“Hello?” she called out. Nothing.
She wiped her forehead with her forearm. “Heat’s getting to me,” she mumbled. She rinsed the bathtub with water, ridding it of the Comet residue, and started on the toilet. She heard someone moving around in the kitchenette.
“Victoria, is that you?” she called, continuing with cleaning. “I’m in the bathroom.”
“So I see.”
Her blood froze. She gasped and jumped up, whacking her head on the corner of the pine wood cabinet that hung on the wall above the toilet. For a moment, she saw stars. She touched her head, her fingers coming away bright red. Her vision began to clear, her head throbbing.
“Hunter.” She gasped, staring at him. She could feel the blood trickling down her scalp.
“Looks like you hurt yourself there. Can’t blame it on me this time.”
“Whenever you’re around I end up hurt. Some things never change.” Bitterness rose in her throat. She could almost taste it.
He held up his hands, palms facing her, and grinned. “Hey, I didn’t touch you.”
“What are you doing here?”
“That’s not a very nice welcome, is it?”
“That’s because you’re not welcome here. What do you want?”
He snickered. “What do you think I want?”
“You’re not getting him.”
“Yeah? Says who, you? Last I remember, you’re not stronger than me.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “Stay away from my son, Hunter. I’m warning you.”
He laughed an evil sound. “Or what?”
She reached for her phone she had tucked in the back pocket of her jeans.
“I wouldn’t if I were you.” His eyes stayed trained on her.
“Or what?” she imitated him from a moment before. “You’ll be a big man and beat me up again? Maybe even kill me this time? You don’t scare me anymore.”
“I should have killed you last time.”
“Paul!” Holly came around the corner. “What a thing to say!”
“Holly, go get my father,” Abby said, trying to maintain calm. “He’s at my studio.”
“No,” Hunter said. “She’s staying right here.”
“Stop being a bully,” Holly said.
Hunter’s eyes sparked and he spun around.
“Who are you calling a bully, Holly?” He grabbed her arm.
“Pual,” she cried. “You’re hurting me!”
Paul? What was going on? Suddenly something Cooper said a while back came thundering back to her. Someone was in the house with Henry the night he died. She felt her stomach lurch. “Oh no,” she whispered, “Henry. Tell me you didn’t hurt him.”
“I didn’t hurt him.” Evil lurked beneath his snicker. “In fact, I can say with confidence that he didn’t feel a thing.”
Tears stung her eyelids and she thought she might throw up. “But why? That sweet man wouldn’t hurt a fly.”
“That sweet man,” he mocked her, “cost me my family and five years of my life.”
“That man,” she spat, “saved you from being put away for the rest of your life. For murder.”
“Tsk. Tsk. So dramatic, Abigail.” He shook his head.
“Abby!” Victoria’s voice rang through the screen door.
Abby opened her mouth to yell but stopped short at the sight of the gun Hunter now brandished and trained on her.
“Don’t say a word.”
Holly began crying.
“Stop sniveling, Holly,” he snarled.
“What are you doing?” she said, her voice thick with tears. “Give me that gun.” She reached for it with her free hand but Hunter shoved her over toward Abby, the gun trained on them both.
“Hunter, honey, please,” Holly pleaded.
Honey? Abby blinked furiously and rubbed her temples. She’d obviously hit her head harder than she thought. She touched where she’d hit her head, feeling the blood matting her hair.
“You told me we were just coming to convince Abby to let us have Cooper.”
“Let you have Cooper?” Abby closed her eyes briefly, trying to clear the confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“Remember I told you I was seeing someone?” Holly sniffed.
“Paul.” Abby looked from Holly to Hunter and back to Holly.
“Paul was actually Hunter, only I didn’t know it at first. We fell in love and now we’re having a baby—”
“Holly, shut up,” Hunter said, sounding completely annoyed.
“We wanted to raise the baby with Cooper. Abby, Cooper has a right to know his little brother or sister. And I want this little guy,” she rubbed her still-flat belly, “to know his big brother.”
