“Or he’s already dead and you’re trying to get me to let my guard down so you can snatch me up out of here.”
“I don’t understand why you’re the one here,” I explain to her calmly. “Zebulon is under the impression that a gang of bikers affiliated with homeland security has you captive.”
“They have Rana. I got away.”
“You got pretty damn far, too.”
I take a step forward and she cocks the gun.
“My name is Deacon Hollingsworth. Otherwise known asRageto my friends.”
“I’ve never heard of you.”
I guess Zeb’s not the talking sort and she would have had no reason to hear from me, but there’s nothing I can think of that might convince this woman I mean well considering she’s already on edge with the wrong end of a handgun pointed at me. Where the hell did she even get a 9mm Glock?
I’ll find out when she stops pointing it at me, I guess. I hope to fuck it isn’t loaded, but I’m not willing to take the chance.
“That’s fine. But I swear I won’t hurt you. I’ll take you right to Zeb Blackwood if you want.”
Her hand shakes and I feel a rush of nerves from that. You don’t want a nervous woman holding a gun in your face.
“Or you’ll stuff me in your trunk and rape me in the desert.”
Her voice shakes. I know she’s scared but… It’s hard not to worry about my fears right now considering I’m still healing from my last gunshot wound. Keyshawn will lose her damn mind if I come home with another one.
“No trunk on the Ducati, ma’am,” I say to Janelle in a calm tone. “Nothing to worry about there.”
She glares at me like she finds me somehow both arrogant and utterly disgusting. It’ll take some convincing to get her tocome with me. I sent Zeb a message telling him that I thought I’d spotted her, but they’ve been dark for the past two hours. I won’t know what’s happened to them until they figure out that whatever they’re walking into isn’t exactly what they think it is.
“Do you think this is a fucking game?” she asks. “ Because it’s not. You tell me how you know my name, who sent you here and if you’re with the police or I’ll shoot.”
Part of me wants to tell her to go ahead, but I know Keyshawn would wait until she joined me in the afterlife to whoop the ever living shit out of me if I said something like that and tempted an unstable woman to shoot me.
“I’m here looking for any clues about the people who sent Zeb Blackwood a ransom note asking him to meet up along this highway. We had suspicions that Janelle’s accomplice might be around here and… You can’t be the accomplice.”
“How do you know that?” she asks.
“Because. You look like you spent time around bikers, but not enough to be a real thug. I promise, ma’am… You can take my weapons off me if that will make you feel better.”
(She doesn’t have to know about the gun in my boot and I’m guessing she won’t think to ask.)
Janelle just stares.
“Pat me down,” I tell her, sticking my hands up. “Come on now, before a state trooper pulls up.”
She keeps the gun pointed at me as she approaches and then does some version of a pat down. I have to give up three guns and a knife, but she doesn’t check my boot which means I can still defend her in a pinch. It’s the best I can hope for and the pat down does plenty to calm her fears.
“The gun isn’t loaded,” Janelle admits. “But I’ll put two bullets in now that I have your stash.”
Just what I need – an unstable black woman armed to the teeth.I maintain a sense of external calm despite the fucked up situation I seem to have found myself in.
“Quick as you can, ma’am. I’d best get you back to Zeb Blackwood.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Zeb
The night’s work ends before one in the morning. I didn’t find Janelle. We rescue some woman who claims to be called Rana Rhodes, but she’s the only survivor we leave behind. Cody takes her away from their makeshift clubhouse before we commence the slaughter. The woman claiming to be Rana also claims to be a lawyer. Wyatt doesn’t want us killing women, but I don’t trust her.
