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Something wasn’t registering right, but Nan couldn’t pinpoint what it was through the pounding of her head, the nausea threatening to come up and the pain encompassing her heart. Not until she roused enough to notice Alice was driving away from Willow Springs at a fast clip.
“Alice…” She struggled to sit up against the tight confines of the seatbelt.
“Shut up, bitch,” the older woman snarled in a hateful voice Nan didn’t recognize. “I need to think. If only you would have cooperated with my plans, I could be on my way home by now.”
Confusion and a kernel of fear added to Nan’s misery. “What are you talking about…” And then, like a flick of a light switch, enlightenment dawned and she squinted her blurry eyes. “You? You’re behind all the strange things happening to me, aren’t you?”
“Give the girl a prize,” Alice sneered, pressing harder on the accelerator. “I hoped I put enough Visine in the brownies to at least put you in a coma. That would have been enough to delay Gerard’s trial until I could finish the job or get someone to finish it for me.”
Nan was trying to assimilate what Alice was saying, but only two words registered, both confusing her more. “Visine? Gerard? Who are you?”
Shaking her head, Alice gripped the steering wheel and the cold eyes she leveled on Nan answered one question. “Shit, you’re Gerard’s mother.” And as much of a whack-a-doodle as her son, it appeared. Why hadn’t she caught the resemblance before? There was no mistaking who her son had inherited his cold black eyes from.
“Damn right, and no one hurts my boy, especially not some two-bit floozy.” She chuckled, the sound of pure evil raising the hairs on Nan’s arms. “Research was so easy. Visine. Who would ever think such a product could be so dangerous if ingested? It’s the tetrahydrozoline that can render someone incapacitated, make them so sick.” She frowned and her mouth twisted into an ugly sneer. “Why didn’t you eat the brownies? I made sure to add a large enough dose to put you in the hospital.”
“I did.” And then Nan remembered getting violently ill, throwing everything up just minutes upon waking, right after Dan had arrived. At the time she’d thought it odd since she’d been holding her alcohol since college. The combination of bourbon and the tainted brownies must have been enough to purge herself of the possible poisonous effects. A slow rage started to unfurl deep inside her as the puzzling incidents of the past weeks came rushing back. “You picked up my purse, copied my key and put it back. Did you poison my yogurt and the biscuits and gravy?” The image of the poor tom cat popped into her head, but at least something good had come from spilling the diner order earlier. One bite shouldn’t have any detrimental or lasting effects.
“And yet here you still are.” Alice wanted to cackle with glee. The shock and anger turning Nan’s face red was priceless. Now, if she could just figure out where to dump her body, she could get back to her precious son who didn’t deserve to go to jail because of this bitch. “I have to tell you, that scene in the library was priceless. It couldn’t have gone better if I had planned that one. Instead, you fell right into the role of a muddled head case. It took you long enough to change your lock. Everyone in this town is way too trusting. Idiots,” she scoffed.
“Willa certainly is. How did you manage that?”
She chuckled. “That was easy. I kept tabs on you in New Orleans and knew as soon as you boarded a plane for home. Thanks to you telling my son all about your hometown and your love of reading, I knew where you were going and had some way to ingratiate myself into your life. I learned about the librarian’s luncheon in Billings before leaving Louisiana and winged it arranging to meet the Willow Springs librarian. Where does that road go?” She pointed to the right at the upcoming intersection.
Nan wasn’t about to help her. In fact, she didn’t plan on riding along with the raving lunatic much farther. Enough of this bullshit. She was done with the Avets controlling her life and she saw her opportunity as Alice slowed to take the turn.
“Nowhere I’m going with you, you deranged psychopath.” Pressing the release on the seatbelt, she lunged across the seat, reaching for the steering wheel to yank the car into the field. She hadn’t counted on the gun, or the blow to her temple that stunned her into seeing stars as she fell back against the seat.
Pete knew he was making a mistake yet found himself helpless to turn around and return to the ranch. He owed Dan a debt of gratitude for giving him a second chance once he was released from prison and the army, one he would have had trouble repaying before he let the nightmares get the best of him this morning. If he didn’t find the
strength to veer from this course, he would never get the chance to not only repay his boss but start a future as his permanent employee. Guilt gnawed at his gut as he drove toward Billings, and the connection to drugs he had made. He couldn’t fight it anymore, couldn’t get through the day without the peaceful oblivion the drugs offered from the screams of the dying he’d been powerless to help.
