* * *
Harmony
And so finally, I kneweverything. The identity of the stalker, who he was after, and what his ultimate plan was. I also knew I was soon to face unimaginable horrors at the hands of a pure psychopath only to be killed by another psychopath. The only thing greater than my fear at that moment, was the desire to escape this car. To somehow fight my way to freedom and back to Jaxon. As afraid as I was for my own life, I was also afraid for his, because I knew if Butchy succeeded with his plans, Jaxon would be broken. I also knew he’d leave a trail of dead bodies in his wake in a thirst for vengeance.
“I’ll see you at the cabin and make sure no one is following you,” Butchy said before hanging up.
“You still asleep, my pet?” Butchy asked and I felt the cold steel of what felt like a gun barrel poke into my sternum. This was one of the most sensitive areas in the human body as the skin is very thin, directly over bone. It’s why doctors tap this area when trying to revive unconscious patients. It’s very difficult not to react when this area is poked. Difficult but not impossible and when you have sisters, it’s a skill that becomes required very early on. My sisters and I would viciously poke, pull, and pinch every sensitive area on each other, and reacting to such assaults was the ultimate sign of weakness.
Butchy, satisfied I was still out cold, returned to the road. “Good. It’s best you get your rest. You’re certainly going to need it.”
His tone made my flesh crawl. It took everything I had not to react, but I knew I had to be stronger than my fear if I had even a sliver of chance at making it out of this situation alive.
“You know...” Butchy continued. “Maybe I will give you just a little more ketamine when I stop at the service road gate. I’d hate for you to wake up too early and give me any trouble getting you out of the car. More importantly, we don’t want you to prove Mr. Know-it-all right.”
The wine bottle to the head plan was my only option. I’d wait for him to stop at a traffic light and I’d hit him as hard as I could. Maybe then I could flag a passing motorist or find an open business. I had no idea what our current location was, but civilization couldn’t be too far away.
“I may as well put on some music since we’ll be on the highway for a while,” Butchy said out loud before turning on some kind of operatic music.
So much for stoplights.
I was going to have to make my move as soon as possible, even if that meant while we were still moving. I made another reach for the box and was able to pull it all the way to me and flip it open. As I suspected, the box contained a bottle of wine, a small ‘thank you’ card, and something else that caught my eye. A stainless-steel folding corkscrew.
I slowly and carefully reached down and picked up the corkscrew and laid back down, praying the whole time that Butchy wouldn’t see me. Fortunately, he was busy singing along, giving me the opportunity to unfold the corkscrew and secure a firm grip around it in my right hand. The song, approaching its climax, swelled as the volume of Butchy’s caterwauling also increased. Butchy steered with his left hand as he fully extended his right, holding out the final note of the song’s melody. As soon as the song ended, Butchy’s arm dropped, fully exposing the right side of his neck. I pulled myself up with all my upper body strength and jabbed the corkscrew into his neck as hard as I could.
I’m not sure if the task was easier than I’d intended, or if the quality and sharpness of the thank you gift were simply top notch, but the corkscrew plunged into his neck with ease. At his attempt to move away from the pain, the weapon was ripped out, causing blood to spray all over the interior. Butchy screamed and his hand went to his neck as he jerked at the wheel, causing us to swerve violently all over the road.
“You bitch!” Butchy yelled as blood pumped through the open gash in his neck.
The traffic was light but we were by no means alone, and I was terrified that the SUV would swerve into another car, injuring someone. Before I could think about that much further, I came down on Butchy once more with the corkscrew, this time hitting his ear as I did, tearing off a huge chunk of it before plunging once again into his neck. This time Butchy lost consciousness and the SUV immediately pulled to the left, causing us to crash into the center median and spin out of control before coming to a stop in the middle of the highway. The vehicle’s front and side airbags deployed, one of which hit me, knocking me unconscious.
* * *
Jaxon
Icould barely seethe tail lights of Butchy’s Escalade as I hung back as far as possible. There weren’t many people traveling I-5 toward Woodland this time of night, and I didn’t want to give Butchy any reasons for suspicion. I had to keep my cool and make sure I gave him no cause for alarm. No sudden moves whatsoever.
Just then, the SUV took a sharp left into the concrete divider, crashing violently into it before spinning like a top in the center of the highway. I put the gas pedal to the floor and raced to the scene to find broken glass, steam and blood everywhere.
“Fuck!” I bellowed, and shot out of the car, running as fast as I could for Harmony.
* * *
Harmony
“Harmony! Baby, canyou hear me?”
I heard Jaxon’s voice as though he were calling to me through a long, empty tunnel. The only light I could see was a single pinhole directly in the center of my field of vision, and it burned with such white-hot intensity that I thought for a moment that I might be dead. Is that why I could hear Jaxon’s voice in the distance? Was I dying and leaving him behind? Or had Butchy succeeded and killed Jaxon too? Were we both dead and in heaven together?
The sharp pain in my ankle let me know that I was certainly not in heaven, and very much alive. As my eyes continued to open, the tell-tale nausea and agonizing headache associated with a hard hit to the head swamped me.
“Harmony!” Jax’s voice caused me to focus on him and it really was him. He was leaning over me and examining me for injuries. “Are you shot? Did he stab you?” Jaxon cried out.
“No, this is...his blood.” I pointed to the driver’s seat, where Butchy laid slumped over the steering wheel.
“You don’t have to worry about him anymore,” Jaxon said.
“Did I...? Is he dead?”
