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“Mel. Mel. Open up,” Sanna whispered in a frantic tone.
Gripping the knob, she called to me again.
“Mel. Hurry, open the damn door,” she whispered, her tone more desperate than before.
Leaning in close to the crack, I frowned. “Sanna? What the hell are you doing outside? I thought you were upstairs?”
“Shhh,” she instructed. “I climbed out the window, Mel. He’s inside the lodge. Open the door and get out. We’ll hide in the forest until the guys get back.”
Inside the lodge!
I whipped a terrified glance over my shoulder, praying Tideway wasn’t sneaking up behind me to slit my throat on Davis’ behalf. Thankfully, he wasn’t…at least, not yet. My mind whirled. I needed to stay with Sanna, find a safe place away from the fire, and hide.
“Mel,” she hissed. “Hurry.”
Nervously fumbling with the locks, I yanked opened the door, but Sanna was gone. My heart thundered in my chest. Had Tideway followed her out the window? Had he discovered her tapping on the door? Had my questions bought him precious seconds to capture Sanna instead of me?
Seized with gut-wrenching panic, I raced onto the back porch. Turning to the left, I frantically called for Sanna in a terse whisper. Spinning around, I jumped, then froze as a figure dressed in black raised a gun to my head. Edging back slowly, we both stepped into the light that poured onto the porch from the open kitchen doorway. It was a woman with her hair tucked beneath a black ski cap, but instantly, I recognized the face.
Carnation.
“Don’t make a fucking sound, Mel,” she warned in a voice that mimicked Sanna’s, perfectly. I blinked in surprise as my heart leapt to my throat. “Lace your hands behind your head and don’t move.”
My whole body vibrated in a petrified quiver. “Why are you doing this? What do you want?”
“I said don’t make a sound, cunt,” she snarled with an evil hiss. “I told you that you’d be sorry if I had to hunt you down, didn’t I, bunny?”
What. The. Fuck? I’d thought Davis had been stalking me. But all along, it had been Carnation. She’d slashed Joshua’s tires. She’d probably hired Tideway to smash up my house and plant the cameras and microphones. She’d been the one sending me all the threatening texts. The bitch was certifiably insane, one hundred and ten percent bat-shit crazy, but how did she know about my connection with Davis?
“Surprise,” she giggled with a demonic grin. Sliding the barrel of the gun to my temple, she stepped in behind me. “Now shut the fuck up before I blow your brains out right here. Walk to the end of the porch and turn the corner. Don’t even think about running, or I’ll kill you right now.”
My mind swirled with questions. How had she found out about Joshua and me? What could I do to buy myself some time? The barrel of the gun pressed hard against my head, making it impossible for me to focus on anything other than fear.
Had Carnation sent the flowers or had they truly been from Davis? I needed to get that damn gun off the back of my head so I could think. I could stumble and fall, cry out maybe. Glancing up, I inwardly cursed. The fascia covering the porch shielded the two of us from being seen by Dylan and James. Coupled with the darkness, I would be dead long before either man figured out what was going on.
Moving at a snail’s pace, I tried to think of a way to draw attention to the bat-shit bitch without ending up in the morgue. Turning the corner, advancing along the west side of the lodge, she whispered for me to stop as she jabbed the gun against my scalp. Flicking on a tiny flashlight, Carnation shone a faint beam on a set of stairs leading to a storm shelter or an underground root cellar.
“Go down the steps and get inside. Not a fucking peep, whore,” Carnation hissed in a seething tone.
My head screamed ‘no’, but my body obeyed. Praying somehow one of the men would catch a glimpse of the tiny light, I quickly scanned the horizon. My hope dwindled. I couldn’t see anything but the glow of the encroaching fire. The guys were out there somewhere, blinded within the thick forest of trees. Help wasn’t coming.
Stepping into the musty smelling room with the gun to my head, Carnation eased the door shut behind us. Shining the tiny penlight around the earthen room, she handed me a battery-operated camping lantern and ordered me to turn it on.
As light flooded the room, she ripped off the stocking cap and shook out her long, blonde curls while staring at me with a venomous look.
“Down on your knees. You’ve had a lot of practice in that position now, haven’t you?” she chortled with a derisive sneer.
As I crouched and knelt on the hard dirt floor, Carnation raced in toward me, slamming the gun against the side of my head with a brutal blow. Pain exploded through my brain as I fought the swelling blackness devouring my vision. Blinking rapidly, I tried to clear the spots as I attempted to rise back up, but Carnation stomped a heavy boot into the small of my back, pinning me to the dark soil of the floor.
Gripping my wrist, she twisted one arm behind my back. Fight or flight took over, and I struggled to rip my arm from her grip. She landed another agonizing blow to the back of my head, and the darkness won me over.
Slowly rising from the inky chasm, I blinked against the bright light. I didn’t know how long I’d been unconscious, but as I tried to move, I discovered I was lying on the ground with my hands bound behind my back.
“You’ve caused me a lot of trouble and a shit load of money, bitch,” Carnation railed, fisting a handful of white zip ties. I knew then what she’d used to bind my wrists. “Do you have any idea how much it costs to hire a damn hit man? I should have let him blow your brains out, instead of ordering him to fuck with you for a little while.”
“Why do you want to hurt me?” I murmured. “Who are you?”
“Don’t play dumb with me, you fucking bitch. You know exactly who I am, just like I know who you are,” she sneered. “I was sitting in my car outside the church that day of the stupid wedding. I saw him all over you in the parking lot. And I know you fucked him at the club. I still have a good friend at Genesis. She told me all about the scene Master Kerr made when my Master took pity on you and spanked your pathetic ass. I also know you fucked him that night. I would have thought Master Stephen had better taste, but obviously, he’ll fuck any hole. So I had to slash his tires,” she boasted.
