Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 94313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94313 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 377(@250wpm)___ 314(@300wpm)
“They wired the woods and she’s been out here choppin’ wood?” Uncle Will said in disbelief as I strode toward Esther’s side of the truck.
My hands were shaking as the implication of that settled in my gut. The idea of Esther walking into the trees looking for wood to split and being blown to pieces ran like a reel over and over again. I was livid that we’d known where to look the night before but we’d waited until morning to come searching and she’d spent all that time oblivious to the danger around her.
“Careful drivin’ outta here,” my dad called. I waved my hand in acknowledgment.
Esther was sitting sideways in the truck seat, her rubber rain boots perched on the edge of the floorboard with her skirt tucked tightly around her legs.
“What’s going on?” she asked as I reached her.
“We’re leavin’,” I replied, gesturing at her to pull her feet inside.
“What?” She glanced at the cabin. “No, I can’t. My dad said—”
“I don’t give a flyin’ fuck what your dad said,” I barked, making her jump. Instantly, I lowered my voice. I didn’t want to fucking scare her, but every second we were there made me more nervous. It was one thing to know that there were explosives under the cabin, it was something else knowing we were surrounded by them. “I’m goin’ to take you into town until we get this all sorted.”
“He’ll be really angry,” she said, her voice strained. “I don’t think I should leave.”
I paused and took a deep breath and lied straight to her face. “Look, let me take you for somethin’ to eat, yeah? When we get all this taken care of, if you want to come back I’ll bring you back.”
There was no fucking way I was ever letting her step foot back inside that shitty cabin.
She stared at me and I had the really uncomfortable feeling that she could see right through me and knew that I was lying, but she slowly turned anyway, pulling her legs into the truck.
The drive back down the gravel driveway made me jumpy as fuck. Every pothole and bump made me tense even further until my knuckles were white around the steering wheel. I’d never been so happy to see pavement as when we pulled out onto the road.
I hated leaving everyone behind when I should’ve been there helping, but I couldn’t imagine sending Esther off with anyone else and she sure as fuck couldn’t stay there. I glanced at her as we headed back toward Eugene. She’d fisted her hands together in her lap and was sitting as still as a statue. I couldn’t stop the pulse of mine, mine, mine pounding in the back of my mind.
It was silent in the cab of the truck for at least thirty minutes before she spoke.
“I don’t understand any of this,” she said quietly. “None of it makes any sense.”
“Yesterday,” I replied, wondering exactly how much I should tell her. “We were movin’ a shipment when someone forced a couple of our people off the road and stole it.”
“But how did they end up in my cabin?” she replied in exasperation, her words running together as she spoke faster and faster. “Why were you shipping guns like that? Why would you think my dad took them? How did you even know about the cabin? My dad’s a deacon in our church. He’s not going around stealing guns. He’s the most straight-laced person I’ve ever met. None of this makes sense.”
“Our crates were there,” I pointed out reasonably. “You saw them.”
“But maybe my dad had nothing to do with it,” she said, turning to look at me. “That’s what I’m saying. You should let me call him.”
“You think that some stranger…” I paused for emphasis. “Somehow knew that there was a cabin out in the middle of fuckin’ nowhere, with a hidden trap door in the floor, and also knew that you’d be conveniently gone for a few hours yesterday?”
Esther was silent.
“I’m sorry,” I said gently. “I know all this is confusin’ as fuck.”
“How did you know they were there, though?” she asked quietly. “How did you know where to look?”
“Narrowed it down,” I replied, leaving out the fact that Aces had also gone to her church and the warehouse that I doubted she even knew existed. Someone had texted them the minute we’d found the guns and some of the boys were already headed to the cabin. It was only a matter of time before we passed them on the road.
Half of me was still back at that cabin in the woods, but we’d ignored the elephant in the truck for as long as I could stand.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were pregnant?” I asked after it had been quiet for a few minutes. “I came to see if you were alright and you didn’t say a fuckin’ word.”