Lonely Secrets: Yellowstone Ranch Series

17

My vision was blurry. And I was cold.

There was yelling.

I blinked a lot. And tried moving. I could move.

I felt dirt on my hands. I pushed myself up off the ground and looked around.

Then gunfire rang out. I flinched and hit the ground quickly.

Was it me?

I stayed there for a moment. Only my head hurt.

The window.

I looked up and toward the sound.

The Yellowstone truck laid upside down nearly a hundred feet from me. A white truck was on the other side of it.

I looked around me frantically. Hoping by some miracle the pistol landed close to me.

Black metal caught my eye. There was more yelling.

I picked up the pistol not even a foot from me, started towards the trucks, running crouched, as I was taught.

A younger man laid on the ground dead. But it wasn't Ryan or Rip. All I could assume was he's a friend of Jakes. Or was.

The closer I got the worse the scene got. Another man with a scruffy, uneven beard and baggy clothes held a gun to Rips head from behind him. The man looked terrified.

Ryan stood in front of Rip, his hands up.

Hannah was still in the truck, unconscious.

I flinched to run to her but I didn't.

The man saw me.

"Put it down!" He screamed at me about the gun.

But I kept walking closer. I had to help them. And he didn't scare me.

"He wants to leave." Ryan said towards me, his gun laying on the ground.

"Why the fuck did he run us off the road then?" I said more towards the man than to Ryan.

"He just wants Rip." Ryan slowly walked to the truck,"I'm gonna get Hannah."

I looked at Rip. He was calm, his hands out too. His right hand was scraped and dripping blood. The other hand also busted up but not nearly as bad. He was bleeding from temple and his lip was split open. He nodded to me. "It's okay." His voice was husky and strained.

I bit my tongue to the point a metallic taste flooded my mouth. It wasn't okay. Nothing was okay. "Put it down!" The man yelled again. I didn't know what to do. If Rip moved a little I could probably shoot the guy. But probably wasn't an option right now.

Rip spoke up. "I'll get in the truck, man. But she's not putting that gun down. You hear me?" Rip said the last part to me.

I felt weak. I nodded.

"She's putting it down. Or-Or I'll shoot you." The crazed man push the gun towards Rip.

I hesitated to drop it. I wanted to so bad. I didn't want to risk it even if he was bluffing.

"No! Don't put that fucking gun down." Rip pointed at me. I nodded again. "We can go. I'll shield you the entire time. She can step back. We'll go." Rip spoke to the man and started to move.

I could have good shot of the man. I was lined up perfectly. There was no probably.

But I hesitated again. Rip looked at me with wide eyes. He knew what I was thinking. And I knew what he was thinking.

No.

But I had to.

The man must've known too. I hesitated too hard. He took his gun from behind Rips head and started to aim it towards me.

I squeezed the trigger tightly, trusting myself.

And felt the jerk of pistol. And the sound of two guns.

I watched him fall and waited for my body to do the same. But I didn't.

I felt okay.

Rip hurried to me. He took the gun from my hands and handed it to Ryan quickly who had made his way to us as well. I stared at the body, red fluids draining from his chest. His arm twitched but I knew it was post mortem. It had to be. It was the perfect shot.

"I'm okay." I whispered. To myself specifically but also to Rip. "We're okay." I swallowed hard and focused on the man, making sure he didn't move more.

"It's over. You did good." He held the sides of my head, forcing me to look at him. I pulled my eyes from the dead man I just shot and looked at Rip.

"Okay." I whispered again. Still in shock. He let go of my face slowly, watching me. Probably expecting me to crumble at any given moment.

It was not even close to being over though.

"We gotta get to the ranch." I wiped my face and walked to the white truck. "How's Hannah?" I asked Ryan.

"She's awake and a little shaken up but I think she's okay." Ryan helped her up out of the truck.

She had a small cut above her eyebrow. She gave me a little smile. "I've been worse."

In the mist of everything, I smiled back at her. Im sure it was a crooked, hysterical smile. I chuckled actually. I think I was delusional. But I can't remember.

All I remember is loading up the two bodies in the white truck; the one that tried killing us, and taking off to the ranch. I barely remember making it to the ranch.

When we got there, everyone was busted up and beaten. The bunk house was trashed, the barn was destroyed. I couldn't even tell you how bad because it still wasn't cleaned from when we drug Kayce in there hours earlier. Some of the horses had been let loose but luckily, didn't leave any further than a few pastures away. We found them a couple days later. The main house was hardly touched, they hadn't made it that far. They were ran off before they could.

But they knew where Kayce stayed. They didn't care about the main house. They cared about his cabin.

I do remember the cabin. But I wish I didn't.

There was a blood trail on the old wooden stairs. And through the door way.

I started in the cabin.

"Ada-" Rip followed close behind me.

"Oh god." Tears flooded my face and ran down my neck.

Everything was thrown into the floor and broken. The radio he turned on for us that night, laid smashed on the rug. Glass was shattered from the windows being knocked on. The front door wasn't even attached to the frame anymore. The screen door laid half way across the room. Furniture was flipped and ruined. I didn't even make it to his bedroom.

Because Elliot Whittaker laid murdered in the living room floor; a box of roofing nails at his side.