CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Jess
I had to admit Byron was right. It felt phenomenal to get out of the condo.
I loved the condo and with each passing day was falling harder for Byron.
But… the outside world had been kept from me for a long time now, and I was ready to get back out there.
For five years, I’d lived within the MC compound and had gone directly from there to Nadine and Reynolds’ place and on to Byron’s.
I needed some time outdoors doing fun things with people I loved spending time with.
I knew Skeeter could be out there. At some point, I had to open my mind to believing that he’d moved on.
I couldn’t believe I was so special that he couldn’t imagine going through life without me.
If that had been the case, he might’ve stopped fucking the sweetbutts around the compound.
No, he’d have no problem replacing me. He’d be able to find another woman easily.
Not that I wanted to think of anyone being latched onto him. I shuddered. He wasn’t okay. He had a hell of a lot of problems. I could only hope that he’d get help one day. Maybe they’d help him in prison. I knew that’s where he’d end up, either in prison or dead.
Pushing Skeeter from my mind, I followed Nadine into the fanciest spa I’d ever seen.
“We’re getting the works,” she said. “Facials, cut and color if you want it, mani-pedis, mud wraps, massage—you name it.”
“That sounds… heavenly.”
I was excited to see that Jelly, Nora, Nia, Madeline, Glory, and a couple of women I didn’t know as well were already there.
“Get over here, bitches!” Nia called out.
I had to do a double take every time I saw her.
She really did belong on the cover of a magazine.
She was next-level beautiful. With her coppery-brown skin, ocean-colored eyes, and long, loose curls that weren’t quite brown and weren’t quite blonde, she reminded me of a mermaid or the Sirens from mythology.
“Is she really dating the sheriff?” I asked Jelly quietly.
“It’s on and off,” Jelly said. “At first, I really liked him. But now I’m not sure he’s good enough for her.”
I’d seen the sheriff at Cayenne very much without Nia, so I agreed with Jelly’s assessment. Also, he was way too old for her. He had to be at least twenty years her senior. She needed someone young and handsome, like Joaquin or Leo.
“What color?” Startled, I looked up at the nail artist.
“Oh, um, I’m not sure. I was thinking red, I guess?”
“Nope,” Glory shouted from across the room.
I turned to stare at her. “What?”
“She’ll have pale pink. Try this one. It’s called seashell.” Glory walked it over.
“What she said,” I said. I trusted Glory more than myself in matters of makeup, hairstyle, and nail color.
The next couple of hours went by in a flurry of beauty treatments, laughter, gossip, talking, and fun.
I’d had a couple of close friends in high school, but nothing like the relationships these ladies had with each other.
I’d mainly been working really hard on my grades so I get could a scholarship and get out of Shitty Wilkins.
Spa days and hanging out weren’t really part of my normal life.
There was a small break between getting my hair done and getting a massage, so I took the opportunity to go to the restroom.
I took my time and admired my new haircut in the mirror.
It wasn’t wildly different, but it was still a fun change.
I’d gotten a couple of inches cut off and had gotten some highlights in a lighter blonde.
I didn’t realize I’d been gone so long until I heard a slight commotion outside.
I figured it was some of the girls moving from one area to the next, and it might be time for my massage.
I walked out into the main area and frowned. It was very quiet. Strangely so. I looked around but didn’t see my friends or my sister. Or any staff.
What the hell?
I turned to go in search of everyone. “Nadine?” I called. “Nora?” There was no response. My heart started to pound. Something was very wrong. I started backing up, about to turn and head to the back of the spa. I was going to get one of Byron’s agents.
I reached for my phone only to be distracted by a sudden sound. Then there was a muffled shushing noise. My hands were starting to shake. I headed in the direction of the sounds.
I turned into another large room and almost screamed.
“Hello, Jess.” Skeeter had Nadine in a headlock, a gun pointed to her head.
“No.” I shook my head, my body starting to tremble. “No, Skeeter. Don’t do this. You don’t need to, okay?”
“I don’t know, Jess,” he said smiling. But I saw the weird light in his eyes that meant he was really, really angry. “It sure seems like I needed to do this. I’ve been trying to get to you for weeks. Weeks!” he screamed suddenly, making everyone jump. Several of the women started crying.
“Let her go,” I tried to keep my voice steady. “Let all of them go.”
