by Brea Viragh
My jaw fell open. “What makes you think I’ll agree to such a crazy scheme?”
“They can be very persuasive,” Poppy put in delicately, as though commiserating with the inconvenience but necessity of it all. “I’ll offer to take the third shift of Essie Watch.”
“Once this blows over, we’ll help you figure out what to do about Isaac.” Shari offered me a sheepish grin. “We wouldn’t dream of keeping you away from your true love. Hell, he can come over too, if he wants. Just make sure I’m not home when you do it.” Air quotes. Give me a break.
True love. Right. I exhaled loudly. “I guess I have no choice.”
After a short but stunned silence, Leda asked, “That’s it? You agree?”
“Sure, why not? You’re concerned. I can see that, and I appreciate it.”
“Somehow your enthusiasm seems a little disingenuous,” Poppy said slowly.
“Me? Never. I would never take my mental anguish out on any of you.”
The determined set of her jaw told me exactly how Shari felt about my sarcasm. “I’m going to assume it is said mental anguish that’s taken your brain and put it in a blender. You’re batty, woman. But it’s okay. We love you anyway. Even when you act like an idiot.”
“We’re going to keep you safe. We promise.” Leda took the plate of sweets and grabbed another piece.
I felt like a jerk. Here they were, concerned for my welfare, and I was ready to laugh it off. Maybe there really was something wrong with me. I’d bungled the whole mess with Isaac. I’d failed to give credence to the threats and continued to put my life in real danger like I hadn’t a care in the world. It was time for me to step in line.
I rose, slapping my hands down on my thighs. “Fine, whatever you say. Let’s finish talking about the book and then I’ll go pack a few things. Satisfied? Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get some air.”
They nodded in unison, like lovable bobble heads. I felt the weight of their stares as I walked out the back door and onto the tiny patio. Stars glistened overhead in the vastness of the universe. A reminder that my problems were not so large in the greater scheme of things.
Maybe I can do this, I thought. Maybe I didn’t have to live with the constant worry of what’s the worst that could happen. Maybe it was possible to have my routine, my safety...and have Isaac there as well.
Drawing in a deep breath, I wondered at my next move and cast my gaze to the heavens.
An arm wrapped forcefully around my waist. A cloth stinking of some kind of chemical descended over my nose and mouth. Sheer terror had me in its ugly grip, and I struggled but could not stop or even stall the progress as I was roughly pulled into the darkness, my feet dragging futilely along the ground.
Each attempt to scream, each gasp for breath brought more of the stinging chemical into my throat and lungs, until my brain began to shut down. The last coherent words echoing through my mind? Not again.
CHAPTER TWENTY
What’s the worst that could happen? Famous last words if ever I’d heard them. I decided I would rather not find out.
However, I apparently had no choice. The world spun, my head throbbed, and for the umpteenth time this month I wondered when unconsciousness would release me. I wondered what kind of life I lived where I had to be worried about permanent brain damage.
All these wonderings happened in seconds once I came out of my drug-induced state.
Feeling slowly returned to my limbs and I realized my hands were bound behind my back. My ankles were left loose, comfortable enough in the cramped space. The backseat of the truck was filled with assorted paraphernalia I assumed were meant for me. Duct tape. Rope. A hunting knife capable of taking down a bull elephant.
Through hazy focus, I tried to make out the driver. White male, dark hair, sleeves rolled up to the elbows...
Son of a bitch. I knew who it was.
The SUV, which I knew was silver with a permanently shiny grille, took a left-hand turn up a steep hill. We pushed through ruts and gulches, puddles and downed tree limbs. Headlights speared through the complete darkness.
“You never listen.”
He knew I was awake. Despite the fog in my brain, and my eyes which refused to clear, one fact stood out to me. I’d been drugged. My damn ex-boyfriend had drugged me.
“I made it pretty clear, Essie. Stay away from Isaac. Stop messing with things better left buried. But did you listen? No.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “I had everything set. Everything planned. My money was safe, you were out of the way, the bad guy was in jail. Then he got out and you ran right into his arms. Who knows what you might have done together.”
