“Faithful to what? You two were never married. You should have worshiped the ground that he walked on. You should have thanked him every day for lifting you from the life of mediocrity that you were destined for and giving your life purpose. But you didn’t do that. You got it in your head that you were something special. That you deserved more . . . and so you left me with no choice but to put you back in your place.”
“That’s why you had me and Melissa abducted? You wanted to teach us some kind of lesson?”
“My job as a father is to make sure that Travis lives up to my expectations for him. I was willing, although reluctant, to accept you as a future daughter-in-law since I felt you could eventually be molded into a proper wife for Travis, but after you terminated your relationship with him, I couldn’t risk Melissa swooping in like the desperate scavenger that she is to take your place. I will never accept a whore as a daughter-in-law, so I decided to have that threat eradicated.”
“And what about me?” Bree asked while shaking her head I disgust. “I overheard those men you hired saying that I’m the one who was supposed to survive? What did they mean by that?”
“They were instructed to leave you beaten and raped on the edge of town. Obviously, you were never supposed to learn that I had anything to do with your misfortune. Everyone, including you of course, was supposed to believe that it was nothing more than a random crime committed by two sick individuals.”
Bree couldn’t honestly say that she was surprised to learn that he had such a horrible fate planned for her, but hearing him say those words out loud was nothing short of sickening.
“You’re a monster . . .” Bree shook her head in disgust. “Why would you hire them to do that to me? What lesson was that supposed to teach me?”
“I wanted to break you. To make you so afraid of the world and all of its many dangers that you would come crawling back to the one person in the world who can protect you and give meaning to your life.”
“Are you talking about Travis?”
“No, I’m talking about me. Yes, you would have married my son, but you would have belonged to me. I would have remade you into the perfect wife for my son, but it seems you threw that opportunity away as well.”
Before Bree could even think of a way to respond to that psychotic statement, Vivien sat up in bed, rubbing weariness from her eyes. Her eyes widened in alarm when she noticed Bree pointing a gun at her husband.
“Bree?” She turned to Roland. “What in the world is going on?”
“Vivien, I want you to call the sheriff immediately. It seems Bree is confused. She’s a danger to herself and everyone else.”
“I don’t understand,” Vivien said. “What’s the matter with her? And where did she get that gun? Bree, are you alright, dear? Do you need—”
“Vivien,” Roland roared. “Do as I say and call the sheriff.”
Vivien nodded meekly. She reached for the phone on the nightstand beside the bed and grabbed the receiver.
“Why bother calling?” Bree asked Roland “Sheriff Rogers already knows what you did. Calling him isn’t going to do you any good.”
“He knows what you and Melissa told him, but that doesn’t mean that he’s going to believe you. I will tell him my version of what happened. Who do you honestly think he’s more likely to believe?”
As much as Bree wanted to believe that the sheriff would side with Melissa and her, it was hard not to have concerns that he too might be swayed by the lies that Roland was so good at telling.
Just then, Bree heard movement out in the hall behind her. She looked over her shoulder just as Travis was stepping inside his parents’ bedroom.
“W-what the hell is going on?” Travis asked while staring at Bree. “Why are you covered in mud? And where did you get that gun?”
“Are you really going to pretend like you don’t know?” Bree glared at her ex-boyfriend.
“I don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.”
“Like hell you don’t.”
“I’m serious, Bree. I don’t know what’s going on.”
“Ask your father.” Bree gestured to Roland with her head. “I know he can explain everything.”
“Dad? What’s going on?”
“Nothing. Go back to bed. This doesn’t concern you.” Roland shot a glare at Vivien. “What the hell are you waiting for? I told you to call the damn sheriff.”
With a timid nod, Vivien frantically started to dial.
“Why does Mom need to call the sheriff?” Travis asked.
“I already made it clear that this doesn’t concern you,” Roland growled. “Just go back to your room and I’ll explain later.”
“What are you talking about? If it concerns Bree then it concerns me too.”
“Tell him.” Bree took aim at Roland’s head, wanting to make it clear that she wasn’t playing.
Roland gave her a cold stare, but he had to know that she was the one holding the cards now. Unless of course he didn’t actually believe that she was willing to pull the trigger, which raised an important question.
Was she willing to do it?
She shot and killed Mac, but that was different. He was going to kill both her and Melissa if she didn’t. But if she shot Roland here in his own bedroom when he wasn’t even armed, she couldn’t realistically classify that as self-defense, even if he did deserve to be shot for what he did.
Roland looked at his son and finally spoke. “I did what had to be done. That is all you need to know.” He turned to Vivien again. “Dammit, woman, did you call the sheriff or not?”
“I called his cellphone, but he didn’t answer. Do you want me to call the station instead?”
Roland shook his head. “That useless old fool. Can’t even be on call to do his goddamn job.”
Travis stepped closer to his father. “That doesn’t answer my question, Dad. What exactly did you do?”
“I’ll tell you since he’s obviously too much of a coward to admit what he did,” Bree spoke up. “He hired two goons to kidnap Melissa and me, but we managed to escape from them before they could rape us both and kill Melissa, which is what they were paid to do.”
