Page 5 of Zane

“Her husband?I wasn’t aware that she was married,” frowned Luke.“To be honest, Zane, we found her on the compound in the Dakotas with some other women.I know for a fact she has veterinary experience and that’s why we referred her to the Feed Store, the company we’ve been doing business with.”

“The walkie talkie went off and he told her to get her ass back as soon as possible.She had bruises on her legs and arms.I recognize those bruises.When I told her I had an abusive parent, she said it was her husband.” (Zane didn’t ask about her boss. He told her he had had an abusive mother.)

Sniff frowned, still looking at the dust cloud the truck had created.

“Come on.Let’s get this put away and we need to speak with Ham and the others.She might have gone from the frying pan into the fire.”

CHAPTER FOUR

“She wasn’t married when we gave her the referral to the Feed Store,” said Ham.Zane looked down at the receipt for the food and then back at the others.

“This isn’t from the Feed Store,” he frowned.“I didn’t even look at it.It’s from a company called Wild Feed.”

“We don’t do business with them,” frowned Gator.“Hiro?Call Tom down at the Feed Store and find out what the hell is happening.”Hiro nodded, turning back to his cave.

“She looked scared and those bruises were varying ages,” said Zane.“I’ve become somewhat of an expert with them over the years.”

“Hey, Gator?Feed Store answered as Wild Feed.When I asked for Tom, they said he died and the store went to his nephew.”

“We would have heard if Tom died.He’s been around these parts for years.”

“No obituary that I can find,” said AJ.

“I think we go introduce ourselves,” said Ham.

The drive to the Feed Store was only about fifteen minutes but you would have thought they were preparing for war on the western front with as many men as were in the vehicle.

There were a couple of cars in the parking lot and that struck them all as odd.Unless you were picking up feed for a dog or cat, you would generally need a pick-up truck or flatbed.Not a sporty, two-door, coupe.

“Something is wrong,” said Ham.When they reached the door, they heard it.

“You were supposed to get right back here!” screamed a man.The sound of a slap resonated in the room and Zane tried to push forward.Cowboy held him back, shaking his head and pointing down the aisle.

“I-I did come back.It took me a minute to drop the feed,” said a familiar voice.

“You fucking bitch,” said another male. “Knew you’d be trouble.Guess we just have to teach…”

“Teaching someone something?” asked Gator.

At six-feet-six Gator was not a man you would mistake for easy to overcome.To top that with the size of Ham, Cowboy, Matt, and Christopher, the three men in the shop suddenly stilled.

“Hey, friend, we didn’t see you come in,” said the man behind the counter.He was still gripping the woman’s arm and Ham stared at him.

“Looks like you’re hurting your employee.Let her go,” he said calmly.

“She ain’t my employee, bitch is my wife and I can treat her how I like,” he snarled.

“Well,” said Christopher, “you can either let her go all by yourself or I can make you let her go and you won’t like how that ends.”

The man stared at the woman, then back at the group of men.Before he could think twice, he let go of her, shoving her to the floor.He thought she’d stay but instead, Zane was there to pick her up and pull her back.

“Where’s Tom?” asked Ham.

“Ain’t here no more.I’m his nephew.He left the place to me.”The man smirked at him and the other two did as well.

“You three have got to be the worst liars on the planet but if you decide to take up poker, let me know.Now, I know that Tom wasn’t your uncle because Tom had no nieces and nephews.He had one daughter who served in the Gulf War, died in the line of duty.That was it.”

“People surprise folks all the time,” said one of the men quietly.