“And I told you it was not your concern,” I said. The syllables slurred together and I realized my mouth wasn’t working right. Jeez. “What I did with Isaac was on me. So what does it have to do with you?”
“Oh, I’m sure you tried real hard to resist him.”
My back was pressed against the cool leather, stomach lurching every time we hit a bump. I tried to roll over onto my side, the world flipping and flopping with the movement. It didn’t take long to realize I was bleeding all over Trent’s SUV.
“I make a good living. Don’t you understand? I have the best set-up in the country for methamphetamines. Isaac knows it. He’s known it all along. He tells one person, just one wrong person, and I’m ruined!” Trent screamed the last bit and I flinched in response. “They might have let me get away with it before. Now I’m in too deep. I wouldn’t survive in prison. We all know I wouldn’t survive.”
Eyes squeezed shut, teeth chattering, I tried to concentrate. My thoughts were splintered. It was difficult to focus on those broken pieces.
“Where are you taking me?” I managed to ask.
Trent looked back at me over his shoulder, features shrouded in shadow. “A little place you’ll remember well.”
If nothing else came of this, at least now I knew the culprit without a doubt. The real man behind the mayhem. How stupid I’d been to ever think it was Isaac, even for a split second. Who else would want us both shaken up? To see us both reduced to snivels and sobs?
“I can’t stop, Essie. You understand.” Trent kept driving, his voice persuasive now, trying to make me believe his side of the situation. “He’ll tell someone about what happened. I can’t let him ruin my reputation.”
Please let him be reasonable, I thought frantically. Please let him listen to what I have to say. “No, he won’t,” I began. “It’s water under the bridge. Isaac won’t tell anyone. Neither will I.”
“He knew the drugs were mine, way back then. He knew I’d started branching out into production and distribution. So I sold a bad batch, we all make mistakes. I fixed it.” Trent gave a short laugh. “I fixed it and got Isaac’s prints on the bag. I knew some little snitch on my football team was going to rat. I knew it and I fixed it, Essie. I’m not about to let him talk. It’s my livelihood.”
It took a special kind of jerkoff to kidnap a woman from her own house. Then again, he’d broken into the bakery to threaten me. Was I surprised by this latest B&E? Not really.
The world spun until my stomach wanted to heave. I had a horrible feeling this night wouldn’t end well. Pulverizing-slash-kidnapping me was only the beginning.
Trent pulled onto a rough patch of gravel and threw the truck into park, giving me a painful bounce when I fell to the floorboards.
“What did you do to me?” I demanded.
“A little chloroform I made at home.” At my horrified gasp, he turned around to glare at me, slamming on the parking brake and cutting off the engine. “You’ll be fine. Would have been fine if you hadn’t interfered. This had nothing to do with you. Why’d you have to go to the police, Essie?”
“Why’d you have to run me off the road, Trent?” I countered, but he didn’t respond.
He got out, opened the back door, and yanked me out onto the gravel. My head bounced off the frame of the vehicle. The goose egg by my ear that had sl
owly been healing now screamed in protest.
“That was just a warning,” he growled. “One you didn’t have the brains to heed. You became a problem. One I can’t let interfere with my money. You understand about money, don’t you, babe?”
I tried to concentrate on where we were, these woods the very ones from three years ago when I’d been braver. Surer. Less hog-tied. A clang from the back of the SUV caught my attention, then Trent jerked me to a standing position.
“You’re about to have a nasty accident. They won’t know how you got so lost in the woods. The cause of death will probably come down to exposure. The medical examiners won’t be able to see the strangulation ligatures once the wild animals are done with you.”
“What?”
He clasped my arm and dragged me up a slight incline toward the trailer. Little had changed since the last time we’d been there. Wooden slats covered the windows now, weeds and saplings growing closer to the siding.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “It will be over soon.”
