Dead Right (Stillwater Trilogy #3)(89)
Author: Brenda Novak

Ray imagined Madeline’s br**sts naked to his view as she writhed on the bed, struggling to breathe. Their first experience would be beautiful. Perfect. He’d do whatever he wanted to her while she whimpered beneath him.

But…that would have to wait. It was getting dark, and he had no groceries or candles for light. He hadn’t gotten that far before he’d run across her. He’d already collected what he needed from home and was driving to her cottage to stake out the place, to decide how and when he’d grab her—and to break a basement window if he found her house empty so he could get in. He’d planned to return after dark, when he was completely ready. To take her so quietly that Hunter Solozano, if he was there, wouldn’t even know she was gone.

But then she’d pulled out of her street and driven right past him. And she’d been alone.

So he followed her.

When she stopped at the farm and he realized everyone was gone, it was simply too good an opportunity to pass up. Which meant he’d had to alter his plans and come straight to the cabin. He couldn’t stop along the way once he had her in the back of his truck. It was too risky. Someone might’ve seen the tarp move or heard her groan.

He’d done the right thing, he told himself. He had the rope and tarp and the collar. And he could go shopping now, before the stores in this remote area closed. He didn’t want to leave her, but if he didn’t, they’d both go hungry until morning—and his stomach was already complaining.

Might as well get comfortable before starting his binge, he decided. He wanted to buy a Polaroid camera, anyway, and some Presto logs and lighter fluid—enough for several days. Then he could give Madeline his full attention. And he could record their best moments on film for his new Internet business.

The chair squeaked on the wooden floor as he got up and went to his bag. There, he found the bottle of sleeping pills he’d taken from his medicine cabinet. They’d insure she’d be here when he got back. But how many should he give her? He only wanted to knock her out for a few hours, not incapacitate her for the rest of the night. That would be a real tragedy. Because he had big plans—plans for which he wanted her very much aware.

Clay knew the area better than Hunter did, so Hunter didn’t argue when he said he’d drive. They’d called the Sevier County Sheriff’s Department, who’d agreed to send a deputy to the Misty Mountain Cabins. But they’d been told the cabins were rarely used this late in winter, that they were very spread out and that it’d take a while to visit them all.

So Hunter couldn’t relax. He was afraid the deputy wouldn’t arrive in time, afraid of what the deputy might find. What were they really dealing with?

Obviously, Barker had been a pedophile. He was in some of the pictures Clay had given him. But how did Ray figure into that? Hunter might’ve assumed Ray had killed Barker for molesting Katie and Rose Lee, but Barker had been around for seven years after Rose Lee’s death, which didn’t suggest the instantaneous reaction of a father who’d just learned that his preacher was molesting his daughter. And the  p**n ography on Ray’s computer clearly indicated that Ray was a sexual sadist himself.

The more he tried to piece the puzzle together, the more questions went through Hunter’s head. What had Ray done? And what was he capable of doing?

“Stop here,” Hunter said when he spotted the drugstore.

Clay looked up in surprise. “What?”

“I need to buy something.”

“We don’t have time. The cabins are seven hours away.”

They had no hope of saving Madeline. Ray had too much of a lead. Her fate depended on the deputy. But Hunter didn’t want to face that truth, let alone state it. “The deputy we called should be there any minute. And this’ll only take a second.”

Scowling, Clay hesitated. But then he pulled into the parking lot. “Make it quick,” he said, waiting in the truck while Hunter ran inside.

Ray strolled through the aisles of the mom and pop grocer with his duffle bag on his shoulder, studying the shelves, trying to calculate what he might be able to steal and what he’d have to buy. He had Bubba’s money, but he knew it’d be smart to make it last.

“Can I help you find something?”

A plump woman with curly red hair and a piggy nose smiled at him from where she sat on a stool behind the register. A small television squawked on the counter in front of her, but he could hear the loud jingle of a commercial, which was probably why she’d turned her attention to him.

He considered lowering his voice and telling her what he really wanted. But he figured she wouldn’t react well if he asked for sex toys. And he couldn’t raise any suspicions.

“No, uh, these cucumbers will do,” he said and returned her smile as he selected the biggest one on the produce table and put it in his basket.

“You just passing through?” she asked conversationally.

“No, I’m planning to stay for a few days.” He didn’t want to say any more than he had to, but she’d be able to tell by his purchases that this was more than a pit stop.

“Where ya comin’ from?”

“Nashville,” he lied.

“That’s a fun place.”

He pretended not to hear her as he moved to the small dairy section, where he saw a tube of frozen cookie dough that was even thicker than the cucumber, and decided he might be able to make good use of it, too.

“That sweet stuff’s addicting,” she said.

He grinned. She had no idea.

The program she’d been watching came back on the TV. “Let me know if you need anything.”

He nodded, and she became absorbed in her show again.

He continued through the aisles as someone else entered the store, someone the woman knew, and they began to talk about a new bar going in next door. The woman didn’t want the bar anywhere close to her store and became so engrossed in telling her friend exactly why that she seemed to forget about him, which allowed him to slip several items into his pockets.

“I don’t want to arrive to broken beer bottles in my parking lot every morning,” she was saying as he stepped up to the register.

“I hear ya.” Her friend shook her head in sympathy and moved politely out of his way.

The woman told Ray his total. He paid and started to walk out, but then he saw something that caught his interest. There were several pairs of gold stud earrings hanging on a small rack in the corner.

“How much are these?” he asked, holding a pair out to her.