Chapter 32
32
ASPEN
M y muscles strained as I pulled open the weathered wooden door. Instantly, laughter and the delicious scent of food greeted me as I stepped over the threshold into Dave’s. Taking a second, I scanned the high-top tables, only to have movement in the back draw my attention. The amazing group of women I was there to meet waved at me from a table in the corner, which I returned while heading to the long bar to place my drink order. Elbows on the rounded edge, I grinned at the familiar face on the other side, currently wiping away a few water droplets glistening on the polished wood left by someone else’s drink.
“Hey, Kale, what are you doing here? I thought you worked at The Nest?”
Palms pressed to the edge of the bar, he leaned forward, slightly curly hair falling along his forehead as he shot me a warm smile and nodded. “I pick up shifts here, too, when I can.” He flicked his wild dirty-blond hair out of his eyes. “I work all kinds of odd jobs around here. What can I get you? A glass of chardonnay like you had the other night?”
My cheeks heated, and I pressed a hand to my chest. “I’m flattered you remembered.” Kale was no Miles or Aiden, but the man was very attractive. He was no doubt a hot commodity in Anchor Bay.
His wide shoulders rose and fell in a casual shrug before he shoved off the bar. “I’m a bartender. It’s kind of my job to remember things like that. Plus, I had fun talking with you that night. You’re a cool chick, Aspen.”
I resisted the urge to hide my face in my coat’s collar. “Thanks. Did you hear I’ll be hanging around Anchor Bay?” I couldn’t help the wide smile that crept over my face, the joy swelling in my chest becoming too much to hide.
He paused and turned, brows raised in interest. “Really? Decided to stick around to conquer that crazy hike to the Fjords?”
I shook my head. “Nope. I’m, uh, staying with the Uplift group. Aiden and Miles particularly.” More heat flooded my cheeks, warming to the point that my coat turned constricting. Pulling it off, I tossed it over the back of a bar chair. “And to answer your question, yes, please, to a glass of chardonnay. I’m meeting the girls.” I hooked my thumb toward their table.
He nodded and turned to grab a wine bottle from the fridge, snagging a glass in the same movement. “I had heard about you and those two.” He glanced at the door and frowned. “Are they coming in too?”
“No.” I leaned against the bar, watching as the delicious liquid flowed from the bottle into the glass. “They’re out again, like the last couple of days, to help search for Caroline.”
My stomach dropped just saying her name out loud. Miles and Aiden were beyond worried about their friend, and I was too. Eleven days had passed since anyone had last heard from her, and everyone assumed the worst.
His features turned solemn as he nodded in understanding. The liquid in my very full wineglass sloshed when he slid it across the bar to me. “It’s terrible, all of it.” Someone I didn’t recognize—which wasn’t surprising since I was still learning the faces of all the locals—called out for another round, drawing Kale’s attention. “That drink is on me. Consider it a ‘Welcome to Anchor Bay’ gift.”
Smiling to myself, I picked up the glass, careful not to spill a single drop as I wove between the high-top tables toward the ladies waiting for me. Taking the empty chair beside Finley, I tossed my coat over the back and sat down, placing the wine gently on the table.
“I’m so glad you could make it,” Baylee called out from the other side of the round wooden tabletop. “I wanted to apologize for running off the other day when we met. Betsy needed me, so I couldn’t stick around to chat.”
Smooth glass rim pressed to my lower lip, I took a long sip of the crisp liquid. “Totally understand. But who is Betsy? I don’t think I’ve met her yet.”
“Betsy would be our resident asshole goat,” Finley said beside me with a teasing grin. “Who Baylee treats like a child—well, all our animals, actually, not just Betsy.”
“ One of our goats. Betsy and her new kid are doing fantastic.” Baylee looked down at the table and spun an empty water glass between her hands. Sadness seemed to waft off her, unlike the other day when I spied her and her boyfriend, Liam, walking along the sidewalk in downtown Anchor Bay.
