Chapter Thirty-eight
“I’ll catch you guys tomorrow,” I yell, leading Dottie away by her rope. She did great with the other guys and only threatened to kick them once, which is progress.
It’s been hard to focus, and Dottie felt it.
She’s a smart girl, intuitive, but I expected nothing less, and since she’s bonded with me already, she kept checking on me, nudging the end of her muzzle to my shoulder, nibbling my shirt and ear.
I haven’t been able to get Juni off my mind all day, nor the shit that went down last night.
It all turned so quickly; we were good. Better than good. Happy.
And then that prick ruined it all.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have left her last night, but I needed a minute to think, to process. The fear of losing her is eating at me, creating a far bigger fissure in my chest than there ever has been before.
Now I need to apologize and promise her I’ll always be here to protect and love her.
Once I have Dottie settled in her stable, I head around the back and toward the barn where I know she had been working today.
Ada is sweeping the galley when I arrive, and her head whips toward me, her brows pulling low.
“Silas? Is everything okay?”
The question takes me aback for a minute. “Yeah, why?”
“Is the horse okay?”
“What horse?”
Ada stares at me like I’ve gone insane.
“Darcy came down,” she explains, “said you were dealing with an emergency with one of your horses. Asked Juni to grab your kids.”
I stop dead in my tracks. “I didn’t ask Darcy to do shit, and all the horses are fine.”
“So why…?” The question trails off.
“Where is she?” I demand, my heart steadily increasing in speed as dread turns over in my stomach.
“She went to the house,” Ada hurries out, “About twenty minutes ago.”
“I need you to tell me everything you know,” I demand. “Where is Juni, Ada?”
“I told you!” she rushes out, “She went to get Rosie and Caleb.”
I’m moving before she finishes her sentence, running back toward my house. I see the gleaming paint of my truck, but rush straight past it and into the house, praying to hear her voice. The door bangs against the back wall, but only silence greets me.
What the fuck is happening? Why would Darcy lie!? I search every room, but no one is here, and when I reach for the keys to my truck, they’re missing.
No. No. No.
“Juni!” I roar her name, rechecking the house like she could be hiding somewhere, but I already know. She’s gone.
Ada is waiting outside; her face twisted in worry. “What’s going on?”
“What do you know about Darcy?” I demand, forcing her to catch up with me as I rush back toward the main house.
“I don’t know anything!”
Apparently, neither do I.
She’s worked here for years, been a damn constant since before the whole shit went down with my wife. Something tells me it’s all been a lie. A ruse.
How could I have missed it?
But the real question is, what does she want with Juniper?
I shove through the door into Roman’s house, frantically searching for my brother as I yell his name.
I find Niamh first, and Roman isn’t far behind.
“Darcy has Juni,” I snap out. “I need your truck.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Juni is gone!” I roar.
“Breathe,” Roman holds up his hands. “What do you mean? They went into town?”
“No!” I growl. “She lied! She told Juni that I had asked her to pick up the kids because I was dealing with a sick horse. Now Juni is gone.”
“Are you sure she didn’t go get the kids?” Niamh asks.
“My truck is there, but the keys are missing.” I shake my head, “Fuck this. Something is wrong and I’m not fucking explaining it over and over. Where are your keys?”
“I’m coming with you,” Roman plucks the keys to the Ranger from the hook.
“Go find Ada,” I tell Niamh. “She’s shaken.”
With that, I follow my brother out of the house and climb into the truck. “Go to Darcy’s place.” I demand.
I have no idea what the fuck is going on, so I need to start at the beginning. The ride is short, and I’m hopping out before the truck is even in park, meeting a locked door when I step up on the porch.
My shoulder meets the door, once, twice, three times, the wood splintering and cracking with my weight.
On the fifth ram, it releases. The pain in my shoulder barely registers as I burst inside, finding a clean and tidy place.
Everything is as it was when she first started working here, the furniture in exactly the same position, the frames on the walls still holding the stock prints they were bought with.
Not a single thing has been changed, and nothing is out of place.
To look at it, it would appear no one lives here.
“Juni!” I yell, opening and closing doors. “Darcy!”
No one answers me. I open the last door in the hall and almost close it when I see no one inside, but the wall directly across from me catches my attention.
It’s a wall of photos, a couple of news articles and scribbles.
