A park custodian wandered by in a dull gray canvas jumpsuit, wearing a big hat that obscured his face. He was poking at debris with a stick. He stood about twenty feet away with his back to them. A city truck was idling next to him, with the driver sitting there texting on his cell phone.
Waste of fuel,Mary thought with mild irritation. And it was polluting the air. Somebody should call the city and complain. She’d add it to her daily list. The prospect didn’t cheer her up as much as it should have.
“Why?” she asked, returning her attention to Angela.
“Because she knew it would hurt you.” Angela’s gaze bored into Mary. Mary flinched.
“That’s why I came back. I had to tell you that. You need to get out of there, Mary – she’s poison. She’s just an angry control freak, and she’s picked you as her little punching bag. Because, frankly, nobody else would put up with her crap.”
The usual defense leaped to Mary’s lips, but with less passion than usual this time. “She had to drop out of college for two years to support me after Mom—”
“Who the fuck cares?” Angela exploded with exasperation. “How do you even know that she dropped out because of you? That’s the kind of thing she’d say just to make you feel guilty. You were sixteen, you didn’t need babysitting, and I’m sure she got social security money from the state to take care of you, so you weren’t costing her anything.”
She heard footsteps clomping towards them. She turned to look. It was the park custodian. Wow, he was unusually big for a human. He was werewolf-sized, a good six-foot-five.
His big scraggy beard, and the way the hat obscured his face, was creepy. It made him look like a homeless serial killer. Mary instinctively stepped in front of Angela.
“Excuse me? Can I help you?” she asked in an annoyed tone.
In one swift motion, he ripped the beard off his face and then tore off his hat.
Jarrod.
Before she could say a word, he’d moved so fast he was almost on top of her.
“Mary Farraday, you’re being bridenapped,” he announced, and grabbed her and threw her over his shoulder as she shrieked in outrage and surprise.
The door to the city truck flew open.
The next thing Mary knew, the truck had pulled away. She looked out the window to see Regina’s mouth stretched in an O of shock. Hilda’s face was red and contorted with rage. Mary felt sick.
“You lying son of a bitch!” she cried to Jarrod, her heart pounding wildly. Ohgodohgodohgod, Jarrod had just bridenapped her.
“What did I lie about?” He looked puzzled.
“You promised you’d go through with the bridenapping!”
“And I just did. I never said I’d bridenap Regina, did I?” He cupped her chin in his hand and forced her to look into his eyes. “It was always you, Mary. It would only ever be you.”
