There you go again, making excuses for him.
She’d been doing it all her life. Hard to stop now, but like her father said, sometimes you have to let go of the rope, or you’ll get burned. She needed to let go of the hope that the sweet little boy Connor had once been, before the drugs had erased him a little at a time, would somehow magically reappear. Not going to happen so long as Connor went headlong down the road to destruction.
Letting go wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
“Sadie, hold up,” Rory called in an angry whisper.
“If he’s in there, he’s going to answer to me first. Then you can turn him over to the cops.”
Rory’s dark gaze and frown reminded her of the man she used to see in him. Now she knew he wasn’t that guy, and the ominous look in his eyes was because he didn’t want her to get hurt again.
They made their way across the grass and weeds, drawing closer to the barn.
“The stupid thing is stuck.” Her brother’s muffled voice carried out to them through one of the open barn doors leading out to a paddock.
“Bang it again. Get that damn barrel open. We don’t have all night.”
Sadie stopped in her tracks at the sound of that familiar voice. It followed her into her nightmares each night. I like to watch you bleed.
Rory stumbled into the back of her and grabbed her shoulders. He rubbed his hands up her trembling arms. He leaned in close to her ear and whispered, “What’s wrong?”
She turned her face toward him and whispered back, “That’s Derek.” The quake in her voice made Rory squeeze her shoulders.
“Give me the rifle and go back to the house. I’ll take care of this.”
“Hurry the fuck up,” Derek ordered.
A shiver rocked her whole body, vibrating up her spine. Rory wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed the top of her head. “You’re okay, sweetheart. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Sadie stiffened her spine and shook off her fear and Rory’s embrace. She stood on her own and turned to face him. “You go that way around the back. They probably have a truck or something parked behind the barn. If they came in the back way, that’s why we didn’t hear them drive up. I’ll go in through the front. I’ll keep them focused on me and you make sure they don’t leave before the sheriff’s guys get here.”
“Scott and Tony took the smaller stashes out to Butte and Missoula. We need to get this to my guy tonight, or it’ll be my ass, which means it will be yours, too,” Derek warned.
“This is a bad idea,” Rory said.
He was probably right. She tried to think of a better plan than facing off with a knife-wielding drug dealer.
She wrapped her fingers around Rory’s arm. “I just thought of something. If my brother drove, he left the keys in the ignition. He always does. No one would steal his piece of crap truck. Get the keys, then they can’t leave.”
“Cover the front, but do not go inside.” Rory touched her chin, tilting her face up to his. He leaned down and planted a soft but quick kiss on her lips. He gave her one last resigned look and took off around the paddock to the back of the barn.
She hoped he found the keys in the truck and that stopped her brother and Derek from leaving long enough for the cops to arrive.
“Got it,” her brother said, drawing her closer to the front barn doors to get a better look and keep an eye on them. If they tried to go out the back before Rory had a chance to get the keys, she’d stop them.
“Fuck yeah. Pull it out and load up the bags,” Derek said.
Sadie snuck around the barn doors and slid along the aisle, her back against the stall wall. She stopped at one of the open gates and hid in the darkness. Her brother and Derek stood at the other end in a pool of weak light cast by a single bulb burning just outside the workroom door.
Connor pulled out several bags of packaged drugs from a fifty-five-gallon barrel and stuffed them into the duffel bag at his feet like stacked bricks. She’d never really noticed the barrels. They’d always been there, long ago used and left to rust as her father grew frail and the business dissipated along with his health.
“Hurry the fuck up,” Derek ordered.
“I’m going as fast as I can. Once we deliver this, I’m out. I don’t owe you anything more.” Her brother’s voice held little conviction. Too weak to stand up for himself, he’d keep going along so long as Derek threatened him. So long as Connor got the drugs he craved more than a life with his family.
“You’re out when I say you’re out.” Derek picked up one of the drug bricks and tossed it on top of the others.