Todd placed her plate of food in front of her and sat in the chair next to hers. He reached for his glass then held it high. "How about a toast?" Lizzie nodded in approval. Drink it you slimy bastard. Drink it, so I can get out of here. "To us."
"To us," Lizzie repeated and their glasses clinked, then they both drank. Lizzie was pleased when Todd took a long drink of the champagne. Just a little more. Yes! He drained the flute, then refilled it. Lizzie smiled inwardly. A drunk and drugged Todd would be even better.
Todd abruptly rose from his chair startling Lizzie. "This isn't right. No, no. It won't do at all."
"What's wrong?"
"This," Todd said in disgust with a sweeping hand indicating the table. "It's not right."
"Oh, I thought it was nice."
His voice tight and stern he glared at her, "I don't want nice, Elizabeth. I want perfection." He grabbed his glass of champagne and downed the contents. "Grab your things and follow me."
Where was he taking her now? Lizzie did as he asked and watched as he grabbed his plate of food, the bottle of champagne, and his empty glass and led her out of the dining room. She could only wait now and hope that the pills would have an effect on him.
As they entered a bedroom filled full of burning candles and more vases of pink daisies, she hoped they would kick in sooner rather than later because Todd Garrison was one sick puppy.
"Have a seat," Todd said indicating the bed. Lizzie sat on the end of the bed and put her plate of food in her lap. "No, Elizabeth, up at the top!"
Lizzie jumped, nearly dumping her plate onto the floor, at the loud, harsh tone Todd used. She walked around the bed toward the top and sat stiffly on the edge.
Todd walked around and stood in front of her, arms crossed over his chest. "Now, put your plate and glass on the nightstand."
He was starting to make her nervous now. His tone had changed. For some reason he was now angry, she could hear it in the undertones. Were the pills making him this way? Lizzie did as he asked, and then he continued with the instructions. "Turn and put your legs up on the bed and recline against the headboard." Once again, she followed his orders in an effort to placate him.
"Good," Todd said as he sat beside her on the bed. He just looked at her. Her hair, her face, then his eyes roamed down her body and back up. "What a waste," he said just before he slapped her across the face.
Lizzie was so startled by the outburst she didn't have time to cover her face before the next blow came, this time in the form of a fist. One more punch, this one hitting her mouth, and just as abruptly as he had started, he stopped and glared at her. He lunged, then wrapped his hands around her neck and jerked her forward while squeezing. Lizzie gasped, struggling for air.
"You look surprised, Elizabeth. You shouldn't be. I'm not as stupid as you seem to think." He squeezed a little tighter and Lizzie clawed at his hands, trying to pry them off of her neck. She sucked in deep rasping breaths when he let go.
Todd grabbed a handful of hair and yanked her head back, so her gaze met his. "Do you know what you did to make me angry, Elizabeth?"
Lizzie tried to shake her head no, then winced at the biting pain from Todd's grip on her hair.
"Ah, we're back to lying. How very disappointing."
"I don't know—"
"Just shut the fuck up! You tried to drug me, you stupid bitch. Did you think I'd really be dumb enough to leave anything in the medicine cabinet that you could use against me? Bet you're wondering how I know," Todd asked in a mockingly superior tone as he leaned forward and licked along her lip to taste her blood.
He sat straight up again, not letting go of her hair. "I know because I put sugar pills in all the bottles in the bathroom and I tasted them when I drank the champagne. I know you, Elizabeth. I anticipated your attempt to escape. And I made sure you'd fail."
Shit. Lizzie's hope of escaping fizzled and she closed her eyes in defeat.
"And since you're being such a bad girl, we're just going to have make sure you can't get into any more mischief." Todd reached around to what Lizzie assumed to be the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a pair of handcuffs. He stood and then let go of her hair. Then he yanked on her legs, pulling her further down the bed so that she was lying flat on her back. She tried to grab at the hem of the gown she was wearing, but before she could pull it down to cover herself, Todd had grabbed her hands and handcuffed one wrist, then sliding the other cuff through the piece of cast that rested between her thumb and index finger, before locking it, effectively trapping her hands against the headboard.