“Shut. Up.” Hunter said, his voice eerily quiet.
“I will not shut up. And you can’t talk to me that way.” Holly’s chin jutted out.
“Gads! You women are all the same. You just never shut up!” He waved the gun toward the tub. Both of you get in there. I need time to think.”
“Abby!” Victoria’s voice again, a little closer.
“Not a word. Either of you. Or she’ll be dead.”
Holly began sobbing again. “I’m so stupid!”
“Yeah, you are,” Abby agreed.
Hunter chuckled. “And here I thought she was your friend.”
“Was.”Abby shot a daggered look toward Holly.
The screen door opened. “Abby?”
“Victoria, no!” Abby screamed.
Holly collapsed into a crying heap into the corner of the tub, her arms wrapped around her knees, which were pulled tightly to her chest. “Oh, my God. Oh, my God,” she repeated over and over through sobs.
Hunter whipped around, taking his gun off of the two women. Abby jumped on him from behind, pushing his head down hard onto the sink, hearing a crack. Hunter fell to the floor, and the gun exploded. She heard Sam yelp.
Victoria came around the corner. “Cops are on the way,” she said, then looked down at Hunter. Her face paled and her hand flew to her mouth. “Is he—dead?” she croaked.
Abby looked at her wide-eyed, then down at Hunter, a puddle of red pooling around his head. “I don’t know,” she said as she stepped around him as far away as she could get in the small bathroom that now held far too many people. “And I don’t care.”
“Abby, your head!” Victoria cried.
Abby reached and touched it again, wincing with pain as she felt the drying blood still matting in her hair.
“Think someone can help me?” Sam said from the tiny hallway outside the bathroom, his voice strained.
Abby looked and saw him holding his shoulder, blood seeping out around his hand. She scrambled beside him, peeling his hand away from his shoulder so she could see. Sirens sounded in the background, growing closer. She heard her dad’s voice just outside the door, followed by the all too familiar creak of the screen door.
“Sam, you’ve been shot.”
“I know,” he said, leaning his head back against the wall, “I was there.” He gave a half-hearted attempt at giving his award-winning grin.
She grabbed a bathroom towel and applied pressure to his shoulder, trying to slow the blood, which seemed to be pouring out, Sam getting weaker. She had to keep him talking.
“How did you know I was here?” she asked. His eyes closed. “Sam? Sam!” She shook him gently with her free hand, keeping pressure applied to his shoulder with the other. “Sam, how did you know I was here? That he was here?
“I saw him—nosing—around the house.” He ran his tongue over his lips, winced, and closed his eyes again.
“Sam, stay with me,” she pleaded. “Sam!” The sirens were closer but not close enough.
His eyes opened again, but his face was gravely pale. The blood continued pouring at an alarming rate.
“He—looked familiar. Then—then I remembered the—pic—picture you showed me. I knew it—it was him.”
His eyes closed again as the sirens screeched to a
halt in the yard. Victoria stayed right by Sam’s side, opposite Abby, holding his hand, tears coursing down her cheeks.
“I love you, Sam,” she whispered through tears.
The paramedics pushed her to the side so they could begin working on him, but not before both Abby and Victoria heard Sam say, “Helluva way to let—me know.” He attempted to smile.
Abby watched from the background as they worked on Sam, then on Hunter, who was still unconscious. A paramedic looked at her head, cleaned and bandaged it.
“You be sure to see your doctor within the next day or two,” he told Abby before moving on to help Victoria, who remained practically glued to Sam.
An officer attended to Holly, who remained crouched down in the bathtub, trancelike. Abby wasn’t sure if she felt sorry for her or betrayed by her. Perhaps a little of both. Had she not been Hunter’s victim at one time, maybe she wouldn’t be able to understand how it could happen. And yet … well, Holly was supposed to be her friend, and she’d betrayed that friendship.
“Hey, Blondie.” Gabe wrapped his arms around her. She buried her face in his chest. “I would have been here sooner, but I kept Cooper out on the lake until I knew it was safe.”
