49. Tanner
49
TANNER
I throw another chip on the table. I am down almost a hundred thousand now. My mind is not on the game of poker with my friends and son, but on the woman next door.
“Why don’t you just call her. You are obviously worried,” Connor says, and I want to. I want to drive over there. But I know she needed a bit of space, and the girls were eager to get together. When I quizzed Lacy about it earlier, she mentioned Jasmine had been the one to arrange it. Lacy was not too keen to leave her mom for the night but had made arrangements for someone to be with her so she could be there with Victoria.
“What do they do on girls' nights anyway?” Hudson asks, and I frown at him, wondering why he wants to know.
“Face masks, wine. Talk about boys,” I grumble, repeating the words Victoria told me this afternoon.
“I have never known you to lose a night of poker as badly as you are tonight,” Connor comments with a smirk, him being the current beneficiary of my bad bets.
“He has good reason to,” Hudson murmurs, looking at me. At any other time, tonight would be a great night. All the boys here, talking shit, having a few beers. But I am on edge.
“Has the sheriff found anything? Anything at all?” Huxley asks, then throws down his cards.
“Not a thing,” I tell him, just as my cell vibrates. It is my security team from the city, so I answer quickly.
I listen to their update and frown, not happy about any of it, then I hang up, the boys all looking at me.
“Security team. They found her father,” I say, and Connor sits forward.
“And? Was it him?” he asks quickly.
“He died a week ago. Self-inflicted, apparently.”
Victoria obviously doesn’t know, which means her mother doesn’t know either. I am not looking forward to telling her that news.
“So it could have been him, then?” Huxley puts it out there, and I lean back in my chair and sigh. “I don’t know. I am trying to think who would be after her. Who would want to see her hurt? Nothing is making any sense.” Following Huxley, I throw my hand down as well, joining him in defeat.
“Nothing odd has happened since she arrived?” Hudson asks.
“Besides her brakes being cut, someone ran over her rosebushes and left a rose inside her house for her,” I say, huffing at how ridiculous that sounds .
“Who could it be, really?” Huxley asks, shaking his head.
“No idea. The only people to ever go to her place are me, Lacy, and Jasmine,” I tell them, taking a sip of whiskey.
“So does Lacy or Jasmine have any motive?” Huxley plays devil’s advocate.
“It isn’t Lacy,” Hudson says so quickly that I look at him sharply and raise an eyebrow. He matches my stare, and if I didn’t have so much on my mind, I would question him. He and Lacy don’t know each other well, but I have seen him watching her whenever we are at the bar, and I assume he knows her a little from the medical support he gives her mom.
“What about Jasmine?” Connor asks, then glances at me with a furrowed brow.
“They are friends.” I sigh, rubbing my chin as I think about it.
“She is a bit annoying,” Connor remarks. “She is always hanging out at the distillery.”
“I hardly see her,” I tell him.
“Not sure how you miss her. She is there almost every day,” he says with a scoff.
“She didn’t grow up here, did she?” Huxley asks, not knowing her very well.
“Moved here a year ago. Started the florist. She is from a few towns over,” I tell them.
“Williamstown?” Hudson asks.
“That’s right,” I say, looking at him curiously. “Why?”
“Well, she came in to see me about a cut on her hand a few weeks ago, so I started a file on her at the hospital. Her last name is Bletcher,” Hudson says.
“Like Boris?” Huxley snorts. The two of them are obviously on the same wavelength, but I have no idea what they are talking about. “As in, the car mechanic?”
“How many people do you know from that town with the same surname as him? It caught my eye, because as kids, we always used to sing the jingle of his TV commercial,” Hudson says.
“Car mechanic?” Connor says, sitting forward, the air around us changing. “She would know all about brake cables, then?”
Heart stuttering, I am already up off my seat.
“When did she come in with the cut on her hand?” I ask Hudson, and he thinks about it for a moment before his eyes widen completely.
“Same day of Victoria’s accident,” he says, and I move so fast I must be a blur. I grab my cell and call Victoria while snatching my keys from the table. “Pick up, baby girl. Pick up.”
With a growl, I’m sprinting out of the house as Connor, Hudson, and Huxley all run after me, the four of us hurrying out of my place and to our trucks.
“No answer. Fuck!” I yell as I jump into my truck.
“I’ll call the sheriff,” I hear Huxley yell as Connor jumps in beside me, and the two of us are already moving. The Hamilton brothers are right behind us.
“Fuck. Why didn’t I see it? What the hell is her motive?” I spit out as I speed down Distillery Drive.
“She hangs around the distillery like a bad smell. I see her watching you a bit…” Connor admits, and I look at him like he is crazy.
“I have never paid her any attention. I have never dated her, taken her for a meal, nothing.”
Pulling up to Marie's place, I see the lights on out in the back shed.
“The shed,” I say, jumping out of the truck, seeing none of my security guys I left here earlier and wondering where the hell they are.
“Victoria!” I yell but hear no one. Connor and I are halfway to the shed as Huxley and Hudson pull in.
