by Susana Mohel
“The ranch, of course,” he states.
“But why? What do you want Redlands for? When you got involved you only made matters worse, so you clearly have no idea how to run a ranch.”
His maniacal laughter fills the air.
“Come on, stupid little Tara,” he shakes his head. “Surely even you can work it out? If you’d only taken my advice and accepted that offer I arranged with one of my associates, I wouldn’t have had to resort to these measures to get rid of you.”
“Sell Redlands? You know I’d never do that,” I sneer.
“So I discovered. Which is why we had to come up with another plan.”
“We? Who else is involved in your evil schemes?”
It isn’t just my mad stepfather? There are more people involved? This whole thing is getting worse by the second.
“You’re going to die soon, and as I’m enjoying watching your incredulous face as you finally work out what’s been going on around you all these years, I’ll grant you one last indulgence by answering your stupid questions,” he says, standing directly in front of me. “I have partners. People who are very interested in the great financial opportunity your ranch presents.”
“I just don’t get what this is all about,” I retort. ‘What great financial opportunity?”
“I’ll spell it out for you, shall I? With you taken care of,” he smiles coldly. “The ranch will pass to your mother and my daughter, which means...”
“…that you’ll get your hands on it,” I say when it all clicks together.
“Wow! So the poison did leave some of your pathetic little brain in working order,” he chuckles.
“You were also behind my illness?” There are so many strands to this sick story that need tying together. But hold on, does that mean... was my mother was involved, too? No, please no. I couldn’t stand it. Not my mother, the woman who gave birth to me? It’s a horrible, horrible thought. How far has Oscar’s influence corrupted her?
“Oh my poor little Tara, your ‘illness’ was so very easy to fix. You and your mother were so gullible, it hardly took any effort to pull the wool over your eyes. And it was simple enough to find a doctor who had no scruples about giving a false diagnosis and bogus test results, willing to do whatever it took for the right price. So, mix a few bribes here, a little bit of blackmail there, and a poison that disappears quickly from the body and you have the recipe for a perfect crime,” he boasts.
At least now I know my mother wasn’t in on his scheming. But still, I need to know more, I want to know everything, even if I’m about to die.
“How did you afford all the bribes and pay offs? It must have been quite a considerable sum of money.”
“My partners took care of that side of things” he explains. “And also disposed of the doctor when he became a liability.”
Fuck! They killed the doctor? No wonder the police couldn’t find him, why their investigations came to a dead end.
“But I still don’t understand your obsessive interest in acquiring Redlands. Even if were to pass to my mother and sister, it’d still be mired in debt.”
“Oh, Tara, you really are a stupid little bitch, aren’t you?” he groans with an exaggerated eye roll. “I couldn’t care less about your stupid fucking ranch, all I’m interested in is what lies beneath it. There’s oil, girl. Black gold. Texas tea. Call it what you will, there’s a fortune waiting to be claimed.”
“There’s oil at Redlands?” I squeak incredulously. This is the first I’ve heard of it, it’s all news to me. Damn Oscar and his scheming ambitions.
“A huge sea of it,” he insists, waving his hands to the heavens. “Your father knew, but he was a stupid idealist, prepared to ignore the value of the oil just to protect his stupid ranch. Well, I hate that place and would happily see it burnt to the ground, in exchange for the chance to drill for that oil.”
Joel, who’s still face down on the floor, moans, catching Oscar’s attention.
Be still, my love, don’t do anything.
This isn’t your fight, and I want you to live.
If I wasn’t so angry, I’d be in tears, but I refuse to give Oscar the satisfaction of seeing me fall to pieces. If I’m going to die, I’ll do it with dignity and my head held high.
“Do you understand everything now, stupid little Tara? Because this conversation is boring me,” he says, raising his gun. “We’ve wasted enough time chatting.”
Joel moves again, moaning my name, and despite the vicious beating he suffered, he struggles to his feet. Although I fear for his life, I’m also fiercely proud of him.