My lips tugged down slightly as I studied her. It wasn’t my place to ask her what was upsetting her, but I felt like I needed to. I started to ask when someone stormed up to the table, slammed a heavy purse down on the floor, and slumped into the last empty chair.
“I will end up murdering him. I just know it.” The beautiful petite woman tipped her face to the ceiling and groaned. “With my bare hands, if I can manage it.”
“Aspen, meet Juno, Uplift’s newest scheduling coordinator and social media guru,” Finley said. Juno smiled at me across the table, which I returned. “Juno and Langston have this ‘I hate you, but I want to fuck you’ relationship going on. The rest of us have bets on if it’ll end in murder or babies.”
“Shut the hell up, Finley. There will be no talk of babies with that bastard. Ugh, he is such an asshole.”
The name tickled at a memory. It took me a second to place it. “Oh.” I sat up straight and leaned forward. “Is Langston the guy who drives the boat from the airport?” I wrinkled my nose, remembering the rude asshole.
“I see you’ve met the bastard and are an excellent judge of character, based on that look,” Juno grumbled. Then she smirked. “I knew I liked you.”
“I say you just fuck it out,” Finley stated after finishing her beer and slamming the empty glass to the table. “Or…” Her smile grew, and she shot me a wicked look. “You don’t have to take part, but you could always try voyeurism to deal with your sexual frustration and just watch him and West together.” The sip of wine caught in my throat, making me cough. “Actually, maybe I should give voyeurism a go, now that I’m thinking about it.”
“Right, let’s ask Dax what he thinks about that.” Juno narrowed her eyes at the woman beside me, whose smile had frozen at the mention of her best friend, Dax. “Like you’re one to throw stones, Miss ‘I’m in love with my best friend, but I won’t tell him because?—’”
Finley stretched over the table and shoved Juno’s shoulder, cutting her off. “I’m not in love with Dax.” She pursed her lips. “Well, not in the way you’re talking about.”
“Right,” Baylee muttered under her breath. “Can we please stop talking about all the dicks around us and get to why we’re all here?” I nodded, relieved that the relationship venting never made its way to me. “What book are we pretending to read for our next book club meeting, and who is bringing the wine?” She shot a look at Finley. “If it’s you, then I need to preapprove what you’re planning to bring, because that crap you had last time was barely drinkable.”
“But we still drank it,” Finley grumbled.
“Well, yeah, it was a version of wine, so…” Juno shrugged and stood. “I’m going to get a drink. Anyone need anything?”
After she grabbed Finley’s beer request, I leaned back in the chair, slowly sipping on the decent wine, listening to Finley and Baylee discuss what book they wanted to pretend to read next month. I couldn’t stop the slow smile that crept up my lips, loving every second of the moment.
Two hotter-than-hell boyfriends who treated me well and loved to worship my body every chance they got, plus new girlfriends who liked wine and books…
Anchor Bay was truly a dream come true.
* * *
After an hour at Dave’s, the only thing we accomplished was running up a bar tab and laughing until our cheeks hurt. Smiling to myself, a little tipsy from the three glasses I downed in that short time frame, I slowly made my way back to Aiden and Miles’s cabin. They’d asked me to call it ours since I’d officially moved out of The Nest, but it was too soon, and it felt strange since it was theirs before I arrived.
With the warmer temperatures and crystal-clear sky, I took the long way back, knowing the guys wouldn’t return for a while. At least I had Jubie to look forward to greeting me and not an empty cabin. Excited about the certain nap and exceptional cuddles in my future, I picked up my pace, very ready to snooze with Jubie’s massive body next to me to sleep off the fuzziness coating my thoughts.
Leaping up the porch steps, keys in hand, I quickly unlocked the door and swung it open, humming a pop song as I stepped over the threshold.
“Jubie,” I sang over my shoulder as I tugged off my coat and hung it on a hook by the door.
Whirling around to search for my snuggle buddy, my wide smile that had been firmly in place since Dave’s vanished. I blinked, unable to understand what I was witnessing with the wine clouding my thoughts.
