Chapter Thirty-four – Cassandra #2
A cold weight settled in my gut as I watched him—sniffing, rubbing his nose against his shoulder, but never loosening his grip. He was high. On something potent. Maybe the same heroin they’d pumped into Dad, except a smaller dose.
There’d be no reasoning with Carter either. Not like this.
I whipped my head back around to Chelsea, warily eyeing the items she now held.
She’d always been deathly terrified of needles.
So afraid that she’d passed out at the mere sight of them when Mom was sick—unless that had just been another act in a long list of skilled performances.
But it was the whip she gripped that really confused me.
She’d never been a horse person. Never learned to ride. What could she possibly want with it?
As if answering my unspoken question, she drew closer, clumsily slashing the whip through the air. Even with her poor form, it was enough for the tip to nick my chin right at the spot still healing from hitting the pavement. I gasped in pain.
Behind the stall door, Vader had recovered and was barking and snarling, hurling his body against the wood. Relief flooded through me knowing he was okay, but fear quickly followed—if he broke free, Chelsea might hurt him more.
“I promised you’d regret not leaving,” Chelsea said. “Now, you’ll die, the barn will burn, and maybe even the entire Harrington resort if your fiancé isn’t quick enough.”
Even as she said it, she kicked over a red container I hadn’t noticed. The scent of gasoline filled the air, running in rivulets along the floor.
“Why, Chelsea? Why would you do this? You can’t possibly hate me this much.”
“I don’t hate you. I just don’t give a shit about you either.
And you only have yourself to blame. It would have been simple if you’d just done what you were told.
With Dad dead and you disappearing where no one could find you, all the money from the sale of his property and his life insurance would have been mine and mine alone. ”
I shook my head in disgust. “Dad doesn’t have life insurance, Chelsea. He’s broke.”
She laughed, and it reminded me of the time she’d played the evil queen in Snow White. It had been dark and ugly and terrifying, even when I’d known she was acting, and now it was all the more frightening because I knew just how real it was.
“He actually does have insurance. I’ve been paying for it for three years, just biding my time. When I saw Carter in LA and he told me about the deal he’d been trying to make with Dad, I knew it was the perfect time. I just had to get you out of the way.”
“I can’t believe you’re willing to actually kill your family for money.”
My chest ached, and my shoulders burned as Carter yanked them back farther.
“Family. Some family. That poor, innocent Maisey routine you played at the mall almost cost me Gavin!” She slashed the air with the whip, but this time, I jerked to the side before it could hit me and almost struck Carter.
“Hey, watch it,” he snapped.
Chelsea acted like she hadn’t even heard him as she came closer, swirling the whip. “Gavin left. He fucking left me in that shack of a rental all because your idiot fiancé somehow convinced him with one sentence that I was a horrible person.”
“If he finally saw the real you behind your act, don’t blame me or Beckett. Maybe you just aren’t as good an actress as you like to believe.”
Fury flared across Chelsea’s face. She flicked the whip, but for the second time, it didn’t reach me.
“I should have already won an Academy Award for all the years I pretended to be your loving big sister.”
I snorted in disgust, even though the truth was, I had believed her for years. I’d believed her over Beckett trying to show me the truth.
“Chelsea, let’s just get this done,” Carter said behind me.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” she hissed at him before staring daggers at me again.
“You may have tried to ruin my relationship, Cornlette, but Gavin will come back to me. When I wave a check for a million dollars in front of him, he’ll be begging me to be his again.
Begging me to hand it over so we can finally film the movie we wrote together. ”
“You’re never going to get that chance, Chelsea. Sheriff Wylee is already investigating you.”
“I have a plan,” she said, and she glanced behind me to Carter.
He didn’t seem to register the look, but I did. With a fresh wave of horror, I understood. Chelsea was going to lay this all at his feet. She’d kill me, set the barn on fire, and make sure Carter died in the process. She’d make it seem that he’d been the one behind all of it.
But Chelsea seemed to have forgotten one thing. I wasn’t alone.
I’d sent Chuck for help, and my absence would be noted at the lake. An entire team of people would be looking for me, and Beckett would be heading them up. He had my location on his phone. He’d be here.
I just had to delay, put up enough of a fight that Chelsea and Carter concentrated on me until help arrived.
I did what Parker’s dad had taught Fallon and me to do if we were ever attacked. I slammed my head backward and was rewarded with a grunt of agony as I connected with Carter’s nose. Then, I dragged the heel of my cowboy boot along his shin.
He screamed, “Fucking bitch!”
His hold on me loosened just as I let my muscles go slack, becoming dead weight in his hold. He dropped me, and I hit the ground. I rolled and kicked at the same time, my foot landing another blow to his leg.
Carter retaliated, his foot landing in my rib cage, as Chelsea flicked the whip again. It slashed through my biceps, drawing blood, and I screamed.
Vader’s bark was desperate as he leaped up against the door of the stall. The wood cracked, the sound mixing with the bang, bang, bang of the fireworks and the stomping and snorting of the horses.
The scent of gas and the sting of it on my hands increased my fear. Not just for me, but for all the animals. Vader and Titan and the dozens of horses housed here.
“Idiot!” Chelsea snapped at Carter. “You couldn’t even hold on to her for two seconds?”
The whip hit me again, this time on the thigh, ripping my jeans. I bit back a cry as Vader’s barks grew even more frantic.
“This is a lot more fun than I was expecting it to be,” my sister said, flicking the whip again and laughing when she saw me flinch. She glanced up at Carter. “What are you waiting for? Dose her.”
She tossed the needle at him, and he caught it deftly. My mouth went dry. My heart thudded.
I kicked again as he got closer, and the whip slashed, missing me but shooting dust into my face. As I coughed and blinked, Carter grabbed my ankle in a viselike grip and used his mouth to uncap the needle. He had the point pressed against my thigh as my sister closed the distance.
He hadn’t even had the chance to realize she was there before she plunged a second needle into the side of his neck.
Shock coated his face. He blinked. “What the hell, Chel—”
He fell on top of me, his lifeless body making it almost impossible to move, as his needle rolled away. I stretched my arm, desperately trying to reach for it, and the whip hit the back of my hand.
“I can’t believe he fucking missed!” Disgust dripped from her voice. “He had one job and couldn’t even get it right.”
She swept the needle up as Vader tore at the wood of the stall. Chelsea shouted, “Shut up, you mongrel!”
The dog didn’t listen. If anything, he became more savage.
With her attention turned toward Vader, I pushed Carter off me and rolled over, rising to my hands and knees. The whip hit my shoulders, and I screamed again.
Another series of booms filled the sky outside the barn as the fireworks show moved toward its finale, and tangled in with the noise came another. A noise that made me want to weep. A deep voice filled with deadly intent.
“Don’t take another fucking step.”