She wondered if she could rub the cast enough with the cuff to saw through it. Then she remembered the cast was fresh. It'd be too sturdy. Shit.
Then he pulled something out of his back pocket. Lizzie choked on a sob when she saw what it was.
"Lookie here, Elizabeth," Todd said as he ran the silk scarf across her arm. "Look familiar?"
She nodded.
"It should. It's yours. I took it that night. It's a shame I didn't get to see the festivities. Who was tied up? You? Or the farm boy?" When she didn't answer, he slapped her across the face again. "Who!"
"J-Jake."
"Oh yeah, that would have been damn fun," he said as he cupped his crotch and rubbed it. "I could have had him all tied up and made him watch me fuck you raw." Then he tsked. "Oh well, that's okay."
He climbed on the bed above her, his knees bracketing her hips and he sat back on his heels. "Well, now. Looks like I've got you right where I want you."
She felt the blood trickling down the side of her face and licked at her lip and then winced at the stinging sensation.
She kept hearing a ringing, she thought maybe it was from Todd hitting her until he reached into his front pocket and pulled out a cell phone. Still pinning her to the bed, he sat back and answered the phone.
"Yeah." He listened for a few seconds and then his jaw got tight and his free hand formed a fist and she knew that whatever news he was getting wasn't good. "Got it," he said as he closed the cell phone. He threw it onto the nightstand and rubbed the heels of his hands into his eyes before letting out a howl of rage. He glared into her eyes with such hate that Lizzie shivered.
"Do you know who that was?" Lizzie shook her head no. "No? Well, bitch, let me tell you. That was my source at the Medical Center." Lizzie looked at him in shock. He had people everywhere. What did he know about her visit that she didn't? "You had tests run today, didn't you, whore?" Lizzie nodded. "Well, it turns out that you're once again knocked up by the farm boy."
Lizzie wasn't sure which surprised her more: the fact that she was pregnant or the fact that Todd knew she had been pregnant before. She'd have to dwell on the current pregnancy later. She needed to know about the former.
"I'm pregnant?"
"Yes, to my disgust, you are. Again."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Don't play dumb, Lizzie, it doesn't suit you. I know you were carrying the farm boy's spawn when you left here seven years ago."
"H-how did you know? Nobody knew."
"You forget that the day you found out, or should I say the day you left, I had come by with some information for your old man. I saw you sitting on the porch swing with the stick in your hand and I knew. He was never good enough for you. Not then, and not now." Todd leaned in, his hands braced beside her head.
"I had to clean up his mess once, and it looks like I'll have to do it again."
Her stomach lurched and she knew she was going to regret asking, but she had to know. "What do you mean by 'clean up his mess'?"
Todd laughed. "You really don't know?"
"Know what?"
The knife glinted as Todd turned it in his hand. "It wasn't really an accident."
Good God. He had been insane even back then. "You?"
"Yes, me."
"You killed my baby."
"No, I just deleted a mistake that never should have existed in the first place."
She remembered seeing the
truck coming at her, then the grind of metal against metal. Nowhere in there did she hear the squeal of brakes. "There's no way you could get away with that."
"It's amazing what a little money can do. I hired someone to drive the truck, and after paying him very little really, he rammed that truck right into you."
"But it was deemed accidental. His brakes failed."
Todd shrugged. "Money."
Lizzie closed her eyes in anguish. "You paid off the cops too."
"Yes."
"I could have died in that crash."
Todd grinned. "It would have been a two-for-one deal, but no such luck. Though this time, I won't need luck. You and that baby are going to die." He curled his lip in a sneer. "You're way too tainted by the farm boy to suit my taste."
He spit in her face, then got up from the bed and walked out of the room, leaving Lizzie to lay there stunned and in shock from what she had just learned. Todd had been the one responsible for the accident. He was the one who had made her lose that precious life. And now he was going to kill her and the new life growing inside her. A life that was truly a miracle, and he was going to end it. She needed to get out of here. The son of a bitch wasn't going to hurt her or her baby. She'd see him dead first.
