Page 112 of Savage Ends

Pat opened the tent, and it was not a large size, but enough to fit some personal belongings.There was a sleeping bag, a small blow-up bed, and some snack-like foods.Other than showing someone had been living here, there was nothing else to suggest this was Ranford.

Until he moved the bed, and there on the floor was all he needed.A single photograph showing Ranford and his brother.Pat picked it up and pulled out his cell phone.

Bull answered on the third ring.

“It’s Ranford.Grant was right all along.He was not to be trusted.”Pat felt angry for even allowing himself to trust that fucker.He moved away from the tent.

“Pat ...they’ve gone missing,” Bull said.

“What?”

“Ava and her family, they’re gone.”

Pat stopped.“How the fuck did you lose them?”

“I wasn’t there.Lidia woke up, and I went to the hospital.She confirmed it was Ranford.He told her he was sorry, and the next thing she knows, she is waking up at the hospital.”

“Why the fuck would Ava leave?”he asked.“What about Bernice?”

“The dog stayed.”

“Fuck!”

Pat spun in a circle as he tried to think.“Something made her leave.”He scrambled his brain.“The fabric store.It’s the only thing that would make her leave.”

He didn’t know for certain, but his gut was telling him if Hazel and Violet left as well, there was only one place they would go—the fabric store, the last legacy of their father.

****

Everything was happeningso fast.

Ava frowned as pain seemed to explode behind her eyes, and she struggled to focus on anything.

Lauren was dead.

She had gone to Pat, not the police.She wanted Pat to kill the man responsible.

“Ah, so I see you’re awake.”

Ava tried not to react.She was inside her mother’s fabric store.How did she get here?She rolled onto her front and took a deep breath.That’s right, she got a phone call, or the clubhouse had gotten a phone call, and Ava, realizing it wasn’t getting answered, took the call.

The fabric store had been threatened.If she didn’t come and meet the person who had killed Lauren, he was going to burn her mother’s fabric store to the ground.Ava wasn’t entirely sure if she had come to see who had murdered Lauren, or to save her mother’s store.

Violet and her mom had seen her panic, and they joined her.

She couldn’t recall what happened after that.Only, she walked into the store and everything had gone black.

Lifting up, she saw her mother and sister, both tied to chairs, and they were soaking wet.Ava recognized the smell as gasoline.Whoever had done this had covered her family in gasoline, and they were in a fabric store.

Finally, the man in question stepped into her line of sight.The first thing she noticed was the cigarette dangling from his lips.“Hello, sunshine,” he said.“You know, the last time I saw you, I was pretty sure you had blonde hair.”

He reached out to tug on one of her raven curls.The dye was turning out to be a little more permanent.

“You killed the wrong person,” Ava said.

“Ah, yeah, you see, my bad.In my defense, she did respond to your name.”He tutted.

“Who are you?”Ava asked.