The Divine Creek Ranch Collection Volume 4

by Heather Rainier

  He hefted her now-scrawny form into the bed of the truck, grateful at least that he didn’t have to strain to carry her. The solid thunk her head made against the metal truck bed was very satisfying after all she’d put him through. Honestly with what he had planned and as angry as he was, he was going to have to be careful in the beginning phase of her punishment to not just kill her outright, he was so mad at her.

  Using the wire cutters, he cut speaker wire from the spool and tied her spread eagled in the bed of the truck. Seeing her like that got his cock hard, and he looked around, wondering if there was time. A pair of headlights in the distance, coming from the opposite direction, told him that this spot was out of the way, but not enough for that.

  He adjusted his cock but left it alone to finish the job. As soon as he got her home he was going to give her everything he had anyway. The wait would just make the reunion that much sweeter. He ripped off a piece of duct tape and sealed her mouth shut. She was still out cold, and he hoped he hadn’t hit her head too hard and that she was awake for at least part of the storm and the ride back to their home.

  Big, fat raindrops suddenly began falling hard all around them, striking against his back and the metal of the truck. He jumped out of the truck bed and looked with satisfaction on his handiwork.

  Screwing up his lips in consternation, he growled as he took out the blue plastic tarp from the tool box. If he passed a trucker they’d be able to see into the bed of the truck. That really ruined his damned plan, but the effect would be almost as good if she couldn’t see.

  He threw the tarp over her and weighed the edges down with items from the truck then climbed in the cab soaking wet. He shrugged, thinking it was just one more thing she’d have to pay for. He smiled, knowing he had the whole weekend alone with her to look forward to.

  He pulled back onto the highway and hoped the noise from the storm would wake her soon and wished he could hear her screaming. He hit a pothole and smiled again, willing to bet that added another lump on the back of her head. The storm got its groove on as he turned on the radio and sang along with the singer on the country-and-western radio station.

  * * * *

  By the time Del passed the closed picnic area on the highway, his anxiety had reached a whole new level. This was his nightmare come to life. She needed him and he wasn’t there to defend her. Judging by what Seth had told him, Lily was undoubtedly hurt, there was a really bad storm brewing, and there was no telling how JT would use it to further terrorize her.

  The first thing he planned to do when he got her back safe in his arms was spank her little bare bottom until it was beet red for running off like that without him.

  Hell, who am I fooling? I’ll probably just sit and hold her and thank God she’s okay. If she’s okay. Please let her be okay.

  A vivid bolt of lightning shot across the sky, followed by a deafening crack of thunder. She’d run out into this, knowing that it was probably going to get worse, which communicated to him just how much she cared for her dad.

  He’d notified the sheriff’s department as soon as he’d hung up with Seth Carter and before he’d called Clay. They’d been to the house and discovered no trace of her dad, and it was just as Del had suspected. Les was still in Durst. JT’d merely used the threat of harm to her dad as a means to get her alone so he could take her. It was obvious she hadn’t gone willingly because the front door of the house had been left open and her purse was still in her car with the keys in the ignition.

  Memories crowded his mind, making it hard to see the road as tears blurred his vision. He recalled the love and desire he’d seen in her eyes as they’d gazed at each other in the bathroom mirror not two hours before. He remembered the sweet, sexy taste of the flesh of her throat as he’d licked her, and his heart lurched painfully. He wanted to do that again in the worst way. Wanted to hold her and taste her and make love to her every day for the rest of his life. He was going to do whatever he had to do to make it happen.

  * * * *

  The storm raged on outside the truck as JT rolled down the road. A few minutes after pulling on the highway, JT noticed that the dash lights flickered and dimmed slightly. He adjusted the brightness, and a sinking feeling came to him as the headlights pulled the same number. It dawned on him that what he’d thought had been a rock or a pothole in the road a few minutes back must have actually been his alternator belt breaking. Glancing at the voltage indicator in his dash confirmed his fears.

  “Fuck!” JT screamed as he stopped his boot on the floorboard and banged his fist on the steering wheel. A sharp pain in his hand stopped him from losing it.

