48. Victoria
48
VICTORIA
L acy looks at me with wide eyes, and Jasmine scoffs like I am being ridiculous.
“How many different businesses are you planning on doing?” Lacy asks, incredulous. I am grateful that she is here. With her mom sick, she can rarely get time away from her caring responsibilities. As it is, she needs to leave soon. Jasmine’s the only one who will be spending the night with me.
“Well, Marie’s Place won’t be booked all the time, and even then, it may not be a huge moneymaker. Working with Griffin is really what I want to do, so I think that will be what keeps me busy the most. But Gertie’s Goat Milk offers a great side hustle, an opportunity to give something back to Kevin and his family. His mom is a teacher, but she seemed excited to expand on her hobby of soapmaking, and who knows? If it becomes a success, then I can expand it into my interiors work or something like that. ”
Excitement bubbles in my chest as I think about the possibilities.
Now that the house is almost complete, I am ready for what life in Whispers will look like for me. But the fear is what has been consuming me and I hate it. Ever since I moved here, I have had nothing but new opportunities present themselves, not only by way of a new job and new business, but also love. If I can just find out who is trying to harm me and get them behind bars, that would certainly make me sleep better at night.
“I can give you some rose petals. You could see if Kevin's mom can make rose-scented soaps or something? I could sell them in the shop,” Jasmine offers, and my smile widens.
“That would be amazing!”
“We could put it in our gift shop at the distillery too. I am sure Tanner won’t mind…” Lacy says, wiggling her eyebrows.
“Oh, I think Tanner would do anything for our Victoria,” Jasmine says.
“What are you implying?” I ask coyly.
“Tanner has been this town's most eligible bachelor for years. I have never known him to even date a woman around here. Then you show up, and bang ! You are literally together twenty-four seven,” Jasmine says accusingly, and I giggle.
“So, are you two serious?” Lacy asks, a little more reservedly, and Jasmine takes a large sip of her wine, watching me.
I take a moment to look at them and swallow. “Yeah. We are. He told me he loved me, and I said it too. He is it for me,” I admit, and Lacy breaks out in a wide smile. Before I can get too deep with my feelings, I jump up.
“I’m going to go take off this face mask,” I say, smiling. “Then we can chat some more and put on a movie.”
“I will get some more wine,” Lacy says, standing to go to the nonexistent kitchen that currently holds a few bottles of red and the pizza boxes from earlier on a foldout table, since Griffin's team have gutted it. The new joinery will be installed tomorrow, and I can’t wait to get this house completed.
“I am going to go outside and see if those good-looking men want a coffee or something,” Jasmine says with a laugh, jumping up too.
“They must be starving. I never see them eat,” I mention as I scrunch my face. This mask Jasmine made me put on to relax me is now very dry and tight on my face.
“Leave them to me!” she hollers, then grabs her coat and walks out the front door, and I run up the stairs, needing to move.
I hit the bathroom and close the door, filling the sink with hot water and grabbing a washcloth. I start to scrub my skin, but it isn’t really working.
“This is stuck on my face!” I yell out to them as I scrub so hard it almost hurts and my skin turns red. I grab some face oil and refill the sink with renewed hot water and massage the oil on my face. Luckily, it already works much better, and I sigh in relief.
Hearing a large bang from downstairs, I pause, my heart racing immediately. I poke my head out the bathroom door, about to call out, but Jasmine beats me to it .
“Sorry! I just dropped that large coffee table book!” Jasmine yells, and I take a deep breath. It is more a decor item than an actual book, but the photography is nice.
“No worries!” I shout my reply, knowing that book weighs a ton.
Closing the door again, I lean over the sink, splashing the hot water on my face, then I grab a new washcloth to wipe my face again. The process is taking much longer than it should, and I just want to get back down to the girls. Looking up into the mirror to see my reflection, the air leaves my lungs. The hot water created so much steam, the mirror fogged up. But that isn’t the issue. It is what is written on it that makes my breathing stop.
This property is mine, baby girl.
I suddenly can’t breathe. Is it Tanner? Is he the one who is trying to scare me away? He had access to my truck to tamper with the brakes, to my house to leave the rose. He was upset that the sheriff didn’t find anything to hold Josh… He wanted my property, and now his nickname for me is on the mirror along with what seems like a threat.
I try to breathe through the panic, but I can’t. It can’t be him…
Another loud thud from downstairs pulls me from my shock, and I jump before I open the bathroom door.
“Lacy?” I shout as I slowly open the bathroom door, my heart thundering, my body now on high alert. She doesn’t respond, so I slowly walk down the stairs.
“Lacy?” I yell again, feeling a cool breeze and seeing the front door open. Maybe she and Jasmine went back outside, talking to the security guys. I swallow roughly, the overwhelming feeling something isn’t right nipping at me. Spotting my cell on the coffee table where we were sitting, I quickly step down the last remaining stairs to grab it.
“Jasmine! Lacy!” I yell even louder, panic now evident in my tone as my hands shake and legs tremble. But it is all quiet as I turn into the living room.
I’m almost to the coffee table when I see movement to my left and look up mere seconds before an object is slammed into my head, the force hard enough to knock me from my feet, and I hit the ground on my hands and knees, hard. My head thumps, but I am still conscious as I moan at the pain.
“I don’t think so, baby girl .” The nickname is no longer a term of endearment and said with a hiss as I hear a familiar voice from behind me, and I turn swiftly.
“What…” I try to turn my head and look up. “Oh my God!” I gasp just before Jasmine’s hand connects with my head, slapping my face, and I fall again, hitting the ground, my head smashing into the coffee table, my vision now blurry as I become instantly disoriented.
