Chapter 46 Sierra
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
sierra
Throwing my hands in my pockets, I walked down the hill toward the parking lot Hayden’s pickup was in. All I needed was a couple minutes to clear my head, to get the image of that day out of my system, and then I could go back. We could talk about it. I’d be ready this time.
I’d face it head-on instead of running away again.
I had to. For our future.
I’d fight for him this time because Hayden was it. In every imagination of my future, every single version of me, whether I was living in Montana or competing in rodeo or not, Hayden had a place in it.
Yes, I’d decided. I would hold my head up high, and I’d go back to him. I’d swallow my pride and do whatever it took to make it right. I’d get down on my knees and beg if that’s what it took.
I loved him.
I loved him.
I nodded to myself over and over again, like I was giving myself an internal pep talk, which I sort of was.
“You can do this, Sierra,” I murmured as I turned around with the intention of walking back up the hill.
A twig snapped behind me, and I spun around. “Hayden, I told you—”
“You.” His voice—one I’d heard piercing through my nightmares the past five years—dripped with vitriol. He looked different, as though his time in prison had aged him. I wouldn’t have recognized him if I hadn’t heard his voice.
I couldn’t move. It was like my feet were frozen to the ground, my muscles completely devoid of any feeling. Pins and needles pricked my fingers and toes as he stepped toward me.
“This is new.” He reached out to grab a strand of my hair, letting it slide through his fingers before it fell back over my shoulder. “But still, there’s no mistaking it. You look just like your mother, Sierra.”
“What do you want?” I backed up slowly, as if the man in front of me was a wild animal and not my father. “Why are you here?”
Maybe if I stalled long enough, Hayden would catch up to us. He had to have been coming after me, right? He was too stubborn to actually let me go.
“I’m here because you ruined my life! I spent five years in prison because of you and your sad excuse for a mother.
Five years in that hellhole because you were too weak.
” He spat out the words like they were poison on his tongue.
“I didn’t want it to come to this, but you didn’t listen to my warnings.
You never listen, do you?” Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a revolver, the metal glinting under the street lamps as he flipped it in his hand.
“You should have quit in August when I set your trailer on fire.”
My eyes widened, images of the incidents that had occurred over the last few months flashing before my eyes.
The trailer fire. Pancho. The fear that I’d lost him to the smoke gripping my heart like claws.
The cut strap on my saddle. Thinking it was Michaela trying to sabotage me.
The nail in the tire of my pickup.
The lingering smell of cigarette smoke and the sensation that I was being watched.
The brick that he threw into Hayden’s window.
Broken glass shattered on the floor, blood dripping down my hand. White, searing pain jolting through my face.
“How did you…”
“You’re all over social media. I figured it would be harder and you’d be more careful, but it was so easy to track you down.
You ruined my life. I had dreams! Goals!
And now…” He laughed, the sound sinister and grating in my ears.
“Now, it’s only fair that I make sure yours never become a reality.
We can make this easy, or we can do it the hard way. ”
He cocked the gun, a wicked grin spreading across his features.
“Go to hell,” I hissed, against my better judgment. I should have stayed calm. Letting my emotions get the best of me would put me in a compromising position. I knew that. Getting mad at him would only provoke him.
He sighed as though he was disappointed in my response. This was the first time he almost seemed fatherly. But the sentiment vanished as quickly as it appeared. “I see.” Taking a few steps closer to me, he raised the hand holding the gun. “The hard way it is.”
Before I could react or run, a hard metal object came crashing down onto my temple and the entire world went black.