Reaching for the switch, I turn the light on, illuminating the wall. My heart drops down into my stomach.
“What the fuck is that?” Roman stops behind me.
I don’t answer him as I step into the room, scanning over the wall.
Local vet charged with harassment and stalking.
Beneath the headline is an image of Darcy.
Restraining order handed to Helena Darcy, the veterinarian who terrorized her victim for thirteen months and broke into his home.
Yanking the article off the wall, I read the whole thing, wondering who the fuck it is we actually hired.
I remember the day she turned up here. She looked desperate, and her experience was inarguable.
What did it matter that she didn’t have the paperwork?
Those things could be sorted later. Now that I think about it, we never did follow up.
I pushed my brother to hire her and then we just… left her to it.
Fuck.
Helena Darcy, 32, has been charged with stalking her ex-boyfriend and handed a restraining order.
The vet is alleged to have called her victim 257 times in one day and sent messages across various platforms at least 138 times in a 2 day period.
It is also alleged that she broke into her victim’s home and threatened him and his new girlfriend while they lay in bed.
This is said to have been going on for thirteen months following the breakdown of the relationship between Ms. Darcy and her former partner.
In his victim impact statement, Ms. Darcy’s ex-boyfriend said he feared for his and his new partner’s lives on numerous occasions, but especially when Darcy broke into the apartment he shared with his partner and took out a knife from the kitchen.
She eventually left without causing any injury, but it comes after a long list of other instances where Ms. Darcy threatened and abused her former partner.
Who the fuck did I let onto my ranch!? I look at the photographs on the wall.
There are several images of a man and a woman I don’t recognize, which I assume is the ex-partner.
Mixed in with them are photos of Darcy and him, looking happy, smiling at the camera.
In one there’s an engagement ring, in another a wedding dress hanging on the back of a door.
I trace each image, but my heart stops dead in my chest when I see the next one.
Me on my porch, my ex-wife next to me with a young Caleb sitting on the step, and Rosie in her mother’s arms. It’s taken from afar, and at the edges of the images are what look like branches, as if the image was shot through a bush.
But it doesn’t stop there. More and more images of me show up.
Me and my ex. Me and the horses. Me and the kids.
There are photos of my ex, incriminating images of her with the various men she had affairs with, more of me with my brother’s.
Some of them on their own, Remy in his cabin, Roman in his office.
She’s been watching all of us, but especially me.
There are hundreds of pictures of me.
As I make it to the end of the wall, I start to see Juni in the photos. Us in the house and in the stables. Us in the back of the truck the night we watched the meteorite shower. Us in the tack room…
It was Darcy all along.
“Silas,” Roman says my name from the doorway.
I turn to see him holding an oversized jacket and pants, similar to what Juni had described.
“It was her,” I growl. “It’s been Darcy the whole time.”
“Holy shit.”
“Roman,” I swallow, dread and fear sinking into my gut, “She’s taken her. She has Juni.”
“We’ll find her,” Roman doesn’t hesitate. He spins on his heel and heads out of the room. “I’ll call Niamh, ask her to check with Ashley at the bar to see if she’s seen anything.”
I start rummaging through the piles of paperwork inside this room. Bills, notices, files on the animals and more images of me. There’s nothing here that gives away where Darcy could have taken Juni.
How the fuck did I miss this?
She never showed any signs; sure, there were lingering stares, but nothing that suggested she was capable of this.
“Fuck,” I growl. I have to find Juni before Darcy does something to hurt her.
“Niamh says Ashley saw Darcy’s truck speeding through town,” Roman rushes back in, “heading east.”
“Toward the lakes?” I pause. “What’s out there?”
Roman shrugs, “It’s a tourist hotspot; it’ll be rammed this time of year.”
I go quiet and think. I’ve been out there only a few times; it’s a watersports hotspot, but there are several campgrounds in the woods that surround the lakes. Past the lakes, there isn’t much of anything for miles, a couple of gas stations along the route, maybe.
“I need my laptop,” I snap, pushing past my brother and into the kitchen where I rummage through the drawers, looking for as much information on Darcy—Helena Darcy. The more I have, the more results I’ll get. I find a passport, expired, but it’s enough.
“I’ll drive,” Roman knows exactly what I plan to do and makes a stop at the house so I can grab the equipment I need, along with my weapon.
I’m not failing Juni. We’re not about to lose each other when we've only just started.