My husband, the untamed warrior.
Horrified, I see Oscar aiming his gun at Joel, his hatred and malice mixed with a whole lot of crazy—not a good combination. His mad ambition has shot his warped mind ever further down the spiral of insanity. It’s obvious that Oscar is a psychopath, with no conscience, no better nature to appeal to.
So with nothing to lose, I resort to desperate measures and launch myself at Oscar in an attempt to wrest the gun from his hand. I take him by surprise, which gives me a brief, fleeting advantage, but he’s still much stronger than me. All I can do is keep kicking at his groin until I finally manage to land a good hard kick to his balls, and the bastard falls to the ground, writhing in agony. On behalf of all women, I offer up a quick prayer of thanks to the good Lord above, for leaving all men with such an accessible point of vulnerability as their testicles.
Breathless from my exertions, I lunge for the gun to kick it out of reach. Joel looks on from where’s he’s standing, and at this point I’m not sure if he wants to punish me or kiss me. But what did he expect, that I’d just stand back and watch Oscar shoot him?
“Not so fast!” A female voice cries out.
When we both turn around to see who’s joining the fray, Oscar takes advantage of the distraction to grab the gun again.
A shot is fired.
My world falls apart.
Joel.
ღ
Joel pushes me to the ground as I’m deafened by a gunshot blast, then throws his body over mine.
In a daze, I try to process what’s happening as I lie there shielded by his large, heavy body.
“Keep calm, baby,” he whispers hoarsely in my ear. “You okay?”
“Sure, but what about you?”
“Don’t worry, I’m good,” he murmurs.
“Get up!” It’s her, the damn bitch, waving a gun in her hand.
“Cassandra…” Joel slowly gets to his feet, managing to stand again despite his injuries.
“Damn bitch,” Oscar groans loudly, clutching his side where he’s been shot. “I should’ve killed you when I had the chance.”
These two know each other? What in the hell is their connection?
“Cassie, just drop the weapon,” Joel orders as he stares intently at her, while motioning behind his back for me to remain down on the floor.
“It’s all your fault,” Cassandra screams, pointing her finger at me accusingly. “Look at Joel, look what’s happened to him thanks to you.”
I feel so useless lying there on the ground, but I’m fearful of further antagonizing Cassandra since clearly I’m the focus of her rage, so I reluctantly stay put to let Joel handle her.
“Cassie, forget about Tara,” he quietly insists. “Just put the gun down so we can talk.”
“No!” She cries, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Because of that stupid bitch, you almost got killed.”
“But everything’s okay now, thanks to you,” Joel speaks to her in a quiet, calm voice. “So put the gun down and let’s sort this out. We’re friends, right? And that’s what friends do, they talk through any problems they have.”
“I don’t want to be just your friend!” she hisses.
Finally some truth!
“What do you mean, Cassie?” Joel asks.
“How could you not realize?” she rolls her eyes at him, as she snivels and wipes her nose on her sleeve. “Why could
n’t you ever see me as a woman? Most guys find me sexy as hell, but not you, Joel, you never considered me as anything other than a sister. Because of her.”
She points the gun in my direction again.
“Cassandra, you know I’ve always cared a great deal for you,” Joel calmly insists, although I see his jaw muscle tick, a tell of how tense he is.
“But what good is that to me?” Cassandra shouts. “What I want is your love, Joel! I want all of it, I want every single bit of your heart to be mine. Not hers. Having just your affection isn’t enough for me.”
“Cassie, I can’t give you my heart. It’s not mine to give. It already belongs to someone else.”
“You mean that undeserving slut, don’t you?” she screeches. “Because it’s always been her. You even got arrested, ended up jail for that stupid little bitch!”
Arrested? What the fuck is Cassandra talking about? Joel got arrested? He went to jail? For me? When?
