Chapter 1 #12
She considered the man who’d used the key to enter the shop. He’d thrown back his hood to expose a full, round face that was either flushed from exertion or anger. He’d aged, but the moment he looked at her, she felt a shudder of recognition.
“This is Ernie Lockwood,” she said to Jack. “The man holding the gun on you is his son. Turns out you were right, Jack. I do have someone from my past who might be after me.”
“Because this bitch sent me to prison for twenty years,” Ernie bellowed as he moved deeper into the room.
“Ernie was our middle school janitor. I discovered the drilled holes in the girls’ bathroom wall from the supply closet and recognized his eyes looking through at me.”
“It’s a lie.” Nels shot to his feet, grabbing Jack around the neck and jabbing the barrel of the handgun into his temple. “He didn’t drill those holes. He didn’t even know they were there, let alone look through them until that day. You ruined his life and mine and my mother’s with your lie.”
“I lost everything because of you,” Ernie said.
“Not everything, you got your son back,” Josephine said. “You trying to ruin his life too?”
“You think this is funny?” Ernie demanded with a curse as he lunged at her aggressively.
“I’m not finding it amusing,” Jack said, drawing the man’s attention away from Josephine.
She could feel his heated gaze on her. Not that she could blame him for being furious with a gun pointed at his head.
Earlier he’d been waiting for a signal and now wished she’d have given him one so this wouldn’t be happening.
“Like you said,” Josephine reminded Ernie. “This is personal business between you and me. Jack has nothing to do with this. Let him leave.”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “My son has been looking for you for years. I almost couldn’t believe it when he told me about seeing some story on the internet about you and your aunt and this place she’d left you.”
She knew Ernie had always blamed her instead of himself. But now she saw that his hatred had only festered over his years in prison. Josephine feared she wasn’t going to be able to talk either man down.
“You took twenty years from me,” Ernie said and moved closer. “Finally, you are going to pay for what you did.”
“All I did is recognize your eyes,” Josephine said. “You did the rest. You wouldn’t have had to spend all those years in prison if you hadn’t had child pornography on your computer.”
“That’s a lie!” Nels cried. “The cops put that on there to frame him.”
Ernie didn’t act as if he’d heard his son as he leaned toward her and whispered, “They would have never searched my house, taken my computer, found it if you hadn’t ratted me out at school.”
“You were guilty of a lot more than being a Peeping Tom, Ernie. That wasn’t my fault. You’re just looking for someone to blame because you can’t face that you’re a pervert.” She heard Jack swear under his breath.
As Jack went for Nels’ gun, Josephine reached for the weapon in Ernie’s hand, grabbing it and shoving him as hard as she could. She’d been stalling for time, thinking that maybe, just maybe Hank would get worried and call the cops. No such luck, she realized as she heard the gunshot.
She lost purchase of the gun she and Ernie had been grappling over as she started to turn toward Jack, terrified of what she would see.
Ernie swung the gun, the butt end clipped her temple, knocking her to the floor.
She saw stars but fought the blackness that was trying to pull her under as he jerked her to her feet.
The first thing she saw was the blood, but Jack was on his feet holding his shoulder. Nels had the gun trained on him.
“Get moving!” Ernie ordered. “We’re going for a ride.”
The first rule of being abducted is to never let them take you to another location.
But in this case, Josephine thought they had a better chance once they were out in the alley.
Even if they insisted she get into a car, they would need her to drive.
It was the only way they could hold a gun on her and Jack at the same time.
Unfortunately, Ernie had a different plan.
They were led out the front door instead of the alley to a van parked at the curb.
Ernie opened the side door and shoved her in, sending Nels in after her.
She landed hard. Behind her, she heard Ernie say something and turned in time to see him swing the barrel of the gun.
She heard the crack of the impact as Jack was struck.
As his knees buckled, Ernie caught him and shoved him into the back of the van.
“Jack!” She hadn’t realized that she’d screamed his name and reached for him, but Nels held her back. She watched in horror as Ernie felt for a pulse.
After a few moments, he shook his head. “We won’t be having any more trouble out of him.”
Jack was gone? No! She struggled to free herself from Nel’s hold, to go to Jack. She didn’t see the blow coming nor could she have stopped it. Ernie’s fist slammed into the side of her head.