Bree’s finger hovered over the trigger while she explained everything to Travis. It was certainly tempting to put a bullet in Roland’s head, but she wasn’t going to kill him. She wanted the sheriff to arrest him, and for the whole town to learn what kind of a man he really was.
“Oh my God . . .” Vivien uttered as she placed a hand over her heart. She stared at her husband. “Is this true?”
Roland glanced back and forth between his wife and his son for several seconds, and the two of them were clearly very eager to hear what he had to say for himself. But he was saved from having to provide an explanation by the sound of a car outside.
Travis moved to the window and pulled the curtain aside to have a look.
“Who is it?” Bree asked.
“It’s the sheriff.”
The moment that Bree’s attention was diverted, she caught a glimpse of movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see Roland pull a pistol from the top drawer of his nightstand.
He took aim at Bree.
And Bree took aim at him too.
Her heart pounded. Time seemed to slow down. She got the feeling that he wouldn’t hesitate to shoot her, so she felt like she had no choice but to shoot him first.
She pulled the trigger at the exact same moment that she saw a flash from the muzzle of Roland’s pistol.
16
THE THUNDEROUS SOUND OF THE two nearly simultaneous gunshots still rang in Bree’s ears as a searing hot pain erupted in her shoulder. It took several seconds from when the bullet was fired from Roland’s gun for Bree to realize that it passed right through her shoulder. She dropped her own gun to the floor and clutched her hand over her wound as she fell to her knees.
Her breathing became labored as she struggled to retain any air in her lungs. Was this it? Was she going to die here tonight?
; Once her hearing started to normalize, she heard footsteps. Felt someone looming over her. She looked up to find Roland standing over her with the pistol pointed at her forehead.
“Dad, what are you doing?” Travis spoke up.
“Stay out of this,” Roland barked at his son. “Go outside and tell the sheriff that I had no choice but to shoot the intruder.”
“You can’t kill her. Put the gun down.”
“Don’t you dare tell me what to do. She broke into my home, she threatened my life, and she endangered my family. I have every right to shoot her.”
“You can’t . . .”
“I can, and I will. Now do as you were told, so I can do what needs to be done. I can only assume that you don’t want to see this.”
“Drop the gun, Roland.”
Bree turned just as Roland did and they both discovered Vivien standing by the edge of the bed. She was holding Bree’s discarded rifle, and taking aim at her husband.
“Vivien, what in God’s name do you think you’re doing?”
“I won’t let you kill that girl.” Although her voice was trembling and there were tears in her eyes, her hands were steady. “Put the gun down. I’m begging you.”
Roland shook his head. “How dare you. You’re my wife. You’re supposed to be loyal to me. How could you betray me like this? After everything that I’ve done for you? After everything that I’ve given you?”
“Yes, you have given me a lot. You gave me a beautiful home and a son that I love with all of my heart. You’ve also given me cracked ribs, a broken wrist, and more bruises than I could ever count. But I was willing to accept all of that because of how you provided for Travis and me. But I won’t stand for this. I won’t let you murder an innocent girl.”
“You ungrateful bitch. Have you forgotten what you were before I found you? You were nothing but a simple-minded country girl with dreams of landing a big fish. I took pity on you. I saw the way you flirted with those wealthy college boys, the way you squeezed yourself into those second hand dresses and put your body on full display. Like a whore in search of a buying customer. All the while hoping that your secret shame of being the daughter of an alcoholic grease monkey wouldn’t come out. I saw the potential in you. I knew I could mold you into a perfect obedient wife, so I took you in and trained you like the lost puppy that you were. I made you what you are today. You would literally be nothing without me, so don’t you dare tell me what I can and cannot do. I built this town from the ground up, saving it from obscurity and making it what it is today, and I did it all for you.”
“No, you didn’t.” Vivien shook her head. “You did it all for yourself. You purchased stakes in every business in my home town, you not only brought them to financial stability but you even helped them flourish, but you didn’t do it for me, and you didn’t do it for the people of this town. You did it for your ego. You did it to prove that you could, and to hold it over me. You don’t just want to own me. You want to own my home. You want to own anything and everything that I’ve ever touched. But even if you do own half of everything in this town, you don’t own the people here, and you don’t have the right to choose who lives and dies. Put that gun down, and leave Bree alone, or I swear to God I will shoot you.”
As Roland’s eyes ignited with a fiery rage, he turned his gun on his wife. “Maybe I won’t kill her. Maybe I’ll kill you instead.”
“Dad, don’t,” Travis shouted.
But Roland ignored his son. His teeth were clenched. His eyes were bulging. And there were veins popping in his forehead. There was no denying how furious he was, but would his rage actually drive him to kill his wife?
At this point, Bree wouldn’t put anything past him.
But before Roland could do anything, Sheriff Rogers and one of his deputies charged into the room. Both had their pistols drawn. One trained his pistol on Roland, and the other aimed at Vivien.
“Put those guns down,” Sheriff Rogers said in a firm but calm voice. “Do it now. No one needs to get hurt here.”
“I suggest you stay out of this, Sheriff. It’s a family matter.”
“I can’t do that, Roland. I need you and your wife to put down your weapons, and then we can talk about what happens next.”
