Page 132 of For the Birds

Chapter27

I wasn’tsure how to play this, but it seemed inevitable that the look on my face would give me away. I reached for the door handle, only to find it was locked.

“Puttin’ it together, I see,” he said. “I’m gonna need that phone.”

Did he need me dead or alive? I was guessing alive; otherwise, my kidnappers would have killed me the other night. “No.”

I turned myself into the corner of the backseat, behind Merv—the furthest I could get from his reach—and immediately switched from Violet to Jed and started typing.

Merv reached into the backseat, grabbing at my clothes and hair in an attempt to get to my phone.

Merv kidnapper. Fertilizer plant.

I hoped Jed understood my gibberish.

Merv was now leaning halfway into the backseat, pulling my arm painfully to get to my phone.

I frantically pressed send, but there was only one bar of service, and I watched in a panic as the send bar crept across the screen. Merv was dangerously close to reaching the phone, so I turned on the lock screen and prayed the message didn’tfail.

He snatched it from my hand and looked at the screen. “What did you do?” he growled.

I didn’t answerhim.

He grabbed a fistful of the front of my dress and pulled me closer. “What did you do?” His eyes lookedwild.

I remained silent, staring at him in defiance.

He fisted his hand and punched me in the cheek. His ugly laughter filled the car. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that. You’re lucky I held back. But the bruise will be a nice touch.” He shoved me back in the seat, then grabbed my backpack and searched inside.

Considering the pain shooting through my face, I wasn’t feeling very lucky . . . except Merv had underestimated me. He may have taken my backpack with my pepper spray and Taser, but I still had the gun strapped to my thigh. I almost pulled it on him immediately, then thought better of it. If I acted now and Merv refused to talk, my vision could still come true. The cost could be James’ life. I would do better to find out more before acting.

James had gotten a texted photo of Scooter from Buck Reynolds, and if Buck was innocent like I suspected, that meant Merv had someone embedded in Buck Reynolds’ camp. I aimed to find out who. “One of Buck’s men is workin’ with you. Whichone?”

He dug into my purse. “One of his right-hand men. Someone he trusts. He’ll never see it comin’.”

Tim Dermot? I’d trusted him too. I felt like I was going to besick.

“You sent the texts from James,” Isaid.

“I knew you’d come runnin’. You couldn’t help yourself. So I stole his phone, which wasn’teasy.”

Satisfied after his search through my backpack, Merv tossed it onto the passenger side floorboard, then turned his attention back to me. “Where’s Carlisle?”

“Do I look like Jed’s keeper?”

He grabbed my dress again and slapped me this time, hard enough to make me see stars. “I can do this all night, Lady.” He spat the name out as though it left a bad taste in his mouth. “And the more battered you look, the more it will piss off Skeeter, so keep on defyin’ me.”

He was right, and I knew it—even so, I wasn’t about to help Merv out. But he grinned at me, and the cruel self-satisfaction in that grin told me he already knew where Jed was. That’s how he’d gotten here so fast. Merv was just looking for an excuse to hit me and start wearing medown.

“He’s not gonna find Scooter,” he said, confirming my suspicions. “If he’d arrived earlier he would have, but we’ve already movedhim.”

“So Scooter’s alive.”

“For the timebein’.”

“Until it suits your purpose to kill him,” I said in an even voice. I knew that in Merv’s eyes, my fate was tied to Scooter’s, and it was clear he intended to kill both of us before this was over. “Why are you doin’ this?”

“You know why.” He backhanded me, this time on the other side of my face, the ring on his hand catching my cheekbone. “You’re too sure of yourself. You think you one-upped me with that text?” That same grin flashed across his face. “We’re not goin’ to the fertilizer plant. You sent Carlisle to the wrong place.”

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