Page 51 of Valley
“What about the club?” Jarrod asked, buying time as I fumbled with the knot around his wrists after hurriedly untying my ankles. The rope was tight, biting into my fingers as I worked to untangle it, but I couldn’t let up. “How are you going to hurt them? They’re looking for us right now.”
“The same way,” Adam shrugged, not even bothering to look at us as he talked. “I’ve been recording you for years, just waiting to bring you all down. Waiting for you to find women you loved so I could tear them apart. While they’re all out looking for you, I have a chemical bomb planted in the clubhouse. And once they put all their precious women in that safe room—which we know they will—I’m going to release it, right into the vents.”
My breath caught in my throat, the horror of his words sinking in like a knife. “Oh God, how could you do that!” I shouted, anger flaring up through the fear. “Those are innocent women and children who didn’t do anything to you, but trust and befriend you!”
He turned then, and I quickly hid my hands, positioning them to look as if they were still tied. His face was contorted with rage, the calm facade he had held slipping away. “Kezia was innocent too!” he shouted at me, the force of his anger making me shrink back. “But look what those bikers did to her, and all the other women through the years! Their perverted lifestyle makes them think they have the right to do whatever the fuck they want. They use and abuse every woman that walks into that clubhouse, and they need to learn a lesson!”
He started toward me, and every instinct in me screamed to run, to fight, but I was frozen in place, my body betraying me. I could only watch in fear as he closed the distance, the shovel still in his hand.
“Don’t you lay a hand on her!” Jarrod snarled, his voice filled with a desperation that cut through the fog of fear in my mind. He struggled against his restraints, the cords biting into his skin as he thrashed, his eyes locked on Adam with a mix of fury and terror.
“Oh, I don’t have to touch her to make you suffer,” Adam said cryptically, his voice dropping to a sinister whisper as he stoppedjust inches from me. “My plan doesn’t require me to raise a hand to her.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Chapter Twenty-Nine
“I’M GOING TObury her alive and walk away,” he said,and my heart stopped, a sudden void where hope had clung. The weight of his words pressed down on me, dense and suffocating like the dark soil he threatened to use as a tomb for Madeline.
“You’ll sit here watching and helpless to do anything while she suffocates. Only then will you feel what I did, this suffocating loneliness and loss. The knowing that the girl you love needs you, but you’re helpless to do anything.” His voice dripped with venomous satisfaction, each syllable a dagger aimed at my chest.
“Oh God,” Madeline mumbled beside me, her voice trembling like fragile glass, starting to panic as the reality of his threat sank in. I could see her pale face, eyes wide with fear,reflecting the terror that dug at my insides. I knew I had to do something—anything—to stave off the impending horror about to unfold.
Our eyes met in a silent plea, and I caught a flicker of trust there; I silently assured her I would never let anything happen to her.
I’d die first.
“You’re a fucking coward!” I snarled, the words tumbling from my lips like molten lava. “Too much of a pussy to fight like a real man, instead taking your anger out on helpless women and children.” The accusation hung in the air, thick with disdain, my heart racing with the knowledge that my words might not be enough.
Adam laughed, a cold, mirthless sound that echoed in the night. “I’ve been with the club too long to fall for your reverse psychology bullshit. You and mybrotherswill suffer so much more this way, die slowly at the loss of the things you value above everything—including your life.” His arrogance was palpable, a shield he wore proudly.
“They’ll kill you,” I warned, desperation climbing up my throat as I felt the ropes loosening just a fraction more. My hands were almost free—just a little longer.
He shrugged nonchalantly, his indifference cutting deep into my senses, making me work harder to loosen the ropes. “I’m ready to die and have it all planned. I’m going to reunite with Kezia.” His voice softened at her name, an unsettling reverence lacing his words.
“I see. You’re a man with a plan, and you believe you’ve figured it all out,” I said, subtly adjusting my position, easing the weakened bonds of the rope even more. The bitterness in my tone was masked by an air of detached curiosity; I needed him to linger on this path of delusion. Every word was calculated—a gamble to buy time while I fought against the ropes.
Adam’s eyes flickered at the shift in my tone; it was a spark of interest, a glint of ‘let’s see where this is going’.
“And what about Kezia? You think she’d want this?” I asked, sweeping my gaze towards Madeline who sat as still as a startled deer caught in headlights. Her breaths were shallow yet frantic, each one sounding in the tension-filled silence like a clock counting down to disaster.
“To know that you killed innocent people as revenge for her dying?” My words dripped with urgency, seeking to penetrate the armor he’d forged from his grief. “She was such a kind girl, and she wouldn’t want any of this. What if she rejects you for what you’ve done?”
Adam’s smug grin faltered for an instant; it was like watching a candle flicker in a gust of wind. In that brief moment, I saw it—the flicker of doubt crossing his face beneath his defiant facade. He was searching for words, mulling over my question as if weighing its implications against his twisted reasoning.
“I... She...” he stuttered, and triumph surged inside me at the crack in his resolve and gave me the time to finish getting free.
His hesitation was the opening I needed, and without thinking twice, I jumped up yelling, “Run, Madeline!” My voice thundered through the night air like an alarm bell.
In my peripheral vision, I saw Madeline startle at my shout—a doe caught unaware by an approaching predator. Her eyes widened in shock but blessedly didn’t waste any time; she scrambled to her feet like a wild animal fleeing from danger and darted into the darkness away from us.
Adam reacted a second too late to my lunge; his eyes flashed with shock as I barreled into him like a freight train. His back met the ground with a hard thud that seemed to reverberate through my bones. He grappled for purchase, his hands clawing at my arms in desperation while his legs kicked out wildly in an attempt to dislodge me.
His surprise was my advantage; it gave me precious moments to wrestle the gun from his holster. My fingers grazed the grip just as I ripped it free—my heart raced with adrenaline as the metal gleamed ominously under the faint moonlight. In one swift motion, I pointed it down at him.
“No!” he snarled in desperation, catching my arm mid-air with a grip that felt like iron around my wrist. Desperation surged through me as he fought back; but determination amped my adrenaline tenfold. Without hesitation, I swung my other fist forward—my knuckles connected with his face in a brutal collision that elicited more surprise than pain from him.
I didn’t pause to see if I had hurt him; instead, I tightened my grip around the gun and fired. Adam’s scream sounded into the silent night—a haunting echo followed by gurgling as he choked on his own blood.