I’m a failure, and that will never change. He blinked, fighting the gathering dampness blurring his vision as he thought he recognized Ms. Meyers as the passenger in the vehicle up ahead. Hadn’t Dan mentioned before leaving this morning he would be meeting up with her at the fair? Pete, Morales and Bertie had gotten a kick out of ribbing their boss over his interest in the woman, surprised when he didn’t deny he’d planned on it being permanent. Curiosity, and a nagging sense of worry prodded him into sending a quick text to Dan, adding he thought something might be wrong when the car swerved from the erratic driving of whoever was behind the wheel.
Ten minutes later, Pete was wrestling over whether to continue going straight past the upcoming intersection and on into Billings in pursuit of temporary numbness from his pain, or to stay with Ms. Meyers until he was sure she would be okay. She looks fine and is not my problem. I need… “Son-of-a-bitch!” he swore aloud as the driver brought down the butt of a gun on her temple when Ms. Meyers lunged toward her, making a grab for the wheel.
Making a lightning fast decision, praying it wasn’t a mistake and landed her in more danger, he swung right, cutting off the car as it slowed to make the turn, hoping his impact on the rear end didn’t cause her more harm.
Dan checked the time again, wondering what the hell was keeping Nan. When Grayson asked him about their relationship, he’d wanted nothing more than to admit to his feelings and hope they could make their current arrangement permanent. But Nan deserved to hear that first and he was itching to clear the air between them as soon as possible. As late morning passed into early afternoon with no sign of her, his eagerness turned to annoyance. Regardless of their previous relationship, or the reason for their bargain that was supposed to only last until she had overcome her trauma, he was tired of her pulling away from him. When he got his hands on her again, he planned to lay it on the line, tell her in no uncertain terms how they would be going forward and reinforcing his intentions with a long, overdue spanking.
As Grayson returned leading his horse carrying the last rider for now, Dan pulled out his phone to call Nan, tired of waiting. Seeing a missed text, he started to pull it up when another one came in, this one making his blood run cold as fear threatened all rational sense.
“What’s wrong?” Grayson’s sharp, demanding tone broke through Dan’s paralyzing disbelief as he thrust Pete’s message toward him. He scanned the message then said exactly what Dan was thinking. “Fuck, let’s go.”
“Take over,” Dan called out to the college kid helping at the riding ring. Without waiting for a reply, he jumped into the passenger seat of Grayson’s cruiser parked in the field outside the makeshift coral.
“We’ll head north, cut across the bluff and reach that corner in five minutes. What the hell’s going on?” Grayson floored the accelerator, bouncing the SUV over the rough terrain with a tight grip on the wheel and a concerned frown darkening his face.
“I don’t know, just step on it,” Dan growled as he read the previous text, thankful Pete had noticed Nan and followed when the driver’s behavior looked suspicious. He couldn’t come up with a plausible reason for her to be on that road instead of at the fair with him, but given the harassment of the past few weeks, he wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
They cleared the rise above the backroads intersection just in time to watch Pete ram his truck into the back of a compact sedan. Grayson sped forward, both of them swearing and reaching for the rifle on the rack above the seat as Nan stumbled from the car as soon as it stalled. Dan saw red when he noticed the trickle of blood dripping down from her forehead and vowed someone would pay for hurting her.
Disoriented, Nan fell to the grassy ground then struggled to her feet, fearing for her life. Her heart pounded with the panic clamping her throat closed as two shots rent the air, one slamming into Pete’s shoulder as he rushed forward and tackled her back to the ground with a heavy grunt, the other sending Alice flying backward with a neat hole in her forehead.
“No!” Scooting out from under her protector’s body, she scrambled to her knees, frantically pressing her hands against Pete’s blood-soaked shoulder, tears streaming down her face. “Where did you come from? Who…” She sobbed, saying, “You saved my life.”
Pete offered a weak smile, reaching up to grip her hand, his pale face reflecting calm relief. “No, ma’am. Believe it or not, I think you saved mine.”
And then Grayson and Dan were there, taking over as the sheriff checked to ensure Alice was dead and Dan stooped down next to them, pulling a roll of gauze from a medical kit.