“How did you know?”
“Sam called me to give me a heads up that Hunter was here.”
“Where is Cooper?” She pulled back and looked around in a panic. “I don’t want him to see—”
“Shhhh.” Gabe pulled her close again. “Your dad has him in the house.”
She melted against Gabe, finding the warmth and stability that she so desperately needed right now, and the tears began to flow unchecked. She let them come, not trying to stop them this time, until she finally pulled away, no tears left.
“Your shirt is soaking wet,” she said, her nose stuffed, her eyes swollen.”
He looked at her and gently kissed the tears on her cheeks. “It’s over, Blondie. It’s over. He’s done.” His words were a caress, taming the persistent anxiety.
They watched as Hunter, now on a stretcher, began regaining consciousness.
“Is it bad to wish he would have died?” she asked Gabe, her head resting against his chest. The warmth of his skin penetrated through his shirt, easing her aching head. When he spoke, she could feel the calming vibration.
“Not as far as I’m concerned. If it is, we can be bad together, because that’s what I wished, too.”
Later that evening, Gabe and Abby left the hospital after Sam had been stabilized and settled into a room. She watched the countryside roll past them under the light of the moon as they bounced along the dirt road in her father’s classic red and white 1971 Chevy truck he bought shortly after their move. His prized possession.
“I’m sorry, Gabe,” she said, continuing to look out the window.
“For what?”
“If it wouldn’t be for me, Sam wouldn’t be in this predicament right now.”
“Abigail Sinclair,” he said, his hand tightening on hers, “you are not to blame for what happened to Sam.”
“If I wouldn’t have moved here, Hunter wouldn’t have been here.”
“You can’t make yourself responsible for the actions of someone else. Especially when that someone else is crazy.”
“You’re not mad at me?”
He steered the truck off to the side of the road, jerking to a stop. He slid the gear in park and turned off the truck.
“Look at me.”
His voice was gentle, velvety, in the dark of the night. She turned to face him, seeing that he had turned toward her.
“You’ve tortured yourself long enough after Hunter stopped. Now it’s time for you to stop. I hate to break it to you, Abby, but you’re not powerful enough to make Hunter do or not do a single thing. This is all on him. Stop punishing yourself.”
“It’s so wrong that the very man who saved my life because of Hunter lost his life because of Hunter. I feel responsible.” Her heart broke as she imagined what Henry’s last moments must have been like.
Gabe ran his finger along the side of her cheek and she closed her eyes, absorbing the warmth of his touch. Suddenly his lips were gently on hers, lingering before he pulled back to look into her eyes.
“I’m going to say this one more time, and I want you to listen good, okay?” he said. “You do not have that kind of power. You’re not God. You don’t cause people to do or not do anything. Hunter is responsible. Not you.” He kissed her again. “You’re going to be okay, Abigail. In fact, you’re going to be better than okay. I’m going to make sure of it.”
She gave him a small smile, feeling at peace for the first time since she can remember. And for the first time since she could remember she believed she was going to be fine. She startled when her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled out her phone and looked at the caller ID, this time without concern. And it felt remarkable. She grinned.
“Hello?”
“Hey, Abby. It’s Stewart. Checking to see how you’re doing.”
“Oh, hi, Stewart.” She looked at Gabriel who rolled his eyes and started the truck. Abby stifled a giggle. “How did you find out?”
“Word travels fast in small mountain towns.”
“Apparently. Are you at the resort?”
“I was, not now, though. I stopped in to settle up my bill for the last time I was there.”
“Okay. The only one that got hurt was Sam. Well, and Hunter, but he doesn’t count.”
“As long as you’re okay. You on your way home?”
“Yes.”
“Well, drive careful.”
“Gabriel is driving. But I’ll tell him.” She looked across the cab of the truck and smiled at him before hanging up. “Stewart says to drive careful.”
“He wants you to be safe. He’d like for me to drive off a cliff.”