  The lights dimmed a bit more, and the radio stopped playing, signaling that he had maybe a mile or two before the battery died. He went as far as he could, topping one last hill before he pulled over on the shoulder. He hoped there were no kind-hearted highway patrols on the road in this storm that might pull over to offer assistance. He got as far off the road as he could before the truck rolled to a final stop.

  He sat there and stomped his boot heel one more time then whipped out his cell phone and dialed Dirk’s number. When the call connected and Dirk’s weaselly voice came on the line, JT fired off instructions, ignoring all of Dirk’s nosy questions, and made him promise to get his ass in his truck right that minute and come bring him the parts he needed.

  Slapping the phone shut, he stuck it in his pocket as he pondered how he’d pass four hours, plus the time Dirk would take at the shop getting him what he needed. Dark thoughts came to his mind as he imagined crawling under the blue tarp to keep his wife company. His wife. And she was going to stay his wife until he deemed otherwise.

  His phone rang again, and he nearly cracked the hinge whipping it open as he cursed the one calling him. “What?”

  “JT, it’s me, Dirk.”

  “I know it’s you, asshole! What do you want?” Last thing he wanted was another cell phone conversation with his idiotic, moody brother. “Shit!” he swore, realizing she might have a cell phone on her. He’d have to get out there when the rain let up and check. While he waited for Dirk to explain himself, he checked the glove box for the knife he kept in there. It was probably sharp enough to cut her blue jeans off of her so he could have some fun without untying her.

  “You there, JT?”

  “What? Why aren’t you on the road yet?”

  “I had to get gas. It’s going to be late by the time I get there, and it’s supper time. You want me to bring you something to eat?”

  This is what an aneurysm feels like! JT rubbed his face hard and said, “Umm, sure. Bring me whatever you can find along the way.”

  “Anything in particular? McDonald’s? Taco Bell? Whataburger?” A gust of wind hammered rain against his windshield.

  Headlights lit the darkness behind him, illuminating the dash faintly. He sat tight and thought about how good a Whataburger with hickory-flavored barbecue sauce and fried onions would be right about now. His mouth watered, and then he shook his head. “Just bring me a burger with everything on it and a coke and fries, and hurry damn it!” He looked in his side-view mirror, waiting for the vehicle to fly past him so he could climb out.

  “JT…”

  “Motherfucker! Will you just spit it the fuck out!”

  “Why are you out on Highway 73? You were in Divine, weren’t you? Is that where you took off to this afternoon?”

  “Dirk, it’s none of your damned business what I’m doing! Just bring me the alternator belt. Get your gas, get your food, and get your stupid ass out here! I’m sitting in the middle of a lightning storm and you want to have a conversation.”

  Dirk raised his voice and showed a little backbone for once. “Hey, you’re the one who needs a rescue. You better not have bothered Lily—” Dirk’s words were cut off so abruptly JT thought the call had been dropped, but he could hear Dirk breathing hard on the other end of the line.

  Gritting his teeth, JT growled as the lights in the dashboard finally went dead. “W
hat do you know about it?”

  When he replied, Dirk didn’t sound like himself. “I know that if you think you’re getting her back, Clay Cook is going to have a thing or two to say about it.”

  JT curled his lip in disgust. He’d taken Lily without so much as a peep from that pansy-ass motherfucker. Suddenly his windshield lit up with the headlights of a stream of vehicles topping the last hill he’d gotten over before the truck died. Full-on panic seized him when they didn’t race past but surrounded the truck instead. He fumbled clumsily with the door handle, but it was too late.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Del braked and pulled to a stop a short distance from the Toyota. The deputies pulled to sharp stops, surrounding the white truck. A sheriff’s deputy stopped Clay as he tried to run past Del’s truck and halted him as well when he jumped out into the thunderstorm. This was the worst possible place for them to be, on high ground with lightning striking all around them, but all he could think of was how Lily felt being out in it. As if to emphasize his worry, a bolt of lightning struck less than a quarter of a mile away.

