I left Sawyer with Josh at the bar because Critter insisted that we needed to talk. Maddy, the nurse was with Sawyer’s mother and when I asked if she was enough security Critter informed me that she was more security than actual nurse and that he and I quote ‘wouldn’t fuck with her.’

“Where are we going?” I asked Critter who pulled up the airboat behind my shack and barely slowed down so I could jump on board. “I thought you wanted to talk?”

“I’m moving my lips and sounds coming out, right? Ain’t that talking?” Critter spat, turning the boat and heading into the swamp at speeds that anyone who hadn’t grown up here wouldn’t dare try.

“That girl who came in. Bridget. She gave us a name. Josh is running it and looking into it. Let’s see where that takes us before we do something that is gonna keep you separated from your family for another twenty-two years.”

Critter’s glare burned a hole in my skull. “I’ve been waiting twenty-two fucking years for this bastard to roll on back into my swamp and you best believe I’m gonna make sure he ain’t ever leaving.”

“What exactly is your plan then?”

“Good old fashioned southern hospitality,” Critter answered gruffly.

Shit.

“And that means what?”

“That means I’m gonna shoot his head off his shoulders and then I’m gonna light a cigar. Maybe later, I’ll celebrate with some pie.”

“Alright. Go in. Blow his head off. Got it. Sounds like a hell of a plan.”

“No. You weren’t listening. There was also that bit about a cigar and pie.”

I rested my head in my hands. “Critter. I want this asshole gone as much as the next guy. But you just got Caroline back. If we get caught we’re right back where you started and it’ll be you paying the price for Richard’s crimes. AGAIN. Don’t let him win. Not this time. Don’t you want to see her when she gets better? Talk to her? Then we must be smart about this. I’m not saying that southern hospitality is off the table. I’m just saying that maybe we don’t want to rush into a church and blow the pastor away why he’s preaching at the pulpit like some dumb ass redneck militia of two.”

Critter rolled his eyes. “Don’t be so dramatic, Karen.” He scoffed. “Ain’t you ever killed a man before? I’ve served in two tours and I tell ya. It takes a little more finesse than just popping a cap in his ass or whatever you kids say nowadays.”

“I don’t know a single person who says that,” I groaned. “Except maybe Miller.”

Critter looked out into the dark waters before us. “I’ve known men like him before. He’s not going to be stop until they are back under his control or dead. And since we know he’s not going to get his control…he’s gotta go.” Critter said with a mixture of both anger and sadness. “He’s lucky he isn’t already dead, but he was a hard man to find. Covered his tracks well, hiding behind that church of his. I had several PI’s look into him over the years. They couldn’t come up with shit until the last one came back and told me Richard and Caroline were both dead. Car accident.” Critter closed his eyes briefly like he was remembering a pain that was too much to bare. “I thought she was dead. I thought my world was dead.” His hands tightened on the wheel. “Now I realize that my PI must have found Richard and that fucker paid him off to feed me false information. That son of a bitch PI better hope he never crosses paths with me again.”

We moved over a patch of ground like it was water. But when I saw the next patch in the distance I stood and squinted like I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

“Shit,” I swore. There was something lying right in front of the boat. “Stop, Critter!” I screamed directing his attention at the clump of hair and fabric.

Critter swerved sharply and knocked me into the water. I waded over to the grass and pulled myself up only to see that the thing we were about to hit wasn’t a thing at all.

It was a person. Someone I’d seen just hours before. The same person who’d delivered the warning that Richard was here.

Bridget.

Sawyer

Angry. I was so beyond angry.

All I saw was red. Bright blood red.

On the inside, I was a car skidding to a screeching halt on a wet road. On the outside, I was a fake soft smile and elevator music.

“Who did this to you?” Josh asked, gently. There was a lot of sympathy in her voice as she patiently waited for a banged up and bruised Bridget to answer the questions she’d asked several times already without a single muttered response. “We’re trying to help you.” Josh continued. She was in full cop mode, but her compassion for the woman in the hospital bed between us surprised me.

“Bridget, I told you. We can help you. We can protect you. Look at me. I’m here aren’t I? They are keeping me safe. They can keep you safe too,” I reassured her, placing my hand on her arm that wasn’t in a sling. Bridget stared at my hand as if I was burning her. I jerked it back and rubbed it like I was dousing the flame.

“Not for long,” she groaned, her one eye purple and swollen shut. She was banged up bad, and we had no idea how she’d gotten to be lying in the middle of the swamp but she’d live.

For now.

“Bridget, if you go back there,” I trailed off, knowing exactly what would happen. This was a warning for coming to me. She could have died. They wouldn’t have cared.

Monsters parading themselves around as Christians.

What if I could…” Josh started when two men entered the room. The first man I didn’t recognize at all, but he was wearing the church of god’s light pin on his shirt. The second one stayed behind the door in the shadow with his hat low on his head.

“Don’t answer anything,” the first man commanded, coming to stand at Bridget’s side. “This is my wife.”

“Funny,” Josh said, standing up to reveal her full police uniform. Her badge glinted under the fluorescent light. She scrunched her lips. “I didn’t hear a ‘thank, God you’re alright.’ I didn’t even hear a ‘I was worried sick.’ The only thing I did here was you proclaiming that she was your wife like you’re collecting your dog from the pound.” Josh pointed to Bridget’s eye. “This how you treat your dog, sir?”

“I’m in shock. That’s all,” the man said, picking up Bridget’s hand awkwardly like he’d never done it before. “How dare you accuse me of treating her like a dog.”

“No, I believe I indicated you treated her like less than a dog.”

“Can we talk later, officer,” the word dripped off his tongue in disdain. “I’d like a moment alone with my wife.”

“Only if it’s okay with our victim,” Josh said using the same stress on the word victim.

Bridget didn’t meet our eyes but nodded. “It’s okay. This is my husband.”

“Bridget, you don’t have to talk to them!” I cried as Josh moved toward the door. “We can stay. You don’t have to be alone with them. Never again.” Josh turned me around by my shoulders and guided me from the room, shutting the door behind us.

“We can’t leave her in there with them!” I shouted. “They’re monsters. Look what they did to her!”

“They ain’t gonna do shit with me standing out here.” She placed a hand on her belt. “I got a gun and shit. What are they gonna do. Fight me with some bullshit prayers? Sawyer, if they touch one hair on that girl’s head and I’ll go in their shooting like it’s the wild wild west up in here.” Her eyes were strong and serious.

“Thank you,” I said, grateful that I wasn’t the only one trying to protect her.

“But there is something you have to know,” Josh said, keeping her eyes trained on the door.

“What?” I asked.

She sighed and pointed to the window where Bridget’s husband was huddled over her bed. “That girl in there is gonna walk out of this hospital with them tonight.”

“No!” I shouted, feeling sick at the thought.

“What they did to her was a warning and she got the message loud and clear. Not even a blink or wink or shake of her hand to tell me otherwise.”

“No…!” I said, reaching for the handle. “My mother stayed with the man who tortured her. I’m not going to stand back and watch it happen again. I can’t I won’t!”

Josh pulled me back and set me down on the chair in the hallway. She crouched down so only I could hear here. “You need to realize they aren’t all as strong as you.”

The door opened and the familiar feeling of dread dripped down my spine as the men walked past me. I couldn’t bother looking up at them. I was too disgusted to give them that much. “We’ll be back,” Bridget’s husband said almost cheerily, like he was bragging. “To bring her home.”

When the bell chimed and the doors slid open, both men climbed inside. Before they slid shut again the other man spoke. The one who’d lingered in the shadows.

“Yes. We will be back. To bring them home.”