The last thing she saw was Jack lying dead at her feet. She had time for only one last thought before the darkness closed in. She’d gotten him killed.
* * * * * * * * * *
CHAPTER 12
Jack felt no pain, only joy. Not that he’d forgotten the blow to his head. He knew that had been real. But somehow, he must have survived it since here he was, dressed in a tux, standing before a pastor with Josephine beside him. He’d never been this happy before.
Josephine smiled at him. Hadn’t he known she would be gorgeous in one of those gowns from her bridal shop? She was more beautiful, though, than even he’d imagined. He’d been afraid when he’d dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him. He’d known there was a good chance she’d say no.
The proposal was a little fuzzy, but here she was so he knew she’d said yes. Now all they had to do was to get this pastor to hurry up and marry them. But when he looked at the pastor again, he realized the man wasn’t the same one who’d been there moments ago. Strange.
Not that it mattered. Within minutes he and Josephine would be husband and wife—just as he’d dreamed.
He realized the pastor was saying something about if there was anyone who had reason to object to this wedding, they should speak now. That seemed silly since it was just Jack and Josephine here.
But from behind him, the Armstrong twins appeared out of nowhere. They both started to object, speaking at the same time, when Josephine waved her arm, they disappeared. Jack started to turn back to the pastor when he saw that Josephine had pulled out her lucky silver dollar.
“Heads or tails?” she asked.
Jack was still trying to understand why the pastor was a different one than before. “What are we flipping for?”
“If I should take a chance on you, Jack Rawlins, or if I should walk away. Heads, I stay. Tails, I leave and you’ll never see me again.” She tossed the coin into the air.
He started to say something, but his mouth was so dry that no words would come out. The coin caught the light an instant before she snatched it from the air and slapped it down on her palm.
-#-
At first, Josephine couldn’t catch her breath after blacking out.
The blow had stunned her, knocked her senseless and tipped her into a dark place.
But when she’d opened her eyes and seen Jack lying at her feet dead, she’d dropped down next to him, cradling his head as she began to cry and couldn’t stop.
Jack. Dead. All her fault. Her heartbreak made it all seem surreal as Ernie ordered her to shut up as the van engine roared. She leaned down, kissed Jack and gently laid his head down as he looked toward the front of the van.
Her gaze met Ernie’s in the rearview mirror.
“Get back there and take care of her,” he ordered as she tried to get to her feet to attack him and his son. Nels climbed into the back grabbing her and throwing her down. She didn’t see the handcuffs until he snapped one on her wrist and the other onto an eye bolt on the van wall.
Then he slapped her hard, knocking her head into the side of the van, before he climbed back into the front.
Numb and desolate, Josephine felt the weight of her grief as the van roared through town. From where she was bolted to the floor, she could no longer touch Jack. Dead. Not Jack. Not because of her. Her love for the cowboy felt as if it would break her.
She’d told herself Jack and marriage and an elaborate wedding dress were the last things she wanted or needed.
But she was tormented by the image of the two of them, Jack in his lucky boots and Stetson, her in one of those awful frilly wedding dresses, standing at an altar promising to love each other forever.
But at that moment, she would have given anything to be able to tell him how she felt about him.
She would have even promised to marry him in the most outrageous wedding dress in the shop.
She felt as if marrying Jack had been a lifelong dream that she’d always yearned for and now it had been ripped away—just as Jack had been.
She fought the sobs building in her chest again.
She couldn’t let Ernie and his son get away with this.
The light of streetlamps flashed past as the sleeping town of Wild Rose Point blurred past. Her heart ached at the sight of Jack lying there.
She felt a jolt as she stared harder at the cowboy in the flickering light.
He was bleeding from a cut on his temple where Ernie had hit him. Bleeding! He was alive!
Her heart soared. But how was she going to keep them both alive?
She had no idea what Ernie and Nels had planned for them. Outnumbered and unarmed and Jack still unconscious, Josephine reached down to brush Jack’s hair from his face. His skin cold and clammy. She had no idea how badly he was injured or if he would ever regain consciousness.
But he was alive and that gave her hope. Somehow, she had to keep him that way—and herself as well.