  The deputy barred his way and called out, “Stop, sir. Let the sheriff handle it.” Del watched Hank Stinson pull his service weapon from its holster and approach the driver’s door along with the other armed officers.

  “JT King, roll down the window!” Hank called out over the noise of the storm as he shined his large flashlight at the truck.

  Del saw the window begin to descend slowly as King rolled it down.

  Hank shouted, “Hands where I can see them!”

  JT complied, sticking his large hands through the window. JT yelled something unintelligible as Hank aimed his flashlight into the cab of the truck. He looked back at one of the deputies and shook his head, then gestured to the bed of the truck.

  A deputy opened the tailgate and hollered as he pulled back a tarp. “Back here, Hank!”

  Simultaneously, Del and Clay bolted away from the deputy when he was distracted by the discovery, and JT slammed open the door of the truck.

  The emergency vehicle lights and flashlights glinted off the barrel of JT’s hand gun as he raised it and pulled the trigger. Heart pounding, Del and Clay both ducked down between the vehicles and King’s truck but kept moving toward where Lily must have been restrained in the bed of the vehicle. Several more shots were fired, and Del heard the sounds of a struggle, followed by one final round being discharged.

  “Call two ambulances,” Hank hollered as he holstered his weapon and bent down. “All clear!” He stood with a weapon held between two fingers and handed it to another deputy. “Let’s get her out of this storm.”

  A deputy squatted by the door of the Toyota and then said, “Make that one ambulance and the medical examiner.”

  Del had seen a lot of death over the last eight years, more than he cared to remember. He didn’t take it lightly, but hearing those words was satisfying and there was no way to deny it.

  The deputy was pulling the items off the tarp that weighed it down as they both climbed into the bed of the truck and discovered Lily spread eagled, tied down with speaker wire. In the strobing lights of the vehicles combined with the lightning, Del picked at the speaker wire, trying to get her loose. Her hands were discolored like her circulation had been cut off, and seeing that added to his frustration as the wires refused to give. Clay was having similar difficulty with her ankles judging by his sounds of annoyance.

  Hank pointed his flashlight into the bed of the truck and reached for a pair of wire cutters that had been discarded by her foot. He handed them over and asked, “She okay?”

  As he waited his turn for the wire cutters, Del gently lifted her head and grimaced at the large knot on the back of her head. She was unconscious, but he sent a prayer of thanks heavenward that she was alive and warm. “She’s got lumps on her head and her brow is bleeding pretty badly, besides being soaked.”

  “Bring a blanket!” Hank called as he held the tarp to shield her as the chilling rain increased and pounded down on them.

  Clay handed him the wire cutters and then crouched over Lily, shielding her with his body as Del carefully cut away the thin but strong plastic-coated speaker wire. He was partially glad she was unconscious because it would have hurt like hell as the blood rushed back into her hands. He stroked them gently as he repositioned her with her arms close to her body and no longer stretched painfully tight.

  The fact that Lily was unconscious scared the hell out of him because he didn’t know the extent of her injuries. But he was grateful that she had likely been unconscious for the entire painful experience.

  One of the deputies brought something to Hank and said a few words. Hank frowned and turned to Clay as he held up a cell phone. “Hey, Clay. Isn’t this the shop’s phone number?”

  Distractedly, Clay glanced at the lit display and said, “Yeah, why?”

  Hank scowled and said, “This is King’s phone and the call history shows an incoming call to him from the shop, earlier this week.”

  Del looked at it when Hank showed him. “I can guarantee you that Lily didn’t call him, and neither did we.”

  “I figured as much, since you let me know you’d filed a restraining order against him.”

  “What the hell?” Clay growled as he sat upright and looked back at his vehicle. All but forgotten, Tabitha Lester sat in the passenger seat of Clay’s truck, looking like she was ready to shit peach pits. Clay turned to Del and murmured, “Stay with her?”

  “You know I will. Go deal.”

  Clay leaped from the truck bed and stalked to his vehicle. Del was gratified that there was enough light so he could see the fear that showed in Tabitha’s eyes. This was taking jealousy and possessiveness too far. He looked forward to Clay getting to the bottom of it as he yanked open his truck door and spoke sharply to Tabitha.

