Page 50 of Wait in the Truck
I don’t process the rest because my vision tunnels. Heat, raw and violent, explodes in my chest. A black, seething rage that demands blood. “I’m gonna kill that sick motherfucker. Where is he now?”
“Jesus fuck,” Rhett snarls, pacing now, running a hand through his hair. “That poor goddamn animal—” He slams his fist against the wall, breathing hard, barely holding himself together.
I push my chair back slowly, my movements deliberate. Controlled. My blood is boiling, but my voice is eerily calm. “He’s a dead man.”
Rhett whips his head toward me, eyes blazing. “No, Kade. We’re not killing him.”
I tilt my head. “Why the fuck not?”
“Because we don’t need that heat, not when we’ve still got the fallout from Ridge to deal with. Not to mention, we said we’d go easy on theJohn fucking Cena,” Rhett growls, stepping closer, ignoring the curiosity in Sage’s watchful gaze. “We can handle him another way. Make damn sure he knows he’s done here.”
My hands flex into fists. “If he so much as looks at her?—”
“We’ll deal with it,” Rhett cuts in. Deadly. Absolute. Showing the side of himself he normally keeps locked up tight.
I exhale sharply through my nose, barely keeping my temper on a leash. “Fine. He evenbreathesin her direction, I’m making him disappear. Permanently. I’m sure Ridge would like the company.”
Sage shudders, wrapping her arms around herself. “Where did you, um, you know…” The room goes still.Bury him?She doesn’t finish that thought, but I hear her loud and clear. Her eyes glimmer with a thousand questions, fear dancing in the edges of her gaze. Right now, we’re talking about Samuel, but there’s another secretpressing against her spine—what happened to Ridge’s body?
I glance at Rhett, and he gives a barely perceptible nod. I shift my focus back to Sage. She looks seconds away from snapping, like one wrong word might shatter the fragile hold she has on herself.
“We handled him, Sage. Completely.”
Her throat bobs, and she inhales a shaky breath. “What does that mean?”
Rhett crosses his arms tight over his chest, jaw locked. “We made sure there was nothing left to find,” he says. “Anywhere.”
A flicker of horror flashes across her features. “I—I don’t understand.”
I let the silence stretch for half a second longer than it should, just enough for her to feel it looming. Then, I speak. “Ridge’s body is gone. I promise you, nobody will ever locate him.”
She sucks in a breath, and I see her knuckles whiten on the chair. “How?”
Rhett picks up the thread, voice cold and factual. “He went through the wood chipper. After that, Kade spread him across the field.”
Sage goes pale, her lips parting on a soundless exhale. She presses a hand to her mouth, eyes wide with a mixture of revulsion… and relief. “Jesus Christ,” she whispers.
I nod, slow and unapologetic. “He didn’t feel it, Sage.He was already dead. But we had to be sure no one—no one—would ever connect the dots back to you.”
She stares at me like she’s seeing the devil himself. “And his truck?”
Rhett sighs. “We left it and his phone up near the waterfall where Jonah and Lucy died,” he says quietly. “We’re hoping people will put two and two together and think he couldn’t handle his grief anymore. Especially with the timing being so close to the anniversary of their deaths.”
Sage closes her eyes, shoulders sagging like someone just dropped a hundred-pound weight on her back. “Fuck,” she mumbles, “the anniversary. With everything that’s happened, I forgot it was this week.”
I step forward, my voice dropping to that dangerous murmur I know she listens to. “No one’s coming for you, Sage. No one’s coming forus. It’s handled.”
She swallows, eyes darting between me and Rhett. I wish I could climb into her head and figure out how she’s feeling, because right now, she seems immobilized by shock, going through the motions with clipped acknowledgment. “Handled,” she repeats like she’s testing the word. “And Samuel? What do we do with him? He’s gonna be a problem.”
Rhett’s gaze darkens. “Tomorrow,” he says, flicking a glance at me, “we pay him a visit. Make it real clear he’s got no place here anymore.”
I bare my teeth in something that might pass for a grin if you don’t look too closely. “If he doesn’t take the hint well…”
Rhett levels me with a glare. “We handle it. But not with any more blood than we need to spill.”
I shrug, but my hands flex at my sides like I’m already picturing them wrapped around Samuel’s throat. “As long as he keeps away from her.”
Sage exhales shakily, an uneasy mix of repose and dread flickering across her face. “So that’s it? No one’s going to find out about Dad? Should we maybe get ahead of this, report him missing before Samuel does?”
