Page 128 of The Coppersmith Farmhouse (Jamison Valley 1)
“You’re in the hospital, Scottie. Your dad found you at home. Did you take some pills?” I asked.
“Who are you?” he asked. “Wait. I know you. You’re that bitch who got me arrested. Fuck you. Where’s my dad?”
Okay, so a trip to the emergency room hadn’t scared any sense into him. He was still an asshole punk.
“Nice,” I mumbled. “Your father’s in the waiting room. I’ll get him.”
But right as I was about to leave his room, he said, “You tell that cop boyfriend of yours about this, cunt, I’ll fuckin’ gut you. Your kid too.”
I froze in the doorway, my back to Scottie. I was glad he couldn’t see the effect his words had on my face, that he couldn’t see the terror he’d caused.
I couldn’t make my mouth work to respond and I didn’t try to find the courage to try. I just forced one foot in front of the other and kept moving forward. With every step, my heart beat so loudly it blocked out all other sounds.
Everett was heading my way. He must have seen the panic on my face because he stopped dead in his tracks and stared at me.
But I didn’t stop to talk to him. I just kept walking straight to my manager’s office where I told her I needed to be done for the day. She knew something was wrong but she didn’t ask questions. She just let me go.
Then I went straight to Quail Hollow and collected my daughter. It was an overreaction, but I needed her with me, close at my side so I could be sure nothing would happen to her. That I could protect her.
Hippocratic oath be damned. The second Jess got home tonight, he was going to learn all about Scottie Pierce and his threats against me and Rowen. Because if I couldn’t protect her, I knew that Jess could.
It was a little after five and I was expecting Jess home in an hour. I didn’t want to have our normal Friday night meal at the café. Scottie Pierce’s threat was still too fresh. I needed to stay inside in my home where I felt safe.
I also didn’t want to discuss Scottie’s threat with Jess in public. I didn’t know exactly how he was going to react but it wouldn’t be good. Likely, he’d blow a gasket and shout obscenities for ten minutes. That, or he’d go all silent and scary and get that menacing look in his eyes.
Scottie’s words had been looping in my ears, and every time I heard them, a shudder would run down my back. I’d been queasy since leaving the hospital.
I wouldn’t feel one ounce of sympathy for Scottie, no matter how badly Jess retaliated. The punk couldn’t talk to people like that. If his parents weren’t teaching him that lesson, Jess would.
Since we wouldn’t be eating out tonight, I was in the kitchen working on dinner while Rowen watched her iPad in her room.
I was standing at the kitchen sink, washing my hands, when a flicker of light caught my eye from the window. The sun set not long after five o’clock during these winter days so the light was easy to see in the darkness.
It was just like the light I had seen last month. But this time, it wasn’t going away and there wasn’t just one light, but two, both of which were moving toward the farmhouse, growing bigger and bigger as they came my way.
My heart thundered as the lights came closer. My nervousness turned to full-blown panic as bodies emerged, attached to both lights. I couldn’t make out any features but I knew they were men. Men walking out of the woods, holding flashlights and walking to my house through the snow.
It wasn’t right, I could feel it. This situation was wrong. People didn’t hide out in the woods and walk up to a house in the dark. Worry and fear took control of my mind and I stood at the sink, panicking, watching them get closer.
What the hell was I doing? Men were coming to my house and I was just standing here, watching?
I snapped out of my trance. The men hadn’t crossed the backyard yet so I had a minute, maybe two, before they were at my door.
One minute wasn’t enough for me to get Rowen and drive the hell out of there but it was enough for me to get my daughter out of the house.
Sprinting upstairs, my heart beating out of my chest, I grabbed her off her little bed. She started to protest when I took the iPad out of her hands but then she looked at my face and knew things weren’t right.
I needed her to hide but it couldn’t be in the house. What if they came in and searched for her? On the spur of the moment, I decided to send her to the garage. It was locked and she could get in by crawling through the cat door.
“Roe, I need you to do exactly what I say,” I said as I carried her down the stairs. “No questions, baby girl. Just do it. There are some men walking up to the house and it’s scaring Mommy because I don’t know who they are. I need you to run to the garage, sweetie. Crawl in through the kitty door. Hide out with Mrs. Fieldman and the kitties until Jess gets home or until I get here. Do not come out for anyone else. Just me or Jess. No one else. Even if you know them. Got it?”
I felt Rowen’s panicked breaths against my cheek but I didn’t stop moving.
“Got it, Roe?” I repeated.
She nodded.
“Good. That’s my good girl. I love you. You can do it.”