  “I have a feeling the high and mighty Miss Lester knows more of this story than she’s let on. Pride goeth before a fall,” Hank muttered as he took out his notepad and walked over to Clay’s truck, speaking into his radio as he went.

  Del heaved a sigh of relief when an ambulance topped the hill and rolled to a stop beside the Toyota while the deputies redirected the traffic that had backed up on the highway.

  Just then, he heard Lily moan over the noise of the storm and activity surrounding them. He barely restrained himself from crushing her fragile body in his embrace, he was so relieved.

  Epilogue

  From her lounge chair positioned a safe distance from the bonfire, Lily sat beside Grace and watched with shared enjoyment as Maynard Goodwin approached their friend LuAnn and began a conversation. LuAnn smiled rather shyly at him, obviously attracted. Unable to hear what was being said, Lily still knew the moment Maynard confessed that he was the rodeo clown who had terrified LuAnn so badly. His handsome face was serious and his body language completely sincere as he offered his apology personally and reached for her hand.

  LuAnn looked up at him and pulled back for a second with a shadow of fear in her eyes. Maynard smiled and said something, and she smiled back tentatively. When he reached for her hand again, she nodded and cautiously placed her hand in his capable grasp.

  “Aww!” Grace said with a tremble in her voice. “I love a happy ending! I’m such a sap. I think I’m gonna cry.”

  Lily leaned toward Grace as she watched them walk onto the portable dance floor and “Drunk on You” by Luke Bryan began to play. “If he’s a rodeo clown, how can this have a happy ending? Won’t that be…difficult?”

  Grace giggled and replied, “Nope. Mayn is forty-five years old now. Being a rodeo clown is even more dangerous than being a bull rider. He didn’t just face one bull a night, he faced them all. He’s been really lucky, too. He retired from the rodeo circuit this winter. That charity rodeo he was at the night he and LuAnn met was his very last commitment. Not to change the subject or anything but I’m really glad things turned out the way they did. Any idea what you’re going to do about JT’s property?�
�

  Since, technically, JT and Lily had still been man and wife and JT had left no will, Lily was responsible for the distribution of his property and wealth.

  “I’m turning over ownership of the mechanic shop to Dirk, so he can do whatever he wants. The rest I’m donating to charity. Everything I wanted from my time in Durst I already have with me,” Lily said, looking over at her dad. Les Valentine sat in a lawn chair nearby, chatting with Jack Warner’s dad and Teresa’s father. It hurt her heart that his time with them was likely very short, but she was grateful he was there.

  “And Tabitha?”

  “Clay fired her.” Clay had decided to close the shop for the day because Tabitha’s employment had been immediately severed and the temping trio was on their way to Branson, Missouri, for a postholiday vacation. He’d wanted to stay home with her, and she hadn’t complained too much. “So, he has an opening if you know anyone looking for a job.”

  Grace grinned and said, “That’s a plum job. I’ll ask around.”

  Lily sighed happily as she and Grace watched LuAnn look up at Maynard the ex-rodeo clown. He pulled her gently into his embrace and swept her around the dance floor.

  A little while later, Lily blew a kiss as she slipped away from her men after reassuring them that the ache in her head was barely noticeable. They might not understand, but there was no way she could sit still when Grace smiled at her from Ethan’s side by the dance floor and crooked her finger at her.

  Lily’s arms rose above her head and pure, unadulterated joy flowed in her veins as Kelly Clarkson’s spirited vocals poured out of the speakers. The girls all hooted and joined her, forming a circle around her as she moved to the music of “Stronger.” She felt triumph in every beat in her heart.

  It was JT’s choice to die in his folly, thinking he could take her out of Divine. She was in Divine, and Divine was in her. She was there to stay, and she planned to never leave again. The music flowed through her muscles, and she’d never felt stronger in her life. Sure she was injured, but she was a survivor. That chapter of her life was over, and she hooted in happiness with the other girls as the song came to an end. They closed in around her and hugged her and cheered for her.