The man with the knife also stopped but he kept his knife pointed out at her.
“See? I can yell stuff too.” He moved the aim of his knife to a spot in the distance. “But I’m guessing you don’t have spaghetti or chicken tied up in your car, do you? That’s where our things are different.”
JJ’s stomach dropped past her feet.
Maybe she hadn’t heard him properly?
“Who?”
The man looked fragile by himself. There were wrinkles along his face, a scar at the side of his jaw, and a slight lean to him, like he had an injury somewhere along his leg or back?
Had Josiah managed to wound him during their fight?
The knife, however, was the line in the sand between them.
That was, until he said Winnie’s name.
He said it again too.
“Winnie Collins. Your boyfriend’s little girl.” He smirked. “What? You think we were following you just for fun? I’m here to trade. I can do that with you while my friend deals with dear Dad Deputy.”
The knife didn’t seem so bad anymore.
It was maybe five inches long, some of that the metal hilt. The blade wasn’t serrated and didn’t retract. If she could stay on the back of it, she could handle it.
“She’s in your car? Where’s that? We didn’t see any cars when we came in.”
The man’s smirk was simmering. He thought he had her.
“We hid ours with yours, of course. Since you two seem to be so good at being so sneaky. Too bad the girl didn’t have your stealth.”
Price’s truck was at the western gate of the Becker Farm. The walk to the barn had been around two minutes. They hadn’t gone into the woods but instead skirted them, careful to stay somewhat within the tree line.
JJ pointed in the direction he had.
“You want to trade me for Winnie?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Why?”
Did they know who she was, or had she become a pawn to use against Price?
The man’s smirk melted away at that.
He was impatient.
It probably didn’t help that his friend hadn’t rejoined him. The last they had seen of their partners had been Price wrestling cuffs on the other man.
“We’ll talk at the car,” he growled. “Get going or you and the girl will be sorry.”
JJ didn’t weigh her options. She knew what she needed to do.
She nodded and started in the direction of the western gate. She kept her hands up. The man didn’t hesitate. She could hear his shoes crunching over the leaves behind her.
Then he changed the game yet again.
“You sure acted better than that girl when we grabbed her,” he added. “She was still blubbering when we left.”
