Never Tell Them, N.L. Hinkens [unputdownable books txt] 📗

surged through him. “Buck!” he blurted out. ”You couldn’t have timed that better! I need your help. My friend who drove me here has gone missing. Her car battery’s dead. I think she might have set out to look for me.”

Buck chuckled. “That she did. I found her wandering on the mountain, half-drowned and disoriented. I took her to my place and told her to sit tight in front of the fire while I tracked you down. Her heels were all blistered up from those stupid canvas shoes she was wearing.”

Ray blew out a heavy breath. “That’s a relief to hear she’s safe. Now I just need to figure out how I’m going to jumpstart her car. I guess I’ll keep hiking down to the main road and hitch a ride into town. It could be a few hours before I’m back.”

“No need,” Buck said. ”I have jumper cables and a generator you can borrow.”

“Really? Wow, that would be a huge help.” Ray cleared his throat. “Listen, Buck, obviously I can’t say anything in front of Sonia, but I didn’t thank you properly earlier for what you did. To be honest, I’m totally torn up about it. With the concussion and everything, I’d forgotten a lot of what happened. But I realize I owe you a huge debt of gratitude.”

Buck gripped Ray by the shoulder. ”We did what we had to do for the kid’s sake. Enough said.”

“Thanks, man,” Ray replied. “By the way, your cheek’s bleeding.”

Buck brushed a hairy hand nonchalantly over it. “Yeah, I took a shortcut through some heavy brush. Wasn’t paying attention. I was in too much of a hurry to find you. Speaking of which, we should make tracks so we can get you guys back on the road before dark.”

They hiked at a steady pace, stopping once or twice for Ray to catch his breath. He was hurting all over but determined not to complain. The sooner he got the car started, and got back to the main road, the sooner he could call 911. He hadn’t told Buck what he was planning to do. Buck was convinced Tom had long since killed Katie and buried her, and he’d made it clear he didn’t want police crawling all over the mountain. But Katie’s grandparents deserved answers—the right to give their granddaughter a proper burial, if nothing else.

“Nice place you have here,” Ray said politely when Buck’s log home came into view. It was more spacious than Tom’s, but utilitarian-looking—lacking the craftsmanship that Tom had painstakingly worked into every detail of his cabin.

“Well, you know what they say, it’s not much, but it’s home,” Buck chuckled, ushering him inside.

”Where’s Sonia?” Ray asked, glancing around.

”She’s sleeping in the other room. I told her to make herself at home while I was gone. She was exhausted and her heels were bleeding pretty badly.” He led the way across the cabin to the adjoining room, opened the door, and stepped aside for Ray to enter.

Shock tightened around Ray’s chest like cords of rope at the scene that awaited him. Sonia was sitting on the floor in the far corner of the room, gagged and zip tied, her feet fastened to an iron ring in the floor next to a wooden trapdoor. He spun around, only to find himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

”Walk slowly over there and sit down next to her,” Buck growled. “Sonia will tie your hands for you. If you don’t cooperate, I’ll shoot her.”

Ray opened his mouth to protest, but the look in Buck’s eyes stopped him in his tracks. He inched his hands into the air. ”All right. Take it easy. Do you want to tell me what’s going on here?”

Buck’s lips curled into a malevolent grin as he waved the gun impatiently in front of him. “We’ll get to the fun part.”

Ray grimaced, assessing his limited options. Faced with a deadly weapon, he had little choice but to comply with Buck’s orders and try to reason with him afterward. He walked over to Sonia and sat down next to her on the dirt floor, eying the zip tie in her trembling fingers. “It’s okay, do what he says,” he whispered, holding out his hands to her. Hampered by the zip tie around her own wrists, it took her several attempts before she succeeded.

When she was done, Buck tightened their wrist restraints, and then fastened Ray’s feet to the ring in the floor. Satisfied that their bonds were secure, he removed Sonia’s gag, then sat down on a wooden stool and eyed them both with an air of satisfaction.

“I don’t understand, Buck,” Ray said. “Is this about money? Are you going to try and blackmail me now for covering up what I did?”

“His name’s not Buck,” Sonia said, her eyes filling with tears. ”It’s Finn—he’s Jessica’s father … and Henry’s.”

31

Ray blinked uncomprehendingly at Sonia, wrestling with which shocking revelation to respond to first. “What are you talking about? Henry’s Tom’s son—he’s my nephew.”

“No.” Sonia shook her head. ”Finn lied to you about that. He’s Henry’s real father.”

”But … you told me Finn was stationed overseas.”

Sonia’s face crumpled. “I thought he was. He lied. He’s been lying about everything. He’s not even with the army anymore.”

Ray turned his head slowly in Finn’s direction, his stomach twisting as he grappled with the enormity of what was becoming clearer by the minute. “Tom didn’t abduct Katie Lambert—it was you! You planted that driver’s license on my brother’s body, didn’t you? Sent me outside to get that shovel so you could set me up. You saw the perfect opportunity to cover up your crime along with mine.”

Finn sneered at him. “Yeah, about that, Einstein. Tom wasn’t dead after your puny right hook, just dazed. It took a few good whacks with the butt of my rifle to finish him off. He was a tough old bird.”

A chill passed over the back of Ray’s neck. Of course! All that blood. It had never made sense