Chapter 31
CHAPTER 31
B ecket drove as fast as the vehicle would go. Far faster than he was supposed to in town.
Sky was in danger. And she wasn’t answering her phone.
He cursed and pressed the key on his steering wheel to call her again. Again, it rang out.
Fuck!
Sirens wailed behind him. He didn’t care whether it was Jesse or his deputies. He’d run out of the station the second he’d heard Rosemary’s name. His entire focus remained on getting to Sky before the older woman did anything.
They hadn’t even considered her. Why? Because she was elderly? Because she seemed friendly? Or because they’d been so fixated on the boyfriend?
Later, he’d kick his own ass, but right now he needed to find Sky.
He stopped in front of the doggy daycare, grabbed his Glock and jumped out of his truck. He spotted her car in the lot and didn’t know if that was good or bad.
Jesse pulled up just as Becket tried the handle.
Unlocked.
He rushed inside. “Sky?”
Nothing. Only eerie silence.
He moved around the daycare, checking every room, the yard, even the fucking cupboards.
She wasn’t here. Dammit!
He was running back into the reception area when he collided with his brother.
“Beck—”
“She’s not here, Jess. She’s not fucking here!”
His brother’s radio sounded. “Sheriff?”
“What is it?” Jesse asked, pulling the radio from his belt.
“We just arrived at Rosemary Symes’s address but looks like no one’s home.”
“Break in,” Becket growled.
“Uh, we need a warrant to—”
“Do it,” Becket barked, cutting off the deputy’s words.
Jesse scrubbed a hand over his face. “Just do it, Luke. I’ll cop the consequences.”
“Doing it now,” the deputy said.
Becket turned and spotted Sky’s phone on the counter. When he lifted it, his fingers squeezed it so hard that he almost crushed the thing. She was gone, and he had no way of reaching her.
He wanted to punch his fist through a wall. Anything to divert the pain inside him.
They had just finished one more sweep of the daycare when Jesse’s radio squawked again. “House is empty, Sheriff.”
Jesse cursed. “Thanks for checking, Luke.”
Becket’s heart started to thump loud and hard in his chest. “She’s gone.”
Jesse’s phone rang this time, and he walked outside to answer it.
Helpless. Becket was fucking helpless and blind.
When Jesse came back inside, the look on his face was grim. “Rosemary had a white van registered in her husband’s name, only she doesn’t have a husband.”
So many damn things they should have seen.
Jesse stepped closer. “We’ve got an APB out on the van and Rosemary’s car. Someone will find them.”
They had to. There was no other choice.
He wouldn’t lose her. He couldn’t.
* * *
A cool breeze brushed against Sky’s face, bringing with it a familiar scent, making her scrunch her eyes tight.
She frowned on her next inhale. What was that smell? Gasoline…?
One more squeeze of her eyes before she forced them open. Everything was a dark, foggy blur.
She blinked. Once. Twice. On the third blink, things started coming into focus.
Trees. Tall trees surrounded her. And leaves blew in the high wind. She glanced down. Dirt. Why was she lying in dirt?
She tried to push herself up, but something stopped her. Was she bound? And why were her movements so slow and uncoordinated?
Her heart started to beat faster, panic crawling up her throat.
“I was wondering how long the sedative would keep you asleep.”
Sky gasped and her head turned toward the voice to find Rosemary Symes. The older woman was holding a large container, pouring its contents on the trees and bushes nearby.
“I didn’t want to give you too much,” Rosemary continued. “Because I want you to be awake for this.”
It all came back to her at once. The van. The dart in her stomach. The strange-looking gun.
“It’s you.” Her voice was breathless, but she wasn’t sure if that was the drugs still in her system or the disbelief that this seventy-year-old woman was the person who’d been tormenting her. “You’ve been trying to kill me?”
“Not very successfully, it would seem, because here you are. This, though… this is something you can’t run from. Well, you can. You just won’t make it. And that boyfriend of yours can’t save you this time.”
A dog barked. Sky turned her head. She couldn’t see the front of the van, but the back door was wide open. Had Rosemary just rolled her out? Was Bella still in the front?
Her vision started to blur again, but she blinked, forcing herself to focus on Rosemary. “Why?”