Clearly I’m missing something really important here, but this is hardly the time or place to start demanding some answers. That’ll have to come later—assuming we get out of this latest little adventure alive. Like a cat with nine lives, how many have we already used up? Please God, let there be at least one life left, because we have some pretty fucking amazing dreams that I really want us to see through.
“Nothing I’ve done has ever been enough for you, has it?” Cassandra continues her rant. “Despite the fact that without me, you’d be nothing, Joel Sadger, because I made you the man you are today.”
“Can’t deny you’re right there, Cassie,” Joel acknowledges. “Believe me when I say how much I truly appreciate everything you’ve done for me, which is why I’ve always considered you a very special friend.”
“And yet you still can’t bring yourself to love me in the way I want,” she cries. “Why, Joel, why?”
“You seem to have forgotten that you were already married when I met you. What about your husband, what about Stephen? He’s a good man and he adores you.”
“Stephen bores me rigid! He’s an old man and I don’t fancy him, he makes my skin crawl if you want the honest truth. He doesn’t matter, he’s irrelevant. Only you matter to me.” Cassie is starting to get hysterical on the subject of her marriage, so Joel reverts back to persuading her to get rid of her weapon. Probably a wise move considering how irrationally she’s behaving.
“Just put the gun down, Cassie, so we can get out of here and talk things through calmly,” Joel starts cajoling again.
“Only if you come with me,” she states. “Just you and me. Let’s get out of here.”
She’s weakening, her arms trembling so much she’s struggling to keep the gun pointing upwards. Cassandra could collapse at any moment, so Joel seizes on this small crack in her armor.
“I’ll come with you, if you put the gun down,” he agrees. “Just do it, Cassie. Put the gun down.”
But just when I think she’s going to comply, she recovers and points the gun directly at me.
“No!” Joel yells, as he takes a couple of steps towards me, placing himself as a human shield.
“That bitch will always come between us, as long as she’s alive,” Cassandra screams.
“No, no, it’ll be just you and me, Cassie, we’re going to leave here together just like you want,” Joel urges, trying to calm her down.
“I tried. I tried to do things right, to make you get rid of the bitch. I’m very talented in bed, I know I’d have make you happy,” she mutters almost to herself. “What I told you about Stephen hurting me what just a way of getting into your lives. I’d make you hate her, get her out of the picture. But when my stupid husband came back early and ruined everything, and Oscar said he had a plan to get rid of her, while keeping you safe, what other option did I have? Oscar promised you’d be mine, that we could be a family, you, me, and my son.”
Shit, Cassandra and Oscar are accomplices? What a horrifying combination.
“We can still be a family,” Joel says. “You know I’ll always love your child.”
“You will?” She looks at him with pure adoration shining from her eyes.
“Of course I will, Cassie. I already promised you that before all this happened, didn’t I?”
“That’s true, you did,” she nods, approaching him. “So, are you ready to get out of here?”
“Just ditch the weapon first, we don’t need it, do we?” he says evenly. “Drop the gun and we’ll get out of here.”
I understand what Joel’s doing, and why. But even knowing it’s nothing but a lie, it still hurts to hear him say that he’s going with her, because Joel is mine, damn it. Mine.
Suddenly another shot rings out.
Cassandra screams as she drops to the floor.
We’ve been so focused on her, listening to her rant about her love for my husband, we’ve forgotten about my stepfather. Now, Cassandra’s crouched in a ball on the ground, crying and rocking, cursing Oscar, while calling to Joel to help her. It’s soon clear that Oscar missed, the shot went over her head. For the baby’s sake, I’m relieved. For her – not so much.
“Don’t move, you bastard!” Joel yells at Oscar, who’s slumped back down on the floor. He’s clearly lost a lot of blood and looks close to passing out.
Joel goes over and kicks the gun away from him. Injured as he is, even with his hands tied behind his back, Joel is still fighting, fighting for us.
Cassandra remains where she is, immersed in her all-consuming obsession with Joel as she continues to rock while muttering incoherently. I almost feel sorry for the pathetic creature she’s become—almost, until I remember that, insane or not, she nearly got me and Joel killed.
