Chapter 39
Darkness. That was all that surrounded me as I slowly opened my eyes.
My head was pounding, and even though there was a loud ringing in my ears, I was pretty sure the room was dead silent.
I tried and failed to sit up, the room was spinning too furiously.
I felt sick but I forced myself not to vomit as I rubbed a sore spot on my head and tried to recount the last thing I could remember.
Think, Stella, think, I demanded.
Everything was coming up blank.
The most recent memory coming to me was that I had been in the rail house checking out the progress from the last week. Had I fallen off a ladder? I couldn’t have.
Although I couldn’t see much, I knew this space wasn’t the rail house. I could tell that just by the smell. It was stuffy and dusty, nothing like the cool crisp breeze that came through the rail house paired with the smell of fresh lumber.
As my eyes started to adjust to the dark, I was sure I saw the silhouette of a person in the far corner of the warehouse-type room, but there was nothing but boxes in front of me as I laid on the cold floor.
“Help!” I tried to call but the words didn’t come and the intense burning in my throat sent me into a rage of coughing fits. Anyone in the building would have heard me sputtering, but the person in the corner still didn’t move.
Maybe I couldn’t remember what I had been doing, but I did remember where I had planned to go.
Mel’s.
I just left Trixie’s to head to Cupid’s Cup.
It was freezing out, so instead of walking, I took the farm’s old pickup truck.
While I drove past the rail house, I noticed the new door Calvin had installed was slightly open, which was odd.
We didn’t have any crews working today, and I knew Calvin was already gone to town ahead of me to talk with Patrick about the note.
I didn’t want to be there for the conversation. Since the note was destroyed in the fire, I just wanted to move forward from it, but he was insistent we should tell Patrick. I agreed that he could, but I was keeping my plans with Mel.
I just had to close the rail house door first, apparently.
My bear spray was in hand in my pocket—just in case—as I took a quick peek inside, seeing that nothing had been disturbed. Someone must have just forgotten to close it. No big deal.
As I reached in for the handle to pull it closed, something—or someone, rather—grabbed my hair, yanking my head back and pulling me inside as they tried to throw a bag over my head.
Their actions were clumsy, though, and their strength was nothing compared to the grip I remembered of Nick’s as I ripped myself out of the stranger’s grasp.
As I turned, I sprayed the bear spray anywhere and everywhere I could.
That scream.
It was a woman who screamed from the bear spray, and I tore the bag off my head.
“Valerie?” The fire that ravaged my lungs from the bear spray inadvertently getting to me in this small space was enough to make me almost sympathize with her pain.
What the fuck was she doing here?
“Oh, you’re going to get it now,” she sputtered out with a raspy voice. “You already fucked over my brother, you’re not going to fuck me over, too.”
Her brother? What was she talking about?
I was about to ask, but she was too quick. She bent down in a fit of coughs but grabbed the crowbar laying on the floor and then everything went black.
It was a dress, not a person’s silhouette, in the corner of the building. I was in Vintage Vows Boutique. I was right in the town of Love. I was not alone and I was not helpless.
I finally sat up, but it still felt too damn hard to stand.
“Well, well, well. Look who finally decided to wake up and join us.”
That voice. That wasn’t Valerie’s voice. That voice broke my resolve, and I turned, throwing up on the floor beside me.
That laugh. “I always knew you were fucking disgusting.”
Nick. What the fuck was he doing here? How the hell did this all add up? I couldn’t breathe through the heaves and terror that wreaked havoc on my body.
“You may not have accepted the ring, but we were still common-law.” What was he getting at? “Did you really think your next-of-kin wouldn’t have gotten notified when millions of dollars were suddenly wired out of a savings account I knew nothing about.”
The money. I was right in assuming he knew nothing about it. Damn, was I proud of myself in these moments for all the effort I went through to save that. Even if it led me to be in this exact situation again, at least I knew Calvin’s family’s farm had been saved.
“Aren’t you going to fucking say something?” Nick screamed as he stood over me. His palm connected with my cheek, and the slap flashed me back to all the times we had been in this exact same position before.
The reason why we got here was always different, but the result remained the same. He stood over me, berating me with his words until that wasn’t enough and he did so with his fists.
Before, I would have grovelled in apologies and blamed myself for anything he threw my way, literally or figuratively. Now, I knew he was just searching for a reaction—and I wasn’t going to give him that.
I tried to stand up to face him, to leave, I had to do something. Before I could rise, I was pulled back by my hair, once again hitting my head on the concrete floor. At least I stayed conscious with this blow.
“Not so fast. You still need to pay for all you’ve taken from us.”
Valerie? A twisted sense of satisfaction rolled over me to see how red her face was from the bear spray, but I still couldn’t make sense of how she was a part of all this.
She walked up to Nick and tried to slither into his side, grabbing onto his forearm.
Her usually perfectly manicured nails looked just as battered and broken as the rest of her did.
She tried to lean in and kiss Nick, but he took a step away from her with a look of pure disgust on his face.
She gasped, her expression in utter shock.
“What she’s taken from me. You play no part in this.” Nick glared at her.
“But what about Steven?” Valerie questioned.
Steven? Was he Valerie’s brother?
I didn’t even have time to think about it before Nick’s eyes glazed over and a sick smile spread across his face.
“Steven was just as stupid as you,” he said as he pulled out a gun from the back of his jeans and shot Valerie square in the chest.
I couldn’t help the scream that tore out of me, but at the close distance he was to her, I knew she was dead instantly.
Nick then turned to look at me. The fear pummeling my body would have made me vomit again if I had anything left in me.
“If I can’t have you, no one fucking will.”