by Natalie Ann
He wasn’t familiar with the area, so he put the address in GPS while he ran to his car and took off in a blur.
***
“When’s Skip going to be here?” Piper asked Kaylee when she answered the door. She always thought Skip and Kaylee didn’t belong together. Kaylee was tall and almost the same size as Skip. Just manlier than she pictured with Skip, but love could be blind, she was realizing.
“In a few minutes. He’s running late.”
Piper looked around the house Skip and Kaylee owned. She’d never figured Skip for someone to live in the country, but he seemed happy enough. “How are the wedding plans coming? Not much time left now. You’ve both got to be so excited. Skip’s parents were all but bouncing in their seats over it last night.”
Kaylee smiled at her, but she could tell it was forced like it always was. “We’re getting there. I’m thinking about having the reception here. I love living here. Let’s go out back and I’ll show you.”
Piper followed her through the house and out to a deck. “Wow. The landscaping is very pretty. Do you do this all yourself?” she asked, looking around at the manicured trees and bushes, flowers, and roses climbing up a white fence.
“I do. I wanted to be a florist. Thought I’d try to create all these new plants by experimenting, but my father wanted me to take over the business instead,” she said, frowning. “Now I just deal with everything here on the land. Deal with all the bugs and critters trying to eat and destroy all my work.”
Piper thought that was an odd statement. They lived in the country; there were animals everywhere. “It looks lovely back here, though,” Piper said.
“Let’s go down by the back of the property. Then you can see the view of the back of the house. It’s where I was thinking of having the ceremony.”
Piper followed Kaylee the length of the yard, looking at all the flowers lining the edge. Some looked familiar to her, some uncommon. But the further away she got from the house, the more she felt a sense of unease. She wanted to swirl her head around and look for something. Anything to explain why the hair was rising on her arms.
Then she remembered Vin’s words that it was her gut telling her to be aware. That something was off and to listen to it.
She stopped at the edge of the property with Kaylee, right before the woods, and turned to look back when Kaylee did. “Shouldn’t you call Skip and let him know I’m here?”
“He’s on his way,” Kaylee said again. “What do you think? Do you like this view?”
Something didn’t feel right. It felt different. It felt wrong. And it felt scary. Those spiders that she’d felt crawling over her before. Yeah, they were there for some reason. It felt like they were spinning a fast web around her. Like the fear when she was pinned against the wall by Karl. In full force. Suddenly she thought she’d see the wolf’s eyes looking out at her from the woods.
She moved a step away from Kaylee. “It’s you,” she said.
“What are you talking about?”
“You.” She was shaking now and backing away. “You’ve been following me. Watching me. The flowers. I recognize them here. The mice. Why? How? I don’t understand.”
Kaylee smiled at her and there was evil behind her eyes. Something she’d never seen before. Never thought she’d see at all.
“I didn’t think you’d figure it out. I didn’t think you were smart enough to figure out that it was me. The mice were easy. I take care of it all here. Stupid critters always getting in the house. It’s cheaper to make it than buy it. I thought it’d freak you out to find them in your shop. That Skip would find out you couldn’t handle it and think you were weak and stop seeing you.”
“How did you get in?” Piper was trying to figure out what to do. Should she try to call someone?
“So stupid. Skip told you my father was a locksmith. He taught me everything he knew. I can pick any lock and get in anywhere I need to. Old man thought I wanted to be just like him. I’m sick of everyone thinking they can control my life. Taking away what I want and what is mine!”
“What? Why?” she asked again. She was so confused. Kaylee was moving closer to her, almost stalking her. She was the prey and she was trying to find a way out of this. So stupid to come here alone knowing what was going on in her life.
“The flowers are mine,” she said, her voice almost growling now. “But he was giving them to you. I caught him. Skip is mine. Not yours. Mine. He has a thing for you. He always has. All he talks about is you. Non-stop. How wonderful you are. How great you cook. How sweet you are. He left you flowers. I followed him. My flowers. I slave over them and I caught him leaving you roses on your doorstep the night after you had a man in the apartment with you. I hoped it wasn’t him, but then I saw the flowers when I snuck over early in the morning, and I knew for sure. You’re having an affair with him. I know it!”
She’d never seen rage in a woman’s eyes like this before. “You’re crazy. He’s my foster brother. He loves you. We’re family.”
“You’re such an idiot. I told you, he talks about you all the time. How strong you are. How great of a person you are. You don’t even see it. But I saw it. I’ve always seen it. I know everything about you because he never shuts up about you. You didn’t even realize I’ve been watching you at your apartment. That’s how I know he’s left you flowers before. He comes and goes from your place whenever he wants. I’ve got a friend in the apartment across the parking lot. I take care of her apartment when she’s out of town and I use it to spy on Skip. I follow him everywhere and he doesn’t even know, either. Neither did you. It’s easy enough—you’re around the corner from my job. I’m always watching!”
“I think you’re mistaken, Kaylee. I have no idea where any of this is coming from. I’ve never felt that way toward Skip. Ever. His parents are like my parents. You’re wrong.”