“Shit,” Connor says, stopping, and I follow his gaze. The two security men I had here both lie on their backs on the grass. Dead. Fuck, fuck, fuck.
“Victoria!” I scream, the panic and anger swirling in my body, taking over my senses. I put myself in front of Connor, prepared to take a bullet for him if needed.
“Do you smell that?” Connor asks, grabbing on to my shirt to stop my steps.
“Gasoline,” I grit out. Spotting the cow and goats in the yard and not in the shed where I left them, locked up a few hours ago, only confirms where they are. My stomach tenses with unease, heart now racing with urgency.
“I’ll check inside,” Huxley says, and I spot Hudson down on one knee, checking for a pulse on the two security guys before he looks at me and shakes his head, standing back up. Connor darts off to follow Huxley in the back door, and I continue running to the shed with Hudson. Turning the corner, we both stop short.
Lacy and Victoria are hanging from the rafters of the shed. Victoria is hanging by her ankles, blood coating one side of her face. She isn’t moving, her eyes are closed, and I have no idea if she is even alive. My heart lurches, reaching out to her, my feet moving before my thoughts. Lacy hangs by her wrists and starts screaming the minute she sees us, her screams muffled by duct tape as she wriggles around on the rope, so much she starts swinging.
“Lacy!” Hudson yells at the same time I yell, “Victoria!”
But we’re frozen in place as Jasmine steps out in front of them with a wicked smile. She is in a sports bra and leggings, looking like she is ready for a run, but I spot her clothes crumpled on the floor, covered in gasoline.
“What the hell is going on, Jasmine?” I question her as I take another small step toward Victoria.
“Oh, now you notice me? Now you look at me, actually see me?” She is almost screaming, her eyes wild, clearly a little unhinged.
“I’m noticing. I’m looking,” I tell her carefully, not sure what the right words are to say. I spot Hudson out of the corner of my eye, stepping closer to Lacy. Jasmine’s eyes stay fixed on me.
“I moved here for you, Tanner…” she says, sounding like she is now weeping, but no tears escape. “I moved to this town because you needed me.”
I pull in a sharp breath. This is all because of me?
“You did?” I ask, trying to keep my voice calm as I watch everything and everyone.
“Yes. You and me, we are meant to be. I knew it the minute I saw you in the paper, talking about the distillery. I moved here for us to be together.” She’s looking at me like a lost, sick puppy, making my skin crawl.
“Well, you never said anything?” I ask her, just as Hudson reaches Lacy, her tears constant.
“I was always at the distillery. Then this one showed up and got in the way. That’s why we need to get rid of her, Tanner. So we can be together,” she says, and then she actually fucking smiles at me. A chill runs through me, and I look from her to Victoria and swallow hard. I am not sure how injured she is, but I can see her chest still moving, so I take that as a good sign.
“Why don’t you go sit outside, and I can finish this off,” I say to her, hoping to get her out of here so I can get to Victoria. We need to get out of here.
“Really!” she shrieks so suddenly, I jolt, and I see Lacy and Hudson pause where they are now both standing, removing the ropes from her legs.
“You know what. I started it. I am going to end it. You can either come with me or burn in hell with her!” she spits out, lighting a match and tossing it to the floor. The flames and heat are instant. Jasmine runs out the back of the shed as I dart forward to Victoria, time now of the essence.
“Victoria!” As soon as I have her in my grasp, I get busy with the ropes on her ankles. The knot is basic, and I manage to pull it away quickly, her body falling to the floor.
“I got Lacy!” Hudson shouts.
“Run!” I scream at him, and he runs out the door with Lacy in his arms. I dip down to pick up Victoria. She is limp in my arms, her clothes coated in gasoline, and I look around, seeing nothing but flames now surrounding us. This isn’t going to be good. There are no gaps, the gasoline poured in a circle around the ropes, barricading us in and preventing anyone from coming in to help.
“We gotta do it, baby girl. Hang on.” Sealing her to me, I bury her head into my chest, and I sprint, following the same path Hudson did. The heat is unbearable, it singes my skin and my hair, but I close my eyes and run like I have never run before, hearing the shed start to buckle behind me.
I scream from the pain as I dash through the flames and right into the backyard. Dropping us to the damp grass, Hudson is on us in a second.
“Roll. Fucking roll,” Huxley yells, and I pat down and roll Victoria, the heat in my back fierce.
“Dad, roll!” my son screams at me, and as soon as the flames on Victoria are out, I drop. Rolling and wriggling on the grass, I feel the temperature around me increase, and I grit my teeth. But as soon as I know I’m in the clear, I crawl over to Victoria. I push my pain to the back of my mind and hold her hand as Hudson works on her, Connor sitting with Lacy.
In the distance, I hear the sirens. I see the red and blue lights that fill my nightmares flashing against the dark country sky. The fire department pulls up and starts the flow of water, just as tears fill my eyes, staring down at an unmoving Victoria.
I pray on everything that is holy to keep my baby girl on earthside with me.