Chapter Thirty-one
Ginger rears up at the sight of my ex, the rope pulling tight as she physically tries to get away from him.
I know my horse, so I let her go, expecting her to dart off.
Instead, she paws at the ground, big huffs of air puffing from her nostrils.
She gets closer to me, using her body to shield me from him.
“It’s okay,” I soothe her, but I can’t be sure, not when the man looks one minute away from murdering me.
“Is that him?” Ada demands, keeping her horse steady.
“My ex?” His eyes stay on me as he closes the gap, “Yes.”
Ada moves in closer to me, shielding me from the other side, just like Ginger. Tears sting my eyes.
“You fucking bitch!” He yells, loud enough that everyone around us can hear him, “You’re going to fucking take it back!”
“Take what back?” I hold steady, even when he stops as close as my horse and Ada will allow. I’m fighting the urge to cower, past trauma wanting me to shield myself from him. Don’t make waves. Don’t make a sound.
Instead, I tilt up my chin and steel my spine, showing Cal I’m not afraid of him anymore. Not on the outside, at least.
“Your fucking statement!” He growls, eyes scanning for an opening he won’t find.
“You need to leave,” Ada demands sternly.
“And who the fuck are you?” Cal spits.
“The woman about to knock your ass out.” She threatens.
“Yeah?” Cal sneers, reaching behind him. My stomach bottoms out when I see the gun, the way the metal reflects the sunlight reminding me of the night that person was in front of Silas’s house. “Wanna try it?”
He points the gun toward me.
“I was patient with you, Juniper.” He growls, his thumb flicking off the safety, “Let you have your little tantrum. I waited for you to come home, but you’re too fucking stupid to know what’s good for you, and my patience has now run out.
So, you’re leaving with me now, and you’re going to retract that statement so we can just go back to normal, yeah?
Tell them your lover made it all up, that he forced you to make that statement.
You do that and I’ll forget this ever happened. ”
“And if I don’t?” I tilt my chin up, hoping to appear strong even though my knees are shaking. Ada steps even closer, pushing her arm up to mine.
“If I can’t have you, Juni, no one can. You really fucked it up this time.”
“I did nothing.” I snap back, “This is all on you, Calvin.”
“Let’s go.” He jerks his hand in a come-here motion, the gun trained on me. I don’t move.
His upper lip curls, and dread has my stomach rolling when he turns the gun on Ada, “Move, Juniper, or I'll shoot her.”
“Don’t,” Ada snatches out her hand, stopping me from stepping toward my ex. “Don’t take one step near him, Juni. I’m serious.”
“I won’t let him hurt you,” I whisper to her and gently shrug off her arm before I pass her Ginger’s rope. “Keep her safe.”
“Juni,” Ada begs, “Don’t.”
“It’s okay,” I assure her.
It was him all along. The man from the night, the same one waiting for me outside the bar. He’s been here the whole time. He wanted to scare me. Scare me into coming back to him.
Ginger lets out a distressed neigh as I step out of her protection, and once I’m in reach of Cal, his hand wraps around my arm tightly. He snatches me to him, fingers bruising where he grasps my arm.
My whole body shuts down when he slams his mouth onto mine. I don’t move, don’t react except to try and not vomit as I feel his tongue on my lips. I keep my mouth firmly shut, even when I feel the barrel of the gun press into my side, biting in just below my ribcage.
He snatches away from me. “You’re going to make this up to me.”
“I hate you.” I spit, fire in my veins as I stare at the man who made my life an utter hell.
“Hate me all you like,” his eyes roam over my face, “I don’t give a shit. You’re my property, fucking mine, and no matter where you run, I’ll always find you.”
“Juni,” Ada cries when he forces me to move by shoving the gun into my body even harder, the pain forcing a cry from me.
“You follow us,” he says to Ada, “And I’ll shoot her.”
The look of horror on Ada’s face is the last thing I see before he starts yanking me toward the car. I trip as I walk, but his tight hand forces me to remain upright.
I realize now why I didn’t recognize the car initially. It’s not his truck.
“Where’s the truck?” I ask.
“They fucking seized it,” he snaps, “because of you. They took everything!”
“You’ll never get it back.” Perhaps taunting him isn’t the smartest move, but I can’t let him get me into that car.
“I can! And you’re going to help, and once that’s all done, we’re going to take this place, you hear me? You can watch while I destroy your boyfriend.”
I can’t help it, I laugh, “And how do you figure you’ll do that?”
“With your help, of course.”
I dig my heels in as he shoves me toward the car, forcing him to stumble a few times, but he’s relentless.
I don’t know how to disarm someone, especially not someone who is far stronger than me.
I have no doubt he is far enough gone inside his own head that he will shoot me.
His violence has always been there, simmering at the surface, just begging to break free from the cage.
While he wasn’t physical with me a lot, it came out in different ways.
The controlling, the gaslighting, and narcissism.
The belittling comments and the rougher than usual touches.
He’s always been on the edge, and he’s finally been pushed over it. By me leaving, by Silas having the investigation opened on every bad thing he’s done. Calvin doesn’t believe in consequences, even when those consequences have been served.
