Page 80 of Rough Ride

He studied Rose and flexed his hands. She’d had Sam Jr. bind them behind his back. He had no idea where the hell they were, but he knew they were still on the island. From the slant of the sun, it had been less than two hours.

“So, you’re back. What for, Rose?”

She leaned closer, her dark hair falling over her shoulder. At one time, it had been sexy. Now, though, having her this close to him, it took everything in him not to spit in her face.

“We have a little business to finish, you and I.”

He sighed. “That was ten fucking years ago.”

She stepped closer and he could almost feel anticipation filling her every move. It was ten years. Ten years she had to plan this. It would be long and painful. The only hope he had was that Crysta understood his message.

“How long are we going to fuck with this? Let’s kill the fuck so I can take over the ranch.”

Something changed in her expression. Annoyance? No…disgust. She had admired Eli. Admired, and she had broken him. If she was disgusted with a person, Eli really didn’t want to know what she would do to him.”

“Settle down, Sam. All in due time. I’ve been waiting a long time for this. Of course, the worst part of it is I can’t keep him alive. I really wanted to kill your new little plaything in front of you. That would give me such pleasure.”

The sick excitement in her voice had the bile rising in his throat again.

“Why do we even have to mess with the bitch? Without St. John around, it doesn’t matter if she’s dead or alive.”

Eli opened his mouth to tell Sam that killing him didn’t help him get the ranch. But Rose smacked him across the face. Normally it wouldn’t have hurt, but in his current condition, he saw stars.

He shook his head and another explosion of pain hit him. He scowled at Rose, who gave him a warning look. So, the woman knew that Sam couldn’t get the land, but didn’t want the jackass to know.

“It does matter, darling, because I deem it so,” she said moving toward Sam. The way she walked toward the younger man told Eli all he needed to know. She had once again used sex to get her way. “Plus, if you want your money, then you will do as I say.”

“No. I’ve had enough of that. I want some say in this. Kill the bastard and give me my money. You said you would kill him and pay me and then I could get the ranch back.”

“Back?” Eli asked, wondering if he had heard correctly. “It wasn’t your fucking ranch to begin with.”

“It was Kaheaku land.”

“Jesus, what the bloody hell is wrong with your lot? I think Joe was the only sane one out of all of you. It was never your land. Joe bought it, with his money.”

“I have more right to it than you do,” he bellowed. He marched closer but was stopped in his tracks by a bullet. The sound vibrated off the walls of the building. It hit Sam in the middle of his chest, blood spreading over his white shirt.

* * *

By the time Sean arrived, Crysta’s nerves were frayed to the extreme. She had watched every second tick on the clock and kept checking the security monitors.

“How long has he been gone, and why aren’t you trusting your regular men?”

“I don’t know who to trust. Danny, I can trust, but that’s it.”

Sean glanced at the younger man, who was still frowning at Sean.

“And I said I could handle it,” Danny said.

“I know you did, but we need someone who isn’t afraid to get a little dirty, and I need someone here to greet Mitch.”

The house phone rang. She recognized the number right away.

“Dillon.”

“Hey, Crysta, is Eli around?”

“No. I can’t find him. I left you a message.”

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