“The whole thing with Keith getting so close to her brought back all the memories of what Chad had put her through. That night she woke up screaming. After that came the sobbing. I’ve had women use crying to try and get to me, but it never worked. I told you; Jordan is different. I…” he stopped and looked me straight in the eyes. “I think I love her.”
I glanced at him in disbelief. “You and Jordan? Jesus.”
“Jax?” I looked in the direction where I heard Lainie’s voice.
“I’ve got some news about Keith. We think we know why he’s still after Lainie.” As we walked back to the cabin, I told Brent about the locket and the paper we found.
Chapter 13
Lainie
The next day
I tried not to cry as we watched Mom and Matt drive away from the cabin. With the threat of Keith finding us, we couldn’t afford to all be in the same place for very long. At least Jax had figured out why Keith was still after me. When the car was out of sight, I turned and hugged him, burrowing my face into his shirt as I stifled a yawn.
“That’s what you get for staying up half the night on the computer.” He led me into the cabin, and I headed for the kitchen to get some more coffee.
“I’ll sleep after Brent and Jordan leave,” I said as I poured another cup. This whole ordeal had me punchy and I stared at the mug as if it had the answers. When Jordan came in from the porch, I was glad for the distraction. I missed my mom already, and they had just left.
Jordan was headed for the coffee pot but stopped abruptly when she saw Jax’s face. I saw the pain in his eyes from my vantage point. “Dammit. He told you, didn’t he?” she accused. He just glared at her, and she ran to the bedroom and slammed the door.
Last night everything was perfect and today, it’s all starting to fall apart, just like my life. I watched as Brent came in from the porch and realized that Jordan wasn’t in the room. He picked up their bags and headed back out, walking past Jax without saying a word. I wonder what that is all about? I limped out the door after him. “Brent? What’s going on?”
He tossed the bags into the back of his SUV as if they were empty. “Nothing you need to be concerned about, just a little difference of opinion about Jordan.”
“It’s not nothing. You and Jax are glaring at each other and Jordan locked herself in the bedroom looking like she was going to cry.”
“Shit.” He rubbed his hands over his face. “I better go talk to her, we need to get on the road.”
After a hushed conversation through the bedroom door, Brent and Jordan left. The cabin was eerily empty and too quiet now with everyone gone. I turned on the iPod and set it to random, just wanting to get rid of the silence. Jax was outside. Brent had said or done something that really bothered him, and he had been moody ever since they left.
Thank goodness for the laptop; it really helped me to get my thoughts in order. I opened a new document and started writing about how Jax and I were thrown together in high school by the principal. Even then there was something between us, but neither of us knew how strong the bond would be. I wrote about that time until I was so tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
Night had fallen and the temperature was starting to drop, but I decided to join Jax on the front porch. I shivered as he put his arm around me and then cuddled up into him, enjoying being close.
“You okay, hon?”
“Yeah,” he replied. “Are you done writing for tonight?”
“Yes. The words were starting to get too blurry to read, so I decided it was time to stop for today.” Something was still bothering him. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing you need to worry about,” he said as he stared out across the river. “We’ve been here too long. I think we should move on tomorrow.”
My eyelids got heavy and I yawned. The next thing I knew, Jax was carrying me to the bedroom. I was safe in his arms so I went back to sleep and dreamed of the day we could be together without all this worry.
The sound of thunder and pouring rain woke me. Well, the weather matches my mood. I wasn’t looking forward to packing up and leaving today. This cabin had been our refuge; I was going to miss it. Maybe we could come back here when Keith was behind bars again.
After breakfast, we started loading everything into the car. Jax had just come back in from putting the suitcases in the car, and his hair was dripping from the rain. The clouds were so low and dark that it looked like night outside. All that was left inside was to fill the bags with groceries, so I’d started doing that when…the lights went out.
“Lainie? You okay, baby?” I heard Jax ask as he made his way to the fireplace and got the shotgun. “Stay inside, I’ll go check it out.”
