by Erin Wright
Chapter 39
Kylie
Kylie leaned over, trying to snag the paper off the ground that she’d just dropped. “Oof,” she gasped, as her belly squished up against her knees. She really wasn’t used to having to maneuver around a volleyball, sticking out of the front of her everywhere she went. “Sorry, girlfriend,” she said, patting her stomach reassuringly. “I remember that you’re there. I just forgot for a moment that I can’t bend over anymore.” She carefully slid off her chair and knelt down, finally giving her access to the damn piece of paper. She heaved herself back up into the chair.
“Everything all right up here?” Adam asked, popping his head around the corner from the back room.
“Oh yeah. Me and the baby, we’re just gonna have to decide who’s gonna be where so we can start making reservations a week before we need to get there.” She was trying to make a joke about how her belly was arriving places a week before the rest of her did, but based on the blank look Adam was giving her, she could tell she’d lost him. “So,” she said, hurrying on – explained jokes were just never very funny, “I was thinking about going for a little walk, just to stretch my legs, and I thought I’d go down to the Muffin Man to pick up coffee or something. Do you want me to get anything for you?”
He gave her a hang-dog look and she bust out laughing. “Chocolate donut with sprinkles and a jelly donut it is,” she said with a teasing sigh. “But only if you eat those carrot sticks I cut up and put in the fridge first.”
“Deal,” he said, giving her a long, thorough kiss.
“And feeding them to Mr. Mopsy doesn’t count,” she whispered against his lips.
“What? Who me?” he asked innocently, pulling back a bit and batting his brown eyes at her. “I’d never dream of such a thing.”
“I’m gonna tell Ollie to keep an eye on you. He won’t let you cheat.”
“I don’t know where you get this idea of me,” he said, flabbergasted. “Why, I am the very picture of good health and good eating.”
“You tried to argue last week that Snickers was good for you because it has nuts in it,” she reminded him dryly. “You keep this up, and you’re gonna be 900 pounds. Ollie!” she hollered.
Adam snuck one last kiss from her, muttered something about being henpecked, and disappeared into the back again. Kylie rolled her eyes, trying and failing to keep a grin from spreading across her face.
Hmmm…well, it’s okay to smile since he can’t see me, she decided. Encouraging him, though…that would not be a good idea.
“Yes, Ms. Kylie?” Ollie asked, appearing in the doorway to the back.
“First off, there’s carrots and celery sticks back in the fridge. I want you and Dr. Whitaker to have them all eaten by the time I get back from the bakery. Second, I want them eaten by you two, not by Mr. Mopsy. He’s here to get testing done, not to eat his weight in carrot sticks. Third, what donut do you want me to get for you from the bakery?”
“Oh, Bavarian creme!” he said, his face lighting up at the talk of donuts. He looked…decidedly more excited about that than the carrots and celery she was insisting he eat.
Why was she not surprised…
“I’ll be back in a minute,” she told him. “If the phone rings, just let it go to voicemail. I’ll call ‘em when I get back.” She’d done her best to teach him not to lecture clients on whether it was okay to have a business card, but still, it seemed best to leave client relations up to her.
She walked out into the heat of the late July sun, letting the warmth pound down on her for a moment, and then began meandering towards the Muffin Man. She was excited by the chance to get out and stretch her legs, sure, but she was more excited to go chat with Sugar.
After attending Sugar and Jaxson’s wedding three weeks ago, Kylie felt like she finally had a friend in the area. She’d never been real close to anyone in Sawyer growing up – definitely one of the reasons why it’d been so easy to move to Oregon for college and leave Long Valley behind – and the few people she would’ve reached out to since she moved back home had also moved away, so other than her botched attempt to make friends at Knit Wits, she hadn’t had much of a chance to expand her social circle.
Sugar had been four years older than her in school, which had seemed so important back then, but didn’t mean diddly squat now. Post high school was a pretty nice world to live in, after all.
She walked into the cool of the bakery and sucked in a deep breath. “Oh, that’s nice,” she murmured to herself.
