Hard 5 by Stephanie Brother
29
What happens next is a blur. Sawyer and Cary jump into the back of the truck, and Sawyer fastens the seatbelt around me from behind as Scott leaps in to take the wheel. The truck speeds away from the billowing smoke, back out onto the road, and I hide my face in my hands.
“McCafferty’s…so that’s where the Flints ended up,” Scott says through gritted teeth after Sawyer fills him in. “Those fuckers are going to pay.”
“Sheriff’s office,” Cary says on the phone. “I want to report a break-in at Flint House, arson at Cooper’s Cottage, animal poisoning, and a dog abduction…yes. We’re heading over to McCafferty’s Park now to try to retrieve the dog. The fire service has been called to deal with the arson. We don’t know what’s missing from the house right now, except the dog, and there’s no one there right now….okay. We’ll be there in ten minutes.” Cary hangs up the phone. “They’re meeting us over there. I think they’re worried that we’ll do something stupid.”
“I think they might be right,” Scott growls. “I swear, if they’ve touched even a hair on Big Boy’s paw, I’m going to separate them from their skin.”
“Was he okay when you saw him?” Sawyer asks, resting his hand on my shoulder.
“He was okay but scared. I called to him, but he was too slow, and the guy grabbed my arm and was trying to hold me. I hit him and struggled to get away. I wanted to call you, but I left my phone at the house, and then I saw the fire and…” I cover my face again, trying to swallow down my sobs but not entirely succeeding.
Sawyer rubs my shoulder. “It’s okay,” he says. “You did everything you could. We’ll sort it from here.”
“But what if he hurt Big Boy? What if they’ve taken him somewhere else?”
“We’re going to find him.” Sawyer’s big hand squeezes my shoulder, and everything in me wants to believe that he’s right. But I’m a realist about life. Good things don’t always happen to good people. Sometimes terrible things happen to good people, and there is no rhyme or reason to explain it. No easy way to comprehend it. No way to get over the pain caused by it.
We have to find Big Boy, or I will never be able to live with myself.
And the Bradfords will never find a way to forgive me.
Scott throws the truck into the lot, filling the grooves caused by the tire spins from my exit. They’re throwing open the doors of the truck before I have time to unclip my seatbelt. “Where, Melanie?” Sawyer shouts.
“At the back of the park to the right. There’s a wooden porch. It’s the only trailer like that.”
The boys take off running, and I stumble from the truck, breaking into a run. They’re already so much further ahead, their strong legs carrying them, weaving through the trailers like lightning. I fight to catch up because I’m scared that this is all going to go so wrong. I don’t know why but men don’t seem to know when it’s too dangerous, and they need to walk away. They don’t assess risk the same.
Behind, I hear the sound of tires crunching into the lot. I whip around, seeing cop cars approaching, but I don’t stop. I just need to get to my boys.
The sounds of a foot on metal rings out. As I round the trailer, I find Sawyer and Cary disappearing into the trailer, and I follow, but as I get there, I hear Scott say “He’s not here,” and I have to grip onto the side of the trailer to stop my knees from going out beneath me.
Cary emerges into the sunlight, blinking as he sees me. “They’re already gone,” he says. “Seems like they packed up, although it’s hard to tell, it’s such a shit hole in there.”
“We’re going to find them,” Sawyer says. “They can’t have gotten far.”
“They don’t have to have gotten far,” Scott says. “Just far enough that we won’t know which way to go.”
“They have a cousin over in Coldsville,” a woman’s voice says from the other side of the trailer.I immediately make my way around, finding an older woman leaning through the window of her trailer. “I heard them saying they’d take the dog over there. They’re planning on asking for money before they return him.”
“Do you know where in Coldsville or his name…anything?” I’m panting, resting my hands on my legs to try to breathe deeply.
“No, but he’s probably as big and ugly as those assholes. Shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
Her grin is kind of wicked looking and then she slams her window closed as though she doesn’t want to be seen talking to us.
When I turn, the Bradfords are behind me, and then two police officers.
“They’ve taken the dog to Coldsville,” I say breathlessly.
“Where?”
“I don’t know. A cousin.”
“Listen, I want you to go with one of the cops. Go back to the house and show them what’s missing,” Scott says to me. His eyes flick away from my face quickly, settling on the nearest police officer. He’s young, maybe around the same age as me. “Melanie will talk you through the theft.”
He nods and jerks his head to tell me to accompany him back to his vehicle. We’re passed by Cary, Sawyer, and Scott, who jog back to their truck, closely followed by the other police officer.
I know what Scott’s doing. He wants me out of his car and out of his hair. He can’t even bear to look at me. My throat is tight with unshed tears, but I’m going to hold it together because that’s all I can do right now.
There will come a time later when I can cry, when I’ve left Hard Valley Ranch behind.