Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Junie stared at Preston, her heart hammering so hard she could feel it in her throat. He had never been like this before. Not in all the time she’d known him. This was even worse than the last time he’d come to the bakery.
His hair stood disheveled, his shirt hung wrinkled and untucked, and his eyes held a wild, unhinged gleam that made her skin crawl. The smile stretching across his face was nothing like the polished, charming one she remembered. This one looked twisted, forced. Wrong.
“Preston?” Her voice came out small and trembling. “What are you doing here? What did you do to Nanabelle?”
He took a slow, menacing step toward her, eyes locked on her face. “I knew you’d come running if she needed you. You’re so predictable, Juniper. So loyal.” His smile widened. “And now you’re so mine.” He kept advancing, waving the gun around like it was a toy as he spoke.
Junie backed away. He was herding her toward Nanabelle’s bedroom. That couldn’t happen. She scooted sideways, trying to angle toward the kitchen door. If she could just make it in there, she knew exactly where the knives were.
Her pulse roared in her ears. In the armchair, Nanabelle struggled against the ropes around her wrists, making desperate, muffled sounds through the gag. Those noises tore at Junie’s heart. She had to get her grandmother out of here. She had to.
Why didn’t I listen to Tanner? Her Daddy had told her to stay inside the cabin. He had been so clear. But the text from Nanabelle had sounded so scared, so unlike her, and Junie had panicked.
She should have known something was wrong. When Tanner hadn’t answered, she should have called Boone, or Kenzie, or anyone. Instead, she had jumped into his truck and driven straight into Preston’s trap.
Memories of the last time she had dealt with Preston flooded back—the way he had attacked her at the bakery, pinning her against the wall and forcing his mouth on hers in a bruising kiss.
She had thought that was the worst it could get.
But this was so much worse. Now he would probably rape her first and then kill both her and Nanabelle.
This was so, so bad.
Tanner didn’t even know where she was. And even if he did, she’d stolen his truck. He couldn’t come after her if he wanted to. That meant no one was coming to save her this time. And she had no one to blame but herself.
If Daddy were here, what would he tell me to do?
He would tell her to stay calm, to have faith, and to buy time. Preston hadn’t done anything irreversible yet.
She edged behind the armchair, still hearing Nanabelle’s muffled struggles. First things first. She had to get her grandmother away from Rainbow’s Edge. Maybe if she could convince Preston to let Nanabelle go, her grandmother could find a way to reach Tanner.
“Let her go,” Junie whispered, her voice cracking. “Please. This has nothing to do with her.”
Preston’s smile twisted into something ugly.
“Let’s not talk about her. She’s fine where she is.
You’re right—she made good bait, but that was all.
Not like you.” He took another step closer, his voice sickly sweet.
“This has everything to do with you, Juniper. And if Belle being here will make you listen to me, she’s staying right where she is. ”
He tilted his head. “You were supposed to be mine. I gave you gifts. I gave you my love, and I even asked you to marry me. You came from nothing, but I offered you the chance to join a rich and prosperous family like mine. You should have been grateful. But no. You threw it all away for some rancher who thinks he can take what belongs to me.”
His eyes flashed. “And you know what, Juniper?”
She couldn’t have spoken if she tried, so she settled for shaking her head.
“I asked you a question. Do. You. Know. What?”
Junie flinched. She had to figure out a way to calm him down until her Daddy got there. “N-n-no, Preston. C-can you tell me? P-please?”
“That really pisses me off.”
The gun wasn’t even pointed at her. He didn’t seem to remember he still held it.
Junie’s back pressed against the wall. She had failed to reach the kitchen. She could smell his cologne, too strong and cloying, mixing with the faint metallic scent of blood from Nanabelle’s forehead. Nausea rose thick in her throat.
Preston lunged.
Junie screamed as his free hand closed around her arm.
Holding the gun in his left hand, he dragged her away from the wall.
Pup was going ballistic in the closet, his snarls joining Nanabelle’s muffled pleas and Junie’s screams as she fought Preston.
She kicked and clawed, but he was so much stronger.
He shoved her against the side of the loveseat, one hand gripping her jaw so hard it hurt.
