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Brett shakes his head and lets out a laugh that makes my stomach drop. “Girly, I have no idea what you’re talking about, but I’m honored that you thought I would kill some chickens. I like to eat my chickens; I’m a breast man. I love me some breasts.” He turns in the booth, fully facing me and staring at my chest. I let out a gasp, and a shiver runs down my spine. “Now, while I didn’t do it, I can tell you that yes, it was Mitch, not personally though. He has people to do his dirty work. He’s behind whatever trouble you seem to be having.”
If it’s not him … “T-Then who? If Mitch isn’t here, then who is behind all the ranch trouble?”
Brett shrugs. “No idea. Not part of my gig, and I couldn’t give less of a fucking shit fuck about it. But if you don’t want it to get worse, say, deaths of the ‘human’ kind, you’d be wise to go back to New York. Mitch isn’t playing around anymore. You know better than anyone the types of connections he has.”.
I shake my head, falling back. “Get out. Get the fuck out! Now!” My voice booms through the diner, and all goes silent. You could hear the drop of a pen if you tried hard enough.
He reaches in his pocket, and I jump back a little. He smiles and pulls out a twenty-dollar bill before dropping it on the table.
“For all your trouble, ma’am.” Brett nods and walks right out of the diner.
“Zoey? Zoey? What’s wrong?” Joan comes running over to me, but I just watch him leave the diner and head down the sidewalk out front. “Somebody call the sheriff!”
My entire body is trembling. My heart is racing, and I can feel beads of sweat rolling down my neck. I clasp my chest, trying to right my breathing. Joan wraps an arm around me and brings me into the back room.
“Sit, Zoey. The sheriff’s on his way, okay?” She leads me to a chair and rubs my back. A moment later, her phone rings.
Joan pulls it out and glances at the screen. “Oh, let me take this call. I’ll be right back, honey.” She steps away, and I sit in the back room alone.
My stomach turns with dread. Mitch has known where I was all along. How? How did he find out? I need to get out of here. I have to run. I have to get out of this goddamned town. People will fucking die because of me. The room starts to spin, and I place my head in my hands. My head hurts, and the pounding’s relentless against my skull.
Fuck, I should’ve taken Cyrus’s number with me. How the fuck am I going to be able to slip away?
As I sit and think of a way out of the mess, Ryker and Deputy Johnson come into the back room. But when they walk in, something’s off. The air feels thick and stuffy. And Ryker has a hollow look in his eyes, the blue color appearing dulled.
“What happened?” Ryker’s tone is not one I’ve heard before. It’s short, devoid of emotion. He’s looking at me, but it feels like he’s looking right through me.
“B-Brett came in. H-he told me that Mitch knows where I am.” I take a breath and close my eyes. The room starts to spin again, and I try to breath slowly and calm myself down. I grip the arms of the chair and look back up at Ryker.
“Johnson, go check and see if you can see anything outside. See if anyone is still hanging around waiting for her to leave or something.” His tone changes as he talks to Johnson.
“Got it.” Johnson gives me a sympathetic smile, then turns and leaves the back room.
Ryker turns back to me, but his eyes aren’t giving away anything. “What did he say?”
I relay everything that Brett told me to Ryker. He nods his head, but he doesn’t say anything. It’s at that moment that Joan walks back into the room with a look of hurt and concern on her face. She bites her lip and is wringing her hands together.
“Joan, are you okay?” My voice cracks, my hands shake. I’m praying Brett hasn’t done something to her.
“No, um, didn’t you take the deposit to the bank last night?” Joan hugs her phone close to her chest.
“Yeah, I took it around six and dropped it in the overnight slot.” My face twists with confusion. Why is she asking me this? What the fuck is going on?
Joan bites her lip. “Well, the bank just called. They were concerned because we drop it off every night and they didn’t get one last night.”
My mouth drops open, and my hands start shaking. “No. That’s impossible. I dropped it off. I swear, I dropped it off like always.” My head goes back and forth between Joan and Ryker. He’s standing there, not moving a muscle. His eyes merely pierce through me as he clenches his jaw, the muscles rippling with rage he’s obviously tried so hard to hide.
“Honey, I’m telling you that the bank didn’t get it. Rebecca wouldn’t lie to me. Can you think of anything that might have happened to it?” Joan moves to sit in the chair next to me.
“Joan, I took the deposit, walked it over to the bank, and put it in the slot. Just as I’ve always done before.” My eyes grow misty, and I look towards Ryker. “This is Mitch. He’s doing this.”
“Who’s Mitch?” Joan turns and looks up at Ryker. She squints at him, confused.
He waves her off. “No one. Don’t worry.”
“Well, Zoey, for now, I’m gonna need to remove you from the schedule until we can figure out what happened to the money.” Joan sighs. She stands up and starts to walk out but turns to me at the last second. “I’m sorry, honey. Really, I am. As soon as we can figure out what happened, you can come back, okay?” With that, she leaves me with Ryker.
“Let’s go,” Ryker barks, and I jump.