There were more tracks around the barn. More than that, the closer I got to it, the more I could hear a slight rustling like there was something inside. Something about it unsettled me. I climbed off Jameson and considered calling Bradley to help me look inside. Then I realized how badly he would torture me for being too scared to just look inside by myself.
It didn’t feel right, though. My heart was in my throat and my stomach rolled. I couldn’t remember ever feeling quite so scared over what should’ve been nothing.
The tracks disappeared under the old barn door, like someone had opened it and driven right in. It didn’t make any sense. No one who worked at the ranch would’ve been using the barn. It was old and outdated and way off the main property. I would’ve known if Dad was having Kenneth use it for something.
The closer I got to the door, the more I felt like someone was running ice water down my spine. I knew, without a doubt, that whatever was inside was what Franklin wanted the clubhouse for. I couldn’t explain it, but I just knew it. I was about to walk into something that could explain everything.
Or get me killed, a little voice at the back of my head whispered. I couldn’t help but listen to it. Or at least hear it. I was still going to open the door and go inside. I couldn’t not go in. I needed to know if I was right. And if I was right, I needed to know what was so important to Franklin that he’d torment my family to use an old beat-up barn.
I grabbed the handle of a smaller side door and took a deep breath. The rustling was louder that close and it almost sounded like there was an animal of some sort, making mewling sounds.
With fear clogging my throat, I pulled open the door and stepped inside. The path of light cut out by the open door did nothing to illuminate the place. I reached into my pocket and grabbed my phone, turning it on to use it as a flashlight.
What I saw when I held it up threatened to bring me to my knees. If I could’ve made sense of it right away, I probably would’ve fallen over. My mind wouldn’t comprehend it at first, though. I just stared with my hand over my mouth, and my eyes wide with fear and unshed tears.
Tied to the opposite wall was a teenage girl. She stared back at me with horror and something far away in her eyes. Her wrists were bound to her ankles and those ropes were tied to the wall behind her. She was completely helpless.
I dropped my phone and fell to my knees while trying to pick it up. My hands weren’t working. Shock at finding a girl there threatened to render me useless. I clawed at the ground, dirt and old manure getting under my nails, until I got my phone in my hands and held it back up. She was still there.
I moved to her and grabbed the ropes. “Hold still. I’ll get you out of here.”
She mumbled at me, her words blocked by a thick piece of tape wrapped completely around her head. I reached for the tape when a sound from our right startled me. I fell backwards, on my ass, as I jerked the flashlight in that direction. What I saw had a cry ripping from my lips.
More girls. All tied up, locked in the barn. A whole row of them. All watching me with the same horrified but faraway look on their faces.
I scrambled to my feet and jabbed at my phone. “I’m going to get help. I’ll get help.”
I heard a four-wheeler outside and rushed to the door, planning on barricading it somehow. Behind me, too many girls to count whimpered and tried to appear as small as possible. My heart cracked open and I pulled my gun from my holster. Raising it, I edged out of the door and got ready to face off with Franklin.
Instead of him, it was Kenneth heading my way. The same edge of doubt crept in and I blinked it away again. Instead, I lowered my gun and rushed towards him. “Kenneth! We’ve got to call the cops. There are… There are girls in there!”
He climbed off the four-wheeler and moved towards me. “What?”
I looked behind me at the door. “Franklin has girls tied up in there. We have to call someone.”
I turned back around to him and saw his fist flying at my face. Too late to stop it, I didn’t even get out a scream before he hit me and my eyes rolled back in my head.
*
I knew I’d somehow fucked up before I even opened my eyes. My head was throbbing again and I knew I’d done something to get it that way. This time my face hurt, too. The whole right side of it throbbed painfully. I tried to think back to what I’d done, but I didn’t remember doing anything that could’ve hurt it.
I’d been checking out the fence line and then… Kenneth socking me in the face came rushing back and then I remembered why he’d socked me in the face. With a gasp, I tried to open my eyes and look around. My right eye wouldn’t open, though. The feeling of pressure keeping it closed caused panic to tighten my chest.
I was staring at some sort of metal ceiling. Beside me, I could feel movement, but I was terrified to look. I knew it was either going to be a bad guy or the girls. I didn’t know which I wanted to see less. I’d messed up. I hadn’t called the cops. If I looked over and found myself face-to-face with those girls, I knew it was my fault.
“Looks like someone has decided to join us.” Franklin’s nasally voice boomed out and seemed to echo through my head, ricocheting around until I had to squeeze my eye shut and pray it stopped.
I tried to roll away from it, but I found I couldn’t move. My arms were behind me, trapped under my body, and they were firmly secured to the floor. I tugged at whatever held me down and sucked in a big breath through my nose. I was starting to hyperventilate.