Abby laughed. “Is that jealousy I hear?”
He gave her a sideways glance, his lips twisting into a smile. “Maybe. On a more serious note, I don’t think it was a good idea to let Holly stay tonight. She led Hunter to you. I don’t trust her.”
“I don’t either. But she didn’t have anywhere else to go.”
“That’s her problem, not yours.”
“She’s pregnant. I can’t in good conscious leave a pregnant woman out on the street in the cold.”
“She’s got her car. And it’s not cold. It’s the middle of summer.”
Abby lay her head against the window behind her, quickly remembering the bump she’d taken. “Ouch!” She lightly touched the bandage. “I was his victim once. I know how easy he can pull someone in. He can be charming, convincing, loving …” her voice trailed off. “I think the part that hurts the worst is that she was my friend. She should have trusted me.”
Early the next morning Abby was sitting on the porch with her coffee, waiting for Holly to come out of the cabin. She lay awake all night, tossing and turning over words she needed to say to her.
She saw the door open slowly and out came Holly. She kept her head down, closed the door quietly and headed straight for her car.
“No goodbye?” Abby said, now standing behind her. Holly jumped, then stood completely still before inhaling deeply and turning to face her. “Leaving so quickly?”
“I kind of figured you didn’t want me to stick around after telling me I had the night and not a second longer.”
Abby could hear the hurt in her voice but, surprisingly, remained unaffected.
“How long?” Abby asked.
“How long what?”
“How long have you known Paul was actually Hunter? Or did you know all along and you’re just trying to squirm out of the hot seat.”
“A while.” She said quietly, her voice sad.
“Yeah?”
Holly looked out at the lake then down at the ground. “I swear I didn’t know at first, Abby. And by the time I did—well, by then I had already fallen for him hook, line, and sinker.” She looked at Abby as though searching for understanding. “Surely y
ou can get that.”
“The fact that he nearly killed me wasn’t enough to make you think about running the other way?”
Holly’s eyes grew misty. “He was so sweet, Abby. He said all the right stuff, did such thoughtful, kind things. No one has ever treated me that way before.”
“And yet once you knew who he really was you decided what, that you could change him?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “People change. I see it in my students all the time.”
Abby stared at her, her eyes wide with disbelief. “Holly, he tried to kill me! He threatened to do the same thing to you in there.” She jerked her thumb toward the cabin, now closed until a crime scene crew could clean it up. “And you’re pregnant with his child!”
“He wouldn’t have killed you. And I don’t believe he would have hurt me or the baby.”
Abby heard attitude infiltrate Holly’s words which bled into her own. “Yeah, because that’s not Hunter at all.”
“He told me the reason the whole thing went down with you is because you were excessively disciplining Cooper and Hunter wanted to stop it. He was determined not to be the kind of parent his mother was, sitting by while his dad beat him. He said the fight with you was one night, and you made him pay for it in years.”
“Really?” Abby sniffed and shook her head, looking away from Holly. “How can someone with a college degree be so stupid?” She looked at Holly again, who’s eyes now sparked with anger.
“How dare you?” Her demeanor changed in a matter of a millisecond. “I could ask the same thing about you. How dare you act so high and mighty, as if you’re God, and the rest of us are just little peons. You’ve never had to want for anything in your life. Everything you have has always come so easy for you. You had a husband, you have a son—who is remarkable, by the way. He would have been so happy with us and his little brother or sister. But you’re so selfish you wouldn’t even consider his happiness, just your own. You had this—this place,” she spat, waving her arm wildly, “handed to you on a silver platter, and what do I have? None of that. You have no idea what it’s like being me.”
Abby was speechless. But more than that, she was sad. So very sad for this woman who had so much and didn’t even know it because she was so busy being envious of someone else. She shook her head slowly and looked at Holly as if seeing her for the first time. And, in a way, she was.
Finding Abby: A Romantic Suspense set in the Colorado Mountains (Whispering Pines Mysteries) Page 28