Cowboys Down (25 page)

“So we need to rough him up some more?” Ring asked.

Hadn’t he been roughed up enough already? Jasper’s heart beat so hard, it hurt. But then all of him hurt.

“If there’s no marks on Calum, it’ll look strange if this one’s beat up too bad,” Pete said.

“This guy’s nowhere near as tough as Calum.”

That was painful, even it was true.

“We can tell the police that Calum had a temper,” Pete said.

“The police?”

Pete gave an exasperated sigh. “They’ll interview everyone. I told you that.”

Ring frowned. “Yeah, I know, but this isn’t what you said would happen. You keep changing things. First we were going to arrange for him to have an accident at the camp then you said he’d kill himself. Now you—”

“Shut the fuck up and listen.”

Keep talking.
The longer they talked, the more chance Jasper had of someone coming.

“It’s better that nothing happened at the camp,” Pete said. “The more distant we are from this, the more innocent we’ll look. Everyone thinks we’re out there with the other guests. I listened to enough drivel from Melissa. ‘Do we have pillows? We’ve changed our minds, we’d like a tent. Where can I plug my in flat iron?’ The woman’s a moron.”

“You told me to chat her up.”

“She doesn’t need brains. She has a rich daddy. You should have done more sweet-talking instead of yapping about your bull riding. Christ, anyone would think you’d done it for years.”

Jasper stayed still and quiet. Maybe they’d forget he was there. Maybe they’d argue and kill each other.

“She was impressed,” Ring said. “I was going to make a move on her tonight until you came up with this plan. Except you keep changing it and now I’m confused. Couldn’t we hide him someplace to give us some time?”

Yes, hide me. Just don’t kill me.
That way there was at least a chance. Jasper wrapped his fingers tighter around the remaining beads.

“Hide him where?” Pete asked.

“Bottom of the grain store?”

Oh fuck.
Jasper began to shake.

“That’s not a bad idea,” Pete said. “He’ll be found next week when the grain’s delivered.” Pete looked down at him. “Or maybe not. The publicity will be bad whatever. British tourist goes missing from the Neilson Ranch. Jasper Randolph found dead. Police launch a murder enquiry. Yeah, Erik will be finished.”

So it wasn’t about him at all, Jasper thought, but disgruntled employees trying to hurt Erik Neilson. The pair of idiots would surely be caught. All this was for nothing.
You morons.

“We need to get rid of his luggage,” Pete said. “We can hide it somewhere on the ranch. No fingerprints though. We need to be careful how we handle it.”

Why did Jasper find that funny? They’d be careful with his luggage but not with him.

“I better carry him up the ladder,” Pete said. “I’m stronger than you. You keep a lookout.”

“You going to kill him first?”

“The fall will probably do that. He’s not going to get out of there. He’ll die one way or another. Drag him to the far door. I’m not carrying him any farther than I need to.”

Ring grabbed hold of Jasper’s shirt and pulled him along the barn floor. Jasper let a couple of beads trickle from his fingers. It was the only thing he could think of to do. He needed Calum to come back to his room, see his bags before they were moved and wonder where he was. Or even better catch these guys taking them. He needed Angie or Calum to see the beads and follow the trail. Fast.

Oh God. Please help me. Calum. Calum.

Ring let Jasper’s head drop and then kicked his shoulder. Jasper gasped behind his gag. He desperately tried to suck in air through his nose. If his nose became blocked, he’d suffocate. Jasper’s face felt wetter and he guessed he must be bleeding more heavily. Or crying. Both.

His helplessness distressed him. He wanted to fight back and there was nothing he could do. Jasper’s mind drifted to his mother, about to lose another son, though depending on her state of mind when the news was broken, she might not even remember she had one. To Calum, who, in time, maybe could have been his. In just these few days, Jasper felt more for him than he’d ever felt for anyone. At least he had that. He’d found someone to love. His friends in London would miss him for a while. His employer and clients would be pissed off at the inconvenience.

