“Don’t hurt him. He doesn’t know anything.” Aidan was pretty sure it wouldn’t work, but he was willing to try anything at this point. He couldn’t stand the thought of Dwight shooting Lucas in front of him. Aidan prayed Lexi was somewhere safe. How long had he been out? Obviously long enough to get dragged to the barn and tied down with his own damn rope. “Please don’t shoot him. I’ll do whatever you want.”
Dwight stared down at the body at his feet. “When you first told me about those two, I thought you were insane. Now I’m just disgusted. I might be a killer, but at least I’m not a damn queer.”
Aidan’s head was pounding, but at least that gag was gone. He didn’t scream, because that was a surefire way to get that nasty rag shoved down his throat again. Besides, Bo was too far away to hear him. Only Lexi had a possibility of hearing him, and he couldn’t risk her running in here and getting herself killed.
“I’ve been listening to you talk for over a year, and it always made me sick,” Dwight continued. He reached down and grabbed Lucas’s wrists and pulled him, dragging him across the wood floor of the barn. “Do you have any idea what it took to sit there and listen to you whine about your sex life? But it gives me a couple of outs. You see, you might think that you’re being brave, but what you did last night was just stupid. Everyone saw you kiss Lucas. The police here aren’t really going to care that you got yourself killed. They’ll just say that’s what happens to gays.”
Dwight might have a point about the sheriff. He hadn’t been terribly friendly last night, but he had done his job. It might have been different if Karen hadn’t been gift wrapped and served up on a silver platter. That was obviously Dwight’s doing, but he let that go for now. Dwight needed to understand this wouldn’t be as easy as he thought. “Bo won’t let it go. And I assure you Jack Barnes won’t take kindly to his brother being murdered.”
For the first time, Dwight looked like he was sweating a bit. He dropped Lucas and stepped away. “I can’t worry about that now. I can’t let you live. I should have smothered your ass while I had the chance, but you didn’t remember. The doctors said they thought you would never remember, so I let it go. I didn’t want to kill Tanner and Link.”
A sudden flash of Link going down spun across Aidan’s brain. He’d been so fucking young. Tanner had been an accident. Aidan could almost forgive what happened to him. A firefight was scary and chaotic, but Link died in the quiet aftermath. Link had been murdered in cold blood. “But you did it anyway.”
“I had to. I wouldn’t survive in prison. Do you have any idea what I’ve done to survive? I had to stab myself to make it look like I’d been in a fight. That takes guts.”
Dwight was one delusional son of a bitch. “I bet Tanner’s wife and kid and Link’s parents would disagree with you.”
Dwight picked up the rifle he’d put down when he moved Lucas. He held it casually against his body. “I had to take care of myself. No one else would do it. And now I have to take care of you.”
“There’s no war here to slow down an investigation. Someone will figure out that you did this.”
He shrugged. “I don’t see why. I’ve been careful. I’ve never once said a bad word about you. I’m the loyal friend who sat by your bedside and followed you home to make sure you were okay. Now, Bo, he’s talked his mouth off about how pissed he is. That boy can’t handle his liquor. He was a might miffed you got the ranch. And I’ll make sure the sheriff knows how much you embarrassed him last night at the fair. No one in these parts wants a queer in their family.”
Dwight was severely underestimating this town in Aidan’s opinion. There would be some people who wouldn’t accept him, but not all. Even the ones who wouldn’t condone his lifestyle wouldn’t want him dead. Dwight was in for a mighty big wake-up call if he managed this.
“How exactly are you going to frame my brother? That’s not his gun. Everyone knows he loves his Remington Model 7. He would never use yours.” Sometimes Aidan thought Bo loved his rifle and the hunting that went with it far more than he would ever love any woman. He was pretty sure Bo slept with that rifle from time to time.
“I have no intention of shooting you. I’m—well, Bo—is going to lock you in the barn and set it on fire. By the time the ranch hands see the smoke and make it back from the east pasture, it will be too late. I’ve already hidden the gas can in Bo’s car. Dumbass doesn’t even lock his car.”
God, Aidan prayed Lexi was still asleep. He couldn’t bear the thought of Dwight tossing her inside with him and Lucas. Aidan pulled uselessly against the ropes he’d lovingly fastened to this table for his subs. This barn was supposed to be a playroom, a place where they could be themselves and love each other however they wanted. Now it would be his tomb. The ropes bit into his flesh, tearing at his skin. He felt blood start to leak from his wrists. Was that a little bit of give?
“Hurting yourself isn’t going to help,” Dwight said, standing over him. He had the rag in his hand. He shoved it into Aidan’s mouth. Aidan fought, but he gagged as the rag nearly found the back of his throat. He had to concentrate to breathe. “Can’t have you screaming, can we? I wonder if they’ll think you and that boy down there were playing your kinky games and Bo couldn’t take finding you like that. Or, hey, maybe they’ll blame Lexi. No real woman wants to lose her man to another man.”
Dwight pulled out a match when he got to the door of the barn. “Don’t worry too much. I poured the gas around the inside perimeter. The only window is up in the loft, and I made sure it’s closed. The smoke will kill you before the flames get to you. I’m not a monster after all.”
The monster Aidan had been friends with for years lit a match and dropped it to the ground. Fire lit and raced like the little Matchbox cars he and Bo used to play with. It raced up the track that led all the way around the barn. Within seconds, he and Lucas were surrounded by flames. Dwight slipped out of the door, and it snapped into place. Aidan had no doubt Dwight had locked it behind him.
Aidan couldn’t see Lucas. He had to pray that he wasn’t close to the fire. Aidan struggled with the ropes. He wouldn’t give up. He was too close to everything he wanted. Lucas’s life was on the line. He pulled, trying to get the screws to give. He would try everything he could because he was not going to let that son of a bitch kill his loves.
Aidan pulled and pulled as the smoke began to fill the barn.
Chapter Nineteen
Lexi thought about getting up and going after Lucas. It might be fun to watch the way the Master handled getting attacked by his sub. Lucas might get a spanking. That would definitely be a sight to see. She sighed and stretched. He might be getting a spanking even as she lay here.
When had she started thinking of Aidan as her Master? Probably a lot longer back than she liked to admit. Even back when they were living a very vanilla lifestyle, she’d dreamed about being able to call Aidan Master. It had been Lucas who introduced her to BDSM, but Aidan had always been everything she wanted in a Dom. His very alpha nature was what attracted her to him in the first place. She and Lucas might be halves of a whole, but they needed Aidan to complete them.
Lexi let her mind drift. She felt truly relaxed for the first time in forever. She was getting married. No long engagement this time. They were going to elope. Vegas, here we come. She knew her mom might be upset, but Lexi wasn’t taking any chances this time. She was tying that man up.
Or would it be Lucas? How exactly did they figure that out? Her mom had married Jack, and Dani had legally married Julian, but Lucas wasn’t exactly a sub in the way Sam and Finn were. Why the hell am I thinking about this when my men are out there doing hot, dirty things to each other?