“You fucked with me, Lacey. You fucked with me and you lost.” He paused. “So now you’re going to face the same consequence as all these girls. With a little extra punishment, of course.”
My mouth was taped shut but I had plenty of things I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to punch him until I couldn’t punch him anymore. I wanted to make him bleed. My anger overrode the panic and I was grateful for it. Angry, I could try to think straight. I could try to come up with a way to get out of my predicament.
Footsteps came near me and I heard the girls whimper and the rustling of them trying to shift away from him. This monster of a man, I realized, moved closer until his face appeared above me. “You weren’t in any real danger, Lacey. I just wanted you out of my hair. Now you’ve gone and fucked it all up, though. Your poor father. Having both of his kids murdered, in such brutal ways, too. I doubt he’ll ever recover. And that invalid mother of yours. She’ll kill herself after this.”
I tried to lunge at him, but the ropes held firm. My heart beat against my rib cage painfully and my wrists burned from the rough rope biting into them. I didn’t care, though. I wanted to attack him. I wanted to kill him. Blood lust blurred my vision until his face wavered in front of me.
“Don’t be mad at me, sweetheart. This is all your fault. I wasn’t doing anything to you. You decided to take up some bullshit campaign against me. Whispering to your cousin about looking for other tenants, telling your father I was hitting on you.” He grabbed my face and squeezed my chin. “You’re a little pussy. Ask some of these other girls. If I was really hitting on you, you’d know it, Lacey. You couldn’t handle me looking at your body and talking sweet to you. Pathetic.”
I jerked my face away from him and glared. I was completely helpless, but to lay there and listen to him. My head felt like it was going to explode from the fury rampaging through my veins.
“Your brother died for a reason. That property of yours is magical. If you know the right border patrol agent, it’s like an open road into Mexico. Into beautiful Mexico, away from the prying eyes of the FBI and all the do-right cops. It’s really hard to run a human trafficking ring from the United States, Lacey. It’s hard to get the girls to the rich men in other countries with big brother breathing down my neck.
“Your property is a gold mine for a man like me. There was no way I was giving it up without a fight. The cartel knew it twenty years ago, I knew it when I took over from my father.”
Human trafficking? God, it was worse than I thought. I hadn’t had time to process what I was seeing with the girls, but my mind hadn’t automatically jumped to them being sold as sex slaves to the highest bidder. I squeezed my eyes shut as another wave of panic hit.
“That’s right, pretty little Lacey. You fell into a heaping pile of shit. All you had to do was leave me alone, but you couldn’t do it.”
He knelt closer to me and stroked his hand over my hair. “I didn’t have time to find out what gems you’re hiding between those thighs last time. It was a shame. You almost caught me having another girl delivered. Thankfully, your idiot cousin was there to keep you from finding her. Between trying to hide the girl while Dan and that meathead, Jagger, looked for you, all I could do was undress you and run along to put on a concerned face for your daddy. You won’t be that lucky this time. I have plenty of time with you. Right now.”
He ran his knuckles from my chin down my neck. “Or later. I’ve got shit to do right now. Like look innocent while packing up the clubhouse. When Dan comes looking for you, I’ve got to be there, smiling pretty.”
I snapped my eyes open, a cruel smile wanting to rip through the duct tape on my mouth. My plan worked. Despite the fact that I’d been kidnapped and was probably going to be killed. They were leaving the ranch. No other girls would be taken through our property.
“I’ve got to find a friend of mine who’s looking for a hunting clubhouse down here. With you gone and your dad looking for you, Kenneth will get to make a lot more decisions, I’m sure. We’ll be back in business here in no time. Now, I’ve got to run. Things to do, people to see. I’ll meet you in Mexico in the morning, Lacey. Be ready for me.”
With a cruel grab to my chest, he pushed himself up and then hesitated. “I can’t trust you to not figure out how to get out of your binds. It’ll take weeks before anyone is willing to buy you with your face so messed up. Thankfully, I just lost my lease and I’ve got nothing to do now. Guess getting what you wanted fucked you over a little, huh? You’re going to be my personal fuck toy until your face looks better. Lucky for me, I don’t mind just shoving a bag over a girl’s head.”
I saw his fist coming and expected it, but the pain that radiated from the wound already inflicted by Kenneth, the bastard, took my breath away. I opened my eyes in time to see his fist coming back and tried to scream through my sealed mouth. He was going to beat me to death.
My mind reeled as another hit knocked my teeth together. I felt blood pooling in my mouth and struggled to swallow it to keep from choking on it.
Maybe dying there, tied up next to all those helpless girls, before I had to experience Franklin wouldn’t be so bad. My body relaxed with the thought and I welcomed the blackness creeping in as another hit landed to the side of my head.
A picture of Jason planted itself in my fading mind and I wanted to sob in relief at seeing him. I saw him opening his arms for me as I let myself go.