Jasper struggled as Pete hoisted him over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift. Ring smashed his fist on Jasper’s head. The world wavered and the next thing Jasper knew, he was falling, slithering down a slope of grain that avalanched with him.

When he stopped sliding, he lay still in the darkness, heart pounding, barely able to breathe, his face pressed into the gravelly grain. He heard the sound of the cover sliding back into place and then feet descending the ladder on the outside of the storage unit. Surrounded by absolute blackness, Jasper’s heart banged against his ribs.
Oh God, is this where I’m going to die?

He was afraid to move in case he slid down into the grain. He’d be trapped and suffocate. But his breathing had become more ragged. If he didn’t get the gag off his mouth, he’d die anyway. Jasper dug into the grain with his heels and whimpered in his throat when almost immediately he touched something solid. The base of the silo. At least he wasn’t going to sink. He rolled onto his knees and arched his back to force his bound wrists under his backside. Everywhere hurt, but his chest was so painful, he saw stars in the blackness. One attempt. That’s all he had the energy for.

Jasper needed to regulate his breathing, but he was too frightened to slow his frantic inhalations through his nose. When his arms slid under his butt, Jasper groaned behind his gag. He dropped to his side then rolled onto his back and curling up tighter, reached between his legs for his mouth. A desperate scrabble by his fingers was followed by success as Jasper forced the strip of cloth—
ah, my fucking tie
—down over his chin. He sucked in air, tried to fill his lungs, but he was so crunched up, it hardly made any difference. He could call out now, but he didn’t want to until he was sure Ring and Pete had gone. Only how could he tell and what was the point? Would anyone be around at this time of night?

He was reluctant to try and maneuver his legs all the way through the loop of his arms. Jasper was flexible but not that flexible, though he might be able to untie his ankles while he was in this position. He tried and couldn’t. When his breathing worsened, he gave in and returned his arms to their former position behind his back. The air in the grain silo was thick and heavy. He could taste it, feel it coating his airways, blocking his lungs, slowly killing him. Jasper turned until his feet rested on the metal wall and began to kick. He’d call out every ten kicks because he needed to save his breath, but at the first kick, a flurry of grain slithered over his head and he jerked up, gasping.

Afraid to try again until he’d worked out what was happening, Jasper scooted around, exploring with his hands and his body. He found the wall of grain he’d slid down that probably saved his life, but had no idea how high it was. Maybe the outlet was at the bottom of that, but not a way out for him. In fact if the outlet was opened and he was caught in the grain, he’d be sucked to his death. If nobody came, if for any reason that wall of grain fell to settle on him, if his asthma took hold, Jasper was dead. He retreated as far as he could from the worst danger, lay on his side and kicked and kicked again at the metal.

Calum lay on his bed, with his heart pounding. Why the fuck had he told Jasper about the rape? He’d kept it buried all these years and then just blurted it out. It had happened a long time ago. Why did it even matter? He’d gotten over it. It was done, finished, not forgotten, but—
Oh shit.
Calum rolled and buried his face in his pillow. What was he so scared of? Jasper wouldn’t hurt him. The guy had opened his heart and Calum had repaid his trust by running.
I’m such an asshole.

What should he tell him? Calum shuddered. The truth? All of it? He rolled over and buried his face in the pillow. The first words from his mouth had to be—I’m sorry. He needed to talk to Jasper but he had to get himself under control first. Judging by his racing heart, that wasn’t going to be anytime soon.

Calum reached Jasper’s room to find he’d already gone. Disappointment sank like a stone in his stomach. Jasper hadn’t bothered to straighten the bed. That sort of surprised him because the guy was such a neat freak. The rug was rumpled too. He’d left in a hurry, probably desperate to get away. Calum flung himself facedown on the bed. His hands clenched on the dark cover and he groaned. Wet. Was that his come or Jasper’s? But when Calum lifted his hand, it was stained red.

