Total pages in book: 70
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71289 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 285(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
In fact, I thought I had covered it up.
But I wasn’t worried Ridley would tell anybody anything.
Aside from the other Uncertain Saints, I highly doubted he would ever mention this again.
“You got your head on straight?” He waited. “You’re not going to freak out on my sister?”
I opened my mouth, then shut it, shaking my head.
“I think I do,” I finally settled for. “Y’all are helping.”
Ridley’s eyes sharpened.
“What?”
His face was clouded in confusion.
“Y’all asked me why I wanted to be a part of the Saints a couple of months ago when I started prospecting,” I cleared my throat. “What you just said—my best friend—he was the reason. On top of everything else. I just needed…something.”
“That’s not what you said to Peek,” he said carefully.
Peek was the club president.
“It also wasn’t a lie. Just not the total truth,” I told him just as carefully.
“So you do have PTSD.”
I nodded.
“And you’ve attempted suicide,” he continued.
I looked up at him sharply.
“How?” I asked.
“Got a good man named Silas. He’s a fucking genius at finding information,” he answered. “That’s how I found out about your best friend. And your hospital stays after you killed him. You still think about doing that?”
“Not so much anymore,” I answered slowly, trying very hard not to be sucked in by the memories.
Ridley looked at me for so long that I wondered if this wasn’t going to go a different way.
He surprised me, though, by nodding.
“I know why you did it. I’m not saying I’d ever do it the same way, but I know why. And I respect that. But you need to tell Peek exactly why you’re here, or I will,” he informed me.
I nodded, swallowing thickly.
I’d been waiting for this.
I’d always planned to tell them, but to just spout your every fault, failure and insecurity, was a fucking nightmare in and of itself.
It wasn’t easy to tell someone something that they could later hold against you.
I’d intended to tell them everything, but it’d just been hard.
Too hard.
***
I drove to work on autopilot.
Today, I was working a new spot on the Caddo River, and I was curious as hell to see if my suspicions would hold water.
Duck season had ended the past weekend, and I’d assumed, yesterday, that everyone would realize that.
Seeing as this was my second duck season as a game warden, my first alone, I’d honestly never thought that anyone wouldn’t know that.
I mean, there was a fucking rule guide.
So color me surprised when I arrived to run the river and found two men out duck hunting.
I’d given them a warning.
They were eighty something years old and had a stamp for the current year.
They also hadn’t done any killing that morning, so I was lenient.
It was up to my discretion.
However, after I’d let them go, I’d seen them go up into a crop of trees and head to their house that was just off the main part of the lake.
Then, almost as an afterthought, I’d decided to do a little checking around about them.
What I’d found hadn’t been good, either.
And after calling the old warden that used to run this particular stretch, I’d become more than slightly pissed.
In fact, I would classify it as being a lot pissed.
Those motherfuckers had played me.
McGraw had had quite a bit of shit to say about the pair, and the more I heard, the more solid my plan was.
I’d go to the exact spot I’d seen them at that morning, and if I didn’t find them there, I’d keep looking for the little fuckers until I did.
After arriving at the station, I hooked up the boat to my truck, and then checked to make sure everything I needed was in the boat.
After a quick stop inside to check my company email and voice messages, I was off.
I arrived at the spot I’d found the two men yesterday, and was awarded with the sight of the two men.
This time, I caught them red-handed.
And I knew they knew that they were in trouble.
“Hello, gentlemen.”
Twenty minutes later, I had the two old men handcuffed on the seat of my boat. Their boat was tethered to the back of mine, and I was heading up river to the boat ramp.
The four birds that the men had killed were laying in evidence bags at my feet, and I was hot.
Not only had the men shot birds out of season, they’d also shot protected birds.
My eyes caught on Ridley who was waiting for me on the dock, his eyes blank.
I pulled up to the pier, hooked my boat to the dock, and headed to the two men.
“Get up,” I ordered them.
The two of them got up and walked to the side of the boat.
Ridley and another young deputy I’d seen that morning, reached out and helped them out.
“Take them up to the cruiser,” Ridley ordered the other deputy.