She smelled gasoline. Was that what Rosemary was pouring from the container?
“Because, Sky, Eloise was my grandchild. But she was really like a daughter to me. I had my own daughter young and made a lot of mistakes. And because of that, she couldn’t care less about me. But Eloise…she was my whole world, and I loved her.” She turned to look at Sky, tears in her eyes. “And because of you , she’s dead.”
“I didn’t start that café fire, Rosemary.”
“No. But you were supposed to be there. Not her. We were together when you called her, begged her to take your shift.”
Sky tried to push up, but her head spun and she fell back down.
“I think about her every day.” Rosemary stopped pouring the gasoline to swipe a tear from her cheek. “About how scared she must have been stuck in that room, with flames all around her. You changed your destiny that day. But I’m making things right. You’ll feel the same fear and the same pain that my poor Eloise did. The sedative still in your system will make sure you’re too slow to outrun this.”
“Don’t do this…please!”
“I have to. I’m seventy years old. I can’t do much to make up for not protecting her that day, but avenging her death…that’s something I can do.”
Jesus. Sky was living a nightmare she couldn’t wake up from. “You really think Eloise would want this? She wouldn’t. I may not have known her for long but—”
Rosemary swung around. “No! You didn’t know her for long. So you were probably glad that this almost-stranger died in your place, while I lost the only person I had left worth living for! No…I’m sorry, Sky.” The older woman’s chest rose and fell, as if she was trying to pull herself together. “I really am sorry. I actually started to like you. But it has to end like this.”
Rosemary moved back to the van and set the container inside. She closed the doors and pulled something from her pocket.
Sky’s breath caught…matches.
This time when she pushed up, she refused to let her body fall again. That’s when she noticed that it wasn’t just her wrist that were bound, it was her ankles too. “Rosemary—”
“There’s nothing you can say that will change your fate, dear. What’s happening to you now is simply you meeting the destiny that was always meant to be yours.” She lit a match and threw it at a nearby tree.
Bright flames danced in front of her vision, making the air in Sky’s lungs stick so completely that she couldn’t breathe. She tried to rise to her feet, but her legs wouldn’t support her.
No…this couldn’t be happening.
Rosemary turned to look at her. “I guess, in a few years, I’ll see you on the other side.”
“Rosemary, please!”
But the old woman ignored her. There was no anger in her movements, just resigned sadness.
A door clicked open.
Suddenly, Rosemary gasped. “ Bella, no, get back here! ”
Half a second later, Bella was beside Sky, licking her face and whimpering.
Oh, God! The sweet dog was too close to those flames.
“Bella, you have to go,” Sky rushed out.
Rosemary rushed over to the animal and tried to lift her—then yelped when Bella bit her hand. She dropped the Chinese Crested.
Bella dug her head into Sky’s neck and whimpered. She lowered her mouth and whispered, “Run, Bella! Go get help.”
It was ridiculous to ask a dog for help. But when Bella looked up…Sky would swear she saw understanding in the animal’s eyes.
Rosemary was just reaching for Bella a second time when the dog took off, sprinting away from them through the trees.
“Bella, no !” Rosemary yelled.
The flames grew, the heat already licking Sky’s skin.
Rosemary looked at the flames, then back to where Bella had run.
“Please,” Sky begged, muscles protesting as she once again tried to stand.
Rosemary scowled at her. “This was always how it was supposed to be.” Then the older woman returned to her van, climbed in, and drove off through the forest, leaving Sky alone with the flames.
Shit!
Sky reached for the rope around her ankle, madly trying to undo the knot. Rosemary had driven the van into the forest on some kind of narrow trail. It had to connect with a road. All she had to do was outrun that fire until she found it.
Quickly, she worked the bindings on her ankles.
Come on, come on, come on.
It felt like it took hours, when in reality it was probably minutes. But finally, she got her ankles untied and again tried to push to her feet—and again immediately fell down, the world around her swirling.
The fire grew louder, drowning out the sound of the wind.
She forced herself back up with the help of her still-bound wrists, this time locking her knees, refusing to let herself fall.
She moved one foot forward, then the other. It was slow, but any distance between her and the flames was better than none. Each step was a small chance at survival.