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Hearing a large bang from downstairs, I pause, my heart racing immediately. I poke my head out the bathroom door, about to call out, but Jasmine beats me to it.
“Sorry! I just dropped that large coffee table book!” Jasmine yells, and I take a deep breath. It is more a decor item than an actual book, but the photography is nice.
“No worries!” I shout my reply, knowing that book weighs a ton.
Closing the door again, I lean over the sink, splashing the hot water on my face, then I grab a new washcloth to wipe my face again. The process is taking much longer than it should, and I just want to get back down to the girls. Looking up into the mirror to see my reflection, the air leaves my lungs. The hot water created so much steam, the mirror fogged up. But that isn’t the issue. It is what is written on it that makes my breathing stop.
This property is mine, baby girl.
I suddenly can’t breathe.Is it Tanner?Is he the one who is trying to scare me away? He had access to my truck to tamper with the brakes, to my house to leave the rose. He was upset that the sheriff didn’t find anything to hold Josh… He wanted my property, and now his nickname for me is on the mirror along with what seems like a threat.
I try to breathe through the panic, but I can’t.It can’t be him…
Another loud thud from downstairs pulls me from my shock, and I jump before I open the bathroom door.
“Lacy?” I shout as I slowly open the bathroom door, my heart thundering, my body now on high alert. She doesn’t respond, so I slowly walk down the stairs.
“Lacy?” I yell again, feeling a cool breeze and seeing the front door open. Maybe she and Jasmine went back outside, talking to the security guys. I swallow roughly,the overwhelming feeling something isn’t right nipping at me. Spotting my cell on the coffee table where we were sitting, I quickly step down the last remaining stairs to grab it.
“Jasmine! Lacy!” I yell even louder, panic now evident in my tone as my hands shake and legs tremble. But it is all quiet as I turn into the living room.
I’m almost to the coffee table when I see movement to my left and look up mere seconds before an object is slammed into my head, the force hard enough to knock me from my feet, and I hit the ground on my hands and knees, hard. My head thumps, but I am still conscious as I moan at the pain.
“I don’t think so,baby girl.” The nickname is no longer a term of endearment and said with a hiss as I hear a familiar voice from behind me, and I turn swiftly.
“What…” I try to turn my head and look up. “Oh my God!” I gasp just before Jasmine’s hand connects with my head, slapping my face, and I fall again, hitting the ground, my head smashing into the coffee table, my vision now blurry as I become instantly disoriented.
“You’re coming with me,” she says, grabbing my ankles and dragging me out the back door. I try to kick, confused, scared, unsure of exactly what is happening. But my body feels like Jell-O, my head fuzzy.
“What… Why…” I croak out as I do my best to get out of her hold. But it’s impossible. She is dragging me across the floor toward the back door so swiftly, I don’t have a chance to grip on to anything. If it was a fair fight, I would have a good chance of winning, but now, as I look at Jasmine, I don’t even recognize her anymore. Her eyes are wildand hold none of the kindness I have come to know. Her movements are jerky, her smile long gone.
“Because you came into town acting like Little Miss Fucking Princess,” she grits out, pulling me outside to the porch, making absolutely no sense. The cool air hits me but does nothing to wake me from my confusion. Jasmine stops suddenly and lifts her arm, then hits me across the head on the other side. It’s so violent and unexpected that my head slams back against the porch decking, and I moan, my hands coming to my head just before she yanks my body down the back steps, my head banging on each and every one of them as my vision starts to fade.
“No… No… Jasmine… I don’t understand,” I murmur, barely lucid as she continues to drag my body outside into the night sky and across the yard to the shed. Straight past the two bodies of the security team as they lay lifeless on the porch steps. I try to get to them, but I see one with blood dripping from his ear, and the other’s lips are blue, almost like he has been suffocated or poisoned. My stomach tightens like I may be sick.How could she do this?
I hear a commotion before I spot the outline of Marmalade as she bolts from her sleeping quarters, and then I hear Gertie and her kids bleating before they all run from the shed.
“I moved here a year ago and never got his attention. He barely even notices me.” She continues talking to herself, not looking at me, only walking with tunnel vision to the shed.
“Who? What?” I ask, not understanding. She isclearly out of her mind, and I wonder if she is on something.
“I thought the brakes would work. If it didn’t kill you, I was at least hoping that you would be charged with dangerous driving and speeding. Both things I know he hates. But noooooooo, Little Miss Princess got out of that one too!” she screams, and my body shudders. The woman whom I considered a friend is totally unhinged, and if I survive tonight, I know that between her and Josh, I need to do better at selecting friends.
“Tanner?” I ask, my mind slowly connecting the dots.
“Yes,Tanner!” she screams at me, and I flinch. “One of the richest men in this country, single for years, does everything for everyone. I moved here just to meet him. I moved here to shoot my shot, and he never even gave me the time of day. But I persevered. I tried to see him every day, driving out to the distillery, making fucking floral arrangements for him. Making myself known and present. Butyou!” She pauses after terrifying me to the core with her scream filled with disdain, and I don’t register what she is doing until I spot Lacy. Fear consumes me at the sight.
Lacy looks at me with wide eyes from where she is hanging from the roof. Rope is wrapped around her wrists, and they are pulled above her head, her feet dangling, her mouth taped with black duct tape. She starts yelling, which is muffled from the tape, and thrashing about on the ropes, but Jasmine ignores her as I feel tight rope burning around my bare ankles.
I struggle to kick out of her grip, my body panic-striken, doing anything to not be tied up by my ankles.But I’m seeing double, and my head feels like it is full of cement. I can barely breathe, let alone fight.
“Jasmine, don’t do this…” I pant out. “Please, Jasmine.” Tears come to my eyes. I have no idea what she has planned, but seeing Lacy hanging from the rafters gives me a pretty good indication.
“Do you know how angry I was to hear that he loves you.You! A stupid city girl who doesn’t even know how to run afarm!” she yells as she walks the other end of the rope over to the pulley and starts yanking on it.
“Jasmine, let’s talk about it. I am sure this can all be worked out. Tanner is a nice guy, but you’re right, I am just a stupid city girl. I can move back there, away from here,” I tell her shakily, meaning none of it. I need to tell her what she wants to hear.
I manage to roll onto my stomach, but the rope tenses, and I know I have only mere minutes before I will be unable to do anything. The pain in my head intensifies, the sting on my skin harsh from gravel rash, but I close my eyes, trying to push through it and stay conscious. Vomit crawls up my throat from my efforts. My head feels like I am underwater, but I can still hear the animals calling, running everywhere all over the yard.
