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“They are friends.” I sigh, rubbing my chin as I think about it.
“She is a bit annoying,” Connor remarks. “She is always hanging out at the distillery.”
“I hardly see her,” I tell him.
“Not sure how you miss her. She is there almost every day,” he says with a scoff.
“She didn’t grow up here, did she?” Huxley asks, not knowing her very well.
“Moved here a year ago. Started the florist. She is from a few towns over,” I tell them.
“Williamstown?” Hudson asks.
“That’s right,” I say, looking at him curiously. “Why?”
“Well, she came in to see me about a cut on her handa few weeks ago, so I started a file on her at the hospital. Her last name is Bletcher,” Hudson says.
“Like Boris?” Huxley snorts. The two of them are obviously on the same wavelength, but I have no idea what they are talking about. “As in, the car mechanic?”
“How many people do you know from that town with the same surname as him? It caught my eye, because as kids, we always used to sing the jingle of his TV commercial,” Hudson says.
“Car mechanic?” Connor says, sitting forward, the air around us changing. “She would know all about brake cables, then?”
Heart stuttering, I am already up off my seat.
“When did she come in with the cut on her hand?” I ask Hudson, and he thinks about it for a moment before his eyes widen completely.
“Same day of Victoria’s accident,” he says, and I move so fast I must be a blur. I grab my cell and call Victoria while snatching my keys from the table. “Pick up, baby girl. Pick up.”
With a growl, I’m sprinting out of the house as Connor, Hudson, and Huxley all run after me, the four of us hurrying out of my place and to our trucks.
“No answer. Fuck!” I yell as I jump into my truck.
“I’ll call the sheriff,” I hear Huxley yell as Connor jumps in beside me, and the two of us are already moving. The Hamilton brothers are right behind us.
“Fuck. Why didn’t I see it? What the hell is her motive?” I spit out as I speed down Distillery Drive.
“She hangs around the distillery like a bad smell. I seeher watching you a bit…” Connor admits, and I look at him like he is crazy.
“I have never paid her any attention. I have never dated her, taken her for a meal, nothing.”
Pulling up to Marie's place, I see the lights on out in the back shed.
“The shed,” I say, jumping out of the truck, seeing none of my security guys I left here earlier and wondering where the hell they are.
“Victoria!” I yell but hear no one. Connor and I are halfway to the shed as Huxley and Hudson pull in.
“Shit,” Connor says, stopping, and I follow his gaze. The two security men I had here both lie on their backs on the grass. Dead. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Victoria!” I scream, the panic and anger swirling in my body, taking over my senses. I put myself in front of Connor, prepared to take a bullet for him if needed.
“Do you smell that?” Connor asks, grabbing on to my shirt to stop my steps.
“Gasoline,” I grit out. Spotting the cow and goats in the yard and not in the shed where I left them, locked up a few hours ago, only confirms where they are. My stomach tenses with unease, heart now racing with urgency.
“I’ll check inside,” Huxley says, and I spot Hudson down on one knee, checking for a pulse on the two security guys before he looks at me and shakes his head, standing back up. Connor darts off to follow Huxley in the back door, and I continue running to the shed with Hudson. Turning the corner, we both stop short.
Lacy and Victoria are hanging from the rafters of theshed. Victoria is hanging by her ankles, blood coating one side of her face. She isn’t moving, her eyes are closed, and I have no idea if she is even alive. My heart lurches, reaching out to her, my feet moving before my thoughts. Lacy hangs by her wrists and starts screaming the minute she sees us, her screams muffled by duct tape as she wriggles around on the rope, so much she starts swinging.
