Page 37 of Truth is the Ultimate Weapon

“He’s alive, Kenzie.” Charlotte shared. “That’s a very good sign. He’s fighting.”

“And my uncle? Was he hurt?”

“He, uh, he isn’t there,” Nash said with hesitation. “Someone took him.”

“Took him? Who? Who took him?” Kenzie panicked.

Nash shook his head and offered a sympathetic look, “We don’t know. Nobody saw it happen. Just the commotion afterward. And there’s surveillance video of him being pushed outside in a wheelchair wearing his hospital gown, head flopping… he might have been drugged.”

“Hospital full of people, and nobody saw a thing until it was too late?” Kenzie looked to Coy, her eyes welling with emotion, “How does that happen?”

“It happens with a calculated plan, resources, and hush money,” Coy said.

“I haven’t even told you the most trivial part.” Nash went on, “The hospital cameras were out. We saw the footage from a grainy gas station camera across the street.”

“They killed the security cameras? We’ve got to find him.” Kenzie panicked, “Before…”

Coy raised his hand to silence her, then pointed to his eyes with two open fingers before signaling toward the tree line and surrounding area. He saw something and was trying to tell the rest of the group that they weren’t alone.

“Where’s Rip?” Coy asked, studying their surroundings.

“He said to tell you… he’s working.” Devyn shared.

“Good.” Coy said, understanding the message clearly, “Nash, I want you to get back in your vehicle and get Dev and Charlotte out of here; you hear me? Back to the ranch, lock it down, and you wait for me. Don’t do a damn thing until I actually set foot on that property. You hear me?”

Nash nodded, “You got it, brother.”

Just as Nash and the two women were headed back to the vehicle, Diesel blocked them, stopping them in their tracks. He then began to growl, alerting them to danger.

“I knew I saw that son of a bitch move out there,” Coy said. “Diesel sees them, probably smells them too.”

“Them?” Devyn asked.

“Ambush. You drive out, and you're flanked by shooters.” Coy calmly delivered. “They must be here for Kenzie, maybe me.”

“We showed up and gave them more targets.” Nash chided and looked to Devyn and Charlotte apologetically, “I am so sorry I brought you here. I just didn’t think it was safe to leave you on the ranch with Rip on the move and…”

“Don’t be sorry.” Coy corrected him, “It’s better you’re here, with Kenz and me than back on the ranch. If I had to guess, it’s crawling with assholes now too.”

“Or, at the very least, their next stop?” Kenzie asked, and Coy nodded.

“This is it.” Coy coldly warned, “This is the end game. They have Glen. Now they have us.”

“They?” Charlotte asked, “You mean my father?”

“It certainly looking that way,” Coy said.

“He wouldn’t kill me. No way would my father kill me.” She fumed. “This can’t be happening.”

“Did you ever think he’d kill anyone else?” Kenzie asked, and Charlotte shook her head no.

“He won’t kill you, Char.” Coy corralled the group behind the vehicles, where he pulled out an arsenal and began to arm the rest of the group. “He’ll have someone else do it.”

“No.” she shook her head. “He wouldn’t.”

“Would you let him get away with killing everyone standing right here? Could you forgive him for it?”

“Never. He knows I’d never let a crime like that go unpunished, he taught me about justice, I’d never forgive…” Charlotte froze as realization dawned on her, understanding how Coy had arrived at his conclusion. She grasped the grim reality of her situation, recognizing that she might become an unfortunate casualty deemed necessary to protect her father's interests in the criminal underworld. ”I-I don’t even know him anymore. I know the evidence points to him, and it’s really hard to dispute, but I… I just cannot wrap my mind around this.”

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