“Mel, breathe. Just focus. We’re on our way. Which direction from the rail house would they be?”
I just needed a general direction. That was all. I would find her—I knew I would.
“Okay. Um. They just ran past cam four, so that would be…south. That’s south of the rail house. Hurry, Calvin.” Each of Mel’s words were broken apart by sobs.
Patrick’s grip tightened on the steering wheel as he sped toward where we needed to be. Where I hoped we needed to be anyway.
My fears were confirmed when I saw the black SUV parked outside the rail house with the doors open.
The forest was too dense to continue driving past this point, so we started on foot after searching the south perimeter and finding a space in the snow where two sets of footprints went in. Fuck, it was freezing out today. I needed to find Stella, and quickly. Frostbite and hypothermia were imminent in these temperatures.
“Mel, we’re following their trail, do you see them?”
“No, they’re out of frame now,” she replied.
“Okay. I need you to call Garrett now and tell him everything. I’ll call you when I find her.”
“You better.”
I hung up with Mel just as I heard the undeniable crack of a gunshot.
“Just sign the fucking papers!” Nick screamed at me after firing a shot in the air.
I refused. And I would keep denying his request until my last breath. He couldn’t have my money. He couldn’t have their farm.
My teeth chattered as I sat on my knees in the snow, my ankles bound beneath me after running out here. Thankfully I still had my jacket on, but my mitts had been lost and I was desperately trying to keep my hands warm to avoid frostbite.
Nick was slowly dissolving into hysterics as time passed. His insane ramblings went on about how Valerie ruined everything. Apparently, his grand plan had been to force me to sign the papers by gun point at the boutique, kill us both in one fell swoop, and be on his merry way. But Valerie’s Scene—as he so called it—caused him to make a quick change of plans and pull me out here since a gunshot in a small town like Love would catch the attention of someone.
I only hoped he was right and thatsomeonewould find me.
The thought reminded me of how many people I had in this small town. Nick was really banking his success on the fact that I was as secluded as I once was with him. That couldn’t have beenfurther from the truth. I knew I would be okay if I could just hold out a little longer. If I could just get away from him. It was just so cold out.
“You’re really not going to hand over the money, are you? All I’ve done for you, all I’ve given you, and this is how you leave me?”
“No. You’re not getting my money,” I spat at him and braced for the punch I already knew was coming.
“That’s fine, Then no one fucking will,” he repeated the same sentiment as earlier, and that look was back in his eyes, the same one that came over him right before he killed Valerie.
I refused to let him have this. To let him have me. He hurt me too many times, and a sick part of me wanted to hurt him right back. As he came closer, I leaned back and brought my feet out from under me. I pulled my knees in toward my chest and then quickly kicked out as hard as I could, landing my heel directly into his groin.
He bent over and grunted while clutching himself, but it was short-lived as his anger fueled his adrenaline.
I tried to get up, to scoot away from him, to put any sort of distance between us. He was faster, though, and he grabbed me by my hair, pulling me along as my feet dragged beneath me, and I screamed. The pain was too much. Black spots dotted my vision.
He threw me down on the ground and bent over to tie my hands. Except, he wasn’t tying them together like he had my legs. He was tying them behind me to the rails of the train track.
“Since youlovethis land so much, you can fucking burn in it.”
He turned around to pick up the jerry can from the ground he had brought from his SUV.
“It might be cold out, but this gas is still going to burn wherever I put it.” The sadistic smile on his face would be scorchedinto my memory as he doused the surrounding trees and bushes, not afraid of splashing me in the process.
I couldn’t help the tears that escaped me then.
“Nick, please,” I resorted to begging. “Please, don’t take the farm from this family. They don’t deserve that. You can have me. You can have whatever is left in the bank account. Just please, don’t burn their farm.
“Nope, not good enough. They should have known. You were my property first.”