Frozen in place, I stared at the strange woman hovering over Jubie’s limp body by the open back door. She said nothing, only stared back, as if she was just as shocked to see me, Jubie’s back legs clutched in her tight grip.
Nothing made sense. Why was she here, and why did it look like she was attempting to drag the ninety-five-pound dog out the back door?
“Um…” I licked my lips, still studying the woman’s face when recognition hit me. “It’s you, the woman from the bar that first night. It’s Jessica, right?”
Jubie’s legs slapped to the floor when Jessica released her hold to stand tall. She was beautiful, that was for sure, but in a cruel way. Anger and malicious intent wafted off her, warning me away even from across the living room. I dared a single step closer, holding both hands out in surrender. My gaze kept flicking to Jubie, who had yet to stir, and the woman tracked my every move.
“You know me?” I nodded in response. “They talked about me, then.” Jessica huffed a humorless laugh. A cruel smirk pulled at her lips. “That figures. Men always realize they used and abused the good ones when it’s too late to come crawling back.”
“Yeah,” I drawled, not really agreeing with her but knowing it was best to play along with her delusions in this situation. I’d seen enough crime shows to know you didn’t disagree with the crazy person in the room. “What’s wrong with Jubie?”
And what the fuck did you do to her? I wanted to scream.
Jessica shrugged like the unconscious dog wasn’t a big deal. “Just sleeping. I think.” She nudged the unmoving Jubie with the toe of her tennis shoe. “Pretty sure. I wasn’t certain about her weight for the drugs, so maybe not.”
I swallowed hard to silence my pitiful whimper that was desperate to escape at her words and nonchalant tone.
“Let’s go with just sleeping .” Please let Jubie just be sleeping. “What are you doing here, Jessica?” I dared another step, keeping my movements slow and controlled to not startle her. I didn’t know if she was armed, which had me proceeding with caution. When I reached the other side of the couch, I wrapped both hands around the back in a death grip.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?”
“Checking on Jubie,” I blurted. Pretty sure telling her this was my cabin now, too, would not go over well with Miss Crazy Eyes.
She narrowed her eyes like she didn’t believe me. “I’ve decided it’s time to finally leave this shitty little town, but first, I wanted to give those two assholes a little payback. So they would fully understand what they did and pay the consequences.” Her voice rose with every word until she was almost shouting. “They can’t keep doing this to women like us.” I nodded, even though I didn’t understand the craziness she spewed, which had nothing to do with the wine fogging my brain. “When I watched you, I knew?—”
“You knew what?” I gaped.
Jessica rolled her eyes and slipped both hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “Don’t look so surprised and outraged. I did it for you. Maybe you should be a little more grateful rather than all judgy.” All I could do was nod back. She continued. “I needed to see if you were like me, falling for two men who would shred your heart into tiny little bits that would never be put back together again.”
“Oh, yeah, of course. And yes, thank you for checking in on me. That was very… thoughtful.” Fucking hell, I was terrible at this appeasing-a-crazy thing. The TV shows made it seem much easier. It would be nice if I could call for help, but my new cell phone was in my coat pocket by the front door. Jubie’s best bet was for me to keep Jessica talking until the guys arrived, whenever that would be, and maybe we would both make it out of this unscathed. “Wait, were you the one who followed me that night?”
She tilted her head to the side. “You need to be more specific.”
Right. “The night I walked alone to the main building at The Nest taking the path that wove through the cottages.”
“Alone? No, why would I do that?”
“Um, because you said you watched me?”
“Only when you were with them.” She rolled her eyes like her answer made all the sense in the world. Maybe it did, to her. “Well, there was the whole cabin thing. We’re about the same size. Did you know that?” I looked at her, then down my frame. “I really liked that green sweater. It fit perfectly, and the material was super soft. I ordered one once I left.”