“Are you alright?” Joel asks breathlessly, his face a picture of concern as he rushes over to me, his chest heaving from his exertions.
“I’m fine,” I reassure him. “But I think we need to call the police to take care of them.” I nod my head in the direction of Cassandra and Oscar. “And you need to get to the hospital too, you need medical assistance.
“I’m fine, but you’re right, we do need backup, so that means finding a phone, which I’m assuming neither of us have. And as your hands are tied in front rather than behind like mine, I think you’re better able to do the searching, babe.”
“Yeah, guess that makes sense,” I agree, looking round, wondering if Cassandra has one in her purse.
“Best keep your distance from Cassie for now, don’t want to risk setting her off again, so unfortunately that means searching through that bastard’s pockets,” Joel scowls in my stepfather’s direction.
“Needs must,” I mutter.
Touching Oscar as little as possible, even with my bound hands I quickly locate his phone, as well the cuff keys. It’s awkward, but I manage to release Joel from the cuffs, and as soon as he is free, he unties my hands. He hugs me tightly, kissing me repeatedly, but when he winces in pain, I remember that we urgently need to call the emergency services.
We’re sitting on the broken-down cabin porch when the police and paramedics arrive, along with Connor after Joel called him too. He immediately assures us that everything is under control following the fire in the barn, which he says the fire department suspect was arson.
“But don’t you go worrying yourselves about any of that right now,” Connor insists in his usual cool, calm collected way. “I’ll take care of everything at Redlands, while you two get yourselves off to the hospital.” And I know that he will, I already trust Connor completely, and am so thankful he was happy to follow Joel to our ranch.
It’s a relief to see Oscar being escorted into the ambulance by the police. He’s unconscious but still alive, his life hanging by a thread, and I wonder if he’ll make it. But I don’t want him to die, I want him questioned about his accomplices, I want him to stand trial for what he’s done, to face the consequences. And then I want him to rot in jail for the rest of his life. So, I hope he does make it, death would be far too easy an escape for him.
Next, they load an abusive Cassandra, handcuffed to the gurney, into another ambulance. I imagine she’ll be admitted into a psychiatric facility, stat. I do feel compassion for her unborn baby, but from what I’ve seen of Stephen, he’ll hopefully step up to the plate and be the father that innocent child deserves.
Joel is lying on a stretcher, an IV line hooked up to provide him with some pain relief. How he’s forced himself to carry on when he must have been in so much pain is incredible. He really is my true hero, always putting other people before himself.
“Finally, our nightmare is over,” Joel says, looking over at me and pulling me out of my thoughts.
“Promise me you’re not going to pull any more surprises like this,” I say jokingly, while a paramedic checks me over as I sit beside him, holding his hand.
“That’s one promise I’m more than happy to keep,” he grins, then winces thanks to his big, fat split lip. The paramedic tuts, as he’s trying to put some Steri-strips on a cut on his cheek.
“Careful now, cowboy,” I scold. “Just keep still so the guy can to do his job and take care of that handsome face of yours.”
“Stop fussing, baby. I’ve been in far worse fights than this,” Joel jokes, before changing to a more serious subject. “Have you given any thought about contacting your mother? Better she hears about Oscar from you, rather than catching it on the news.”
This is my wonderful husband, always thinking ahead, always practical.
“I suppose you’re right, but how the hell am I’m going to explain all this to her?” I worry.
“I suggest you call her, tell her to meet us at the hospital straight away, then we can fill her in there.”
“Do you think she’ll be able to cope with the enormity of it all, the repercussions?”
“For Camille’s sake, let’s hope so.”
Oh God, my poor little sister, she’s an innocent party caught up in all this. Oscar, blinded by ambition and money, never gave a thought to his own daughter. It’s never easy to learn that your father’s an evil criminal, even less so at the tender age of nine.