Page 200 of Burn the Wild

I nod curtly. “Damn straight.”

“Davis.” Charlie launches himself out of his chair. “What about Keena?”

Davis tenses, looking upset he didn’t think of it himself. “We can try.” He whips his head to me. “I’ll get her.”

They disappear out the door, leaving me and Wyatt alone in the Bullshit Box. But I can’t wait. Can’t sit around doing nothing.

I open Davis’s desk drawer and grab his gun.

Wyatt snags a half-charged radio.

“Let’s go,” I clip, moving instantly for the door.

“Ford, please.”

Reese’s breathless whisper stops me in my tracks.

I snatch the radio from Wyatt’s hands and hold it close to my ear.

“Please, I need you.”

Shock and panic rip through me.

“She’s here.” I holster the radio and race for the door. “She’s still on the fucking ranch.”

Idrift in and out of a drugged sea. I can’t fight. I can’t move. The pain, the exhaustion, is too much, like that black hole above is beckoning now. Waiting.

Blood drips down my arm, my fingertips as Gavin carries me. I hear the crunch of his shoes over rock and dirt.

Icy terror slips over me when I see the green leaves of the forest overhead.

We’re going to the lake.

Oh God.

He’s going to drown me in the lake. The beautiful lake I’ve loved this summer. Where I swam with Ford. Burned away my demons.

Tears leak from my eyes.

Ford will never find me. It’ll be too late.

“Please, don’t do this,” I beg, but my words fall into the ether.

His smile drips with malice. “When you die, I’ll be the one to carry on your legacy. I’ll be the one who loved you the most. The one who only wanted the best for you.”

“Fuck you,” I whisper.

I hear splashing. Gavin moves into the water at a lumbering pace. I gasp as I’m lowered into the lake. A dark, depthless grave.

“Goodbye, Reese.”

My eyes flutter as my gaze tilts to the sky. I can feel him. In my bones. Coming for me.

I just hope he’s not too late.

Ford. I love you.

Gavin releases me into the water, and everything fades away.

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