“You’ll come with me,” he said confidently.
I nodded.
“Damn right you will. Stupid bitch! I fucking hate you for leaving me.”
I flinched when I saw his arm tighten around Nadine’s throat. He didn’t realize he was starting to cut off her air supply.
I hurried towards him. “Let’s go, Skeeter. Just take me with you and let all of them go back to their day.”
He narrowed his eyes at me and tapped the barrel of the gun against Nadine’s head.
“What kind of scheme are you cooking up, Jess? You always thought you were so much smarter than me. You’re not!
” He tossed Nadine to the floor roughly.
She lay gasping for breath for a minute before trying to crawl towards me.
I shook my head at her, tears in my eyes.
Jelly reached for her and held her back.
Skeeter grabbed me by the arm, jerking me along after him. Then he looked back at the women. “If anybody tries to come after us, I’ll kill her.” He tapped the gun against my head for effect.
He started dragging me down the back hall. “Slow down,” I begged. “I can’t keep up.”
“Fuck that,” he bent and picked me up like a sack of potatoes and threw me over his shoulder. “Better,” he said. He strode out the back exit. I looked right and left for the agents Byron had talked about. I knew they would step in and help me…
“You looking for him?” Skeeter pointed off to some underbrush where I saw a man lying unnaturally still, a pool of dark liquid under him.
“Oh! Oh, no. Skeeter, you’ve got to help him. He might still be alive…”
He snorted. “What the hell are you thinking, Jessica Fletcher? I’m the one who shot him.
Do you really think I’m going to help him now?
” He turned in the opposite direction, and I couldn’t see the poor man anymore.
Tears were starting to fall now. I was so frustrated.
I knew I shouldn’t have come out of hiding.
Now I’d caused people to get hurt, traumatized, and maybe even killed.
Skeeter flipped me off him and set me down. “Put the helmet on and get on the bike. If you run, I’ll shoot you.”
He meant it. I could see it in his eyes. I did what he said, and before I knew it, I was flying down the road on the back of Skeeter’s motorcycle.
My nightmare had come true.
We didn’t ride far until we came to what looked like an almost hidden backroad. It wasn’t even paved. It was made from hard packed mud, it seemed, and I didn’t have much confidence that we wouldn’t slide on it. We swooped down it, going entirely too fast. God, I hated riding on motorcycles!
The road, if that’s what you could even call it, looked like it ended in the ocean, and for a minute I was convinced this was how I would die—that Skeeter would drive right in and drown us both.
Just as I was plotting out how long I could hold my breath underwater, he took a sharp turn and sped down another dirt path.
This one was just a few feet above sea level.
I wondered if it was covered up at high tide, even.
That’s how close to the water it was. But he just kept going.
I had no clue how I was possibly going to get out of this situation.
I felt in the pockets of my robe. I had to call Byron, and this might be the only time Skeeter wouldn’t see me do it.
I carefully let go of Skeeter with one hand while I checked one side pocket, and then did the same on the other side.
I was terrified the whole time that he would fly over a bump, and I would be tossed off the bike because I wasn’t holding on tight enough.
Or that he’d figure out I was trying to get help.
I honestly didn’t know which one was worse.
My hands wrapped around my phone, and I pulled it out as gently as I could. I quickly texted two words to him: ‘Don’t talk,’ and then called him. I put the phone on speaker and dropped it back in my pocket.
“What the hell are you doing back there? Put both arms around me, or you’re going to fall off, idiot!”
“Sorry,” I yelled, “I had to scratch my nose.”
Suddenly, my stomach dropped as he took a sharp hill downward at roller coaster speed.
I held on tight. I saw a few scattered caves as we rode closer to a path beside the bay.
Skeeter jerked to a stop behind a huge clump of beach grass.
He got off his bike and hoisted me back over his shoulder before he started walking down a small, but steep, hill.
The caves were definitely below sea level. There was water flowing inside them and it wasn’t even high tide yet. Were these the caves pirates had used to smuggle goods? The very caves Reynolds had bored the hell out of me with stories about earlier today?
“What are you doing?” I asked. “These caves are flooded,” I said loudly.
“Why are you talking so fucking loud?”
“Sorry. My ears are still ringing from how loud the motorcycle ride was.”
“Well, shut the fuck up. There’s no one around here, but I want you quiet just in case.”