Chapter Forty-Six #2
She shook her head. “No. I’m just being nosy.”
Relief filled Rule.
“Take your lap, brother,” Rebel said, “so I can put on my top.” She wrinkled her nose. “If you aren’t in too much pain, that is. I’m really starting to feel our fight.”
“I’m fine, sister.” He indicated her discarded bikini top with a flourish of his hand. “Please, by all means.”
He glanced at the time. 9:58PM.
Smiling, she leaned in and hugged him, then kissed his cheek. “Maybe, we needed to pummel each other to get back on track,” she giggled.
“Maybe,” Rule agreed politely.
The moment she turned her back to him, he punched the back of her head and knocked her out. Taking her unconscious body into his arms, he calmly walked down the pool steps, sat on the third one and held her under the water, counting the minutes until she drowned and one less demon walked the earth.
Sitting at her desk, Meggie re-read her spreadsheet for the clients with outstanding balances.
Some were due to improper insurance codes.
Others were because she hadn’t been well enough to send reminders to patients and then make follow-up calls.
But she needed the open invoices resolved.
They had five caregivers besides Zoann on the company’s roster.
At their next meeting, Meggie had promised to either recommend bumping their nurses up to six or eight, or shaving their clients, especially the patients with the means to pay for their services but who chose to ignore the bill.
Unfortunately, Meggie couldn’t concentrate. Gunner wanted to spend time with Blade. Since Kendall didn’t mind, Meggie saw no problem. Now, a restless energy invaded her. A feeling of doom she couldn’t place.
With ten days until the Mardi Gras ball, last minute details remained. Monday, Meggie would visit Edie’s shop for her final fitting. Then, Tuesday, she, Roxy and Kendall were going to the venue for a final meeting with the manager.
It was a lot to do in a very little time, but Meggie couldn’t wait. She loved dressing up in the pretty gowns required for the balls. Once a year was more than enough to depart from reality.
Well, twice a year if she included Valentine’s Day. Somehow, even when it seemed as if the day would go completely off the rails, Christopher always made it special for her.
March would be quite busy with the ball, Rory’s and Devon’s fifteenth birthdays, Harley’s play. and her and Christopher’s church wedding anniversary. She wasn’t sure what she wanted to do, but Tabitha’s idea of a cabin getaway seemed perfect.
Smiling, she pushed her chair back. She’d go upstairs and shower.
She glanced at her clock.
9:58PM.
At 10:30, she’d text Christopher and ask how much longer he planned to stay at Nyx’s party. Normally, she’d be at his side, but she refused to show that witch any support or stifle CJ’s fun, so she opted to stay behind.
Halfway to the staircase, she remembered Rebel mentioning the natatorium at dinner.
When she reached the breezeway and the scene of Ryder, Ransom, and Axel’s poop crime, Meggie wrinkled her nose. The scent of Hogzilla’s poop lived in her memory. She swore she’d never completely rid the house of that godawful stench.
She passed the back staircase and entered a narrow hallway with a door that led to her private rose garden.
Stepping through an archway into another hallway, Meggie smiled at the two doors.
One led to their home gym…she blushed at some of the intimate memories she and Christopher had shared inside the room.
The other door led to the natatorium where Rebel was hopefully relaxing.
Meggie considered walking away, but she couldn’t. Although Rebel was no longer a small girl, Meggie checked on her daughter every so often when she was alone in the natatorium just to put her mind at ease.
A cuckoo clock the kids fell in love with announced 10PM.
Meggie paused to send a text to Rebel, and waited a minute to see if she’d answer. She received no response.
Yanking the door open, she walked into the room. Immediately, her gaze fell on the back of Rule, sitting on the second or third pool step. Although there were five, he wasn’t tall enough to keep his head above water if he were on the fourth or fifth.
She walked closer. “Rule?”
His shoulders stiffened. “Go away, Mom. I don’t have clothes on.”
“Where’s Rebel?” She would’ve texted Meggie to let her know she was back in her room. “She was supposed to be in here,” she said.
Squinting, she glanced around. She spotted Rebel’ s Betty Boop beach towel flung across the back of a chaise lounge. Next to it, her phone lay on the little table.
An abnormal silence, punctuated by the ticking of a clock panicked Meggie.
10:02PM.
She walked closer to the pool and stopped at the edge.
It took her a moment to register Rule standing and a glimmer of blonde hair under the water.
