“What can I do to help?”Wes asked, eagerness pushing the fatigue from his voice.A metal belt buckle clanked in the background.He was already getting dressed.
It wasn’t a stretch that she’d try to hurt Desiree at the spot he’d taken her for their date.But he couldn’t leave any stone unturned.“Can you stop by my place?Check my house and search around hers—don’t break in unless you see Dez and she needs help.”
“Yeah, right.I’m not bound to the same laws you are, so if I have an inkling to search her place you can bet I will.”
Appreciation spread through him.He wouldn’t let Wes get in trouble, but damn he had good friends.
“I’ll call Jaxon and Quin too,” Wes continued.“When I’m done at your place, we’ll come help you search.”
“Thanks, man.”Aiden clicked off.He steered the car onto Pioneer Road, and the trees darkened the night even more.
Hold on, baby.I’m coming.
***
The car whizzedaround the bends in the road, going much too fast for the curves.Dez crunched herself closer to the car door.She needed to get out of the vehicle.Wherever Meredith was taking her, things wouldn’t end well unless she got a leg up.
Right now, Meredith had the weapon.Straightening her spine a few inches, Dez searched the front passenger seat.Her phone sat on the well-loved material.By now, Aiden must have realized she was missing.
He’d pull out all the stops.“You know the police will find you, right?Louise isn’t stupid.I’m sure she has something that will identify you.”
Meredith’s profile turned hard.“By ‘police’ you mean Aiden, right?The guy you took from me.”
Dez reared back her head.“What are you talking about?”
“Don’t play dumb.Aiden needed time to process things between us.But he brought you home from the bar Saturday night when he should have been with me.”
“H-How do you know about that?”
“Because I live next door, dummy.I’m on the other side of his duplex.”
Questions spun in Dez’s mind, churning with the unrest in her gut.“You’re telling me he cheated on you with me when you live right next door?That doesn’t even make any sense.”
Meredith whipped the car around another bend.Dez’s shoulder slammed into the door, jolting her.
“Months ago, he and I hit it off on a date.We made love.He’scrazyabout me.Crazy.I see it in his eyes every time I run into him.But I’m a patient woman.I gave him his space so he could come to terms with his feelings, but instead, you got in his head and in his bed and screwed everything up, you whore!”
Indignation burned Dez’s skin.“I hate to break it to you, but you’re wrong.Did he tell you he cared about you?Did he ask you to wait while he ‘came to terms with his feelings’?”
Meredith steered the car onto a short gravel road then halted the vehicle.She snapped off her seatbelt, and the metal piece connected with her window with a resoundingclank.
“If you weren’t in the way he would have.”
Ice frosted Dez’s veins.
“You put a spell on him.I saw all the evil things in your store.That’s why I burned it down—it’s an abomination.”
Anger melted away the icy fear gripping her.“You don’t know what you’re talking about.You’re afraid of something you don’t understand.What I believe in is love.Unconditional love for every being on this planet.I believe in intention, putting your heart and soul into the goodness of the world knowing it will have a ripple effect.I don’t know anyone who can—or would—tamper with the free will of another individual.”She wet her lips, needing to convince this woman that she hadn’t swayed Aiden.
“Every one of us has free will,” she continued.“Aiden made a choice.You’re making a choice now.Ask yourself this, Meredith—are you acting out of love?Are you creating a world that you want to live in by harming me to get back at Aiden?”
A chilly look overtook Meredith’s expression, turning her blue eyes to glaciers.“I have no love for someone like you.”She flicked a disgusted look down Dez’s body and back up.“You’ll never get between Aiden and me again.”
Meredith lifted the gun.“Now get out of the car.”
Dez gasped.She stared at the barrel of the gun.If she ran now, she’d get shot.If she didn’t, she’d get shot anyway.Summoning all her energy, Dez held up one hand, nodded, and reached for the door handle.
Slowly, as if she were complying, she eased open the door and stepped outside.The cool night air touched her skin and the moonlight lit the gravel around her, turning the stones into glittering rocks.She scanned the ground.A trail jutted off from the road.