“Hi, Kylie!” Sugar said, coming out of the back and wiping her hands on her apron. “How are things going?” Her eyes dropped down to Kylie’s belly and back up to her face. “Wow! For some reason, I thought you were only like five months along or something.”
Kylie sent her a pained smile. “It’ll be six months in another five days and before you ask, no, I’m not having twins. I’m apparently just like my momma – I carry my babies up front and proud. I just made a joke to Adam about arriving somewhere a week after my belly did, and he just looked confused. I’m afraid pregnancy humor is rather lost on him.” She sighed. “He’s started seeing a lot more patients in the clinic, making clients take their animals down to the clinic whenever possible, rather than driving out to see them at their house, because he doesn’t want to leave me alone. He’s got the helicoptering part down flat, and I’m not even due for another three months.”
“You should’ve seen Jaxson after the bakery fire,” Sugar said, laughing. “Every time I sneezed, he wanted to take me to the emergency room. I finally had to tell him, ‘I love you, baby, but if you don’t go back to work and stop hovering over me, I’m going to leave you.’ Apparently, I finally convinced him that I meant it, because he went back to work the next day. That didn’t stop him from hovering over me before and after work, and sometimes during work, but I at least got breathers in between.”
They laughed together for a moment, and then Kylie said, “So, I’m on a donut run. I’m making Adam and Ollie eat carrots and celery before I give them their donuts, but I figure that if I promise them sugar in return for veggies, at least they get veggies into their system at some point.”
“Bavarian creme, jelly donut, and a chocolate one with sprinkles?” Sugar asked, already starting to pull the sleeves out to ready them.
“I’m not sure what that says about the eating habits of the employees of Whitaker’s Veterinarian Clinic that you have that memorized,” Kylie said wryly.
“The only one I don’t have memorized is you, and that’s because you actually pick a different one every time.”
“Moi?” Kylie said, placing a hand over her chest innocently. “Why, I hardly ever eat sugar. But since I’m here…” She began wandering along the display case. “Oh, the coconut one,” she said decidedly, pointing to the delicious-looking donut with shredded coconut heaped on top. Sugar scooped it up and slid it into its own bag.
“I’ve been meaning to tell you that we got pictures up on Facebook from the wedding,” Sugar said, ringing up the total on the cash register. “Apparently, the photographer forgot to get one of just you and Adam, even though I specifically asked her to, but there were a few with you two in the background. Between customers, I’ve been doing nothing but tagging people in pics. I can’t believe how much your stomach has grown just since the wedding! I mean, in the wedding pictures, I could see the baby bump, of course, but it’s definitely gotten bigger since then. You’re just about the cutest pregnant woman I’ve ever laid eyes on. It isn’t fair how adorable you make it look, honestly. Have you found out if it’s a girl or a boy, or do you want to be surprised?”
Kylie had heard the words, off in the distance, registering somewhere in the back of her mind, even as the rest of her mind was busy screaming in panic and terror. Not on Facebook. I can’t be on Facebook. Not Facebook. He could find me. Oh God, I should’ve taken my Facebook profile down…
“A girl,” she murmured, answering Sugar’s question even as she tried not t
o retch in fear. She smiled broadly at Sugar, panic thrumming through her veins. “A girl. I couldn’t be happier.” She shoved a ten-dollar bill across the counter and snagged the bag of donuts, practically running for the door.
“Are you oka—” and then Kylie was outside, heading down the street. Towards the clinic and her phone and Facebook.
Stupid. So stupid. She’d been careful since she got home, making sure to only take pictures of her face when posting on Facebook. No mention of the pregnancy at all. She’d ducked Sugar’s photographer all night, making sure to head the other direction whenever she seemed intent on her and Adam. She’d even turned off all of the geographical tagging that Facebook liked to include, and had stuck to generic posts about, “Having a good day today!” She hadn’t wanted to go completely silent because people might worry over that, but she’d hoped…
She’d hoped for the impossible, honestly. Why would Sugar make sure not to tag her in photos on Facebook if Kylie didn’t tell her the truth about Norman? Why would anyone think to be careful about that?