Meggie screamed and dove into the pool, gripping her daughter’s shoulders and pulling her to the surface. Rebel was taller than her and weighed more, but Meggie found the strength to get her out of the pool.
“Rebel, no, no, no!” she cried, pumping her chest, barely remembering if she did it right. “Breathe, baby, breathe. Please!”
Seconds ticked by, but Meggie refused to give up.
“Call 911, Rule. Then call your daddy,” she wept.
She wouldn’t allow her baby girl to slip through her fingers. She could barely get any reassuring words out for her sobbing. Rebel was pale and lifeless and…
Suddenly, water gushed from her mouth, and she gasped.
“Come on, Reb. Breathe,” she begged. “Breathe for Momma. Breathe. Please, God. Please.”
Rebel coughed up more water.
A blow landed on Meggie’s cheek before hands grasped her hair and jerked her away from Rebel.
“Leave her alone , Mom,” Rule snarled, ignoring Meggie’s struggles. He shook her, then backhanded her. She sprawled to the ground.
Adrenaline punched her. She rolled away, evading Rule’s attempt to kick her in the head.
“She needs to die!”
Popping to her feet, Meggie stumbled back. “Son, listen to me. Please! Stop.” She held her hands out, hoping to stop Rule. He was lost in insanity, finally breaking after months of signs they all thought manageable. “Rule, don’t hurt me. Let me see to Rebel,” she begged.
He kept advancing.
“Your father will kill you. How do you think you’ll—”
A punch interrupted her question. She landed hard, hitting the side of her head against the concrete. If she hadn’t scrambled back again, Rule would’ve kicked her.
“Rule, stop!”
Her son ignored her cry, charged forward, fury and hatred in his eyes.
Meggie crab walked backward, evading his grasp. She couldn’t allow him to knock her out.
He was hot on her heels, but she stumbled to the bar and hurried behind it. Bar tools, mostly for decorations, lay on the counter. After pressing the alarm to send alerts of a pool emergency, she grabbed the ice pick, cursing herself for allowing Rule to corner her.
She didn’t want to use the ice pick, especially against her own son, but no way would she allow him to kill her.
“Stand down, son,” she said, breathing hard, tears and desperation mingling in her voice. She kept one hand in front of her. The other held the ice pick in position, ready to wield it.
“You’ll never hurt me,” he swore, his eyes a depthless void. “I can walk to Rebel and strangle her, and you couldn’t kill me.”
Meggie’s nostrils flared, hot tears rolling down her cheeks. She didn’t want to kill her own child. She wanted to frighten him, but he was beyond that. “I’ll do what I must to survive and to save your sister. Now, move.”
He smirked. “No.”
Drawing in a deep breath and girding her resolve, Meggie lowered the ice pick and barreled into Rule, knocking him aside. But he caught her, clutched her arm, and spun her around.
He grabbed her throat and punched her in the stomach. “Cocksucking slut.”
Shoving her, he sent her spiraling. He snatched the ice pick from her hand and raced toward Rebel.
Meggie screamed again. Spying a small table, she grabbed it, hurried behind Rule, and swung, hitting his back.
“ Fuck! ” he moaned, turning on her, even wilder.
The ice pick arced between them, jabbing into her shoulder. He yanked it away, but somehow, Meggie evaded every other attempt to stab her as she tried to stay present and not allow him to back her into another corner. He’d kill her.
“Mom!”
The horror in Axel’s little voice almost distracted her. But if she looked away, she was dead.
“Run, Axel,” she screamed, afraid Rule would turn on him, too. “Call Christopher. Please!”
“The vicious midget is already gone,” Rule chortled.
Needing to draw Rule’s attention so he’d lower the ice pick or show some type of weakness, Meggie balled her fist and punched him in the face. Her move stunned him, so she punched his nose, his lips, his eyes, his chin, suddenly so furious with him, she could’ve killed him.
Blood spurted from his nose, but he grabbed her throat again and jerked her to him. She kneed his cock, and he screamed. This time, when she punched him, he staggered back. Just as he did, his body jerked, his eyes widened, and he dropped to the ground.
Axel stood a few feet away, slingshot in hand. “Got that motherfucker, Mom. Ransom’s getting Dad and Ryder’s coming with the bow and arrow.”
Gasping for breath, Meggie doubled over, unable to find it in herself to respond.