I heard rustling in the brush outside, close to the river, but couldn’t tell if it was the wind or someone sneaking around. Suddenly, the revolver started to feel comforting instead of terrifying. Time stopped. The only sound in the cabin was my heart pounding in fear. Wait, is that creaking floorboards? The sound wasn’t Jax walking into the house; he would have said something first. I crept to the bedroom as quietly as possible, hoping to make it to the bedroom window. It was big enough to climb through. I’d thought about that the other night when I worried about someone breaking in. Total darkness. Then I heard footsteps and saw the beam of a flashlight searching every corner…looking for me.
“Elaine? Answer me, girl.” The words came from the front of the cabin.
Oh shit. I knew it; he’d found us. My heart turned to ice. Where’s Jax? Oh, God. What if Keith already killed him? I was glad I didn’t have shoes on yet so I could move around in relative quiet. As I made my way to the bedroom, I was sure to duck down low enough so that I wouldn’t be illuminated by any light coming through the window.
The sash opened without a sound. I pulled myself over the windowsill and lowered my body to the ground. Standing up against the wall beside the window, I stopped and listened, trying to guess where Keith was inside. When it sounded like he was at the bedroom door, I made my way around the cabin, ducking below the level of the windows. I found Jax on his back next to the shed, hidden from the cabin by the overturned canoe. My heart stopped until I saw the rise and fall of his chest. He had a bruise on his forehead, and a fury rose in me like never before. Keith had abused Mom, gone after Jordan, and now hurt Jax. My mind raced trying to figure out a way to get both of us to safety. There was no way I would be able to get him to the car without being spotted by Keith.
I flipped the canoe as I heard Jax start to groan. “Shhh, don’t make a sound,” I whispered as I brushed the hair off his forehead. “We need to get out of here.”
He tried to sit up and grimaced. “That wasn’t a good idea.”
“I’ve got a thought. I saw this on an Indiana Jones movie.” Dragging the canoe to the river and making some noise to attract Keith’s attention, I pushed it out onto the river then hid under a bush until he came out on the porch to look around. He spotted the vessel just before it rounded a bend and drifted out of sight. When he tried to follow it, I helped Jax into the cabin and got him on the couch. Looking for the cell phones, I remembered they were already in the car and froze when I heard footsteps on the porch.
“You think you’re gonna outsmart me, little girl?” I heard as Keith entered the cabin. I had hoped it would take him longer to figure out that I wasn’t in the canoe. “Get over here and I’ll let your boyfriend live. C’mon now, girl, make the right decision.” He had a gun pointed at Jax.
I still had the revolver in my waistband but knew it wouldn’t do me any good unless I could get his attention on something other than Jax. I stood frozen in place. Come on, Lainie, this is not the time to panic. “It’s me you want, not him,” I said as I slowly walked towards my captor.
“No, Lainie. Don’t let him win,” Jax yelled as I continued towards Keith, who grabbed my arm and dragged me across the floor towards the door.
“I love you, Jax.”
Outside, Keith shoved me into the d
river’s seat and pulled the seatbelt across my chest. Even after all these years, he couldn’t resist dragging his hand across my chest to feel my breasts. He clicked the seatbelt and pulled it to make sure it was secure then spotted the gun in my waistband. “You thought you could keep this without me seeing it? Wrong move, little girl. I’m going to enjoy hurting you.” He got in the passenger’s side seat and told me to drive.
We’d been on the road for about an hour, and I was watching for a chance to signal someone. It continued to rain, making the world cloudy and gray. Once we reached a major highway, there were some cars around so it gave me hope. Right past a rest area, I saw a blue truck pull onto the road in front of us. I pulled around them and, just as I thought, it was Mom and Matt. I wanted to scream at them to notice us, to see that I was driving but didn’t dare slow down. Keith would catch on. My eyes were glued to the mirror as they fell farther behind in our lane.
