“What happened!?” I brush back her hair, trying to get her to look at me directly, but her eyes are down, her skin cold, hands covered in blood. “Elena!”
“Chase is dead.” She whispers.
“What?” I snap my head back. “What are you talking about?”
“We tried to run; I tried to get us inside but… he shot him. Killed him right there and then.”
The blood drains from my face. “Who?”
“Rio.” She swallows. “He found me.”
“Where’s Chase?” I demand, her words not quite registering.
“He’s dead, Knox.”
No.No.
Elena’s hand cups my cheek. “I’m sorry.”
“Where is he?” Her lashes flutter, a tear slipping out and rolling down her cheek before she looks toward that unfamiliar car and then I see it. The body beneath a blanket, the shape is barely distinguishable within the shadows of the night, I never would have seen it if Elena didn’t point it out.
I get to my feet, weight unstable as I stumble toward it, Elena following behind. My knees hit the earth, and I pull back the blanket, unable to believe it unless I see it with my own eyes. Even in the dark, I see how pale Chase has become, his eyes staring lifelessly toward the stars. He’s stiff, cold to the touch, his clothes saturated in his own blood.
Elena kneels beside me, her silent tears tracking down her face, over the fresh bruising and cuts.
Grief and anger twist me up, burning bright beneath my skin. I feel my heart begin to pound, the blood pumping in my throat as a steady roar builds inside my ears.
“Where is he?” I demand, voice barely above a whisper, throat raw.
“He’s in the barn,” Elena’s voice may as well be a million miles away with how it sounds inside my ears, “I tried, Knox.”
“This isn’t your fault.” I get to my feet, walking away from her, toward the barn closest to thehouse. I hear her rise and follow. Her steps are unsure with a distance between us that didn’t exist before.
Elena…unsure.
This fucker. It’s the same one who put the bullet in her thigh. The one who betrayed her.
He killed my oldest friend.
Turned the headstrong devil of a woman into thisshell.
The barn door hits the wall, causing the entire building to shake, dust and debris left by the birds in the rafters rains down onto the gritty floor. He’s on his side, wrists and ankles bound, a cloth in his mouth and secured by a rope between his lips, tied behind his head. Crusty blood sticks to his skin, and more blood stains his shirt, bite marks I realize.
“Judge saved me,” Elena whispers, her fingers tentatively reaching for mine.
“He’s alive.” I give her my hand, allowing her to wrap her own around it, holding tight. I curl my fingers around hers, hoping she can take some of the warmth from me that she is lacking and to give her some of my strength.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
And then I turn around, leaving the fucker there to rot for the night as I head back to Chase’s body,taking her with me. I have to bury him.
We have a cemetery on the ranch grounds. It’s been here a long time, some of the gravestones so old, the weather has eaten away at the names carved into the stones. He has no family. No wife, no siblings. No one to miss him.
Except me.
My heart fractures.
