by Laney Powell
“Man owes a debt. How he pays it isn’t our concern.”
“Even though this is kidnapping? And theft? You know, all illegal things?”
“Not really a big deal,” the voice said.
“What if I refuse?”
“Well, then he would have to pay it off in some other way,” the voice said. The threat was so huge it was like another person in the room.
I shut up then. Did I want Stephen to die? No, but I didn’t want to have to pay for his sorry ass, either. I felt like I was failing horribly at being a good person. I was so mad that if Stephen were here, and I was free, I’d do my best to beat the snot out of him.
A door opened, and footsteps came into the room. “Still no fucking signal,” Stephen said.
“We have time,” the other man said. “Nobody’s around, so we can wait for a signal.”
“Where’s the money we were saving for a house?” Stephen asked me.
“My savings are my money. You spent your savings on dumb shit,” I snapped, in no mood to humor him and this farce.
“Where’s the money, Carissa?” Stephen growled.
I kept my eyes shut and felt him come close to me. “You think you’re going to get out of this? If you don’t pay them, I die. And guess who’s a witness to that? You. Which means you die too. You want to die? Keep this shit up.”
He got up, and I heard him walk away, and then the door slam.
The other man didn’t say anything.
I kept my eyes shut, and worked on focusing on not puking, and breathing. I remembered what Jensen had said when I called him after the first time Stephen showed up. Breathe. Let your heart rate come down. Let yourself calm down. Then you can think.
So that’s what I did. I concentrated on breathing, on keeping myself still. Letting my head calm down, even though it really, really hurt. It was on the right side of my head, right at the temple. I could tell I had a huge goose egg there.
I needed to be calm, because it hurt to move. But if I laid here, they would think I was defeated, and ready to give in, despite my brave words. And I wanted them to think they’d beaten me. As long as there was no signal, I had time.
There was a weird shout outside, and I heard the man in the room with me get up. Ominously, I heard the unmistakable click of a gun. I’d never heard or seen one before outside of movies, but the click for whatever the man was doing sounded loud in the room.
“Don’t go nowhere,” he said. His footsteps moved away from me, and I heard the door open, and close.
Whatever it was, this was my chance. Carefully, I opened my eyes. Holy shit, that hurt. I closed them and then opened the left eye.
I was on a ratty couch, which accounted for the musty smell near me. With my hands still tied behind my back, I wouldn’t be able to push myself up. I eased my legs off the couch, rolling them so that I got my knees on the ground. I pushed a little with my left elbow, and then I was up on my knees, although feeling a little wobbly. I got one knee up and pushed myself to my feet.
One obstacle down. With the one eye, I looked around the room for another way out. There was a door at the back of the room, and I made my way there. Before I got there, however, the door behind me burst open.
“Carissa!” It was Jensen.
I turned so fast that I lost my footing. I pitched forward and just as I was bracing for another hit, Jensen’s strong arms caught me.
“Baby, are you all right? Jesus Christ, your head!”
“Can you get these things off me?” I turned, wiggling my arms.
“Oh, shit. Those assholes. I should have just drop kicked them both right in the teeth and the nuts,” he growled. “Hold still.” Jensen took a knife from his pocket and cut the zip tie.
I let out a huge sigh of relief as I stretched my arms, trying to get feeling back into them.
“We need to get out of here,” I said, remembering what was happening. “That guy, and Stephen! They have guns, Jensen! We need to—”
He kissed me, wrapping his arms around me. When he let me go, he was smiling. “Those weren’t guns. They were little baby boo boo guns. It’s amateur hour up in here.”
I stared. “Are we really having this conversation when we need to leave before they come back?”
“Carissa, they are both tied up like turkeys out in the front, waiting for the cops.”
It was hard to process what he was saying. “I don’t, I mean… how did you know I was here?”
“You called me.”
“I what?”
“Where’s your phone?”
“In my pocket,” I reached for it.
“You called me, and I heard everything from when douchebag was yelling at you, to when he hit you,” his arms tightened around me, “To right before I got here and the signal was lost, but I was following by then. I parked a ways down, called the cops, and then came to find you.”
“So… we’re safe?”
“We are.”
I blinked, feeling tears in my eyes. “Where’s Stephen?”
“Out front,” Jensen jerked his head.
“Help me out front?” I asked.
With his arm around me, Jensen walked with me through the door where I saw that Stephen and the big man who’d driven us out here were on the ground. They were tied up, with zip ties, I noted with a fierce sense of satisfaction, at both their hands and their feet.
“I hope you pulled the ties really tight,” I said.
“Tight enough,” Jensen replied.
Stephen heard us and twisted his head up to see me. “Carissa! Sweetie! This was all a mistake! You have to know that! I wasn’t really going to hurt you! I wasn’t—”
“Shut up, Stephen,” I hissed. “I never want to see you again, not until we go to court, anyway. Then I want to see you get a lot of jail time.”
He stared at me. “Fuck you, Carissa.”
I felt Jensen tense next to me. I put a hand to my temple, and then one on his arm, holding him back, holding him to me, away from my big, stupid past mistake on the ground. “He’s not worth it. Let’s wait for the police.” I walked by both the men on the ground toward the road. I heard Stephen shout my name, but I kept walking.