Two hours later, Keith ordered me to turn off at a small town just over the state line. We pulled into a gas station and stopped at the pumps. He followed me inside the mini-mart after giving me money to prepay for the gas. I asked the clerk about the restrooms, taking a chance that I could leave some kind of note, but he went in there with me too, locking the door behind us. Thankfully, there were a couple of stalls, so I didn’t have to use the toilet in front of him. When I had finished washing my hands, he grasped my elbow and ushered me out the door, not giving me any chance to get away. I hoped the cashier would see the fear in my eyes but his attention was on the shelves of cigarettes behind the counter as he refilled the display.
When we reached the car, he shoved me towards the driver’s side door. “Get in.” Keith filled the gas tank while I buckled myself in and waited. When he was done, he got in and ordered me to drive again. I noticed that he hadn’t put on his seatbelt, and it gave me an idea. I looked for the perfect spot. We were about twenty miles outside of town when Keith told me to turn left. That would lead us into the woods, fantastic. I saw a large tree coming up on the right and decided it was now or never. Cranking the steering wheel towards it, I tried to relax as we hit head-on.
Chapter 14
Jax
Talk about feeling helpless! I could only watch in horror as Keith followed Lainie out of the cabin; his gun pointed at her back to keep me from following them. Any sudden movement made me want to puke. When I was sure that I wouldn’t lose my breakfast, I headed to the car. God, how could I have been so careless? I couldn’t believe he was able to knock me out. It took me forever to get to the car where I located one of the cell phones and started dialing as I drove, praying that Matt would pick up. “Matt, he’s got her! They headed east.” The last thing I remembered was blurry vision, and I said, “Call Brent. I can’t follow…” And I blacked out.
“Jax?” I heard, “Come on, Jax, wake up.”
And then a blinding light in my right eye and then my left.
“You trying to blind me, Jordan? How long was I out?” I tried to push her hand away to stand up. The ground tilted and I grabbed the door as my knees started to buckle.
“Only about ten minutes. I made Brent come back so I could apologize for the way I acted. Jordan pushed me back down. “Sit down, Jax, before you fall down. You’ve probably got a concussion. If you move too much, you’ll just pass out again.
“I can’t. Gotta find Lainie. Keith’s got her.” I moved to pull myself up again.
“What do you think you’re going to do? You can’t even stand up without passing out.” She pulled the blood pressure cuff out of her medical bag.
After making sure I wasn’t on my deathbed, Jordan made me get in the backseat of Brent’s SUV. She climbed in beside me as Brent got behind the wheel.
“Don’t worry, Jax. We’ll get her back,” Brent said as he shifted into drive, and we pulled away from the cabin.
We’d been driving for about ninety minutes when Brent’s phone rang—it was Matt. They had spotted Keith and Lainie on the highway and were following them. God, please keep her safe, I prayed as we headed east.
Twenty minutes later Matt called back—they’d lost them. They got stuck waiting on a train in the little town where Keith stopped for gas. Suddenly, Brent frowned and stepped on the gas. “What? What’s happened?” I asked.
“Matt just spotted Keith’s car. It hit a tree head-on,” Brent answered.
God, now I was going to be sick. My head pounded as I willed Brent to go faster.
“She’s not in the car, Jax. There’s blood on the dash of the passenger side. Matt thinks she did it on purpose.” Brent lowered the phone and looked back at me in the rearview mirror as if he were trying to decide whether or not to tell me something. “Jax, Matt just heard a gunshot.”
Lainie
Everything was quiet. I raised my head and saw the tree we hit. Looking to my right, Keith was lying halfway out the windshield on the hood of the car. The force of the impact threw him forward just as I’d hoped. He was groaning while I unbuckled my seatbelt with shaking hands. Just as he started to move, I spied the gun laying on the floor between us. Reaching over and picking it up, I put it in my pocket before carefully getting out of the car. Hearing more moans, I started running.
