Page 93 of Bull Rush

It hits me hard now. The thing he said that I hadn’t thought much of at the time. He’d said the horses were hurt. Except, I never told him that. I never said a word about the horses being hurt—just that the barn had burned down, and we were worried that arsonists had done it. I didn’t want to elaborate, and when he said it, I figured at the time that he just assumed that the horses had gotten hurt, but now I wonder if heknewit.If he was repeating something someone else had told him. Someone who was already here.

There’s only one person on this property who’s a bigger Curtis fan than I was. I throw my clothes on and take off running.

FORTY-SIX

Ramsey

When we openthe door to her room, Amelia’s already furiously packing up her things. It’d only taken us a few minutes to look through Curtis’s phone, after Hazel explained her suspicions, to figure out that she must have been his accomplice. She was keeping her eyes on the ranch and on Hazel whenever he was gone.

Amelia must have put together that something happened to Curtis when he didn’t answer her calls and she didn’t see Hazel. Whether she thought they ran off together or believed he was hurt, I don’t know. But everything is starting to make sense.

“Don’t panic. We just need you to come talk to us,” Lev says as he walks slowly into her room, trying not to startle her. But she’s worse than the horses.

Her eyes flash to us, panic searing across herface, and she reaches for her gun. Thank fuck, Levi’s quicker than she is, though, and he tackles her to the ground before she can get a shot off. He pins her arm down, and Grant takes the gun, dispensing with the ammunition and putting the empty weapon in the back of his pants. His foot stomps on her fingers, squishing them as Lev squeezes her throat until she passes out from the lack of oxygen and collapses, going limp on the carpet, her cheeks ruddy from the exertion, and her perfectly coifed hair in tangles.

We have to move quickly. Hazel gave us a path to get back down the servants’ stairs without being seen. Luckily, no one else is staying on this floor in this wing, and no one is in the room below. Amelia had always requested a quiet room with no neighbors, Hazel said, claiming she was a light sleeper. But that lie will give us what we need to get her out of here.

We move her the same way we did Curtis, navigating the back stairs and getting her into the truck with a blanket tossed over her as Lev holds his hands around her throat—ready to take her out again if she comes to before we’re ready.

This time, though, we move her to a barn on the far side of the property. One where no one can hear her if she screams. One where the neighbors are miles away. I’m just hoping she cooperates and gives us what we want, that somehow, we can come to an agreement that stops the bloodshed today.

“Tellus who you are and who you work for,” Levi demands of her.

“Like you don’t know.” She rolls her eyes, a manufactured smirk appearing and disappearing from her lips.

“Maybe I just want to hear you say it.” He shrugs, sittingback in the chair across from her. Amelia gives a false little smile as her eyes drift over Levi.

“I won’t say a word until I know Curtis is safe.”

“Who is Curtis to you?”

“Why don’t you ask the dark-haired bitch.” Amelia looks at Hazel who insisted on being present, despite me begging her to stay at the ranch house. My heart can’t take her having to be part of any more hard decisions today.

“The dark-haired bitch? After everything, that’s what you call me?” There are tears in Hazel’s eyes, and somehow, this seems to be hitting her worse than the Curtis news. “You were like a mother to me.”

“I would have been. But you had to choose him. You’re such a disappointment. Years I invested in you. All for what? So you could spread your legs for this piece of shit again? I’m embarrassed for you. You could have had everything.”

“What do you mean would have been? Are you his mother?”

“So there are brains in there after all. Impressive.” Amelia’s eyes glide over Hazel and find her wanting.

“You knew he was lying to me, and yet you talked him up. Over and over again, you encouraged me and the relationship. All that talk about women making better decisions for themselves, and you were just luring me into a trap.”

“Of course I did, sweetheart. That was the whole point. He needed to marry you to get this ranch, get back some semblance of the money that was stolen from us. We both had to help you make the right choice.”

“It’s disgusting. Completely disgusting that you would manipulate someone in that way. I thought you were my friend.”

“Oh please. I don’t know how anyone could tolerate you. I don’t know how my son tolerated you all this time. So crass andopinionated all the time. Always thinking you know better than everyone else. At least he’s free of you now.”

Hazel shakes her head, tears forming in her eyes, and I reach out for her, but she swats me away, charging toward Amelia.

“You’re right. At least he’s free of me.” Hazel’s grin turns cruel, and Amelia’s eyes grow wider; she blinks, and then looks around at the rest of us.

“If you don’t bring my son in here this instant, I will scream. And then I will bring down hell on this ranch. You’ll wish you were all dead by the time we’re done with you,” she threatens, and Grant just grins and shakes his head, staring down at his phone like her lack of compliance is a temporary inconvenience to his evening.

“That won’t be happening,” Levi says as he nods for me to take Hazel.

I close the distance between us, taking her hand and pulling her close. She buries her face in my chest, and I wrap my arms around her.

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