the cops. Which made them dig.” He points at me. “Fuck the La Rouge triplets. Thorn in my fucking side my whole damn life. They always bounce back no matter how hard I knock their asses down.”
“I don’t know what this is about, but we can talk about it.”
“Talk?” He huffs with indignation. “I’m done talking. I’m done trying to take what’s mine. This time, Ace is going down and La Rouge Vineyards is going up in flames.”
I try again to free my wrists, but I’m effectively trapped.
“Felix…what are you doing?”
His grim smile stretches wide as he looks around the barn. I see the can of gasoline the moment he does and my insides go ice cold.
“Felix please, you don’t have to do this. We can talk it out.”
“Talk it out? Do you have any idea what that bastard did to me? What his family took from mine? This is our land. Ours! And he forced those girls to tell those filthy lies. He stole from my life.”
What girls? What lies? I twist in my bonds. I try to jump, hoping to get the loop of rope to slip over the peg. Nothing helps.
Felix grabs the gas tank and gives it a shake. The sloshing inside tells me it’s nearly full. He unscrews the nozzle and watches me.
“Please…” I beg, but his maniacal grin doesn’t waiver. He tips the can and a dribble of gasoline flows out onto the dirt of the barn floor.
I release a blood curdling scream, hoping Asher’s brothers come running.
Felix puts the gas can down and marches over to me with a sour expression fixed to his face. He pulls out a rag from his back pocket and shoves it in my mouth.
I spit it out and scream, louder this time
His eyes pinch as he picks up the dirty rag. Very deliberately, he yanks Asher’s belt through the belt loops of Asher’s jeans until it’s free. Narrowing his eyes, he scrunches the rag into a ball, pries my jaw open, and shoves the cloth inside my mouth, pushing it as deep as it’ll go. I gag against it and tear up as he ties Asher’s belt around my head and mouth.
“No one is coming to save you. Not this time. By the time Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dumb out there figure out what’s happing in here, I’ll be long gone and you and your boyfriend will be nothing but a crispy mess.”
Why?
What does he have against me? Against Asher?
Other than me being the only person who can identify him. The only person who can testify he started that fire.
I know why he wants me dead, but what I don’t understand is what he was doing up on the ridge starting a forest fire in the first place.
I scream against the gag, but it’s garbled and too low for anyone to hear.
With the barn door closed, Asher’s brothers won’t intrude. They think Asher and I are doing something else in here rather than fighting for our lives.
My attention shifts from Felix to Asher. Is Asher breathing? I can’t tell. Holy shit, is Asher dead?
Felix hums as he wanders around the barn shaking gasoline over the hay and at the base of the barn walls.
I wring my hands and desperately try to unhook the damn loop from the peg over my head.
Each time Felix looks at me, he bares his teeth and sneers. Then he follows that with a dismissive shrug. His lips twist as he turns away. To him, we’re already dead.
But what does he get out of this? I don’t understand.
My eyes narrow as I try to puzzle it out. I try to unhook myself for what feels like the hundredth time, and fail.
Felix finishes his circuit of the front part of the barn. He runs out of gasoline and tosses the empty can to the side. Knight sticks his head over his stall door and gives a nervous whinny. Felix is not only going to burn Asher and me, but all the horses as well.
Son of a bitch!
Still no movement from Asher. I can’t tell if he’s breathing, but I’m hopeful. A knock to the head shouldn’t be lethal.
I think.
Hell, I survived Felix knocking me upside the head. I call out Asher’s name, but the gag prevents anything intelligible from leaving my mouth.
Felix returns. He reaches out and cups my breast. My insides twist as he squeezes the sensitive tissues.
“You picked the wrong guy. You should’ve gone home with me.” He kicks Asher in the ribs. “I