A boy of perhaps twelve or thirteen years old sat in a wooden chair in the next room, his arms tied behind his back, his feet bound at the ankles, his mouth covered with duct tape. His cheek was bruised and swollen, and his eyes were red, as if he’d been crying recently.
Sweet Jesus.
Now Elle understood how Janice was persuaded to call Elle and trap her into coming out to the farm. Janice had told her Jeb had threatened to kill her children. It appeared their youngest son had been the particular target.
And now Elle had become the bait to draw Gabe and his brothers right into this monster’s lair, into the trap he’d set and was ready to spring.
Tears pricked her eyes when she thought of how she and Gabe had left things, how the last words he might hear from her were words of anger. She hoped she’d have the chance to tell him again how much she loved him, how she couldn’t imagine ever loving anyone else. She longed to once more feel his arms around her, to know the warmth of his love.
And yet it was that very same love, from the heart of a man whose loyalty and duty were the most steadfast of anyone she’d ever known, that was most likely leading him to his death.
* * *
Gabe glanced at the speedometer, cursing his inability to go any faster. As he got closer to the coordinates Frank had given him, he studied the edges of the road, searching the fields and tree lines, searching for any sign of the missing cab. Suddenly a blur of yellow among rusted-out shells of various cars and vans in a makeshift junkyard near a copse of trees caught his attention.
He whipped the Tahoe over to the side of the road and drew his weapon as he leaped from the SUV and hurried toward the trees where the car was parked. As he got closer, he slowed his pace, keeping his weapon at the ready as he approached with caution. He was still several feet away when he saw the blood splatter on the driver’s side door.
“Shit,” he rasped. He hurried forward, searching the interior of the car in a quick glance. No blood inside that he could see, but what looked like Elle’s purse was sitting on the floorboards in the back.
Oh God.
He fished his handkerchief from his pocket and used it to try the front door handle. Whoever had dumped the car hadn’t bothered locking it. He took another quick glance, then popped the trunk.
Gabe hurried around to the back of the car and took a deep breath, then lifted the trunk lid, having a pretty damned good idea what he’d find. And yet his stomach still churned when he saw the cabbie’s body, half his head blown off from a gunshot. Shit.
He swallowed and looked about. No sign of Elle.
Gabe ran back to his Tahoe, jumped inside, and pulled onto the road before calling in the location of the cab and the death of the cab driver to dispatch. Then, not wanting to get yet another lecture from his brother Tom, he called Joe instead.
“Joey,” Gabe ground out the second his brother answered, “the cabbie that picked up Elle is dead. He’s got her, Joe. That motherfucker has Elle.”
“Ah, shit,” Joe muttered. “We’re on our way, Gabe. Just hang tight. Tom and I are on the way. And we were able to catch Kyle before he was too far down to the road. We got your back, Bro.”
Gabe hung up and, this time, attached his phone to his hip, gradually decreasing his speed as he drew close to the Monroe farm. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly, getting his emotions under control. He wasn’t going to be any use to Elle if he couldn’t keep his shit together.
He needed to figure out a game plan. Waiting the fifteen or so minutes it would take for his brothers to catch up could mean the difference in whether Elle lived or died. He couldn’t just come up the driveway and knock on the front door. He most likely wouldn’t even make it to the porch before Monroe put a bullet in him.
Before he reached the farm, he pulled off onto a small access road used to drive between the fields and went just far enough to obscure the Tahoe from the road but not to tip off anyone at the house that a vehicle was approaching.
Then he slipped out of the SUV and texted his brothers: Doing recon. Will approach with caution.
He wasn’t surprised when he immediately got a message back from Tom. WTF? Stay put.
Gabe took a deep breath and let it out slowly, then silenced his phone and his radio. “Sorry, Tommy. See you soon, Bro.”
Chapter 24
“Go check the perimeter,” Jeb said, gesturing to his brother James.
His younger brother gave him a sharp nod and gestured to their brother Dave. “Comin’?”
Dave looked to Jeb for permission. “Want me to go with him or stay here and keep watch over these?” He gestured to Jeb’s traitorous family.
They’d all betrayed him in some way. Even his youngest boy had chosen his mother in the end. But Jeb’s brothers were loyal. He knew that for a fact. That’s exactly how he knew that Gabe Dawson wouldn’t come looking for his whore without bringing his own kin along.
“‘For the great day of their wrath has come,’” Jeb murmured. Then he turned away from the window and nodded to Dave. “Go on. I’ll be fine here.”
He continued to watch from the window until his brothers split up to walk separate paths, then went to sit in the chair across from the whore. She hadn’t said a word since he’d brought her back to the house after she’d tried to escape. Now that her hands and feet were tied, she’d just sat there on the sofa, watching him with narrowed eyes.
