How could Dillon not be reacting to what was happening around us? I didn’t understand. Nothing made sense. I reached back for the car door handle again, unsure where I was even going to go if I made it out, but though I pulled on it as hard as I could, the door refused to open.
The gunshot cracked, and the window behind Dillon shattered into a million pieces, spraying me with a confetti of glass. And not only glass. Warm, wet droplets hit my skin.
Blood. It was blood. The bullet had gone straight through the back of Dillon’s head, shattering the front of his skull.
And now the men in the SUV were coming for me.
The scream lodged in my throat like a dried piece of bread, refusing to budge. I opened my mouth wider, feeling the force of the sound vibrating inside me. But the harder I tried to scream, the tighter my throat got, until I was sure that not only could I not scream, but I was also unable to breathe—
I BURST UPRIGHT, THE scream still lodged in my throat. But at least I was breathing— gasping, in fact.
“Hey, are you all right?” Ryan asked from beside me.
I put my hands to my throat, suddenly plunged back into the moment where I’d woken with Ryan’s hands around my neck. But only the faint bruises from that moment remained. Dillon was behind the wheel, and Kodee was in the passenger seat, and we were still driving. There was no sign of any car, and no one had been shot.
I let out a shaky breath and covered my eyes with my hand. “Yes, just a bad dream, that’s all.”
“I could tell. You were making some strange noises and jerking around. I tried to wake you...”
“Yes, thank you. That was horrible.”
He raised an eyebrow expectantly. “Want to talk about it?”
I pressed my lips together and shook my head. “No, I’d rather just forget about it, if that’s all right.”
Yes, I wanted to forget about it, and prayed I hadn’t dreamed something that might happen in the near future. I wasn’t a suspicious person by nature. I didn’t toss salt over my left shoulder or worry about black cats crossing my path. And I definitely didn’t believe that people’s dreams could predict the future.
I put my hand to the point where my throat hit my collarbone and touched the necklace they’d given me for my birthday. The silver of the quaternary knot felt cool and smooth beneath my fingers. The shape of the pendent meant that we were all joined now—one part always leading into the other. But what would happen if one of those parts was removed? If one part ceased to exist, none of the other parts would work either.
That was the trouble with being completely joined to other people. When they were gone, you no longer functioned as a whole.
Chapter Eight
Rue
“WHERE ARE WE?” I ASKED, peering out the window, trying to get an idea of our location. We were still on the interstate, the white lines of the road passing in a blur. “How long was I asleep?”
Kodee twisted in his seat to face me. “A couple of hours.”
“A couple of hours? Really?” His reply surprised me. No wonder I’d had time for such an elaborate dream.
“Yeah, we’re just passing Cleveland now, then it’s another two hours or so to Detroit, and then we’ll be leaving the interstate and taking some smaller roads.”
We still had a fair amount of time left in the car, then. The horrors from my dream slowly faded, but there was no escaping our dangerous reality. A part of me wished we could just carry on driving, never stopping anywhere for too long, not giving anyone time to catch up with us, but I knew that wasn’t possible. We had to think of Ryan. He was going to need to settle down sooner rather than later, to be able to continue with his treatment and get the help he needed, but he wasn’t going to be able to do that on the road.
The hours passed by, and we finally reached the outskirts of Detroit.
We took another comfort break on the other side of the city, and then we left the interstate and built up area behind us. Trees became more frequent than houses, and we only passed a car every few minutes, the times between growing longer.
The road wound through the forest, with more curves than straights.
Kodee leaned forward in his seat, his neck craned. “There’s going to be a turning coming up on the left. It’s only a dirt track, and it’s pretty well hidden, so keep an eye out.”
Obediently, we all shifted in our seats, watching the side of the road.
“There!” Ryan spotted.
Sure enough, the turning was barely visible from the road. If we hadn’t been looking out for it, we’d have gone right by. Dillon pulled the car in without bothering to signal—there weren’t any other vehicles around to worry about notifying about our change in direction—and then we were moving deeper between the trees. The sound of the tires against the ground changed now we’d left asphalt, and the ride became a little bouncier.
Barely a minute had passed before the road opened up, revealing a single-story wooden cabin, with a porch attached to the front. An old truck was parked outside, and Dillon pulled the car up next to it. Unsure, he kept the engine running.
“Here we are,” Kodee announced, opening the door and climbing out.
Dillon let out a resigned sigh and switched off the engine.
Whoever we were here to meet must have noticed our arrival, as the cabin door opened.
