Page 19 of Deacon

He glanced around, then stood. “Come on. I’ll help you.”

“I’m okay. I can walk.”

“Bumblebee, it will make me feel better to help.”

Lisa let him pull her to her feet then walk her to the bathroom.

When she emerged, she felt so much better and since it wasn’t taking nearly everything in her to keep from wetting herself, she could pay more attention to what was going on.

The door had been closed since she’d gone to the bathroom. Randy now sat on the edge of the bed bound hand and foot much like she’d been while both Deke and Cowboy stood on either side of him. It had been her brother’s voice she’d heard. She hadn’t imagined it.

“What should we do with him?” Cowboy asked Deke.

“We’re not that far from the badlands. It wouldn’t be hard to make him disappear. Permanently. Out there, chances are he’d never be found. And if he were, I’m sure people know how stupid he is. Wouldn’t be a stretch to think he’d wandered off and died of exposure.”

Lisa didn’t know if they were trying to scare Randy or they were serious, but they were succeeding in scaring him. She could tell by the wide, terrified look in his eyes as he looked back and forth between the two of them. She considered letting them go on for a while, just to see how far they’d let it go. But she wanted to get out of here, to go home, more than she wanted to serve Randy a taste of his own medicine.

“Stop it. Both of you. You know you’re not going to do that,” she said, interrupting their debate.

“Then what do you say we do?”

“Call the cops. He hit me and kidnapped me. I’ll tell them so and they’ll arrest him.”

“They’ll make you testify in court. It will be he said, she said. They’ll give him a slap on the wrist and let him go. I won’t let him go free to endanger you again,” Deke said.

“No, it won’t. Because you will also tell how you found me here. And I’m sure my doorbell caught video of him hauling me unconscious out of the house.”

“You have a video doorbell?” Cowboy asked.

“Yeah, I’m surprised you didn’t notice,” she said with a frown.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever even looked at the doorbell. The few times I’ve approached, you seemed to know I was there and opened before I got the chance. I assumed it was because you heard my bike,” Deke said.

Lisa moved to stand next to Deke.

“I did hear your bike, but confirmed it was you with the camera.”

“I want access,” Deke said, his tone brooking no argument.

She turned to him then shot Cowboy a pointed look.

“He knows. I had to tell him when you weren’t answering text or calls, and I had a bad feeling.”

That reminded her about her phone.

“Which one of you is calling the cops?” She looked back and forth between the two of them until they started to bicker between themselves. Confident they’d make a decision soon, she pulled her phone from her pocket and found that sure enough. All the vibrating she hadn’t been able to answer had been calls and texts from both of them. There were a few other things, like notifications from the doorbell camera, she’d look at those later.

As she scrolled through the texts, she was vaguely aware of Cowboy calling the police and telling them they had a man in custody and wanted to press charges for kidnapping. He said more but she tuned him out.

“You sure you’re all right?” Deke wrapped an arm around her shoulder and held her gently against his chest.

“My head hurts but other than that he didn’t hurt me.”

“Head wounds can be tricky; we should probably get you checked out before I take you home.”

“We’ll see.” She wasn’t committing to anything until she’d told the police what happened. She wanted to be sure they got her statement down so they wouldn’t turn around and release Randy. Worrying about him free again was the last thing she needed.

15

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