Authors: Carmella Jones
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Peach
Normally, being bound and gagged would have pissed me off and made me go into survival mode. But as I sat there back to back with Sal in the middle of a barn, which smelled of whatever had come out of the animals that had been there last, I really didn’t care anymore. I’d lost Trevor, I’d screwed everything up, I was about to get Trevor killed as well and there was nothing that I could do to stop it. I didn’t deserve to keep breathing. I really didn’t want to.
I don’t know what had made me turn on my phone that afternoon. The false hope that Trevor might have called, or might call, wanting me back? I’d sunk back into bed nursing the horrible hangover from the torture that I’d put my body through the night before and forgotten all about the phone until it awakened me a little while later.
To have Sal calling me pissed me off just enough to bring me back to life. If Bulldog got wind of our connection, then the prayers I’d said while I was drunk and miserable the night before would quickly be answered. I got on my Fat Boy and went to meet him for one major reason, and that was to chew his ass out for putting me in danger.
I’d suspected nothing and was immediately caught off guard when Bulldog sat up from the backseat and pointed a pistol at me while keeping another one trained on the back of Sal’s head.
“Get in the car, Peach,” he’d ordered.
I did as I was told, instantly realizing that there was nothing left to hide and no reason to do anything stupid. Bulldog had already figured it all out.
“What are you waiting for, Bulldog?” I’d taunted him after we’d arrived at the ranch and were taken into the barn. I was ready to just get it over with rather than dragging it all out.
“We’re waiting for TNT to show up so that I can take all three of you sons of bitches out and then walk away.”
“You won’t walk away from this,” Sal warned.
“You know, you say the same fuckin’ thing all of the time, and I’m tired of it.”
He cuffed our hands behind our backs, set us in two chairs in the middle of the barn, tied our arms and feet to the chairs and tied gags around our mouths.
“You know, Peach,” Bulldog started in, “I’m really not going to enjoy killing you. I was starting to come around, you know, thinking about you and me together until we grew old, having a home together and all of that. But, well, I guess I see what you’re really like now.”
There was a gag in my mouth, so I didn’t bother to respond. I didn’t even bother to look up at him. He pushed the barrel of the pistol up under my chin and forced my eyes toward his as he stared into mine. There was nothing but pure evil in them.
“You, Sal,” he continued, moving away from me, “I’ve been paying you to keep things covered up and now they’re not. Once I get finished with TNT, I’m going to take my time with you. I’m going to see if I can get some of that money back in entertainment.”
Sal grunted and fought against his bonds, though nothing he said was intelligible and he hadn’t even budged from the position he was in.
“Yeah, I know,” Bulldog responded. “I’ll never get away with it, keep my head and we’ll figure out how to get out of this. Fuck you!” He whipped the pistol across the side of Sal’s head and turned away.
“You two just sit here quietly and wait for our other guest to arrive, okay?” He grinned at us and then strode toward the door.
I didn’t hold out much hope of getting out of the mess that I was in alive. I really didn’t care if I did, but I hadn’t wanted for Trevor to be killed in the process.
Having been trained by the Corps, my eyes had taken in the ranch and its surroundings as we approached. It was in a commanding position in the valley and the access into it could be watched from the loft of the barn above our heads. I’d picked out three armed men, attempting to conceal themselves as we approached, and there could have been more that weren’t so reckless. When the leader of that particular portion of Bulldog’s trap approached, he got a sound ass chewing for being careless and an order to get the others straightened up.
I placed the count at no less than six to one. After they had been thoroughly informed about what sort of man they were expecting, they would do a much better job of concealing themselves. The deck was heavily stacked against Trevor and he probably wasn’t even aware of it. He’d come riding down the road on his Road King and right into their trap. I had no one but myself to blame for that.
Some hours later, or it might have been minutes—there was little way of knowing how much time passed while sitting in the middle of the barn—Bulldog strolled confidently through the door.
“I just thought I’d come check on you two,” he said. “Actually, Peach, I was curious about something and wanted to ask you a few questions.”
He pulled the gag from my mouth and squatted in front of me. “How did you get TNT to buy into all of this?”
I didn’t respond. What was the point? I was going to die anyway.
He slapped me hard across the face. “I shouldn’t do that, actually. That sort of thing turns you on. Isn’t that right, Sal?”
“Look, Peach,” he softened his tone. “I can make it so that you go easy and quietly if you’ll talk to me. You really don’t want the alternative.”
“You can do whatever you want,” I replied. “I don’t care anymore.”
“Hmmm. I’m sort of surprised by that. The Peach I know would be full of piss and vinegar. She would be fighting me every step of the way. You’re not, so here’s what I think. You can tell me if I’m wrong, okay? I think that you got your heart broken. I think that’s the reason you showed up in my office yesterday looking like warmed-over shit. I think that’s why you smell like a whiskey distillery right now.”
I shrugged. “Think whatever you want.”
“I’m guessing that you tried to use TNT and me against each other. You hooked up with him and started working him just like you did me, but you fell in love, and when he found out about what you’d done, he dumped you. Is that about right?”
“Pretty close,” Trevor said from behind me.
“What the fuck?” Bulldog said, rising up.
“You better keep that pistol down, Bulldog, and drop the one in your waistband too.”
By Bulldog’s reaction, it was clear that Trevor had the drop on him.
“By the way,” he said in a bored tone. “I put those other four guys to bed. This is just a private party now.”
Chapter Thirty: Peach
I couldn’t believe that I was still alive. I couldn’t believe that I was lying in Trevor’s arms in my own bed. I couldn’t believe that he had taken me back and that we had made love in such a tender way. I couldn’t believe that he told me that he loved me and wanted to make a home and family with me. I couldn’t believe all of those things, because, to me, while sitting bound and gagged in that barn, it didn’t seem like there was even the slightest chance that I was going live to see another day.
