Page 2 of Stalwart Ridge Security: Murray
“Bedroom,” Murray grunts.“Lock yourself inside, and don’t come out for anyone, understood?”
I drop the items I was holding and reach for the gun I keep in the holster on my back.“I can help.”
“Not now, El.I don’t need the fuckin’ distraction.Go.”He ends the discussion by slipping out of the cabin.
El.Ugh.
“The name is Elodie, asshole,” I mutter, and lock myself into the bedroom Murray enhanced with steel plates a few weeks ago.
He basically changed it into a safe room.It makes me feel like a prisoner with a jailer who’s both annoyingly frustrating, while ruggedly handsome.Which makes me want to smother, and fuck him, preferably not in that order.
Shit.My brain is a scrambled mess, and my nerves are all over the place.What if Nolan kills Murray?Burk would have if I hadn’t been there to save him.My back hits the cold steel and I slowly sink down to the floor.My fingers are still wrapped around my handgun and aimed at the door.
I worked hard to crawl out of the trauma I experienced when I was a mere teenager.The first man I killed was my stepfather.He strangled my mother in a blind rage, and as if that wasn’t enough, I watched as he grabbed a knife and stabbed her over and over.
The horror of it made me whimper, causing my stepfather to notice me.He lunged for me but slipped on my mother’s blood.The knife he was holding clattered to the floor, making it slide right in front of me.The split second when his bloodshot eyes hit mine allowed me to see the rage inside him.I knew without a doubt I’d be next.
Swallowing hard, I try to push the vivid memory down.The gun shakes in my hand and I briefly close my eyes.They’re just old memories.A dark past buried deep that can’t hurt me anymore.All while a new kind of danger is hanging above my head.Nolan wants revenge...he wants me dead because I killed his father.
A loud knock against the door makes me practically jump out of my skin.
Murray’s voice is muffled.“Come on out, everything is fine.The sheriff is here, though.”
The sheriff?That doesn’t make sense.Frowning, I keep the gun in my hand as I get up and walk to the door.
“Are they holding a gun to your head?”I question.
“Hilarious.Open the fuck up, little rebel.”Murray’s voice carries a hard snap, even if he’s using the stupid endearment.
I open the door just so I can glare at the idiot.I hate when he only uses two letters of my name to address me, but when he uses rebel?It just doesn’t make sense.It clearly shows how little this man knows about me, even if we’ve spent weeks together in close proximity.
“Put the gun away,” he whispers.
Moving my hand to my back, I put the gun away and pull my shirt over the holster.
“Ma’am,” the sheriff greets me as I step into the main room of the cabin.
I nod while my mind jumps to the last time I saw him.The images of seeing my twenty-year-old horse lying in his stable with blood everywhere momentarily stuns me.Murray places a hand on my lower back; the warmth of his palm pulls me back to the here and now.
“To what do we owe the visit, Orson?”Murray questions.
Orson pulls out his notebook along with a pen.“A hiker reported some bones in the woods.The medical examiner will do an autopsy, but due to some belongings found, and the missing person report, along with the ME’s estimate of age and the bones belonging to a male...I’m thinking it’s your neighbor, and employer, Burk Clark.Mind telling me when you saw him last?”
My body goes rigid when I think about the last time I saw him alive...the day I killed him.How could they have found his bones?Didn’t Murray and Seamus agree to feed his body to the pigs?Make sure his body was never found?It’s the whole reason I stayed away from Murray’s pigs.Shit.Is the sheriff here to arrest me?Am I going to jail for the rest of my life?