And Jensen walked with me.
Which was just as it should be.
Four Months Later
The knock on the door startled me. Ever since I’d been kidnapped, I found that I was jumpy. Even more so than I’d been after Stephen texted me with threats. Two months ago, I’d finally given in, and started seeing a therapist, Dr. Grayson. She told me that when people went through trauma, it sometimes took time to recover, to stop the automatic fight-or-flight response to trauma. She told me to give myself time, and space.
So I had.
When the police came, and arrested Stephen and the big scary guy, who I later found out was named Marvin Neville—such a humdrum name for a guy who condemned me to death like he was ordering coffee—Jensen and I had to go to the police station as well.
Gran and Freeze were called, and they were waiting for us when we got there. After what seemed like an eternity of answering questions, we were allowed to go.
We went back to Gran’s house, and I slept for three days. Jensen didn’t leave my side. To this day, I had no idea what he’d told Freeze, but he was there when I fell asleep and he was there when I woke up. While he’d been guarding me during my sleep, he’d helped Gran get a start on repairing the kitchen. Whatever side eye Gran had given him before was long gone, as though it had never been.
Gran loved Jensen.
I called my boss, Ted, and told him I’d have to resign. I shared the entire miserable tale with him, and he told me to hold off on the resignation bullshit (that was a direct quote). He called back the next day and offered me a remote position, at a slightly lower pay, because I wasn’t in San Diego. I bargained for keeping all my benefits, and he agreed.
Out of all this, I was able to keep my job. I didn’t know where I wanted to go before, and after I was ab
le to work wherever I wanted, I figured it out.
Gran had been sitting at the dining room table one night after she’d made Jensen go back to the ranch. She hadn’t asked me a thing about my plans, nor pushed me to make any so she could get on with hers. I sat down with her after making a cup of tea.
“You still planning on selling the house?” I asked.
“Oh, honey, there’s plenty of time to think about that,” Gran waved a hand. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Well, I think we should talk about it now.”
“No. Not until you’re better. There’s no room for you at my condo, and I’m not doing anything until you are better.” Her face was stubborn.
“I agree, Gran. I don’t think I should leave here yet. In fact, I think I should extend my stay. I want to make you an offer on the house. Will you sell it to me?”
She stared at me for a moment, and then got up and hugged me, tears coming down her face. “Oh, Carissa! Of course I’ll sell it to you! I wanted to all along, but you weren’t planning on staying, and I couldn’t force you! Honey, you’ve made me so happy!”
The sale was completed fairly quickly, and now I was the proud owner of the Webber family home. I had a job, and Freeze, once he realized that I was staying, immediately hired me for a half-day each week. We got a routine established, and I found that he was sending people to me. Between my work with my firm, and my clients here, I had a full-time job.
And I had Jensen.
He gave me all the space I needed, and all the time I could ever want. He spent the night with me any time I asked, and if I didn’t, he kissed me, passionately and intensely, and went back to Broken Falls. A month ago, after we’d finished making love, I told him I loved him. The room was dark, but his smile was like the sun.
“I love you, Carissa Webber.”
Slowly, slowly, my life was coming back together. The timing was perfect, because Stephen and Marvin were headed to trial in a couple of months, and I wanted to testify. I wanted to see them both put away.
Jensen told me about how he followed me by listening to the conversation in the car. He said that Stephen was as dumb as a stump—actually he said a lot more uncomplimentary things, but dumb as a stump would cover it—and he was able to follow us to their hideout. Once he knew for sure where I was, he called the police.
When he’d seen Stephen outside, he told me that he couldn’t stop himself, and he tackled Stephen and tied him up.
“What, you walk around with zip ties?” I teased.
“You don’t?” he asked, perfectly straight-faced.
Once a week, Gran and I went out to Broken Falls for dinner. Now that I was safe, and the house hadn’t burned down, the topic of the fire became a running joke. I was never asked to cook a thing, which was fine.
Freeze told me that the only thing I was allowed to cook was his books, which made everyone laugh.
And tonight, Gran and I were going to the ranch for a special dinner. Freeze had prepared the paperwork, and he was going to deed it to Axel and Pris. They didn’t know it, but he’d asked me and Gran to be there because he said we were like family.
I couldn’t wait to see their faces.
I left to pick up Gran, and we chatted on the way out there. As we pulled down the long drive, I was eager to see the main house, and the river and cliffs behind it. Who could have guessed, six months ago, that I would be somewhere other than San Diego, and I’d love it?
Or that I’d fall in love with an old man, and his family, and find the love of my life?
I would not have believed it. But here I was. Happier than I’d ever been, even as I healed. Jensen had told me we could work on healing together, and I broke down and cried in his arms. Then we had hot and amazing sex, so that was a great way to end our conversation.
As we came upon the main house, two balls of feathers came our way.
“What are those?” Gran asked.
“Those are the turkeys. Caleb and Cecil. Pris rescued them.”
“What?” Gran turned to look at me.
“Someone down at the feed store was looking for a new home for them. Pris saw them in their cages, and she couldn’t say no. They are better than dogs.”
