A Cowboy's Home Read Online Free Page B

clearing
his thoughts, he began to feel more at peace.
    Yep.
    He was needed at Crooked Tree. He was
important there.
    He was home.

Chapter Three
    Justin decided to take the car as far as he
could, abandoning it under trees, wiping it down again, amazed he
had even got this far. The dizziness had passed and he didn’t feel
sick anymore, although he doubted he had anything left in his
stomach and he was unsteady on his feet. He cut down a branch and
used his body weight to yank at it until he had a stick to balance
his awkward, painful steps. He managed to get onto Crooked Tree
land, remembering the trails, avoiding everyone, and making his way
to the old cabins way up near the tree line.
    He pushed through tangled roots and bushes,
taking care to have the foliage close behind him, and stumbled to
the first cabin he found. Its door listed open, cracked wide enough
for him to enter easily.
    He slumped to the ground, exhausted and sore,
and made his way through the list.
    Xander Walden, Dillon Naves, David Crane, Travis Graham, Jamie
Crane. Justin rolled the names around in his head.
    Xander had been arrested early on and
committed suicide before Justin could get to him. Xander Walden,
who had been the one to cut him, to rape him, to pay special
attention to Adam made Justin sick thinking of it to this day.
    Dillon and David were dead with Justin’s
bullets in their brains as they tried to run.
    Travis? He’d been hanging on the side of a
building, pleading with Justin to pull him up, to help him, and
Justin had backed away, listening to his pleas and ignoring them,
until Travis’s arms finally gave up on holding his weight.
Screaming, Travis plunged ten stories to land right on the
sidewalk. His blood had pooled around his broken body.
    Justin looked down—and felt nothing.
    Four down, one to go. Just Jamie Crane to
find now. Jamie, the kid who’d watched and done nothing.
    Dillon had held Adam down as David poured
chemicals down Adam’s throat. Xander and Travis had laughed and
encouraged it all. Then they’d done the same thing to Justin.
    And Jamie had done nothing. A frightened kid,
yes, but a part of it nonetheless.
    Justin and Adam had stumbled onto the five of
them by accident, just new meat for sadistic shit that got the
group worked up to carry their hatred into a city, bombing and
killing. The four men hurt Justin, yes, but more than that, they
destroyed Adam.
    Four large men, with the two boys tied up,
talked of what they needed to do, of the explosives they had, of
the way they would incite hatred.
    And throughout all
of it, Adam had been so quiet. He’d lost consciousness the
first time they hurt him. Xander Walden had choked him unconscious,
and Justin had prayed Adam would stay that way as they forced
Justin to watch them hurt his best friend. Adam was in and out of
consciousness, his words slurring; he couldn’t remember where they
were or who Justin was. He was dying right in front of Justin.
    Justin never lost consciousness; he
remembered it all.
    He remembered the moment they hit Adam so
hard Justin thought they’d killed him, slammed his head against the
concrete in the bunker, blood spraying up the wall. He recalled
every single horrific moment of what they did to Adam.
    And they’d paid.
    Justin had found them and killed them all,
directly or indirectly. He’d put himself in a position where he
could look down at their faces and know they were gone from this
earth. That they wouldn’t hurt him, or anyone he loved, again.
    All except Jamie. He’d gone to ground, hidden
himself so well, that Justin hadn’t found him.
    Yet.
    The four he’d killed had paid for what they’d
done to Adam, for the torture they’d inflicted on the both of them,
for the way they splashed chemicals over them and left them to burn
to death.
    They’d killed Adam. The last thing Justin saw
was Adam lying unmoving. Adam’s last sound before that, his scream
of horror as chemicals ignited around him, echoed in