I took off as fast as I could considering my knee and ankle issues. Keith was now yelling, and I could hear him following me through the woods. It was impossible to hide my path with the damp ground showing every footprint. He was getting closer, so I looked back over my shoulder to see where he was, forgetting that I needed to be watching where I stepped. It only took a small root sticking out of the ground to trip me up, sending me face down into the forest floor as my knee twisted in pain. When I stood up and tried to put weight on my left leg, I realized there was no way that I could outrun him even without knowing how bad his injuries were.
There was a tremendously large tree close by, and I thought that might be my best bet to hide there while I caught my breath.
My imagination magnified every sound. I had no idea how close Keith was to finding me. There was a tree to my left that looked even wider than the one I was hiding behind, and just as I made up my mind to try and get to that one, a hand grabbed my shoulder.
“That was not a smart move, Elaine,” Keith said as he leered at me. Blood was running down his face from a long, gaping cut on his forehead. He wrapped his right hand around my neck as he grabbed my locket with his left, breaking the chain. He started to smile, thinking he had what he’d been waiting to get his hands on all these years.
“It’s not there. We found it a couple of days ago,” I said as I smirked at him. “You’re going back to jail for good this time.” I watched as he used his thumbnail to open the necklace one-handed and pry the picture out, looking for the slip of paper. When he didn’t find it, he dropped the locket and lightly brushed my hair away from my face with the back of his hand.
“No reason to keep my hands off you now, little girl,” he said as he ripped my shirt down the front, exposing my chest to his lecherous gaze.
I wanted to vomit. No, I wanted to vomit on him. I’d never seen so much hate and evil in a person’s eyes, and I was now more scared than I had ever been. He held my throat, choking me, squeezing tighter and tighter. I used fingers, arms, and elbows—slapping at him and digging my nails into his arms trying to loosen his hold on me but nothing worked. I let myself go limp, resigned to the fact that I was going to die out here in the woods. My thoughts were of Jax, hoping someone would find me so he wouldn’t spend the rest of his life searching for me. He would need to move on and find someone who made him happy.
Then I remembered the gun in my pocket. Oh my God, how could I forget about the gun? I grabbed it, brought the muzzle up and pulled the trigger
.
Chapter 15
Lainie
Someone was calling my name. I couldn’t move. Something heavy was lying on top of me. “Elaine?” Suddenly, whatever weight was there was gone. I gulped in air, finally able to breathe deeply. My t
hroat burned and every muscle ached. Someone pried my fingers from the gun. Opening my eyes, I saw Matt. “You okay, Elaine?” Tears were running down my face. I looked around trying to remember how I got here. Oh. Keith. The car. The gun. As reality sank in, I stood on my good leg and leaned over, losing everything I had eaten today. Oh my God, I shot him.
Jax
Getting jumped by Keith was a rookie move, and it should never have happened. I was supposed to be the one keeping her safe, not the other way around. Please God, let her be okay. I continued to pray in earnest as we pulled up next to Matt’s car. When I took my first step out, I almost hit the ground as my head continued to spin. I gritted my teeth and willed the nausea down as I leaned against the car.
Then I saw them…Matt was carrying Lainie out of the woods. Her face was pressed into his shirt. Liz ran to them and hugged them both as Matt made his way to Brent’s SUV.
He set her down on the tailgate, and I made my way to the back of the SUV, stepping lightly so everything would stay in its proper place in my head.
“He can’t hurt you anymore. You did what you had to do,” Matt said. Her throat was red, and I saw the imprint of Keith’s hands encircling her neck. I wanted to empty a clip into his head. I didn’t even care that he was already dead.
I made it to Lainie without falling on my face, and we were cuddling close, each consoling the other as we began to hear sirens in the distance. She started to shiver. “Thank God, you’re okay,” I said through the lump in my throat. She began to cry again, softly at first, just whimpering and then uncontrollable sobbing with her face buried in my shirt. I held her tight and let her cry it out.
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