Page 22 of Calling His Bluff
Jack. Dead. All her fault. Her heartbreak made it all seem surreal as Ernie ordered her to shut up as the van engine roared. She leaned down, kissed Jack and gently laid his head down as he looked toward the front of the van.
Her gaze met Ernie’s in the rearview mirror.
“Get back there and take care of her,” he ordered as she tried to get to her feet to attack him and his son. Nels climbed into the back grabbing her and throwing her down. She didn’t see the handcuffs until he snapped one on her wrist and the other onto an eye bolt on the van wall.
Then he slapped her hard, knocking her head into the side of the van, before he climbed back into the front.
Numb and desolate, Josephine felt the weight of her grief as the van roared through town. From where she was bolted to the floor, she could no longer touch Jack. Dead. Not Jack. Not because of her. Her love for the cowboy felt as if it would break her.
She’d told herself Jack and marriage and an elaborate wedding dress were the last things she wanted or needed. But she was tormented by the image of the two of them, Jack in his lucky boots and Stetson, her in one of those awful frilly wedding dresses, standing at an altar promising to love each other forever.
But at that moment, she would have given anything to be able to tell him how she felt about him. She would have even promised to marry him in the most outrageous wedding dress in the shop. She felt as if marrying Jack had been a lifelong dream that she’d always yearned for and now it had been ripped away—just as Jack had been. She fought the sobsbuilding in her chest again. She couldn’t let Ernie and his son get away with this.
The light of streetlamps flashed past as the sleeping town of Wild Rose Point blurred past. Her heart ached at the sight of Jack lying there. She felt a jolt as she stared harder at the cowboy in the flickering light. He wasbleedingfrom a cut on his temple where Ernie had hit him. Bleeding! He was alive!
Her heart soared. But how was she going to keep them both alive?
She had no idea what Ernie and Nels had planned for them. Outnumbered and unarmed and Jack still unconscious, Josephine reached down to brush Jack’s hair from his face. His skin cold and clammy. She had no idea how badly he was injured or if he would ever regain consciousness.
But he was alive and that gave her hope. Somehow, she had to keep him that way—and herself as well.
As the van slowed to turn off onto a narrow road, she could feel the wind buffeting the van. The scent of the sea became stronger. Her heart dropped as she feared they were headed for the cliffs overlooking the Pacific.
* * * * * * * * * *
CHAPTER 13
Josephine brushed her fingers over Jack’s cheek, but quickly drew back as Ernie glanced back at her. She couldn’t let either Nels or Ernie know that Jack was still alive.
Then again, it might not make any difference, she realized as Nels pulled off the road on one of the lookout points along the cliffs. As they dropped over a rise, the van’s headlights shone out over the dark sea. The road ahead ended abruptly, Nels bringing the van to a stop.
A gust of wind rocked the vehicle as he cut the engine, leaving only the sound of the gale howling outside. The moment the two opened their doors and climbed out, she pushed her foot against Jack’s side. He didn’t stir. She couldn’t tell if his temple was still bleeding. She couldn’t warn him. All she could do was wait for the side door of the van to open because now she knew what Ernie and Nels planned to do with them.
Worse, she had to somehow stop them if they tried to take Jack first. But handcuffed to the side of the van, she had no way to do that. The moment the side door slid open she began to scream. Not that she thought it would do any good. Clearly there was no one out here to save them. The wind swept away her screams the moment they left her, so she screamed louder. She was on her own as she’d been most of her life.
All her bad decisions had brought her to this point, she thought as over her screams, she heard Ernie yell, “Take her first so we can shut her up.”
Josephine kept screaming for fear Ernie would change his mind. She also hoped the sound might bring Jack back to consciousness. Ernie didn’t change his mind, instructing Nels to uncuff her and bring her. She put up a fight before being thrown from the van.
She hit the ground hard and was trying to catch her breath when the two men jerked her to her feet and began to drag her toward the edge of the cliff. She fought, desperate to get away, if not to save herself, at least to save Jack.
At one point, she did break free of Ernie’s grasp when she fell to her knees. In the scuffle, he dropped his gun, tried to retrieve it from the ground, but gave up as she managed to scramble a few yards away.
“Let’s get this over with,” he told his son, his grip on her tightening painfully.
Josephine felt the empty space coming up in the darkness, heard the waves crashing on the shore and even in the blackness, caught glimpses of white as the waves crashed on the rocks below.
No longer screaming, Josephine fell silent as they pushed her toward the edge. This was how it would end. She’d spent her life afraid and now she knew why. She thought of Ernie’s angry face, the words he flung at her as he was dragged away that day after his sentencing. Hadn’t she always known he could come after her?
“You ruined my life,” Ernie said, his voice breaking with emotion. “I’ve dreamed of the day I could make you pay for what you did.”
-#-
Jack’s eyes were closed, but he saw the coin land in Josephine’s palm. A dream? That’s all it could be. But he held his breath as if his life depended on it as he waited to see if it was heads or tails.
He opened his eyes and blinked in confusion. No wedding. No Josephine in a beautiful white wedding dress. No Josephine at all. Just a pain-filled dream since his head still hurt like hell. Worse, blood now ran into one eye. He wiped at it as he pushed himself up into a sitting position and blinked again.
Reality rushed in like the cold dampness coming from the cracks in the old van. He felt woozy, his brain eclipsed in a dense fog. He closed his eyes, desperate to return to the wedding as one thought flashed like neon in his aching head.