Trent was so casual, it made it sound like he’d killed before. Definitely not comforting. My fingers numbed when a chill slid over me. Cold sweat formed along the hairline on my neck as the world swayed and shook. It was too much. The changes. Isaac coming home. The accidents. Finding out my past was based on a lie.
Whispers of logic rushed through my broken mind like a thunderstorm. Trent was behind it all. He had been from the start. How was I not smart enough to see his shadow behind the trial that put Isaac away?
“I don’t mind telling you, I’m going to make him suffer, though.”
My heart skipped a beat and felt like it rose physically against my ribs. “What do you mean?”
“He won’t pull through, Essie, I can’t let him. He was the one who called the cops that night. I know it. Then he got you involved and I...I can’t let this go any further. He’d head straight for the police if I let him out.”
Just as quickly, my heart plummeted to my toes and the ground slipped out from under me. Let him out? The remnants of old gravel skimmed my knees when Trent yanked me forward again.
“He was a hard one to catch. Tried to punch me in the ’nads,” he added with something like a chuckle. “I'm sorry you won’t get to watch him die. That will be my pleasure alone.”
“What do you mean?” I asked again. A wave of panic washed over me. I tried to swallow, but my throat was parched and raw.
“You’re going first.”
“Why are you doing this?”
His eyes slammed shut and he shook his head. “I can’t let you live. My livelihood depended on Isaac staying gone, on you staying ignorant. Neither of which happened. So here we are.” He gave a tiny shrug so nonchalant that it sent fresh shivers of terror up my spine. “I am sorry.”
Trent pushed me down onto my stomach in the sparse grass near the trailer and straddled me, wrapping his hands around my throat. I cried out against the shock, my body bucking wildly when his fingers tightened. Squeezed. White dots danced in front of my eyes as I struggled to draw air.
The earth spun, the pain crippling. I kicked my feet against him, though it did no good. My lungs screamed for air. On my belly, his hands around my throat, my head and neck arched back...and I saw stars in the night sky, their brilliance fading into mist. The last sight I would ever see. My last seconds on earth.
This was it. I was about to die.
“Get your goddamn hands off her!”
Disbelief struck hard when the pain suddenly stopped, a hairsbreadth from unconsciousness. I curled into a fetal position and coughed the moment the weight left my back. Trent yelled and I heard a crunch several feet from where I lay.
I drew in a shaky breath, relieved that my lungs still worked. Hacking, I glanced up in time to see Trent howling in pain, and Isaac pummeling him mercilessly.
“You son of a bitch,” he raged, anger filling him completely. “Take me, do whatever you want to me, but don’t you touch her.”
Trent managed to stagger a few feet out of Isaac’s reach, blood dripping from the split in his lip and the gash across his forehead. He swiped at his cuts, glanced down at the blood on his fingers, looked up at Isaac, and smirked. “You should have stayed gone. You should have rotted in jail.”
“You should be the one rotting in prison, asshole.” Isaac kicked out with his right leg and a thrill shot through me when Trent went flying. He fell next to me, crimson droplets plunking into the dirt. Answering fury blackened his gaze when he looked up.
I didn’t give him a chance to retaliate. With adrenaline rushing through me, I leaned over as fast as I could and notched my teeth into the side of his neck. I clamped down hard, relishing his pain-filled howl.
“Fuck! You fucking whore.”
A single hard shove sent me tumbling away. I landed painfully on my shoulder, kicking out with both legs when Trent struggled to rise again. Clutching his neck. Ready to make good on his pledge of murder. He glared at me and staggered closer. Isaac shifted in the darkness and lunged sideways toward the larger man, keeping him away from me. Their bodies collided with a resounding thunk.
Trent’s breath wrenched out of him in a pained rush as he hit the ground hard, with Isaac on top of him plowing a fist into his gut. Payback for earlier. Trent countered with a solid knee to the groin which had Isaac moaning and scrambling up. Nearly losing his balance in the process, Trent rose swinging.