“You’re coming with me,” she says, grabbing my ankles and dragging me out the back door. I try to kick, confused, scared, unsure of exactly what is happening. But my body feels like Jell-O, my head fuzzy.
“What… Why…” I croak out as I do my best to get out of her hold. But it’s impossible. She is dragging me across the floor toward the back door so swiftly, I don’t have a chance to grip on to anything. If it was a fair fight, I would have a good chance of winning, but now, as I look at Jasmine, I don’t even recognize her anymore. Her eyes are wild and hold none of the kindness I have come to know. Her movements are jerky, her smile long gone.
“Because you came into town acting like Little Miss Fucking Princess,” she grits out, pulling me outside to the porch, making absolutely no sense. The cool air hits me but does nothing to wake me from my confusion. Jasmine stops suddenly and lifts her arm, then hits me across the head on the other side. It’s so violent and unexpected that my head slams back against the porch decking, and I moan, my hands coming to my head just before she yanks my body down the back steps, my head banging on each and every one of them as my vision starts to fade.
“No… No… Jasmine… I don’t understand,” I murmur, barely lucid as she continues to drag my body outside into the night sky and across the yard to the shed. Straight past the two bodies of the security team as they lay lifeless on the porch steps. I try to get to them, but I see one with blood dripping from his ear, and the other’s lips are blue, almost like he has been suffocated or poisoned. My stomach tightens like I may be sick. How could she do this?
I hear a commotion before I spot the outline of Marmalade as she bolts from her sleeping quarters, and then I hear Gertie and her kids bleating before they all run from the shed.
“I moved here a year ago and never got his attention. He barely even notices me.” She continues talking to herself, not looking at me, only walking with tunnel vision to the shed.
“Who? What?” I ask, not understanding. She is clearly out of her mind, and I wonder if she is on something.
“I thought the brakes would work. If it didn’t kill you, I was at least hoping that you would be charged with dangerous driving and speeding. Both things I know he hates. But noooooooo, Little Miss Princess got out of that one too!” she screams, and my body shudders. The woman whom I considered a friend is totally unhinged, and if I survive tonight, I know that between her and Josh, I need to do better at selecting friends.
“Tanner?” I ask, my mind slowly connecting the dots.
“Yes, Tanner !” she screams at me, and I flinch. “One of the richest men in this country, single for years, does everything for everyone. I moved here just to meet him. I moved here to shoot my shot, and he never even gave me the time of day. But I persevered. I tried to see him every day, driving out to the distillery, making fucking floral arrangements for him. Making myself known and present. But you !” She pauses after terrifying me to the core with her scream filled with disdain, and I don’t register what she is doing until I spot Lacy. Fear consumes me at the sight.
Lacy looks at me with wide eyes from where she is hanging from the roof. Rope is wrapped around her wrists, and they are pulled above her head, her feet dangling, her mouth taped with black duct tape. She starts yelling, which is muffled from the tape, and thrashing about on the ropes, but Jasmine ignores her as I feel tight rope burning around my bare ankles.
I struggle to kick out of her grip, my body panic-striken, doing anything to not be tied up by my ankles. But I’m seeing double, and my head feels like it is full of cement. I can barely breathe, let alone fight.
“Jasmine, don’t do this…” I pant out. “Please, Jasmine.” Tears come to my eyes. I have no idea what she has planned, but seeing Lacy hanging from the rafters gives me a pretty good indication.
“Do you know how angry I was to hear that he loves you. You ! A stupid city girl who doesn’t even know how to run a farm !” she yells as she walks the other end of the rope over to the pulley and starts yanking on it.
“Jasmine, let’s talk about it. I am sure this can all be worked out. Tanner is a nice guy, but you’re right, I am just a stupid city girl. I can move back there, away from here,” I tell her shakily, meaning none of it. I need to tell her what she wants to hear.
I manage to roll onto my stomach, but the rope tenses, and I know I have only mere minutes before I will be unable to do anything. The pain in my head intensifies, the sting on my skin harsh from gravel rash, but I close my eyes, trying to push through it and stay conscious. Vomit crawls up my throat from my efforts. My head feels like I am underwater, but I can still hear the animals calling, running everywhere all over the yard.
“There is nothing to work out. This is the end. You and your friend Lacy here are done, and I am going to skip town. Whispers is a shit town, and Tanner is an asshole for choosing you over me. Over me !” she screams as she pulls, and my ankles lift from the ground momentarily before dropping again.
“No, Jasmine. Stop. It doesn’t have to be this way,” I say, pleading with her as I wiggle like a worm, doing anything to make it more difficult for her and buy us some time. But she uses all her strength and pulls again. My heart feels like it’s about to beat out of my chest, and I sob before I try again.
I kick from the ropes, and I think I succeed as the rope relaxes, but when I see her standing above me, looking down at me like I am nothing, I know the end is near. She grabs a gas can from the side that I have never seen before and splashes it around the shed. The fumes of gasoline immediately hit my nostrils, and I cough as the strong smell slides down my throat. Lacy screams and thrashes as I stare at Jasmine, my shock and approaching hopelessness giving way to overwhelming rage.
This setup is obviously well planned. She knows exactly what she is doing, and I wonder how long she has had this organized. I think through everything. The roses, the cut brakes, she had full access to my place, my property. The way she would look every time Tanner and I were together. At the time, I paid little attention, but in hindsight, there were signs.
I have no idea what I am doing, but just like when I hurt my ankle, I roll straight over to her as fast as I can and hit her right behind the shins with every ounce of power I have left in me. She falls onto her knees, gasoline coating her and me completely.
“You stupid bitch!” she screams, her hand lifting into the air, the can now raised, and she slams it down on my head.
The last thought I have is of Tanner.