I’d replayed the events over and over in my mind while I listened to Trevor’s steady breathing and felt his chest rise and fall under my head. When I heard his voice in the barn, I’d thought that it would be the very last time. I was certain that Bulldog’s men would rush in, surround him and capture him, and I’d be forced to watch as Bulldog killed him.
How he did it would always be a mystery to me, but he’d slipped into the ranch and quietly eliminated the others before appearing like a ghost inside the barn. The startled expression on Bulldog’s face told me that he was trying to solve the same mystery.
“We can either end this quick or I can take my time tearing you apart,” Trevor had growled.
Bulldog grinned. “That’s pretty bold talk while you’re holding a pistol on me. Is that the same one that you used to kill Denny and his guards in Salt Lake? You might want to listen to this, Sal. You can tell Detective Taylor who the real killer is.”
“Your Detective Taylor works for me,” Trevor retorted. “He’s actually not even a detective. He’s a former Marine logistics specialist. Quite an operator too. Blends in well, can get his hands on pretty much anything. He’s a little pricy, but well worth it.”
Bulldog chuckled. “So, you knew about this whole thing?”
“After I hired Taylor I started putting things together,” Trevor responded. “You okay, Leila?”
“I’m fine, Trevor,” I had replied.
“Leila and Trevor?” Bulldog growled. “So I was right about the two of you.”
There was a long quiet moment.
“So, are you going to shoot me now or did you already lose your nerve?” Bulldog taunted.
“No, actually, I was hoping that you and me could put away the guns and dance together first.”
“You want to dance with me?” Bulldog laughed. “You don’t stand a chance.”
“How about we put a little wager on it, then?” Trevor responded.
“I’m listening.”
“Whoever wins walks away with Sal and Leila, gets things smoothed over and goes on with life. Whoever loses takes the rap for what happened in Salt Lake? I think I could get Sal to agree to that, don’t you?”
“It isn’t going to matter,” Bulldog said, backing away from the guns and back into the open space in front of me. “Because after I kill you, I can do whatever I want with these two.”
Trevor had moved up beside me at that point. His hand on my shoulder was reassuring. He kept the pistol pointed at Bulldog and cut the ropes on my hands and feet.
“That’s not really fair,” Bulldog protested. “You let those two go and you have all the guns. One of them can just shoot me down.”
Trevor scooped up the pistols from the floor and ejected the magazines, tossing them towards Bulldog. “They can keep the guns and you can have the bullets.” He ejected the shells in the chamber and squatted with his gun still pointed at Bulldog to scoop them up. Once he was standing, he repeated the same with his own pistol, tossed the magazine and ejected bullet toward Bulldog and tossed his pistol next to the others. “Happy now?”
“I’m thrilled to death,” Bulldog grinned. “Step on over here and get ready to meet your maker.”
I had cut Sal free from the chair and was reaching into his pocket to get the key to the handcuffs when they started. Bulldog attacked first, lunging at Trevor, who stepped aside quickly and sent him into the dusty floor. Trevor circled away from him and let him get to his feet. In that instant, I realized that Bulldog towered over him and outweighed him by almost a hundred pounds, but he lacked two things that Trevor had: calm nerves and a hell of a lot of skill.
Not more than a few times did I see a blow by Bulldog connect with Trevor. Whenever they did, they had the heavy, meaty sound of a blow that ought to have put the smaller man down, but Trevor had been able to shake them off and keep going.
Though Trevor’s blows didn’t pack the power of weight behind them that Bulldog’s did, he hit the bigger man a lot more often and used Bulldog’s weight and overconfidence against him. I had to hand it to Bulldog, however. He learned quickly. Each time he waded into a situation and came out bleeding, he changed his tactics and came at Trevor with a new approach.
There was no doubt in my mind that Bulldog was a brawler who would have made quick work of almost anyone. But not Trevor. I was pretty certain of how the fight was going to turn out, up until Bulldog finally made a move that got Trevor in his grasp.
Trevor’s advantage, up until that point, had been his ability to stay away from the power of the bigger man, but once he was trapped by his powerful grip, I was certain that I had seen the end of him. He took heavy blow after heavy blow to his mid-section and a number of them to his face before he was finally able to break free.
In the process of beating on Trevor, Bulldog had worn himself out. It took a lot of effort to move that big body, and he was winded when Trevor broke free. The deciding moment came only seconds after and I screamed out when I saw it coming. Bulldog had, from out of nowhere, produced a knife and plunged it toward Trevor as he was trying to roll free. I don’t know how he did it, but in a flash Trevor had somehow turned the knife back on Bulldog and shoved it well up under his ribcage. Before I knew what had happened, Bulldog was lying on the floor of the barn bleeding out.
I had been rescued and I was quickly wrapped up in Trevor’s strong arms. Though it wasn’t nearly as clear to me as my memory of the fight, I recalled hearing Sal explain how he was going to play things out to law enforcement. I also heard Trevor telling Sal that he didn’t want anything more to do with what Bulldog had been into. Between the two of them, they had made some sort of arrangement that let Trevor walk away free and straight into my arms. I really didn’t care about the details.
“You not sleeping?” Trevor asked, breaking into my replaying of what had taken place earlier. He rolled me off of his shoulder and onto my back, gazing down at me.
“Actually,” I lied, “I was just about to doze off.”
“Yeah, well, before you do that…”
He didn’t finish the sentence, well not with words anyway. However, his actions underneath the covers spoke loudly.
THE END
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