She was starting to feel ill. This couldn’t be happening. How did she never see it? How could she have not known? Kaylee had to be mistaken. Yeah, Skip had made her feel uncomfortable a lot, but she’d brushed it off. She’d dealt with Karl at her last foster home. Anything was bound to make her skittish.
But now she started to have flashbacks. When Skip winked at her. When he hugged her too tightly and too long. When he looked at her and her skin felt clammy.
She’d pushed it all off. She shouldn’t have. It was right there all along, his attraction for her. Except she’d thought she was mistaken. He was engaged to Kaylee. He was just being nice to her. Just flirting. She knew it was flirting. She knew that now. But never gave it a second thought. So stupid!
Piper kept backing up, until she hit a tree. Kaylee was on her, pinning her back. “I’m not crazy, even though I can see you think I am. Why won’t you believe me? I know what I know. Skip is mine. I realized the best way to make sure of that is to get rid of you, so I called you out here today with Skip out of town. He’ll be cleared. No one will suspect me. My father will cover for me and say I’m at work right now. He’s losing his mind, so I’ll just tell him I was there and he’ll believe it,” she said low in her throat.
“Wha…what does that mean?” Kaylee’s eyes were cold. So cold. And Piper was freezing standing in the eighty-degree weather right now.
Kaylee’s hands went up to Piper’s throat, circled and then started to push and squeeze. Kaylee was so much bigger and stronger than her that there was no way she could get her hands off.
“No one will find you on this property. No one will know. I’ll ditch your car and phone and they’ll think you went missing, but they’d never trace it back to me.”
Kaylee was squeezing the breath out of her. Her last thought was Vin. Would he find her in time? She had to believe. She believed in him. That he’d be there for her. That she wasn’t alone anymore.
But everything went dark.
Saving Her
Vin was speeding down the road, looking for house numbers, but there was nothing to see. Just a country road with houses set back. He passed one qu
ickly and saw a flash of yellow in the driveway and swung around, recognizing Piper’s car.
He had his door open before the car fully stopped and then was out and running up the front porch. He didn’t bother to knock, just shoved the door open and called her name. Nothing, though. No sounds to be heard.
Something told him to go out back, so he did. That’s when he saw them at the back of the yard. But it wasn’t Skip. It looked to be a woman with Piper, in front of a tree, and he took off in a run.
He pulled his gun out. “Step away from her right now,” he shouted.
He was in the zone. At war. In that state when you’re so focused on what is in front of you that outside interference was just that, on the outside.
He wasn’t worried about dropping his guard or an enemy coming up behind him. He was only worried about the woman he loved and saving her.
The woman choking Piper wasn’t moving, and clearly had no intention of stopping. He could see Piper going limp and he fired without thought, hitting the woman in the leg. It was the safest shot without worrying about hitting Piper. It was enough for the woman to fall down and Vin to pin her to the ground. Piper was coughing, so he wasn’t moving until he made sure she was safe.
“Back off, Steele,” he heard, and turned to see Detective Myers there, pulling cuffs out.
Vin rolled off and moved to Piper. “Come on now, Piper. Open your eyes. I’ve got you,” he said, cradling her.
“Ambulance is on the way,” Myers said.
“Vin,” she croaked out. “You found me. You saved me.”
“I did. Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he said.
“It’s cuz you love me. You were afraid to lose me,” she whispered.
“Yeah,” he whispered back.
“Good, cuz I love you too.” Then she was out cold again.
***
Piper blinked her eyes open, then took in her surroundings. She was in the hospital. Looked like the ER. Vin was sitting next to her and holding her hand.
“How are you feeling?” he asked.
“Like someone choked me.”
He let out a not-so-cheerful laugh. “Kaylee won’t be anywhere near you ever again.”
“So I didn’t dream it all. It was really Kaylee?”
“You didn’t dream it. She’s being guarded now.”
“Did you shoot her?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Just a flesh wound. It got her off of you.”
“I’m glad it wasn’t more than that. I’d hate to have to visit you in jail.”
This time he smiled. “But you would have, wouldn’t you?”
“Of course.” She squeezed his hand. “How did you know it was her? I figured it out when I saw all the flowers on the property. Then I felt all those things I’ve been feeling. All the things I’ve been pushing away or trying to ignore. I knew it right then. It was like you were in my mind telling me to be aware. Telling me to recognize it.”
“I didn’t. I thought it was Skip. I was shocked to see it wasn’t. I got a call this morning that the poison used on the rats was the same one used on Smokey.”
“Are you saying Smokey was poisoned?” Her heart broke. Smokey had been her pet. The only one she’d ever had. He might not have lived with her, but he was still hers. She took care of him. Her poor cat was killed because some crazy woman thought Piper was after her man. Because she was too afraid to see what had been in front of her all along.
“I had a hunch to have Smokey’s bowl tested. It was all the same. It was homegrown. Manufactured. Then I remembered the Shaffers mentioning Skip’s lab kits and him being a science major. I was calling Myers to look into it when he said Sam mentioned Skip’s name today. It was too much of a coincidence in one day. When Sam said you were on your way to their house, I thought thirty years were shaved off my life.”