“Don’t you mean arresting me? Isn’t that what happens next?”
“I have to take these allegations seriously, Roland, but I’m not arresting anyone until I have more information. I’m not sure what exactly is going on here, but I obviously need to get Bree to the hospital, and you have some explaining to do.”
“I don’t have to answer to anyone,” Roland snarled.
“You do have to answer to me. You might be the wealthiest man in Trenton, but you still have to obey the law, and it’s my job to make sure that you do.”
“Just give it up, Roland,” Vivien said as she was lowering her own weapon, slowly crouching down to set it on the floor. “It’s over.”
“No.” Roland shook his head. “If it’s all going to come to an end . . . I refuse to let you be the one to take it all from me.”
Just as Vivien set the rifle down, Roland pulled the trigger and put a bullet into his wife’s chest. She collapsed to the floor in a heap, and did not move again.
“No,” Travis cried out at the top of his lungs.
But his voice was quickly drowned out by the sound of gunfire. Both Sheriff Rogers and his deputy opened up on Roland. Multiple shots were fired by both lawmen, and Roland was on the floor—riddled with bullet holes—within seconds of killing his wife.
Bree remained motionless. Hand still pressed tightly to her wounded shoulder. While the sheriff was calling for an ambulance, Bree stared at Travis as he cradled his mother’s body in his arms. Tears streamed down his face and he begged his mother to open her eyes.
But it was obvious that she wouldn’t.
Bree felt hollow inside. Vivien saved her life . . . but paid the ultimate price to do it. Bree wasn’t sure what she expected to happen when she came here, but this wasn’t it. This didn’t feel like the justice that she wanted.
It felt tragic.
And it felt like a mistake.
She came here because she wanted Roland to see that he didn’t break her. She wanted him to pay for what he did—and tried to do—to her and Melissa, but she didn’t come here to kill him, and she certainly didn’t want anyone else to get hurt . . . but it happened anyway.
17
“THIS ISN’T EXACTLY THE WAY that I pictured this day,” Bree said while she wandered across the crowded football field with Veronica right beside her. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled to be here with you, but I can’t help feeling . . . guilty.”
“Guilty?” Veronica narrowed her eyes. “Why would you feel guilty?”
Bree responded with only a shrug.
“Hold up. Does your guilty feelings have anything to do with Travis?”
“Maybe . . .”
“For real?”
“It’s graduation, Veronica. He should be here, and if he and I were still going out, he would be. We both know that’s true.”
“He chose not to be here, Bree. You’re not responsible for his decisions, and you’re certainly not responsible for his mistakes.”
“I know that. It’s just . . .” Bree came to a stop and turned to face her best friend. “Look at where we are. We talked about this day since we were freshman. It was always supposed to be you, me, and Travis graduating together.”
“But it didn’t turn out that way, and you shouldn’t let the fact that Travis decided not to show up ruin today for you.”
“I get that, but I feel sorry for him.”
“Why would you feel sorry for him? He cheated on you, and I’m sure we don’t even need to talk about what his dad did.”
“That’s just it. It’s about what his dad did. Not what he did. And think about how awful that night was for him. Both of his parents died. And now he’s all alone. I’m sure that’s why he chose not to show up. Why sho
w up to a graduation celebration when you don’t have anyone to celebrate with?”
Veronica frowned. “I guess I didn’t think about it that way. Still, nothing that happened was your fault. You do know that, don’t you?”
“Yeah . . . but I can still feel bad for him.”
“I really don’t think that you should . . .” Veronica trailed off and then sighed and nodded. “Yeah. I guess.”
Just then, Bree spotted her mother in the crowd of graduates and their family members and friends, fighting her way through the crowd to get to her daughter. Bree helped her out by heading towards her. As soon as they reached each other, her mother wrapped her up in a tight embrace.
“Congratulations, Bree,” her mother said. The embrace went on for several seconds before at last her mom let her go and then held her at arm’s length. There were tears in her eyes. “I’m so proud of you. Not just for graduating—I never had any doubts about that—but for graduating at the top of your class and getting that academic scholarship. You’re really going to make something of yourself, and you’re going to be a hell of a lot more successful than me.”
“I couldn’t have done any of that without you.” Bree found tears flooding her own eyes. She didn’t think that she would get so emotional today, but seeing her mom on the verge of sobbing tears of joy, she just couldn’t help but tear up too.
“Well,” her mom let go of her and then stepped back and wiped away her tears, “I told myself that I wouldn’t turn into a sobbing mess today. Anyway, your aunt and uncle want to take you out for lunch after this. Are you feeling up for that? They did fly in all the way from Miami after all.”
“Yeah, that’s fine with me. Is it alright if I go home first? I want to change into something nice if we’re going out.”
“Yes. Of course you can.”
Bree was about to ask her mom where they were going for lunch when—out of the corner of her eye—she caught a glimpse of a familiar face in the crowd.
It was Melissa.
Their eyes met. Melissa waved to her, and Bree waved back.
“Hey, I’ll be right back,” Bree told her mom. “I want to say hi to someone.”
Hide and Seek: A Suspense Thriller Page 10