And if it hadn’t been Sugar’s wedding, it would’ve been something else. She should’ve just gone silent and deleted her account. Let a few people worry. Better than letting that dickwad track her down. She didn’t want to lose all of the pics and posts and videos she’d been making on Facebook ever since her mom finally let her get an account when she was 13 – way past the age most of her friends got their own account – but was that truly worth it in the end?
Stupid, stupid, stupid Kylie…
She hurried into the cool of the clinic and directly over to the front desk, leaning over the counter and grabbing her phone to log into Facebook without even bothering to walk around the counter so she could sit down. Every second counted. Hands trembling, she brought up her Facebook app, a big bell of notifications sitting there. She quickly untagged herself from every picture at the wedding, grimacing at the roundness of her stomach so blatantly noticeable. Sugar’d seemed to think that Kylie’d grown a lot since the wedding, but honestly? She really hadn’t been that small back then.
“Hi–oh, hey Ms. Kylie,” Ollie said, coming to a stop when he saw her. He’d obviously heard the ringing of the bell over the doorway and had thought a customer had come in. “Everything okay?” he asked, taking in her sweaty clothes from her jog through the summer heat, the panic that was no doubt registering on every cell in her face, and the fact that she was standing on the wrong damn side of the counter.
Yeah, probably not hard to figure out that something was wrong.
She flashed him a casual smile. Everything is fine… “Oh yeah, just forgot to send a text message before I left. Did you guys eat your veggies?”
“Yup, all of them. We split them in half. Dr. Whitaker said it was fairer that way.” Even as Kylie was sliding her phone back onto her desk – the tags deleted – and grabbing the donuts nonchalantly, like absolutely nothing was wrong, a small part of her brain celebrated the fact that Ollie was actually talking to her. Real sentences and everything. Although she was a human, and even worse, a girl, he must’ve decided that since she was also a regular purveyor of donuts, she was okay to like anyway.
“Well, in that case, I say we celebrate by enjoying some donuts.” She flashed him another smile, promising herself that she’d go ahead and completely delete her Facebook account that night. As tough as that was to lose all of that information she’d posted over the years, not giving Norm the breadcrumbs to find her? Priceless.
Chapter 40
Adam
Adam drove down the street towards the clinic, singing along lustily to the song on the radio.
I had a barbeque stain on my white t-shirt
She was killin’ me in that mini skirt
Skipping rocks on the river by the railroad tracks
She had a suntan line and red lipsti—
“What the hell?” he exclaimed, his eyes focusing on a bright red antique convertible parked in front of the clinic. He turned down the radio and then squinted into the bright August sunshine. It wasn’t a car that he recognized and as many miles as he put on his truck, driving around the area, checking on animals…
That was really saying something.
As he pulled in next to it, he noticed the Utah license plates. Definitely not from around here, then. Why were they stopping at his clinic? A hurt pet while on the road? The Long Valley area was a tourist destination, sure, but the Whitaker Veterinarian Clinic was definitely not on the list of the Top 10 Things You Must Do While in Idaho.
He swung out of his truck and headed for the door, taking one last look at the older car over his shoulder as he went. There was something wrong here. There was something about this car that was setting off alarm bells in his head, and it wasn’t worry about an animal potentially hurt and waiting inside for him. No, there was something else—
A Karmann Ghia. It was a Ghia.
Holy shit, it was a cherry red antique Karmann Ghia.
He grabbed the door handle of the clinic and yanked it open just as he heard Kylie cry out, “Don’t!” His eyes swept the room, taking it all in, everything in slow motion, bile rising up in his throat. There was his precious Kylie, being held by a short, muscular guy, shaved head, a long, thin knife held to her throat.
A knife. Oh God, a knife.
His eyes popped up to Norman’s – because it could only be Norman standing in front of him – and saw that he was watching Adam closely in return.
