It’s a convenient location that he was gracious enough to offer up to help us deal with this little problem and avoid any more possible bodies turning up on Redford Ranch … assuming nobody finds the ones already buried there.
“Load him up here,” I tell him.
Cash jerks him over to Lady Liberty, and it takes both of us to haul him up on top of her, belly down.
“I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe! What are you doing to me? Where are you taking me? I’ll give you whatever you want if you just let me go!”
“I’m gonna need you to calm the fuck down, buddy. We got a few more miles to go,” Cash says.
Holden is up on his horse and pulling Buttercup behind him. After securing Matt’s body with my rope and loosening it so he doesn’t die on the ride over, I swing up onto Buttercup’s back.
“Man, look at those stars. It’s such a nice night.”
“Shut up, Duke,” Holden barks.
“Duke Redford?” Matt says, clear anger in his tone.
“Yes, sir, sure is. Did you think you were just going to choke my girlfriend and get away with it?”
We’re riding toward Moonlight with Lady Liberty and Matt between the rest of us. Sam has his bow, Cash and Holden both have guns, and I have my rope, ready to tighten it if he falls off or something startles my mare.
“I swear, I’ll do anything. You can have Dallas. Is that what you want? I’ll go away, and I’ll never talk to her again.”
His words only ignite the boiling rage in me until it’s a furnace threatening to explode.
As if Dallas is that easy to let go of, to never speak to again. I can’t imagine tormenting a woman for years like he has and then acting like it could all just stop because he’s scared for his life now.
“Ah, shit, man, I wish you’d offered that option up sooner. We’re already out here, got the horses saddled up and everything. Plus, you know it’s me. I can’t really trust you not to say anything, you know?”
“I swear, I won’t tell a soul!”
“Tsk-tsk. Like I said, wish you’d thought of just leaving her alone sooner, maybe before you tried to kidnap her kids and endanger them. Or maybe before you strangled and abused her. If you wanted to be a good guy, you had a chance for that. But that ship has sailed now, unfortunately for you. And I hate to be the one to tell you this, but I’m not at all, not even a little bit sorry we ended up here. You know why that is, Matt?”
I wait for him to answer, but he remains silent. If it wasn’t for his panting breaths, I would think maybe he suffocated.
“It’s because even though I seem like a fun-loving cowboy who rides bulls and competes in the swing dance competition and always has a smile on his face, deep down, I’m a sick son of a bitch who’s been waiting for the chance to strangle you until you die. And now all my dreams are coming true tonight.”
36
DUKE
Matt is strung up between two trees by ropes under his shoulders and around his chest, his feet dangling below. He’s been crying for the last five minutes and begging for water.
He’s already pissed himself, his jeans soaked through with it. The stench of urine mixes with the cow manure.
I walk up beside him and lean down to whisper in his ear, “Hey, what was it that you told Dallas you would do to her if she didn’t clean up your messes?”
I grab his hand, separating out one of his fingers. “Oh, right, you told her you’d break her fingers.”
I slide the metal pliers out of my back pocket and clamp it over his index finger.
“No, no! Please, please don’t!”
I twist the pliers back, snapping his bone with a loud crunch. He roars in pain, screaming so loud that I have to take a step back.
“You better pray it’s not your neck next time. What elsedid you say? I think she told me that you liked to threaten to strangle her until she wasn’t breathing before you would bury her body in a field where no one would find it. Isn’t that what you said you would do?”
He spits near my boots, tears streaming down his face. “She’s a whore anyway. Enjoy my leftovers!”