She snorted at herself. Big talk for someone helplessly handcuffed to a bed. How could she get out of this? There had to be a way. Maybe Jake. Maybe one of the calls had gone through. She'd stood on the edge of the tub and held the phone up as high as she could but only had one measly half bar. Please God, just one call.
She saw a flash of color outside the window of the bedroom. Was someone out there? She watched and didn't see anything. Her hopes of being rescued were quickly dissipating.
She was running out of time, she thought, as she watched Todd come back into the room, this time carrying a hunting knife.
He stood beside the bed, set the knife on the nightstand, and pulled the belt out from the loops of his pants. When Lizzie looked away, he grabbed her chin with his hand, squeezing so hard she felt the bones of his fingers dig into her jaw. He pulled her head to face him. God, that hurt, but she had to stall him. At least long enough for Sierra come around enough to help her because there was no way she could get out of these bindings to defend herself.
"Watch me, whore, while finish tying you up." He wrapped the belt around one of her ankles and bound that leg to the foot of the bed. Then, without wasting time, grabbed the knife and climbed on the bed and straddled her as he had done before. She tried to lift her free knee to try to do some damage, any damage, but he had that leg pinned under his weight. She'd give her right arm to knee his balls up in his throat right now.
He took the knife and cut the silk gown down the middle, baring her body to his gaze. "You're so pretty," he said as he cupped one breast in his hand and then squeezed hard. When Lizzie cried out in pain, he laughed. "You like it rough, don't you, Elizabeth? And you like being tied up. I used that scarf to wrap around my cock while I jacked off to your naked pictures."
"You sick bastard."
"Oh, Elizabeth, you have no idea," he traced one breast with the knife while again squeezing the other with his hand. She cried out in pain when the knife pierced the skin just below her nipple and she saw blood spilling from the wound. He laughed and Lizzie's fear grew by leaps and bounds. She didn't want to die here. Not like this.
Where in the hell was Jake?
Todd slid down her body a little farther, trailing the knife down her chest, not cutting but just scraping the skin, over her abdomen, while circling her belly button, and then stopping on her groin. He met her gaze, his expression crazed.
"One sharp slice here, and it'll all be over. But I want to fuck you first, in every way you can imagine, and when I've had enough and you're begging for mercy, then and only then will I grant it to you. The final blow will be quick and painless, but I can guarantee what you experience before that won't be."
He raised the knife again and cut around her belly button. "I want to plunge this knife right in there and kill the farm boy's brat right this second, to know it's done, but I'm going to hold off so we can have a little fun first."
He dipped his fingers in the fresh blood spilling from the wound he just made and wrote the word "mine" across her stomach and breasts. Then Todd grabbed the scarf from beside her on the bed. He ran the scarf across his chest, then down his abdomen, then lower to rub his cock through his jeans.
Lizzie choked back the need to cry as tears burned her eyes. The sight before her was vile and depraved, but she knew if she looked away, he'd just hurt her worse. After a few minutes he stopped. His smile so evil she shuddered.
God, she really was going to die at the hands of this lunatic.
Lizzie saw a flash of color out of the corner of her eye again, and when she glanced toward the door, she saw Sierra dart across the hallway into another room.
Thank you, God. I promise I'll go to church more often. Just let Sierra and me get out of here alive. Please, please, please…
She kept her expression blank while she mentally continued the prayer. Though she was feeling relief and hope that there might just be a chance to get out of here alive and back to Jake, she didn't want to alert Todd to the fact, but seeing Sierra gave her a renewed surge of hope and anger.
"This is going to be good, Elizabeth," Todd said reached down and began to unsnap and unzip his jeans.
"See what that says there, Elizabeth?" He asked pointing to her breasts and abdomen. "You're mine."
"I'll never be yours you sick son of a bitch. Never! You can rape me and cut me and kill me, but with my last dying breath I'll be Jake's."