What the fuck?
Calum pushed himself up and stared at the cover. There were a couple of dark patches toward the top and he rubbed them. His fingers came away smeared with blood. Maybe Jasper had cut himself shaving. Not that he’d needed a shave. Christ, he could have cut himself on his suitcase, on anything. Then the thought struck him that Jasper might still just be getting into the cab, and Calum ran. He dashed out of the main entrance and sagged. No sign of a cab, though in the distance he thought he saw the shadow of a vehicle traveling without lights.

Too late.

Calum kicked at the dirt. He’d fucked it up. Jasper might have been leaving in a few days, but they could have spent them together. They could have emailed, shared vacations, still
had
something. Calum headed toward the stables and the comfort of Blue, wondering who he was trying to kid. A long distance, under the radar romance? This might be Wyoming but it wasn’t Brokeback Mountain. They couldn’t live separate lives and steal illicit moments. What if Seth really was his? There was another heap of responsibility there. How many ways could Calum split himself?

Something glowing in the dirt drew his attention.
Raining moonstones?
When Calum bent to see what it was, he sighed. One of Angie’s glow-in-the-dark beads. He looked a little farther and saw another. Had she laid a trail? Calum expected it to lead to Misty, but it bypassed the stables and led to the rear barn. He didn’t find another for a while. She wasn’t exactly making it easy, but Calum knew how thrilled she’d be that he’d followed and now that Jasper was gone, there wasn’t much else to do. Plus he needed distracting.

When he found three beads together in the back barn, he saw a patch of something wet in the dust. Calum rubbed it with his fingers.
Oh hell. Blood.
Calum’s brain struggled to put two and two together. Blood in Jasper’s room, blood here, Angie’s beads. Was Angie hurt too? Was she someplace with Jasper? Calum kept looking and found a couple more beads near the rear door. Another lay at the foot of the silo ladder.

A muffled thud made him jump.
What the fuck?
It sounded like it had come from inside the silo.
Oh Christ, is Angie in there?
Playing hide and seek?
Calum banged on the outside of the silo. “Anyone there?” Then he pressed his ear to the metal and listened. He heard something.
A groan?

Calum sprinted up the ladder, flung open the lid and peered down into the darkness. A figure lay at the bottom. Not Angie. Calum thought his heart was going to stop. “Jasper,” he whispered then yelled it, “Jasper!” Calum fumbled at his belt for his phone. Listened to it ring and ring and debated running back to the ranch to wake his father, until finally he answered.

“What the hell—”

“Listen,” Calum shouted. “Jasper’s trapped in the grain silo. I need rope. I need help and I need it now. Check Angie’s in bed and then come.”

“How—”

“I don’t know. There’s no time.”

“But Angie—”

Calum wanted to scream at him. “Just check she’s okay and then come help me. We have to get him out. He has asthma.” Calum exhaled. “I need to go in after him.”

“Do nothing until I’m there,” his father snapped. “I don’t want two of you trapped. I’m coming.”

Calum bent over the opening. “Jasper? I can hear you breathing. You keep doing that. In and then out. Don’t fuck it up. I’ll get you out of here real fast. How the hell did you get in there? Shit. Don’t answer that. Just keep breathing. Oh fuck. Hurry up. Not you. My dad.”

He thought his heart was going to leap out of his throat. Calum felt around the lid for the safety rope and pulled it up the outside of the silo. He checked the fastening was tight and then tied himself to the end. The moment he saw his father coming, he was going in.
Fuck it, I’m going in anyway.

“Don’t you dare,” his father shouted.

Calum sat on the rim of the hole.

“You need to check what the grain’s doing or you’ll cover him when you go in,” Vera called.

They were in robes, running toward him with flashlights.

“Is Angie okay?” Calum asked.

“In bed asleep,” Vera shouted. “I’ve called the emergency services, just in case.”

“Gunner’s on his way too.” His father began to climb the ladder. He was panting when he reached Calum. “What—”

“I don’t know,” Calum blurted.

Calum took the flashlight and shone it down into the grain store. Jasper lay motionless on one side. On the other side was a slope of grain.