Page 143 of Double Bucked

Back toward where we came from.

There’s a click-click-click beside me. Ransom is shaking in his cuffs.

“Swallow it,” I tell him. I don’t want to be in a closed car with his sick.

Ransom hangs his head between his legs and takes deep, stomach-settling breaths.

“We aren’t going to the jail anymore, are we?” he asks.

“No,” I tell him. “Not anymore.”

47

RANSOM

Shit.

Shitty, shitty, fuck, fuck.

Every time I think I know what’s going on, something spins me around.

Belleflower is rotting from the inside out, and everyone is in on it.

Dagney. Loren. Sheriff Holden, apparently.

Heck, at this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if Grandmimi was working for Oculus.

So I do the only thing I can: keep my head down. Try not to hurl. Ignore the warm, wet feeling of stuff-that-used-to-be-Jerry on my face.

I can’t stop shaking. Everett is quiet as a tombstone beside me.

Good. Maybe he’s cooking up a plan to get us out of here.

Because right now, I’m batting zero.

The police car drives us around back roads until we end up at the Dagney estate. Sheriff Holden pulls the car around back, where Dagney keeps his stables.

There’s a bunch of cars in front of the main house, and I’m guessing he doesn’t want to draw attention to the massacre on the passenger-side window.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Sheriff Holden says. He gets out of the car and leaves us trapped in the back.

I try not to breathe too deeply. The thing-I’m-trying-not-to-think-about is starting to give off a stink.

“How’re you so calm right now?” I ask Everett.

“I’m not,” he says plainly.

Don’t know if that’s comforting or not.

We breathe in silence for a second.

“Whatever happens,” Everett says suddenly, “I’ve got your back.”

“Yeah,” I tell him. “I’ve got yours.”

Okay. That helped.

When Holden returns, he’s got backup. Two mean-looking security guys. One of them opens Jerry’s door, and the body falls out.

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