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Thank goodness Levi finished the renovations early, or this would’ve been a nightmare to deal with right before opening night. As it is, I only have a few days to go, but that’s plenty of time to get things together. I may need one more late night to have it ready unless I can push through the exhaustion tonight. I have nothing displayed in the lobby yet, so once everything is inventoried, I’ll have to make my selections of what pieces to put out. I’m making notes as I go through the crates, so that should help speed up the selection process.
I take a steadying drink of my tea and get back to work. If I can push through another hour, I’ll be in good shape tomorrow and won’t have to work late into the night again. As I go through the boxes, I think about all of the craziness that’s happened over the past week. Cooper thought I could move right in with him, which made me laugh at the time but now, I kind of understand why he was so upset about me not moving in right away.
Between his schedule and mine, it hasn’t been the easiest to see each other regularly, and if I had already moved in, it wouldn’t have been as much of a problem. Thankfully the renovations should be finished soon, so we don’t have to wait too much longer. We’ve got some amazing plans for the guest suite, and I’m hoping Mom and Dad might stay with us if they have their own space. They’ll probably insist on staying at a hotel, which is fine, but it’ll still be nice to have the space.
I know I’m going to miss my grandparents’ house though. Living there has been such an amazing thing for my soul, but it wasn’t the most ideal location for the long run. We are going to hold on to it for now and most likely rent it out. Without a mortgage to worry about, we’ve got time to decide what’s best.
I hear a knock out front and have a small hope that it’s Cooper. He’s working late tonight too, so I doubt he’ll have time to stop by, but a girl can dream.
I walk out to the front lobby area and quickly unlock the door.
“Hey, this is a surprise. What’s going on? Is everything okay?” I ask as I step back into the lobby. Before I get a response, everything goes black.
* * *
I groan,my head feeling like it was kicked by a horse. God, what the hell happened? Did I fall down or something? I go to move my hands to make sure I’m okay, but they won’t budge. I blink my eyes open and look down. My hands are tied behind me, and I finally recognize the feeling of bark against my back.
My legs are also tied down, but they’re spread wide and the ropes holding me are staked into the ground. Sticks and rocks poke at my bare skin where my shorts stop on my thigh.
I look around and realize I’m in the middle of the forest. It’s dark, but the moon is shining, so I can somewhat see my surroundings. It’s silent, no animals moving or owls hooting. Nothing.
I feel my heartbeat kick up as adrenaline courses through me with the realization that I am in serious danger right now. My fight or flight response makes me start wiggling to see if I can get out of my binds, but they’re incredibly tight and only hurts me more as I struggle.
“There’s no use,” a voice says from the shadows, making me jump. I didn’t even see them there when I first took in my surroundings. They start walking out from the shadows, and everything in me stills.
“Rachel?” I ask, not quite believing what I’m seeing.
“Surprise,” she says, walking closer to me, and it’s then I see she’s waving a large butcher knife. The glint of the moon catches the blade a couple of times, making it seem even more sinister.
“I don’t understand. What’s going on right now?”
“Of course, you don’t. You’re a stupid little bitch who doesn’t know what’s good for her, apparently,” she says, rolling her eyes. “You know, after I first met you, I thought you’d be smart. I mean, you were from New York for God’s sake. I figured you might have some street smarts in you but apparently not.”
“What does that have to do with why you’ve tied me up out here?” I watch as she squats down in front of me, her dark hair swaying in the breeze as she moves. While the knife being pointed at me is scary, what’s scarier is how calm she is. She’s completely in control and comfortable right now, as if this is a normal occurrence for her. There’s a gleam in her eyes I’ve never seen before, like she’s never been happier than right here in this moment.
“Because you took what’s mine,” she says, and moves so quickly I don’t quite realize she’s done it. I gasp as the knife slices down my shirt from neckline to hemline, somehow only nicking my skin at my collarbone where the knife started. She pulls the shredded pieces apart and tucks them behind me.
Rachel stares at my chest, making me feel incredibly exposed, but I realize she’s not looking at my breasts. She’s looking at the cut from her knife. Blood has pooled at one end, and I flinch as her finger slides across the wound, making my skin burn. She drags her finger down my chest, and blood follows the path of her finger.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for this moment, you know,” she says quietly. “I feel like we’re going to enjoy this together, one artist to another. My canvas will just be your skin instead of woven fabric.”
My heart is beating so hard I’m genuinely afraid it’s going to explode out of my chest. I try to get my thoughts together to figure out how to keep her talking. If I can delay her from cutting me, I might be able to figure a way out of this. “If I took something from you, I didn’t know it was yours to start with, and I’m sorry. Can you tell me what it was?”
She looks me dead in the eye. Slightly cocking her head to the side to see if the sincerity in my voice is real. “He was never yours, but you took him anyway.” My inhale is quick in surprise, and I feel my eyes get wide.
“Cooper,” I whisper.
“You know, I had everything planned out. It was working too, and then you decided to show up and ruin everything.” At my confused face, she rolls her eyes again. “He was finally leaning on me because of the break-ins. He was stressed and tired, and I was one step away from getting him to see me as more than his secretary, and then you show up in town,” she says, viciously jabbing the point of the knife into my sternum making me cry out in pain.
She moves the knife away and does an assessment of my face, her eyes tracking down my neck and chest. “I don’t understand what he saw in you that he didn’t see in me. We both have dark hair and similar builds; you’re a little taller, but that’s nothing.” She shrugs as if it doesn’t matter anymore.
All while she’s been talking, I’ve been trying to loosen the knot around my wrists. My hands ache from the way I’ve contorted them, but the knot is starting to give, so I push through the pain and keep trying to untie my hands.
Rachel looks up at me and smiles, “I’ll let you in on a little secret since you won’t be alive much longer.” The knifepoint drags up my leg like she’s planning the best carving points. “It was me. I broke into all of those houses,” she whispers and then lets out a deep exhale and giggles as if she’s happy to finally share her secret with someone.
“God, it was invigorating being in those houses. I felt alive for the first time in a long time. My plan was for Cooper to come to me for comfort because of the stress, but he didn’t, so I had to keep escalating, granted that had the added appeal of making me feel fantastic.”
“It was you who broke into my house too, wasn't it?” The realization hitting me like a brick wall.
