Heap of Trouble (Trouble, Tennessee 2)

“Something like that.”

Minutes later, Toms and Rons led them to a well behind the stables. Covered by old planks, the dark hole looked like a death trap.

“Heather!” Gabe was the first one on the scene.

Justin and Curt frantically worked to remove the boards, too. The McCall brothers kept their guns on the Vance boys.

As soon as they looked down in that well, Curt’s heart sank. “Heather!”

With the sun shining bright in the sky, they could easily see the center of the well and Heather wasn’t there.

“Answer me, baby!” Gabe yelled, throwing a rope over the side.

“I’m here!” She stepped in the light and reached out to someone else. “We’re okay.”

“We?” Draegan peered over the side. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

* * * *

“So let me get this straight…” An hour later, they were seated around the Vance’s kitchen table. The detective pulled out his notepad. “Your brothers are in a cult.”

“I never said that.” Jims locked his hands and twirled his thumbs. “I just explained why we have an additional ‘s’ after our first names.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. You’re in a cult.” The detective jotted down some notes and looked up at Draegan. “I’m half-tempted to leave those boys in their wells, at least for the night. It wouldn’t hurt them to get a good dose of their own medicine.”

Draegan grinned. “You wouldn’t hear us complain. Think you’ve got enough to hold ‘em when they come up for air?”

“They’ll never see the light of day if I have anything to do with it,” the detective promised.

“I never laid a hand on her,” Jims said, working his gaze from one man to the other. “When she gets done in there, you ask her. Ask Heather and see what she says.”

“We will,” the detective drawled. “In the meantime, let’s start at the beginning again. Now tell me about this sacrifice.”

Gabe had listened to enough interrogations. He wanted to see Heather. He needed to make sure she was okay. He turned to her big brother. “Where’s your sister?”

“She wanted to take a shower before she talked to the detectives,” Bradley said.

“She wanted to primp,” Allister said, smirking.

Gabe turned away from the others, attempting to hide his grin. She had been so cute when they’d first rescued her. She’d thrown her arms around her brother’s neck and hugged him first, but she’d locked eyes with Gabe. Her lips quivered, but she’d managed to whisper, “I knew you’d save me.”

He shook his head. What a connection. They hadn’t talked to one another in over two months and yet she had trusted him to save her?

She’d dished out a series of hugs then, one for each man standing there. Still, she’d embraced Gabe a little longer than the others. Curt and Justin seemingly noticed.

They could eat their hearts out. He released a satisfying breath and turned then to scan the small gathering there in the Vance family kitchen.

All the talk about the occult and sacrifices and the cursed and damned had given Gabe a headache. He walked outside and took a seat next to Justin.

“All things considered, I think this went well,” Justin said.

“You think so?” Gabe asked.

“Don’t you?”

“I guess time will tell,” Gabe said, concerned about Heather. What kind of life had she led over the past two months? What had these people taught her? Why had she been there? Why had sh

e stayed? Had she always been their prisoner?