Less than a minute later she steps out of the pantry, and she is white as a ghost, her hair looks even darker against her skin. She folds the bags, putting them in the drawer under the counter, and goes up the back stairs.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
SLOANE
AS I’Mpouring the dry beans into the rolling cart, I glance into the grocery bag that I sat on the floor next to me. There is a note at the bottom of the bag.
Meet me at the end of the driveway in thirty minutes or we will burn the house and take the little girl in your place.
I’m so startled that I pour some of the beans onto the floor. No! I can’t let them get Lainey Rai. I quickly slide the beans across the floor to the area of the rolling cart and take the note out of the bag before I fold it.
Avoiding eye contact with Mason, I try to casually walk out of the kitchen to go up the stairs to my room, I feel so guilty about it. Until Kinley brought that pregnancy test to my room, I thought all secrets were behind us and we werejust enjoying each other’s company.
But now I’m sneaking away again.
Who am I kidding, I started falling for him before the day he told me that he thinks of me all the time. There has been a part of me that’s been hoping with no secrets between us, our relationship, if I can even call it that, might grow into something more.
But now, he can’t possibly trust me, he will probably think that I am trying to trap him with a pregnancy and that’s the last thing I want. I would never want a man to feel trapped with me.
I set the note on my bed and grab my coat, boots, hat, and gloves to put on before I try to sneak out of the house. Tears prick my eyes as I look around the room that I have called home for the past seven months and realize that I won’t see it again.
What if I am pregnant? Am I walking into a possible death sentence for one or both of us? But I can’t let them get to Lainey Rai. I bat the tears that have started running down my cheeks and turn from my room to figure out how I will sneak out of the house with no one knowing any better.
Mason and his team are in the kitchen, so I can’t go down the back stairs. I walk around to the hallway with the family bedrooms and peek around the corner, all the doors are closed. I tiptoe on the carpet runner to be as quiet as possible as I get closer to the top of the front stairs.
Everyone will be expecting dinner soon, so I need to hurry. Avoiding all the places on the stairs that I know will creak and draw attention, I skip some steps while getting closer to the front door. I would be a liar if I said there isn’t a part of me that’s hoping to get caught.
As I pause on the stairs to watch the arched entryway to the kitchen, I hear breathing behind me, Wilson is sitting on his haunches on the top step looking at me in question. Healways looks like he is smiling, and his tongue is lolling out the front of his mouth as he tilts his head to the side.
He’s a trained ranch dog and Gray talks to him like he’s another person all the time, so I scratch his scruff and say what I hear Gray say to him every day, “Go look after Lainey Rai.”
He closes his mouth and tilts his head the other way, he knows something is up, but he also knows he has to follow commands. After a second of looking at me, he turns and trots up the stairs to Lainey Rai’s door.
Pivoting to look down the hall again, I listen for movement. I don’t want to leave; this is the closest I’ve had to a family since my parents died.
Mason’s voice travels down the hall and I freeze and shrink back against the wall. He walks to the family room and less than a minute later, I watch him walk back to the kitchen, his broad shoulders and perfect V shape that tapers into his jeans is a testament to male strength, and just plain sexy, and my whole chest squeezes as I think that I may never see him again.
My heart aches as I think about how perfect he looks with no clothes, the corded muscles of his arms, and how he feels when he pulls me to him before I fall asleep. I would do anything to lie next to him in bed again with his strong arm around me.
Blinking back tears, I tip-toe to the front door, the rush of my blood in my ears as I constantly looking over my shoulder, and slowly turn the deadbolt. When I open the door, a rush of cold air blasts past me, and I quickly turn off the front porch light and step onto the front porch before I let in too much cold air and draw attention.
The freezing cold hits me in the face like a slap and I quickly go down the porch steps and start walking down the drive to the main road. I chance one last look over myshoulder at the house, the only place besides my parents house that I’ve called home, but I need to hurry because the length of the drive to the main road is nearly a quarter of a mile and I’m sure my thirty minutes are almost up.
At the end of the driveway is a black SUV, and my brother steps out of the front passenger side. The feeling of betrayal hits me so hard that I almost fall backward when I stop walking, but he only snarls at me and holds the back door open.
With one last look over my shoulder, the house is too far away and behind the trees for me to see anymore, I get into the SUV.
“Move over.” Austin barks and I scoot over so he can get in next to me. I look down to his hand and he is holding a gun in my direction. “Just in case you brought any weapons, or scissors or something.”
The car pulls away from the end of the drive and I look out the back window, the gate getting smaller each second. I look back to my brother who is looking forward like I’m not even there.
“Why? How could you do it, Austin?”
His eyes slide in my direction, and I see the hatred he carries for me on his face and his lip curls. “Do you know how long our father waited to get married after my mom died?”
I shake my head.
“Within two months your whore mother was pregnant with you, and he was married a month after that. He was fucking your mom while my mom was lying in bed dying.”