My sluggish thoughts grasped on to that creepy-as-hell comment. I tightened my hold on the couch to keep from bolting out the front door.
“Yeah, that’s a good sweater.” One I would never wear again. I inched along the couch, hoping to get close enough to see if Jubie was breathing. “And what did you find out after watching me with them?”
“That they were doing the same thing to you that they did to me. We are the innocent victims in their fucked-up mind game, and you’d end up just like me. Broken and angry. They have to learn that they can’t keep doing this to us. Which is why I’m here and why you’re going to stop coming closer and turn around and walk out the front door like you saw nothing out of the ordinary going on.”
Her matter-of-fact tone made it sound like she expected me to immediately obey her ludicrous command.
“Or,” I responded, “we could talk this out. You tell me all the things that are making you angry while I make sure Jubie is okay.”
The corner of her lips curled in a sneer. “The dumb animal is fine. Why do you care what happens to her? It’s just a dog.”
My hands tightened into fists behind my back. “What did she ever do to you?” I snapped, anger getting the better of me.
“Well, for one,” Jessica held up a single finger as if to tick off the reasons. “She never liked me, and I’m almost positive that’s why those assholes dumped me. Two, she means a lot to them, and if I hurt her, then I hurt them. And three…” She dropped her hand and shrugged. “That about sums it up. If I want to teach them a lesson to never hurt women like us again—and I’m not sure why you’re not thanking me right now—then they need something that will hurt them to the core, like they did me when they strung me along.”
Oh. Fuck.
Damn that third glass of wine. If I hadn’t chugged the last few gulps, then maybe I could’ve formed a decent plan. Scratch that, a plan in general, because as I stood there, heart hammering and sweat dripping down my spine, I had nothing. Zilch. Zero ideas on how to get me and Jubie out of this mess.
“Jessica,” I pleaded, “you don’t want to do this. You don’t want to hurt an innocent dog.” I shifted around the couch, putting myself only a couple of feet away from her and Jubie. “She didn’t hurt you. They did.”
“But hurting her will cause them pain and delightful suffering, so that makes things even. Then maybe I’ll feel better, get over all this anger and hurt festering inside me.” She jabbed a finger at her chest, tears filling her lower lids. “I’m just so angry with them, and they deserve what’s coming to them for making me feel this way.”
“Hurting Jubie won’t make you less angry with them and their actions. I think you know that.”
With an exaggerated, frustrated groan, she narrowed her eyes at me and reached behind her. I blinked in surprise at the large Buck knife, shiny steel blade already out, that was now in her tight grip. She flipped it around, rotating the handle without nicking her fingers with the sharp blade, proving she knew her way around a knife.
Great.
Because I for sure did not know my way around any type of weapon, nor was I armed with one, not even my fucking phone.
Damnit.
A low buzz sounded in my ears as I weighed my options, heart racing so fast my breaths came in quick, short pants like I’d just run a mile instead of standing still, watching some crazy lady validate her plan to hurt Jubie.
No.
I couldn’t let her cause Jubie any more harm than she’d already inflicted. Jubie was… innocent, perfect, slobbery happiness wrapped in a whole lot of fur, and absolutely everything to Miles. Miles was everything to Aiden, and those two had, in just over a week, become everything to me. I wouldn’t let this loon cause them more pain, not when they’d both been through enough trauma in the past. And the fact that they had done nothing wrong. She might feel like they lied and used her, but I knew Miles and Aiden wouldn’t do that. It wasn’t who they were.
Jessica was angry and volatile because they didn’t want something long term. But that was life; that was dating and putting yourself out there.
Maybe it was the third glass of wine talking, but… no matter what happened next, I knew I would do anything to keep Jubie safe. That made more sense than doing nothing and allowing Jessica to cause Jubie or the guys pain. Plus, if Jubie was injured or worse while I stood and did nothing to stop it, that just might destroy me anyway.
So, I made a plan… ish.
How that would play out, only time would tell.
And I had a feeling I wouldn’t have to wait long.