“So that’s it? We’re just supposed to let you walk out of here alone?” Deacon demanded.
“I won’t be entirely alone. I’ll have the ATF with me then.”
With a roll of his eyes, Deacon said, “That makes me feel so much fucking better.”
“I can’t argue about this anymore. I have to get out of here.”
“If something happens to you, Rev will never forgive me,” Deacon said.
I smiled sadly at him. “This isn’t his choice; it’s mine. I’m doing what I feel I have to do to save him—and to save me.”
After shaking his head, Deacon gave me a quick hug. “You be careful, okay?”
I nodded. “I’m a lot stronger than I look.”
“Trust me, I know that.”
I got halfway across the room and stopped. Whirling around, I said, “I don’t have a car.” It was the one part of the plan I had overlooked.
Boone came over and handed a set of keys to me. “It’s the Mustang outside.”
My brows shot up in surprise. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “It’ll get you to Rev faster.”
I gave him a quick hug before racing out the door. After cranking up the car, I roared out of the roadhouse parking lot. Of course, I had no idea if I should go right or left. All I knew was Mendoza would phone with instructions.
With just a minute to spare before my ten minutes were up, the phone rang. With a shaky hand, I reached for it. “Hello?”
“Go to the old rock quarry off Route 19. Come around to the back of the barn.”
“But I don’t know—” I started to protest.
“You’ll figure it out.” Mendoza hung up.
“Son of a bitch!” I shouted. Pulling the car off to the side of the road, I Googled a rock quarry. Amazingly enough, the route pulled up. It was only fifteen minutes away, but it was in the other direction than I had come out of the roadhouse. After turning around, I gunned the engine. Even though they were tracking my phone, I wasn’t taking any chances with the ATF. I dialed Agent Hollis’s number that I had programmed in my phone earlier. “I’m supposed to meet him at a barn beside the old rock quarry on Route 19.”
“We are only a few minutes from the location. When you arrive, stall for a few moments in the car before you go in. We do not want too much time to elapse before you go in the barn and before we come in.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
“I know you can. We have every confidence in you, Annabel,” Agent Hollis said.
I wished that his words made me feel better, but sadly, they didn’t. While I might’ve looked calm and collected on the outside, I was a fucking basket case on the inside. I had stared down death once before, so I wasn’t afraid of being killed. More than anything, I didn’t want to lose Rev.
Veering off the road onto Route 19 caused my stomach to churn. Rolling down the window, I threw up the contents of my stomach. With a nervous laugh, I thought about how Boone would regret loaning me his car when it came back with puke down the front door.
When I saw the barn, my heart started beating so hard it felt like a cannon’s blast inside the car. I eased around the back of the building, craning my neck to see if anyone was around. Just one car was parked there, and I knew it had to belong to Mendoza.
Once I turned the engine off, I tried to collect myself. My arms and legs trembled uncontrollably with nerves. But then I focused on the image of Rev’s face and it gave me the strength I needed. Opening the car door, I slowly got to my feet. I took small steps from the car, taking as much time as I could.
When I got to the back door, it opened before I reached for it. The next thing I knew I was being grabbed and dragged inside. Then I was thrown to the ground. “So glad you could come,” Mendoza greeted me.
I started to glare up at him, but then something to my left drew my attention. Rev was strung up to one of the lower hanging barn beams. His arms were jerked at a painful angle over his head, but the worst thing was the burns on his chest. “Rev!” I cried as I started to scramble to my feet.
But then I felt the familiar bite of a belt slamming across my back. I couldn’t hold back the scream that tore from my lips. Grabbing me by the hair, Mendoza jerked me to my feet. With a cold glare, he asked, “You didn’t think you could just waltz in here without being punished, did you?”
Another crack of the belt had me shrieking. “You wanna beat someone, you beat me, you cocksucker!” Rev shouted.
“You don’t get to call the shots.” He licked his lips as he drew me closer to him. “Right now I think I’ll make her scream for another reason.”
Mendoza grabbed one of my breasts, kneading it harshly. At my whimper of pain, a cruel smirk curved on his lips. “That’s nothing compared to what I’m going to do to you, Roja.”
At that moment the barn door burst open and four agents came crashing through it. “Freeze! Drop your weapon. Now!” an agent shouted. After recognizing his voice, I knew it was Agent Hollis.
“You lying cunt!” Mendoza spat before lunging at me so hard that we both fell to the ground. He started punching and kicking me until he was wrestled off me by one of the agents.
“Are you okay?” Agent Hollis asked.
My sides and stomach screamed in agony where Mendoza had kicked me. When I tried to sit up, I couldn’t. I seemed to be working overtime to catch my breath. But the sound of Rev screaming my name had me struggling to my feet with some help from Agent Hollis.
After I wiped the blood off my busted lip, I nodded. At that point, I didn’t care about the pain. All I could think about was Rev. As I limped over to him, I met his haunted gaze. “Oh, Rev,” I murmured. Turning back to Agent Hollis, I said, “Get him down. Now!”