“How so?” Gran asked, eying one of the turkeys closest to her door. One was brown, the other was white with brown patches.
“A UPS guy came down the road and texted Pris because the turkeys wouldn’t get out of his way. She had to come out and shoo them away from the truck.”
“Are they mean?”
“No,” I shook my head, laughing as I got out of the car. “Pris says they have a serious case of FOMO.”
“What the hell is FOMO?” Gran asked. “I swear, I feel like you’re speaking a different language.”
“Fear of missing out, which is why they come right up to anyone who comes down the driveway.” I patted the brown turkey, named Caleb. The white turkey, over near Gran, was named Cecil. As she walked to the house, he walked alongside her, stately with his wings held out from his body.
We walked up the steps, and when we came into the house, there were hugs and kisses all around. The last kiss was for me, from Jensen. He’d been busy the past two days working with breeding the cows and herd expansion. Freeze had a serious addiction to cattle.
“I missed you,” he murmured into my hair.
“I missed you, too. You want to come over tonight?” I asked.
“I think that sounds great,” he growled. The sound of his voice rumbling in my ear made all my lady bits flare into life, needing to be with him.
It would have to wait.
We all sat down to dinner, and afterwards, when everyone had coffee, Freeze handed Axel a folder.
“What’s this?” Axel asked.
“Open it,” Freeze rolled his eyes.
Axel opened it, Pris looking over his shoulder. As she read it, she gasped. Axel looked up at his grandfather.
“Granddad, you don’t have to do this.”
“It’s already done. I told you I would, and I keep my word. It’s a little earlier than we’d talked about, but with the way Pris is taking in strays, I’m better off out of it.”
Everyone laughed. Pris had not only taken the turkeys with FOMO, she’d brought a horse in, named Tripoli, and chicks that had grown into chickens. She was hard-pressed to turn away homeless animals.
I admired it and planned to talk to them about ways to make Pris’ habits more cost effective for the ranch. I loved that she couldn’t turn the animals away. I also really loved the turkeys, although I think I was the only one.
“Hey, you don’t complain when you’re getting fresh eggs for breakfast every morning,” Axel said, defending his wife.
“What do the turkeys do?” Freeze demanded.
“Keep out strangers,” Pris said instantly.
“You can’t bitch about that,” Jensen added.
“I could just set ’em all on fire,” Freeze shot back, glancing at me with a wicked grin on his face.
Everyone laughed.
“We’re never going to hear the end of this,” I made a face and put my head in my hands, laughing. I could laugh about it now. Especially since I’d bought the house.
“Speaking of new things, you have to come meet the goats,” Pris said, standing up. “I was just reading a blog about using goat’s milk for soap, and then one of the ladies I was chatting with this week told me that her daughter was getting rid of a small herd.”
“Goats. Now it’s goats,” Freeze raised his eyes to the heavens. “I’m so much better off being out of this.”
“You’re going to make soap?” I asked Pris, ignoring Freeze.
“I might. I don’t know. Anyway, come on out and see them.”
Jensen kissed me on the side of my head and smiled as I followed Pris out.
Chapter Nineteen
Jensen
When the door closed, Gran—I was able to call her Gran now—leaned forward. “I got it,” she whispered, her eyes bright.
“Why are we whispering?” Freeze asked. “They’re gone.”
“Won’t matter if you keep shouting,” Gran glared at him. “Here, Jensen, take a look.” She slid a box over to me.
I took it and opened it. Gran had gotten her ring and earrings set into a new ring for Carissa—three stones. I loved the three stones look because it meant past, present, and future. I hoped Carissa would love it, too.
I hoped Carissa would say yes.
“Let’s see it,” Freeze demanded.
I handed the box to him. He inspected it, turning it in the light. “That’s beautiful, Jensen. Nora, were these all yours?”
She nodded. “Yes. I went through my things and picked out earrings that matched my engagement ring.”
Axel took it from Freeze. “She’s gonna love it, man,” he said to me.
“As long as she says yes,” I said, starting to feel nerves kick in.
“She kept you around after the two of you set her house on fire! I’d say she likes you fairly well,” Freeze said.
“Well, it’s time to go find out,” I said, standing up, and feeling my heart starting to race.
“Carpe diem. Seize the day, brother,” Axel said.
I flashed everyone a grin, hoping that I wasn’t rushing. I walked to the barn where Pris was keeping the goats.
Carissa was leaning over the pen, and Pris, who stood back a little, turned when she heard me come in. She smiled, knowing what I was planning, and edged away as I got closer. I walked right behind Carissa and wrapped my arms around her waist.
“Hey,” she half turned and put an arm around me. “What, you haven’t gotten enough of the goats?”
“I haven’t gotten enough of you,” I said, kissing her deeply. I hadn’t been able to kiss her like this with everyone around, and I felt the need to touch our connection.
She kissed me back. I pulled away, because I could feel myself getting distracted.
“What’s wrong?” Carissa asked.
I never usually pulled away first. I took a breath. My heart was thundering now. This was it. Now or never. Time to make a move. And hope like hell I hadn’t read the signs wrong.
“I want to talk to you about something.”