The man who stepped out of the cabin could have been anywhere from fifty to seventy years old. Most of his face was covered in a thick white beard, and he had a full head of hair as well. He was weathered and slender, the muscles in his arms lean from years of physical work. I wondered how he survived out here in the winter. It couldn’t have been an easy life.
This wasn’t what I’d been expecting at all. Maybe Kodee’s contact was a prepper? I’d thought we’d end up back with rich men in a
city. I’d been expecting high-rise apartments or maybe a condo. Expensive cars, and guns. This man had a gun, but it was nothing like the smooth, sleek weapons the guys were carrying. He held a shotgun at his side instead.
“Well, well, Kodee Tharp,” the man said as he crossed the porch and took the steps down to greet us. “There’s a face I didn’t think I’d see this far out of town.”
Kodee strode over and shook the man’s hand. “Good to see you again, Timmo. Thanks for doing this for us.”
He looked over Kodee’s shoulder. “And who are these folks?”
“That’s Dillon,” Kodee introduced, and Dillon lifted a hand in a wave. “And Ryan.”
Ryan nodded his greeting. “Good to meet you, sir.”
Timmo cocked a bushy white eyebrow at me. “And the young lady.”
“This is Rue,” Kodee said. “She’s the one we need you to do the work for.”
He pursed his lips. “Is that right?”
He looked over at me, and I tried not to shrink beneath his gaze.
“Show me what you’ve got,” he said.
Kodee went back to the car and took out the bags containing what they’d taken from their workspace back at the apartment. He unzipped the top and carried it over to Timmo. Timmo leaned over the bag and reached in. He frowned as he inspected what Kodee had brought, his heavy white eyebrows almost covering his eyes. My stomach fluttered like moth wings trapped beneath my ribcage, suddenly worried he’d say he couldn’t help us.
“Okay,” he said, finally, looking up from the bag. “I can do this. I need to get a couple of items in first, though.”
Kodee frowned. “I thought you’d be able to get it done faster.”
“I never gave any specifics. Stay with me a while. You and your friends are more than welcome. I don’t tend to get many visitors up these parts.”
It was hardly surprising. We hadn’t even seen another car for the last thirty minutes of the drive. This place was the opposite of the city, and I wasn’t sure I liked it. The silence seemed to press in on me, and even though there were insects buzzing and birds tweeting to each other, it wasn’t the same as the constant hum of traffic in the city, or the sirens that always seemed to be in the background. The space around us felt vast, a never-ending stretch of trees like the ocean. I imagined someone could wander out there, turn around a few times, lose their sense of direction, and never be seen again.
He must have sensed my hesitation, or perhaps the expression on my face said it all.
“You don’t like the forest?” he queried.
I gave him a forced smile. “I’m more of a city girl.”
I guessed that was true, but I hadn’t really had much of a chance to find out anything for myself. I’d spent my whole life in the city, but it hadn’t been a normal life. Far from it. I’d never been sent off to camp or taken to the beach. There were a hundred different things girls got to experience while they were growing up, and none of them should be anything like what I experienced. I knew how to scrape together whatever leftover food I could find in the house in order to make a meal. I knew to put my mother on her side when she came home late, drunk and high, so she didn’t choke on her own vomit. I knew what it was like to be around men who wanted you for something you had no concept of understanding.
“Maybe you’ll come to love it in time.”
Kodee cleared his throat beside me. “I don’t think we’ll be staying that long. We just need the passport done, then we’ll be out of your hair.”
“Of course. But make yourselves comfortable in the meantime. I’ve got a side of venison I shot myself that I can make for dinner.”
Kodee nodded. “Sounds good.”
Timmo turned around and led us into the cabin. The place was simple, but clean and tidy. The front door led onto one main living area with an open plan kitchen at the back. Beyond that, a corridor led to the cabin’s back door, with several other doors, which I assumed were bedrooms or bathrooms, leading off it.
“So, what happened to your business, Kodee?” Timmo asked. “Isn’t this something you could have done yourself?”
I didn’t like all the questions. I could see Kodee wasn’t comfortable with them either.
“We needed a change in scenery. Things were getting a little... heated in the city.”
Timmo frowned, deep crevasses appearing across his forehead. “You in some kind of trouble?”
Kodee straightened his shoulders and lifted his chin. “No, not at all. We just need a fresh start somewhere else.”
He pursed his lips and nodded. “Guess it ain’t none of my business. So long as you can pay me, of course.”
“Yeah, we can pay you.”
We’d brought the bags containing the money and guns in from the car with us, but I noticed no one had put them down yet.
