Total pages in book: 166
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 160042 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 800(@200wpm)___ 640(@250wpm)___ 533(@300wpm)
“Secret.”
“Yes. You guys are hiding something,” she accuses. “There’s something fishy going on at your ranch and we came here to get proof of that.”
I hear a sigh and the shifting of feet. Then, “Proof of fuckin’ what?”
“Who is this man? Why was he beaten up and tied to a chair in a cabin in the middle of the woods?” Peyton asks instead of answering.
Rad responds with silence. But I see something flicker across Arsen’s face. I can’t say what it is, and honestly, in this moment, I don’t care about any secrets. Maybe it’s selfish, but I can’t hold my silence and let him suffer.
“We came here because…” I say, keeping my eyes on him. “We know about the men. About them going missing, prison inmates. And we know somehow Rawhide is involved in their disappearances. So we came here because we wanted to find out what exactly was going on.”
I hear Rad sigh again, but at the end of it is a growled curse.
“She’s saying we,” Peyton decides to chime in then. “But she really means me. As I said before, she didn’t want to do this, and I mean it. She mostly came to protect me because I have a habit of making questionable choices. But I didn’t think we had a choice but to look out for ourselves and get leverage against you. So if you want to hog-tie me, then go ahead. But don’t blame Reverie. She’s already suffered enough because of me. Because of this asshole here. She’s not even a Turner. She’s not in this.”
Arsen’s jaw clenches then. All this time, he hasn’t looked away and neither have I. And it almost feels like we exist on a different plane. On a different dimension than the other two people in this room. Like we have a tether between us, secret and invisible. A connection no one sees, no one knows about.
And why not? It’s because we’re branded.
So my question—that Peyton already asked—is just for him. “Who is this man?”
And I know his answer is just for me. “An inmate.”
My heart thuds. “An i-inmate.”
“Missing.”
Sweat is pooling in the small of my back, even though I feel cold. “Why was he… tied up and beaten?”
“Because he robbed a liquor store.”
“And then fucked up his girlfriend,” Rad adds, his voice laced with anger.
Peyton gasps.
“W-what?” I breathe out choppily.
“Only got convicted for the robbery, though,” Arsen adds. “Didn’t find out about the other thing until tonight.”
“T-tonight?”
“When I beat him up and tied him to this chair.”
I put a hand on my belly. “Y-you did it?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
He stares at me for a beat before shifting on his feet. “Had a bad feeling about him the moment I saw him at the bonfire yesterday. Didn’t think he’d be a good fit for Rawhide. Mars didn’t agree, so I took matters into my own hands. Brought him out here, beat him like the little shit he is until he talked. And told us the truth about what he really did the night he got arrested.”
My heart is beating so hard that it’s a wonder I can stand all still like this without clutching my chest. “But I… I still don’t understand what he was doing at the ranch. W-why would he be here in the first place when he should be in p-prison?”
Arsen’s jaw starts ticking. And in the periphery, I see Rad looking up at the ceiling, sighing. Peyton is the one to break their silence. “What the hell is happening here? What’s this big secret?”
Still staring at Arsen, I whisper, “Please.”
His features tighten up at my plea. “Because Mars has a habit of pickin’ up strays. Or rather caged dogs like this motherfucker here. The ones who commit crimes and get sentenced. Only instead of doin’ time in prison, they pay their penance here. At Rawhide.”
“Penance,” I murmur, the word jumping out at me the most, for obvious reasons. He’s paying his own penance, isn’t he, in his own way.
His features tighten further, probably because he knows what I’m thinking. “There’s a system. A program. A series of hurdles they have to pass. To prove they’ve changed. To prove their loyalty to the ranch.”
“Wait, what?” Peyton exclaims in disbelief. “This is… It sounds insane. Like a training program?”
Arsen still doesn’t look at her, like no one exists except me, as he corrects her: “A redemption program. Rawhide Redemption. Mars picks men he thinks need a second chance at life, a clean slate so they can start over. Only they start over here. They make it out of the program, they get a new identity and a job at the ranch.”
“But that’s… That’s crazy,” Peyton repeats.
“It is what it is.”
“But you guys are lifting people off the prison system, right? That’s illegal. That requires some serious involvement from, God, I don’t even know from what. Like, every level of the law. Judges, cops, lawyers.”