Chapter 27
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Merritt
“ S ome days I want to reach down his throat and rip out his spine with my bare hands.”
My hand froze midair, the French fry I’d been bringing to my mouth forgotten at Lennix’s passionate—and disturbing—declaration.
It had been a week since Warren left those roses on my car. In that time, Zach had lived up to his promise and put up security cameras around the lodge and at the entrance to the ranch.
There’d been no sign of Warren anywhere, and with no more ominous messages, I assumed he’d gotten the hint he couldn’t intimidate me and had decided to move on.
Without him lurking around the corner, life carried on like normal, and my new normal was amazing.
The only thing casting a shadow on all the light in my life was the fact that one of my friends seemed to be struggling.
That argument between Lennix and Raylan the day of the rose incident hadn’t been the last tense interaction between them, and people were starting to talk. Mainly Ivy, Rae, Holly, and me. We’d noticed Lennix’s sour mood lately and were starting to worry.
That was why I’d decided to head to the Tap Room on my day off to check on her and make sure she was okay. The comment about the spine ripping had been in answer to me asking what was going on between her and Raylan.
I cleared my throat and dropped the fry onto my plate next to the burger I ordered for lunch. “That’s... vivid.”
“I’m sorry.” She flopped back in her chair on a huff. “I know I sound a little unhinged.”
I shot her a grin. “Just a little.”
“He makes me so mad.”
I placed my straw between my lips and took a sip of water as I watched my friend closely. “Has it always been like this between you guys?”
She threw her hands up in frustration. “No, that’s the thing. I’ve known him my whole life, and recently he’s turned into this raging asshole.” Her sigh sounded like it weighed a ton. “He and Zach have been best friends since before I was born, so I grew up with him. I knew we weren’t as close as he and my brother were, but I always thought we were friends. Things have been strained since my brother and Rae got married, but it didn’t start getting ugly until recently.”
Leaning forward, I braced my elbow on the table and rested my chin in my palm. “What happened to make your relationship strained?”
A flush hit her cheeks at my question, and she lowered her head like she was trying to hide behind the curtain of her ebony hair. She curled her lips between her teeth, and I got the distinct impression she hadn’t meant to reveal as much as she had.
“Lennix?”
“Ugh! I told him I had feelings for him, okay?” she blurted out in rapid fire, her admission nearly bowling me over.
My eyes went wide and my hand slapped the table as I moved in even closer. “Oh my God, are you serious?” I hissed in part shock, part excitement. “You like Raylan?” All of a sudden I couldn’t shake the thought; they would make the cutest couple ever.
“ Liked ,” she stressed. “Past tense. I don’t feel that way about him anymore.” But something in the way she held herself as she said it made me think she wasn’t being completely honest.
I decided not to push her for the time being. “What did he say when you told him you had feelings for him?”
She slapped her hands over her face, muffling the pained groan she released. “I don’t want to say. It was so humiliating.”
I reached up and took hold of her wrist, slowly pulling her hand down so she could see the sincerity in my eyes when I said, “You never have any reason to be embarrassed around me. I’m your friend. And I’d never judge you.”
She gave me a tiny smile. “You really are an amazing friend. You know that?”
“The feeling is more than mutual, Len. And, hey, if you don’t want to talk about it, you don’t have to. I will respect whatever you decide.”
“No, it’s okay. I’ll tell you. I need to tell someone . This has been eating me alive for months.” She took a bracing breath. “When I told him I liked him, he basically said it was never going to happen. I was his friend’s little sister, and was practically still a kid.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “He did not call you a kid.”
She nodded. “He said I was too young to really know what I wanted, and he was flattered, but he didn’t see me that way.”
“Of all the condescending, bullshit excuses... You know what? He is an asshole.”
Lennix’s eyes got wide, and she let out a bubble of surprised laughter. “Wow, babe. Aside from when you were stomping those roses to death, I don’t think I’ve heard you curse that much.”
I smiled bashfully. “I’ve tried to tone it down since I got Levi, but I think this moment called for it.”
She lifted her glass. “Amen to that. Anyway, sure, I was crushed he didn’t feel the same way I did, but I tried to get past it. It was awkward around him for a while, but I did my best to put it out of my mind and go back to normal. I thought we were finally moving beyond all the awkwardness when, all of a sudden, this switch flipped in him. Now it’s like he goes out of his way to make me all rage-y. I’ve started fantasizing about all the different places on the ranch where I could hide his body so it would never be found.”
“Well, if you ever need a hand with that, you can always call me. Tristan has a shovel, and I’m really good at keeping secrets.”
She shot in my direction and wrapped her arms around me, yanking me into a hug so tight it made my ribs creak. For a tiny thing, she was strong as hell. “I’m so glad you came back to Hope Valley. I hate everything that asshole put you through while you were here, but I’m still glad, because it means I got a new friend for life.”