"Bitch!" Todd shouted as he punched Lizzie in the face again and again. He gave her one final brutal punch before spreading her legs wide and pulling his semi-hard cock out of his pants. He positioned himself at her entrance, panting with rage. "I'm going to fuck you until it's only me you see, until it's my name you are screaming!"
"Never!"
"You say that now, but we'll see what happens when my dick is pounding in and out of your cunt, then your ass, over and over, until you can't move because I've ripped you in half. Then you'll see me. Only me," he said as he stroked himself, almost desperately in an attempt to get hard again.
"That might work better if you weren't a limp dick."
"Fuck you!" He slapped her again, his cock twitching in arousal. He reached for his cock, pumping it, "There we go. Now, you'll see me!"
"No, Todd. I'll only see a monster," Lizzie said with amazing calm.
"Better than the farm boy."
Just as he was about to ram himself inside her, Lizzie heard a loud pop. She watched as Todd's face registered shock and when he turned around, Lizzie saw a bloody, battered, and bruised Sierra standing in the doorway, pistol in hand and aimed directly at Todd.
"What the fuck are you doing, Sierra?"
"Get off of her Todd. Now."
"Or what, Sierra?"
Sierra shrugged a shoulder. "Or I'll kill you."
Todd laughed. "You don't have it in you to kill me. If you did, you'd have already done it." He rose from the bed and started toward the door and Lizzie saw blood oozing from a bullet hole in his shoulder.
"Stop, Todd. You're going to be sorry if you don't," Sierra warned in a mocking tone.
"Right," Todd said and then continued to stalk toward the door.
Todd was stopped short of Sierra as Jake's, "Not another step," came out of nowhere. Jake! Then he stepped into the room, gun in hand aimed at Todd. Todd twitched and Jake's, "Just give me a reason," had him freezing where he stood.
Then Logan stepped out from behind a door in the hall with his shotgun aimed at Todd's heart. Logan directed Todd down the hall and Lizzie heard but couldn't see Sheriff Brooks tell Todd that he was under arrest.
She slumped deeper into the pillows on the bed, and only when she saw the sheriff place handcuffs on Todd, did she breathe a sigh of relief.
When Jake rushed to her side
to see if she was okay, she blurted out the first thing that came to mind.
"What took you so long?"
Jake muttered a, "Traffic's a bitch this time of day," before sitting on the bed next to her and holding her in his arms, and she whispered his name.
She felt someone place a blanket over her body and she looked up. "Thank you," she whispered to Ryan.
"Rest easy, Lizzie," he said as he handed the handcuff key to Jake. "Ambulance is on the way."
Jake nodded then released her hands from the confines of the handcuffs. He wrapped her up in the blanket and pulled her into his lap. She buried her face in his neck and breathed in his woodsy scent.
"I knew you'd find me," she whispered.
"Always."
62
Jake
She was alive. Jake was grateful for that, even if the bastard had cut her, battered and bruised her physically and mentally.
He watched Lizzie sleep in the hospital bed. Seated in the chair next to her, he rested his elbows on the bed and held her hand in his. With the first contact, her fingers curled around his. Even in sleep she held on to him, as if she feared he would leave.
He wished he could tell her she needn't worry. He wouldn't be leaving her now. Not ever. He wanted to reach up and soothe her swollen, bruised face with his fingertips, his lips, but he didn't dare touch her in fear of waking her or worse, hurting her.
He admittedly wasn't a religious man, but now watching her breathe, knowing she was alright, he thanked the Lord above for keeping the woman of his heart safe.
He wanted to kill Garrison or at the very least beat him to within an inch of his life, but Sheriff Brooks had hauled the bastard away before he had the chance.
The sheriff, with a cold and deadly stare, told him that Todd had resisted arrest, and wasn't it just too bad that he had to use force to get the man to cooperate. Even with the fact that the lawman had given Todd a good beating and his next stop would be prison, Jake knew it wouldn't be enough. It would never be enough, because the vision of Lizzie, bloodied and beaten, bound to that bed, would haunt him to his dying day.
When Petals Fall: A Cowboy, Second Chance Romantic Suspense (Chance Creek Book 1) Page 29