Page 41 of R for Rough

“I know a place—fuck.” Abel almost went face first into a fern, but he managed to steady himself against a tree. He immediately picked up the pace again, and he pointed. “The stream that separates your land from Gray and Darius’s to the north—we picked blueberries there last month.”

“Oh yeah! We’ll go there.” Angel changed course slightly, and we followed.

I jumped over a rock and landed with a burst of pain that shot through my ankle, and I gnashed my teeth and pushed through it. I couldn’t stop now. They were somewhere nearby. I wasnotgonna slow us down.

The interrogation was already going to be my eventual downfall.

I was the guilty one.

Abel and Angel had expressed their hushed curiosity, and I’d denied any knowledge, just like Kit and Justin had. Which had gotten the message across. We weren’t sharing any information about the stolen key.

We came upon the narrow stream, and Angel explained, while catching her breath, that it was the property line—but that her brother-in-law’s property took over this side of the stream as well, closer to the homesteads, so we couldn’t go farther. We were at the westernmost point of Ryan’s family’s land.

With plenty of options to hide in the waist-high bushes that dotted the area.

We snuck deeper in, and I exchanged a look with Justin.

“Who are our fighters?” I asked.

He glanced at Abel, who nodded. So those two? They were taller than the rest of us, that was for sure.

“Chances are they’ll go for us first,” Abel said, crouching low in the bushes. “What’s our strategy?”

Kit spoke up. “I say we go all in on whoever tries to take us. If they kidnap us one by one, we do everything we can to fight them off.”

“No man or cute baby girl left behind!” Angel fist-pumped the air.

Shewascute, but I’d seen her in her Sadist mode. When she and Master Ryan tortured Greg, even I got scared. She might be more sadistic than Ryan himself, to be honest. He liked to watch her going to town on their maso.

To be fair, Greg was the type of masochist who wanted to suffer under, um, restrained circumstances. He wasn’t primal. I got stronger from pain. It fueled me to give my absolute best. When I was restrained, I couldn’t take as much pain. But evidently enough to be cleared for tonight’s event.

I ducked low when Angel and Kit dropped, and we stayed within fifteen feet of one another. Far enough to bolt if necessary, close enough to defend a friend.

“Did y’all read Master Ryan’s limits?” Kit asked.

“I hope we all did,” Angel giggled.

“Right, but, like…” Kit chuckled. “I’m still amazed.”

“Don’t be fooled—he has limits,” she assured. “He just doesn’t think we have the ability to cross them, so he tries to fuck with our heads by writinghave at it.”

Ryan was annoying and fun that way. The other Tops might as well have copied one another’s answers because they were much the same. Watch the balls and no pain delivered to the head.

“It’s not like we’re gonna go for the head anyway,” I reasoned.

“Exactly,” Angel said. “But hey, feel free to aim for his balls.”

I grinned.

“By the way,” Abel said, “when we reach a point where we can’t defend one another, we should have a signal. That’s when we run.”

“Good idea,” Justin agreed. “How about ‘go north,’ and we’ll head east?”

Fuck, that was brilliant. “We’ll do that. That’s a great one.”

“Even if it only confuses them for a second, I’ll take it,” Abel answered.

“Shh, I heard something,” Angel whispered.

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