“You’re going to be good for me now,” he hissed. He pressed the gun to her head, then jerked it toward Nanabelle. “Or I’ll hurt the old woman. I’ll make her scream. Do you want that on your conscience?”
Junie’s eyes flew to her grandmother. Nanabelle was crying, shaking her head violently, trying to speak through the gag.
Junie knew exactly what she was trying to say. No. Don’t let him do this to you. Nanabelle had always been willing to sacrifice for her.
Tears burned in Junie’s eyes. She couldn’t let him hurt Nanabelle. Maybe if she let him have what he wanted, he would leave them both alive. At least it would buy more time.
Slowly, she forced herself to stop struggling.
Her whole body trembled as Preston’s hands moved over her, rough and possessive.
He crushed his mouth to hers, forcing his tongue between her lips.
Junie squeezed her eyes shut and tried to disappear inside herself.
She could do this. She had to for Nanabelle.
His hands roamed greedily, squeezing her breast through Tanner’s t-shirt, then sliding down to the button of her jeans. When he tried to push his hand between her thighs, something inside Junie snapped.
She couldn’t do it.
She couldn’t let him touch her like that.
With a choked cry, she shoved him as hard as she could. Preston stumbled back, off balance, and the gun clattered to the floor.
Junie bolted for the front door. She grabbed the knob and swung it wide.
“You bitch,” he snarled.
Before she could take a single step outside, Preston’s hands closed around her throat like iron bands. She gasped, clawing at his wrists as he dragged her back into the room.
She couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t get air.
Her feet kicked uselessly against the floor.
Daddy…
The thought tore through her mind like a prayer.
Tanner... Daddy… Please. I need you.
Preston’s mouth hovered inches from her ear. “If I can’t have you,” he spat, “no one will. Especially not him. Not anyone.”
Junie’s vision blurred at the edges. She fought with everything she had, twisting and scratching, but his grip only tightened. Black spots danced in front of her eyes. Her lungs burned. The room tilted.
Somewhere nearby she thought she heard a low, guttural snarl. It was a sound she’d never heard before. It was as if Pup had transformed into something far fiercer. She must be hallucinating.
Her thoughts grew sluggish. She was going to die here, in her grandmother’s house, at the hands of Preston Lassiter, a man she had once called a friend.
Somewhere in the distance, she heard thudding and someone screaming. She wondered who it was. But none of that mattered now.
The irony hit her even as the darkness closed in. The joke was on her. All those years she’d wasted, worried that people would leave her.
This time, she was the one leaving Tanner.
She hoped he’d forgive her for not waiting for him to come save her. That was her last coherent thought as the world faded to black.
Tanner had never driven a horse so hard in his life. He prayed his old friend would endure.
Halo’s hooves pounded the ground in a relentless rhythm, but Tanner still urged him faster. He leaned low over the big gelding’s neck, one hand gripping the reins while the other pressed against the rifle strapped to the saddle.
“Keep going. She’s depending on us. We’ve faced a lot of dangers together, old boy. I need you one more time,” he murmured against Halo’s mane.
Every muscle in his body coiled tight with urgency. He’d make it up to the thoroughbred later, making sure he had extra grain, a long grooming session, whatever the horse wanted. But right now, nothing mattered except getting to Junie.
The missed call from her had set off every warning bell he had.
Angelina’s frantic, broken words had only made it worse.
The second he heard Preston’s name and the terror in that woman’s voice, a cold, suffocating fear had gripped him and refused to let go.
He kicked Halo harder, pushing the horse onward as Rainbow’s Edge finally came into view.
He didn’t slow down when the front of the house appeared in the distance.
A wave of defeat hit him hard. His truck was nowhere in sight.
He’d just decided to approach from the rear in case Junie had pulled around to the back of the house when he became aware of something moving.
Straining to see better, he realized it was Dodger.
Even from this distance, he could hear the wolfdog snarling as he paced back and forth across the front porch.
She was here. She had to be. Tanner kept his eyes on the house, planning the best approach when suddenly the front door opened.
He caught a glimpse of Junie’s arm as she started to run out.
Then her feet flew out from beneath her, and it took Tanner a second to realize the son-of-a-bitch had jerked her back inside.