Page 32 of Swallow Your Fear
“We’ll kill him,” Booker stated beside me.
My eyes darted to him. “Kill him?”
“We can let him go,” Austin suggested, almost like he was repeating the idea for a second time.
“No. I want him dead.” Booker’s voice left no room for argument.
“Why?” I asked.
“Because he’s proved to be a problem.” But he didn’t say who he became a problem for. I knew he didn’t want him dead just for his own benefit. Something in him had changed, and I had the biggest feeling it had to do with me being a target.
“What if he doesn’t have the deed?” For all we knew, he gave it to someone else entirely, or the bank.
Austin held his hands out, palms up, like the answer was obvious. “Then we’ll get him to tell us where it is.”
“You make it sound so easy,” I said. Chase was stubborn, and getting him to talk wouldn’t be a piece of cake, especially when the subject had to do with his earnings.
“A little pain goes a long way.” At Booker’s words, I looked over at him.
What he didn’t say was that seeing me in the state I was in last night fueled this, and he wanted to get things moving. I wasn’t going to be the one to tell these guys what to do. If they wanted to torture him, then so be it.
Anything to get this over with sooner was better in my book.
Booker hadn’t expected me to do any chores today, but staying in bed resting seemed like a boring way to pass the time, so I’d tidied up the barn, sweeping hay and dirt from the aisles while they worked out on the ranch.
We’d eaten dinner together at the large dining table inside, and afterward, we’d all retired to our respective rooms. I was antsy for what was to come, so after a fewminutes in bed, I’d pulled on my running shoes and headed outside for some fresh air.
The silence of the ranch was comforting with a mind so loud. All day, my thoughts strayed to last night, and now, with the crickets chirping under the nearly-black sky, my head was quiet. A welcome reprieve.
I walked along the fence to the pasture, my sneakers crunching over the loose pebbles in the dirt. I watched as plumes of loose dust kicked up around my ankles, and when I looked forward, I stopped in place.
There was someone on the road.
Narrowing my eyes, I saw the outline of a horse with its rider, the silhouette of a cowboy hat lit by the fading sky. We stared at each other, the both of us not making a move. My heart thumped in my chest, despite knowing it had to be Booker. He must have heard me leave the house and followed after me.
Without any warning, the horse took off at a gallop toward me, and I turned, running the opposite direction back to the barn. Hooves clomped furiously over the ground as I sprinted, but my pace was no match to the animal. In seconds, a rope was slung over me, clasping my arms to my sides. I slowed, the horse sprinting past me as its rider jumped to the ground. Large, familiar arms came around me, lifting me off the ground. I shrieked in between rapid breaths.
“I can feel your heart, Darlin’.” His fingers gripped the back of my thigh where I lay over his shoulder, the lasso still tight around my upper body. “Are you scared?”
“No.” Adrenaline rushed over me, but it wasn’t fear Ifelt. It was anticipation of what was to come. There had to be a reason he was doing this.
“That’s too bad.” We headed into the barn, and he tossed me on the stack of bales, the hay poking my bare legs. I instantly regretted wearing shorts between the cold and the itch. He pulled the lasso up over my body, tossing it to the ground behind him.
I looked up at him to find he was wearing the same skeleton mask he had before, his cowboy hat pulled low over his brow. He braced both hands on either side of me, leaning into my space so that I had to press my back against the bale behind me. “I want you scared when I fuck this tight little pussy.” His hand was between my legs in a flash, finding my entrance easily through the leg hole of my shorts. He slid a finger in, my legs instantly going slack.
My mouth parted, and he wrapped his other hand around my neck, squeezing slightly to cut off my air. The back of my head pressed against the bale as my eyes closed, his finger pumping in and out of me quickly.
“Open those eyes, Darlin’. I want to see.”
I did, and satisfaction rolled over his features as he added another finger, fucking me with his hand relentlessly.
“My little slut is always so wet for me,” he muttered, adding a third.
The sensation was fucking heaven.
He released my neck, letting me breathe. I sucked in air as he suddenly removed his fingers to grab something off the wall beside us. Upon closer inspection, I found he was holding a lead rope. He pulled the rope through his hand, then looped it around my neck and tied it.
“I want you to use your fear as fuel.” He pulled the rope tighter, bringing me closer to him. “Deep breath, Darlin’.”