The sting of tears came on the heels of her proclamation. I pulled back with a sniffle and gave her an accusatory glare. “If you make me cry right now I’m going to be so mad.” She giggled, but didn’t look the least bit apologetic. “But I feel the same way. You have no idea how much meeting you guys and becoming friends has helped me move past all the ugliness from before.”
She sniffled and waved her hands in front of her face. “Now who’s gonna make who cry?”
We talked for a while longer, the rest of the conversation much lighter, but after a while she had to get back to work. The lunch crowd had filtered off, and she needed to start preparing for the night crowd that would be much bigger and a lot rowdier.
I still had some time to kill before I had to pick Levi up from school, so I headed to the grocery store to grab something to make for dinner.
I’d lived in Hope Valley for more than seven years by the time I left Warren, but in all that time, I’d never gotten to know the people in town. Back then, I’d walked through the grocery store at a quick pace, keeping my head down and trying my hardest not to make eye contact with anyone. I was in and out, never long enough to make any type of connection. Seven years, and practically everyone I’d crossed paths with was a stranger.
Since coming back—since Tristan came into my life—so much had changed. As I steered the cart through the aisles of Fresh Foods, I had a smile on my face for every single person I passed. I recognized at least half of the people I saw, and more than once, I was stopped to make small talk.
For the first time since I moved here, I was actually a part of the town—of the community. For so long I’d been scared no one would believe me. Warren’s charm and easy lies would fool them all.
Now I realized those worries had been planted in my head by Warren. The more time that passed, the more people were coming to me saying how sorry they were for what I’d gone through. The support of the community he’d once had was long gone now. The mask had been peeled away, and everyone was seeing him for what he was.
He was still doing everything in his power to drag this divorce out, but I wasn’t worried. I was patient, and I knew the day would come when I’d finally be free of him. I was sure Tristan would come up with some elaborate way to celebrate, and I couldn’t wait to see what he’d do.
I took my time shopping, planning out a dinner menu in my head that the guys in my life would enjoy enough they’d let the sight of vegetables on their plate slide.
They both seemed to be fans of my fried chicken, so I decided to make tenders with loaded mashed potatoes and green beans on the side.
I was not giving up my fight to make Levi like vegetables. One of two things was going to happen. Either he’d learn to love them, or I’d end up scarring him for life and he’d never eat another vegetable again. But I figured he’d be grown by then, and it wouldn’t be my problem anymore.
To soften the blow, I picked up a chocolate cake from the bakery. It wasn’t going to be as good as one of Nona’s cakes, but it would work in a pinch.
I’d learned, growing up, Nona had done what her kids referred to as stress baking. According to the stories they shared over the family dinners Levi and I had been attending regularly, Tristan and Blythe would come home from school to find every surface of the kitchen covered in some sort of baked good. Legend had it she managed to supply an entire bake sale all by herself, and Tristan said he and his step-brother Shawn were the most popular kids on their soccer team because Nona always showed up at their games with trays of cupcakes.
Apparently the trait was genetic and had been passed town to Blythe, but it had manifested differently with her. She didn’t stress bake, she stress cooked. Only, she’d taken that skill and made it into a career when she decided to open her own little catering company. It was still new, but she was excited about what her future held.
The more time I spent with Tristan’s family, the more I loved them, and was excited to meet his step-sibling, and his and Blythe’s half-brother, Liam, when they all traveled back home for Christmas.
It was the same for Levi. He’d already declared that Blythe’s middle daughter, Adeline, was his best friend, with her other two, Avett and Ainsley, coming in at a close, collective second.
I checked out, taking a moment to chat with the cashier who I’d become friendly with over the past few months, and headed to my car. I was in the middle of loading everything into the back hatch when a shadow came up behind me, suddenly blocking out the sun. Before I had a chance to turn around, something cold and hard was pressed into my back.
“Scream, and I swear to God, I’ll fucking shoot you.”
My blood turned to ice at the sound of Warren’s voice hissing in my ear.
“What—”
“Shut the fuck up,” he clipped, jabbing the object into my ribs hard enough to hurt. “Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to leave your purse in the car and casually step away. Then you’re going to get into the passenger seat of the one beside you. You aren’t going to scream or try to run or do anything else to draw attention to yourself, understand?”
I struggled to swallow past the knot in my throat. Unable to form words, I nodded.
“Good girl. Now get moving.”
I turned, glancing down to see that it had been the barrel of a gun he’d shoved into my ribs. My whole body began to tremble as terror dumped into my bloodstream. I scanned the parking lot, praying that someone would walk by as I slowly did what Warren had ordered. I knew the worst thing I could do was let him take me to a second location, but from the manic way he was watching me, there was no doubt in my mind he would pull that trigger if I gave him any reason.
With no other choice, I climbed into the passenger seat of the gray sedan that had parked beside my car and pulled the door closed.
Warren rounded the hood quickly and dropped into the driver’s seat. Then, before I could ask him what the hell he planned on doing, his arm shot out and he slammed the butt of the gun into my temple. And everything went black.