Dead Cold Mysteries Box Set #2: Books 5-8 (A Dead Cold Box Set) Blake Banner (read out loud books txt) 📖

I smiled through the pain. “Thank you, Coyote. You just confirmed what I suspected.”

Greg asked, “What are you talkin’ about?”

“Stop playing dumb, Greg. You know as well as I do that’s how Kathleen died. After he raped her, he cut off her head and buried her in the woods.”

He turned and stared at Coy. “That true? Did you kill her?”

I laughed. I felt light-headed and trippy with the pain, like I was beginning to hallucinate. “Good try, Greg. But this is joint enterprise, remember? One of you did it, you all did it.” I looked over at the Angels, who were frowning. “You getting this, boys? Your allegiance is to your chapter and the club, not to these bozos. You better start thinking about copping a plea.”

The lash bit into my chest and for a moment I thought I was going to pass out. But I told myself I was getting to them, causing a rift, however small. And all the while they were whipping me, Dehan was getting away. I knew that by the time she got help, it would probably be too late for me. But she’d finish the job, she’d nail them, and above all, she’d get away.

I raised my head and looked deep into Greg’s eyes. “You’re the smart one here, Greg. Rape, murder, and mutilation, followed by the kidnapping, torture, and murder of an investigating police officer. There isn’t a man in this barn who isn’t eligible for the death sentence.” They were all staring at me now, and they were all thinking hard. “I don’t know which one of you did it. But I know who I think did it.” I stared at Sly and then past him at El Coyote. “So my advice to all of you is, if you were not directly involved, you’d better start thinking about how to mitigate. Because my partner got away, and you can bet your sorry asses that right now she is on the phone to the Denver field office of the FBI.”

Coyote rasped, “Kill the mother focker! Bury him in the fockin’ forest! They will never find him! We deny everything! What fockin’ proof have they got?”

Greg turned on him, bellowing, “I told you when you came to me I didn’t want none of this shit! You told me it would be cool!”

“It is cool, brother. Chill…” It was Sly. “Coyote is right, man. We cut his throat. Dig a grave, let mother nature take care of him. We deny everything. They can’t prove shit.”

Greg threw down his whip and pointed at Coyote. “I ain’t a part of this. I ain’t even here. If this goes bad, I will testify against each one of you, and I will see you on death row. This is exactly what you said would not happen!”

I watched him stomp all the way down to the big sliding door. I noticed it was open a few inches. He heaved it open enough to step out and pulled it closed again. I felt sick and light-headed. Sly was grinning. “My friend, Coyote, I think you would like the pleasure, wouldn’t you?”

“You bet your fockin ass!”

He staggered to his feet and pulled a long, savage blade from his belt.

Seventeen

He hobbled up and leaned against me, so his belly and his chest were pushed against mine. He grabbed my hair with his left hand and pressed the blade of his knife against my throat. His breath stank of tobacco, beer, and filth. I could see the pores of his skin and the veins in his yellow eyes.

“You ain’t gonna beg for mercy, Gringo?”

If I said I wasn’t scared, I’d be lying. If I said I wasn’t terrified, I’d still be lying. But I was damned sure that if I was going to die, I’d go without giving that son of a bitch the satisfaction of seeing my fear. I looked him in the eye and whispered, “Fuck you, Coy.”

His muscles tensed. I saw his knuckles go white on the hilt of his knife. I held his eye and thought I was hallucinating when I heard the voice, calm, quiet, and probably the most beautiful sound I had ever heard in my life.

“That’s the last thing you are ever going to do, Coyote. I’d think real hard before doing it. Because if I see you twitch, I’m going to blow your head right off your shoulders.” Dehan. She had come back. “Now drop the knife and step away from my partner. I’m going to count to three, motherfucker, but I might shoot you on two, or one.”

He stepped back and dropped the knife. I felt my body shudder and heard my breath shake.

“Get down on your belly and put your hands behind your head. You two!” She jerked her chin at the Angels. “Get the packing tape from the corner over there. Truss him up. Hands behind his back. And his ankles. Don’t make this complicated. I am outnumbered, jittery, and real pissed, and I don’t know what I might do if you rile me.”

One of them scurried away to get the packing tape while the other looked from me to Dehan and back again. “We never had nothin’ to do with no rape and no murder. We just deliver the weed. We tried to dissuade Scott last night, honest we did.” He looked over his shoulder. “Didn’t we, Joe?”

“Shut up.”

He sighed and looked at Sly, who was rocking back and forth, singing a little song to himself, “Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy…”

The Angels bound Coy and then did the same for Sly and Scott, who was beginning to regain consciousness. Then Dehan had one of them bind the other, and she cuffed the last and taped his ankles together. Finally, she cut my bonds and supported me as I