“You must be the new boyfriend,” Norman said, snarling as he pressed the knife further into Kylie’s throat, cutting off her mumbled pleadings for him to stop. “Did you know that this dumb bitch here doesn’t even know how to follow directions? I told her to get rid of this thing, but look at her. She’s huge. No doctor is going to take it out now. Because of her incompetence, I have to clean up her mess. Again.”
Just stay calm. Don’t agitate the man further. Maybe Ollie will get to work unseen and can call 911. His eyes swept the room fruitlessly as his mind spun. Was Ollie already there? He might be in the bac—
“Your sniveling teenage boy is tied up in the back,” Norman said, reading Adam’s searching eyes correctly. “I didn’t want to have to deal with two people, in case one of them decided to act like a hero. And then you had to come along. Well, it can’t be helped.” He snorted with disgust. “I mean, I doubt you’d agree to turn around and walk away.”
Adam’s eyes went wide at that, and the first sounds he’d made since he arrived came out – a low, nasty chuckle. “Hell no, I’m not walking away,” he growled, his eyes jumping between Norman and Kylie. Was the man psychotic? Adam couldn’t see something like this and walk away, even if he didn’t know Kylie from Eve. What kind of human being could? Oh, so sorry to interrupt your abortion in process with a giant fillet knife. Let me just get out of your way and let you two get to it.
As his eyes flicked between Kylie’s – pale green and terrified and begging for help – to Norman’s – pale blue and icy and lifeless – he debated his choices. He could charge the man, but Norman would be able to hurt/maim/kill Kylie long before Adam got there, and considering the soulless look in the man’s eyes, he was pretty sure Norman was more than happy to do that.
Could he talk the man down?
Maybe?
He held up his hands in the air pleadingly. “Look, I think that this has just been a misunderstanding,” Adam started out. “If you put the knife down, maybe we can all talk and decide together on what to do.” Right after I punch your teeth down your throat and then turn you over to the cops.
Yeah, right after that.
Norm let out a snort of laughter. “Do I look that stupid?” he asked condescendingly. “I didn’t think that I appeared to be the village idiot, but maybe I was wrong. Was I wrong, Kylie?” He jerked on her hair, causing tears of pain to spring to her eyes. Adam’s heart twisted inside of him. Dammit, he was a country vet who dealt with badass bulls, not psychotic wannabe murderers. And if he screwed this up�
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“No,” Kylie whispered carefully. Adam could read the terror in her eyes from across the room.
“Look, no reason to think I meant that,” Adam said calmly, shuffling forward just a bit, hands still held up in a surrender position. If he could just get within arm’s reach…
“Back up or I slit her throat,” Norman said, pressing the blade to Kylie’s throat. A small red line appeared across it. Kylie didn’t even dare whimper.
Adam stumbled backwards. “No need to do that,” he said, still holding up his hands placatingly, terror ripping through his stomach. He thought he might be sick.
He had to keep calm. Figure out a way to force Norman to make a mistake. “Look, let’s not move too hastily here. We can slow down and think through our choices. You don’t want to hurt Kylie, right? You have your business, your wife, your family…you can’t go back to all of that if you kill someone. So let’s try taking a step back to see if we can find a solution—”
“I told this dumb bitch to get rid of this thing!” Norm growled, cutting Adam off. “She didn’t do it, so I have to do it for her. That’s the solution.”
I can’t reason with him, I can’t call the police, I don’t carry a gun with me, I can’t get to his side fast enough to get Kylie away from him before he just slits her throat. The only other person who knows what’s going on is tied up in the back and is absolutely no help to me. What other choices do I have?
And then the thought he’d had over a month ago, when Kylie had first shared the truth of what had happened the night she’d told Norm about the baby, rang in his mind.
This guy is a stereotypical bully – he’d never pick on someone who could actually put up a fair fight.
Bully…
Bully…
Bully…
Adam had been lucky growing up – he hadn’t been picked on much. A little here and there, but he’d tended to be on the tall side and none of the bullies had wanted to pick on someone bigger and taller than them. Just like right now – Norm didn’t want to take on Adam in a fair fight; he wanted to hurt and abuse a woman who was smaller and weaker than him in every way.