“Kaylee said she was always watching me. She works around the corner from the shop. I’d forgotten about it, and that her father trained her to be a locksmith. That’s how she got in the shop. And the poison for the mice she made to use around her house. She said Skip wanted me and she thought we were having an affair. I didn’t want to believe he did, but he was always touching me. Hugging me, kissing my cheek, flirting. He did it in front of her too.”
Piper was always going to wonder if she could have handled this all differently. If she could have stopped this from happening. Maybe if she’d told Skip that she had no interest in him. Reminded him he was engaged like Kaylee had done so many times.
“I thought Kaylee was delusional, but she saw what I didn’t. She caught him leaving flowers at the apartment. He’d been secretly leaving me flowers like he did when he first met her. When he tried to win her over. That first night you and I were together, she’d watched through my window. The curtains were open. She saw a man and thought it was him. Then the next morning she left her friend’s apartment and walked down the hall in our building hoping to catch him leaving and saw the flowers on the doorstep, and said that was proof enough in her eyes. I think Kaylee just snapped then.” She was crying now, just so upset.
“Shhhh, it’s over with.”
“I never thought of him that way. I never would. I told her that, but she didn’t believe me. The last thing I remember is her hands around my neck.”
He pulled her in and hugged her tight. “Don’t talk anymore, please.”
“The only family I ever had is gone now,” she said, sobbing even more.
“You didn’t do anything wrong, Piper. Just remember that. They have to deal with this on their own. What Skip did was wrong and only he knows why he did it, but it’s not on you.”
“I don’t want to think about it anymore. Don’t leave me. Please stay. I can’t lose you too.” Was she never meant to have anyone? Any family at all? Everyone always blamed her. Said she was a troublemaker, but she wasn’t. She’d only wanted to survive.
“I’ll never leave you. I love you. You know that.”
She pulled back. “You do?”
“You told me I did back at Skip’s. I said you were right. You don’t remember?”
“No. I guess it’s a good thing. Because now I can remember you said it to me first.”
He kissed her gently and held her more. “That’s right. You’re my first.”
Epilogue
“I can’t believe this is where you grew up,” she said months later as they drove through the gates of his parents’ property.
“It is. A far cry from our small apartments, huh?”
She snorted. “That’s putting it mildly.”
She didn’t believe him when he finally told her his background. That his grandfather was like a billionaire oil tycoon. She just laughed and said no way. “I don’t know his net worth, nor would I ask. Let’s say it’s a lot,” was all he responded to her shock.
“Everyone is excited to meet you,” he said as he pulled the car to a stop.
“I’m nervous,” she said. She wasn’t good enough for these people. What could Vin have been thinking?
“No reason to be. Everyone will welcome you with open arms.”
He was right. They did. So much so, it was overwhelming. She could see this was where Vin needed to be. Where he wanted to be. There was a lot of talk about him coming home to take over the security aspect of the business. That he needed time to learn the ins and outs if he was going to ever take it over completely. But for now, he had to start somewhere.
The only problem was she didn’t know where it left her. Where it left them. Her life was back in Albany. Her store. The only thing she had.
They loved each other. She knew that, but was this goodbye now too? She was just getting over everything that happened with Kaylee and now this? How much could she go through this year?
But the next day they were driving into town, pulling in front of an empty storefront with a “for sale” sign out front. “What do you think of it?” he asked.
“About what?”
“For a bakery? For a S
weet Eats here?”
“You want me to open a bakery here? In Midland? What about Albany? That’s my home.”
“I’d like your home to be where I am. But if you really want to stay there, we can. Maybe I’ll be able to convince you to come here at some point in the future.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Mean what?” he asked.
“That you want me to be where you are. Does that mean you want us to live together?”
He laughed at her. “Piper, I want you to marry me. I want you to do it this weekend. On the ranch. No time to think. No time to question anything. Let’s just do it. You know it’s right. Sometimes you just got to be crazy and go with the flow. Be crazy with me.”
“But my life is back there.” And then she stopped. She really had no life back there. The only family she ever knew was gone.
Even though Jane and Chris said they didn’t blame her, she could never look at them the same. Skip was their son and though what he did was wrong, they wouldn’t choose her over him. And she would never go near Skip again. That part of her life was over.
“This weekend?” she asked. “As in two days from now?”
“Yep. I’ve just got to make a quick call and it’s all set to go. We can do something bigger at another date, but I figured you’d want it like this anyway.”
He was right. She had no one else. No one but Sam and Nicole. That’s it. She’d love to have them here, but didn’t know how that could happen.
“I need a dress,” she said. Was she really considering this? Was she really going to get married in two days to a man she’d known for just over six months?
One that saved her life? One that made her feel like she’d always wanted to her whole life. Like she belonged. Yep, she was going to do it!
“My mother will take you shopping in an hour when we get back. No worries.” When she hesitated, he added, “Sam and Nicole and her family will be here tomorrow,” he said, then kissed her quickly.
“Really?”