“Let me make some calls,” Timmo continued, “and then I’ll have to go and pick up some stuff. You’ll be all right here by yourselves for a few hours?”
Kodee nodded. “We’ll be fine.”
“There are plenty of bedrooms, if you want to get some rest. They’re all made up, but I never use them. And there’s beer in the refrigerator and snacks in the cupboards, so knock yourselves out.”
He was the kind of man who knew how to mind his own business. He didn’t question why there were three guys and only one girl, or what our relationship was with each other. I wondered how Kodee knew him. Did he know Timmo from before his wife died? Or only after when he was learning the trade. I guessed those were questions I’d have to ask Kodee.
Timmo grabbed a set of keys hanging beside the front door, which I assumed were for the truck we’d pulled up next to. He kept to his word, leaving us to settle in. The cabin door swung shut behind him, and a moment later, the truck engine started up, growing louder before fading away as he drove down the dirt track and onto the main road.
Kodee turned to Ryan. “You should rest while you can.”
Ryan scowled. “I’m fine.”
But Kodee wasn’t giving in that easily. “Stop trying to be hard and give in for a while. You heard Timmo. We have a few hours while he goes out and sources what he needs.”
“Why didn’t he do that before we arrived?” Dillon asked. “It’s not as though he didn’t know we were coming.”
“I guess I didn’t tell him exactly what we were bringing with us when I called. He might have thought we had all the materials with us.”
That made sense. I hoped we could trust this man. But what choice did we have?
It felt weird being in a stranger’s house when they weren’t even here. It felt even odder being out in the middle of nowhere.
I shivered. “I don’t know how people live like this.”
Dillon shrugged. “Some folks just really don’t like being around other people.”
“Timmo seemed happy enough to let us stay,” I pointed out.
He raked his hand through his dark hair. “Maybe even men like Timmo get sick of their own company eventually. Come on, let’s check out the bedrooms.”
I knew the main thing on everyone’s mind was making sure Ryan was all right, so I picked a door. It led onto a double bedroom, with a second door that appeared to be an adjoining bathroom.
“This room looks like a spare,” I called out to the guys.
They followed me in, dumping the bags on the floor, and Ryan took a seat on the edge of the bed.
“You can take off the leg now, Ryan,” Kodee said. “We’re safe out here.”
I nodded in agreement. “You’re going to have to take it off eventually.”
He exhaled a sigh but bent to unclick the prosthesis from his stump. He winced as he pulled off the fiberglass casing, and then rolled down the sleeve that held the pin.
“Can we get you anything to help?” I offered. “Ice? Painkillers.”
“Just rest is fine. Painkillers don’t do much for this kind of pain, anyway.”
He lay back on the bed. I hesitated for a moment then kicke
d off my shoes and climbed onto the bed to lie beside him. He slid his arm beneath my shoulders, my head pillowed on his chest. I wrapped my arm around his waist and hugged him tight, wishing I could take away some of his pain, both physical and mental.
“You can’t fall asleep like that,” Kodee warned.
I offered him a smile. “We’ll be okay.”
There was still bruising around my throat, bruises that wouldn’t fade for a few days yet. I wished more than anything that I could trust Ryan, but how could he promise that it would never happen again? He couldn’t. This fear that he would suffer from a night terror and dream he was back in the war, fighting for his life, would always be there, and that broke my heart.
Ryan placed a kiss to my head. “You know I’d never hurt you intentionally, Rue.”
I smiled up at him, though I was filled with sadness. “I know.”
Chapter Nine
Ryan
THE PAIN I WAS EXPERIENCING wasn’t only caused by the swelling. I’d grown to know this pain well over the past six months, but it was so hard to describe to someone who hadn’t been through it themselves. How could I explain that right now it felt as though someone was driving a dagger through the top of a foot that wasn’t even there, and then were twisting the blade?
Regular pain medication didn’t work for phantom limb pain. Some kinds of meds occasionally took the edge off, but there was only one thing I’d discovered that really managed to take my mind away from it.
Sex. Good, hard, fucking. And if it hurt, even better. Sex seemed to draw my brain away from focusing on the agony in my nonexistent leg, and even though we were in a strange house, lying on a strange bed, I knew it was what I needed.
“Room for one more.”
Dillon climbed into the bed on the other side.
Kodee folded his arms across his chest. “Hey, now, that’s not fair.”
Rue lifted her head from my chest and turned slightly to put her arm out to Kodee. “There’s always room for you, Kodee.”
Guarded by Them (Dirty Twisted Love, #2) Page 6