Isaac twisted and narrowly escaped the right hook. The position of his rangy body shielded mine from the sight of blood. Of fists flying. Coarse uttered oaths drowned out in a flurry of punches. Ice shot through me at the look of intensity on Trent’s face. He looked...deranged. Foreboding filled me when Trent landed a solid punch that sent Isaac to the ground.
He didn’t get up.
Trent stood over me on wobbly legs, blood streaming from cuts and gashes on his face and hands, the bite on his neck raw and ragged. “You shouldn’t have gotten in the way.” He reached for my shoulders and slammed me down a second time. Caught me before I had a chance to bolt. Air left my lungs in a whoosh. My head knocked the ground, and small stars burst to life as pain and shock overwhelmed me. Trent straddled me again, his weight heavy as a boulder across my midsection.
Then with one fist, he grabbed my hair, yanking hard, using it as a rope. With his other hand he grabbed my chin, jerking both roughly until my head was turned to the side. “Take a look at your lover now,” he crowed.
Isaac lay prone on the ground, face down, unmoving. What with the blinding pain and all I couldn’t tell if he was still breathing. “Why isn’t he getting up?” I croaked, panic rising again. Dear God, let him be alive! “Why, Trent? Why are you doing this?” Tears stung my eyes.
When he looked at me, his eyes were flat, like his soul was detached. “He would have told,” Trent said simply.
It finally hit home to me then. Trent really was going to kill us both. It was the only way he’d feel safe, the only way to tie up loose ends that could potentially bring him down. With renewed purpose, I welcomed the extra dose of adrenaline to my bloodstream and fought against him as if my life depended on it. Because it did.
But he was so much bigger and stronger than me, my efforts were wasted. Trent pushed his full weight into me. “Stop struggling,” he grunted out.
There was nothing I could do when he tightened his grip on my hair, bringing fresh tears to my eyes. He released my chin and the soft pad of his thumb stroked my cheek.
“Don’t.” The word burst free when I tried to shove away from the contact of his fingers on my skin. Logic and reason switched off under the weight of dread when he jerked my chin to face him, exposing my throat. I hated myself then, hearing the whimpers I couldn’t stifle. My mind screamed at me to run. To get to Isaac. To fight back.
Trent’s fingers wrapped around my neck and squeezed down until the joints popped.
No. This was not going to happen.
I had plans. I still had so many plans. So many things
I wanted to do in my life, places to see. People to love. I gathered what little strength I had left and sent it spiraling down. My knee jerked higher to land squarely on the Y between Trent’s legs. His attention snapped and he fell hard, his face slamming into the ground.
I staggered up. The world spun at warp speed. I waited a split second to see what he would do next. Then I decided, why give him the chance? Give him the chance to kill Isaac, strangle me, and pollute the county with his drugs and lies.
“You’re finished,” I croaked. Big words coming from someone who was devastated when she burned a tray of cookies. Someone who had a meltdown when the slightest detail was out of her control.
Finally accepting my accountability, I grabbed a tree branch the size of my leg and struggled to wield it. Trent lifted an arm to stop me. He was a second too late as I brought the limb down on his head. I brought it down a second time. Screaming, I brought it down a third. A fourth. Until I was sure he wouldn’t come for me again.
A sudden hand on my shoulder had me whirling around, the branch held aloft. Isaac reached out to grab my wrist and stop the movement.
“Sugar...”
I glanced at the branch, then over my shoulder to Trent’s prone, unmoving body. My hands shook and my stomach gave a great heave that nearly had me emptying its contents. “I’m sorry...” Tears clogged my throat as I dropped the makeshift weapon, diving into the safety of his arms. Isaac trembled, his muscles spasming beneath the skin. “Oh god, I’m so sorry!”
He stiffened in surprise before relaxing, linking his fingers with mine when I reached my arms around his torso. “Hey, it’s all right now. It’s all right. You did it.”
I moved closer into the taut ridge of muscle, inhaling his scent. “He wanted to kill us.”
“He did. I thought I was a goner there for a minute.”
“I think I might...I might have done some permanent damage to him.”