“This can’t be stopped!” I yell, “This is it, Calvin. It’s over.”
“It’s over when I say it’s over.”
We’re at the car now and the pressure of the gun finally loosens. I may not know much, but I do know that if I get in this car with him, he will kill me. I won’t last a week. He’ll force me to do things I don’t want to do, and eventually his anger will win.
If I am going to die, I am not going to die where he wants me to.
Sorrow seeps into my bones, the conversation I just had with Ada replaying in my mind. I won’t even get a chance at happiness. I won’t get a chance to tell Silas how I feel or what I want. I hadn’t decided if it was right, if forever was within reach for us, but now there is no choice.
We didn’t get forever. All we had was now.
And that’s okay. I can go with the taste of Silas on my lips.
Calvin doesn’t get to take that from me. He doesn’t get to take anything from me anymore.
He reaches for the door handle, putting enough space between us, I’m able to turn my body toward him. He doesn’t have time to react.
My knee jerks up, landing it exactly where I intended it to, meeting his groin as hard as I can. He lets out a loud yell, releasing my arm and dropping the gun to double over in pain.
I make a run for it. I just need to get to where people are, enough people that’ll force him to reconsider his threats. Most people on this ranch are armed, including the guys Silas and Roman hire. I’ve seen them myself, so if I can find them, I might have a chance to escape him.
A shot rings out from behind me, the bullet landing about six feet away and in the dirt. I scream, but I don’t stop.
And then I see him.
Silas.
He’s on the back of Mars, galloping toward me, his expression thunderous, one hand on the reins, one hand on a gun.
“He doesn’t get to have you!” I turn to Calvin in time to see him raise his weapon, leveling it at my chest, finger poised over the trigger.
My eyes squeeze shut as the shot rings out, and I wait for the pain to hit.
It feels as if time stands still; the air stops moving. The echo of the shot rings inside my ears, taunting me, bouncing off the rocky sides of the mountains.
But I wait and I wait, but no pain comes. Sound floods back into my ear in a hurry, a rush of noise that leaves me dizzy.
People are shouting; someone is calling my name. Dogs bark and hooves thunder over the ground, making the earth vibrate under my feet. And then there’s the scream. A shrill sound full of agony, and my mouth drops open when I see where it’s coming from.
Calvin is on the ground clutching his arm, a steady stream of blood slipping through his fingers.
My head whips around to Silas, who’s dismounting his horse, but his eyes are on me and me alone.
“Are you hurt!?” He demands, looking me over, checking for wounds he won’t find.
I shake my head, unable to form words.
“Are you sure?” His hands are on me now, feeling down my arms, my stomach, my legs.
I nod.
“Don’t move,” he tells me gently, turning his attention to the man who had just tried to end my life. There’s no softness to Silas now. It’s pure, unfiltered rage. It pulls his shoulders up, tightens the fist not holding the weapon.
In one swift move, he knocks Calvin out with a single punch.
The screaming stops, and an eerie silence settles with it. I watch in fascination—or maybe it’s shock—as Silas wraps up the wound on Calvin’s arm to stem the bleeding but then binds his hands together.
In the distance, I hear sirens, the wail of them ricocheting through the ranch, disturbing birds that had taken cover in the trees.
“Juni,” Ada rushes to me, eyes running down me in a similar way to Silas’s, checking for injuries that don’t exist. Her eyes are glazed and panicked, skin a few shades paler, which only makes the freckles scattered across her face that much darker.
“I’m okay,” I breathe out shakily. “I’m okay.”
Part of it is to convince her, but it’s for me too.
I’m okay.
He didn’t win.
I’m okay.
Silas stopped him; he came for me.
I’m okay.
It’s over. There’s no way he won’t go down for this, and on top of all the other awful things he’s done, the man won’t be free for a long time.
I survived.
My eyes burn as the first tear slips out of the corner. It’s not fear, it isn’t pain. It’s relief. It’s finally realizing it’s actually over. Leaving was the first step; it was the catalyst, but this… this is true freedom.
“Honeybee,” Hands cradle my face, his thumbs wiping away the fat tears rolling down my cheeks, “Where are you hurt?”
“I’m not hurt,” I whisper, my tongue catching a tear that stops at the corner of my lips. “I’m okay.”
His burning gaze bounces between mine, hearing everything I don’t say.
“You’re okay,” he rasps back, “Your own hero, baby.”
A watery laugh slips from me, and despite the audience, the eyes on us, and the people running in our direction, I lean forward and kiss him.
I kiss him like he’s mine. The world slips away when he kisses me back, cradling my face as if I’m precious, his mouth tender and seeking.
I part, just a little so I can get a hit of his taste.
Someone clears their throat, but Silas is slow to end the kiss and even when we come apart, his eyes are for me and me alone.
“The cops are here,” Roman’s voice sounds from behind me.
Still, Silas pays no one but me any attention. There’s been a monumental shift in the past five minutes; we both feel it, but it’s me who says it out loud.
“I want to stay.”