The Reaper's Runaway Princess novel · Chapter 13 of 24

Chapter 13: What Rodney Did

"Say it all," Mara said. "Out loud, in front of them. From the truck."

Rodney sat down hard on the nearest waiting room chair.

Rain ran down the glass behind him.

Wyatt kept the gun low.

Nash stood at the end of the room with his fists shut, and Boone stood next to him with one huge hand on his chest.

"I stopped at a gas station," Rodney said.

Nobody moved.

"Off the county road, twenty minutes from the clubhouse. Two of his men were at the pumps. I knew them. I knew they'd be there before I turned in."

"You told me you drove toward the bridge," Mara said.

"I lied." He pressed his palms into his eyes. "I owed him, Mara. When I was nineteen, I lost a shipment, and he could have buried me behind the clubhouse. He let me live. He said one day he'd want something back."

"He wanted me."

"He wanted you gone from the bridge and back in his house." His voice broke. "A man held your arm. Another one had the needle. I stood there and held your phone."

Mara's thumb throbbed where the glass had cut it.

She had not known it was possible to hear a thing like that and keep standing.

"Then you texted the Garrisons from my phone," she said.

"They had to stop looking. If they kept looking, he'd have killed all four of them." Rodney lifted his face. "I thought I was buying their lives."

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