Page 32 of Protected by the Sheriff (Magnolia Falls #2)
Olivia
W hen I leave Mason’s house, I’m so angry that my thoughts are a jumbled mess. Then the sadness hits me, and I can’t stop sobbing. Every time I try to breathe, it hurts. I manage a quick, tearful call to Savannah, asking if I can visit.
There are so many reasons I’m angry at Mason, but I’m also angry at myself.
He kept saying things about breeding me, getting me pregnant, and planting his seed in my belly, but I thought it was just a sexual kink.
I never took him seriously and knew my IUD was in place.
It didn’t occur to me he would do something so insane as to have it removed.
Not only am I angry, but I’m also hurt. He took my choice away. The man doesn’t trust me enough to make decisions about my body, and now I’m terrified. Not only might I be pregnant, but if I am, I’m going to be a single mom. That’s not something I ever wanted.
When Savannah left Derek, she had Kenzie to raise alone.
She was struggling financially, and I also saw her physical exhaustion from doing it all alone.
I’m grateful every single day that she found Declan.
I always admired how my best friend was able to raise her child on her own, but I know she went through hell to get there.
Now that’s me. I’m in her shoes, minus the insane, abusive ex-husband.
Mason might be a little off in the head, but he has never raised a hand or even his voice in my direction.
Derek tried to kill Savannah. As different as our situations may be, I still remember watching her endure life as a single mom raising a child alone.
That part alone scares me enough. It’s enough that I stop on the way to Savannah’s and get a pregnancy test.
I take the test at Savannah’s house while Mason’s brother stays clear of us, busying himself with something in the garage. When I see the positive result, I feel a mix of emotions. A lone tear slides down my cheek.
My best friend wraps me in her arms and gives me a hug. “It’s going to be alright, Olivia. Just take a moment to process everything and then talk to Mason,” Savannah pleas.
“I don’t know if I can look at him right now,” I admit.
Savannah tries to comfort me, but I have this overwhelming urge to run.
I’m sure Savannah will tell Declan once I’ve left, but I don’t want him to call Mason and tell him the test is positive before I can get out of Magnolia Falls. Mason is acting like a fool, and I don’t know what he will do if he knows I’m leaving town.
Calling the shop, I tell Hadley and Piper that they can keep the piercing appointments already penciled in, and I instruct Piper to arrange for a guest artist to replace me in the short term.
My business can’t shut down every time something goes haywire in my life, which seems to happen often of late.
Now I’m back on the road, driving through the winding mountains, but the raw, rocky landscape lacks the soothing tranquility I felt on the fragrant, wildflower-lined roads to Magnolia Falls. Leaving town feels like leaving a piece of my soul, a part of who I am, behind.
Tears cascade down both cheeks as I continue to watch the road through blurred vision. It’s dark when I pull up at my childhood home. There is not only my mother’s car in her driveway but a car I’ve never seen before.
Slinging my heavy duffle bag over my shoulder, I get out and walk towards the door; the gravel crunching under my feet before I knock.
My mother opens the door and smiles. I haven’t seen her smile since my father passed away, so I hope this is a sign that she’s finding herself again. “Olivia. What are you doing here?”
“I miss you, Mama. Was hoping I could drop in and see you for a couple of days?” My mother wraps her arms around me, and it feels like home.
My mom’s normally graying hair is bright and shiny and very much the vibrant platinum blonde color I remember her having when I was a kid. It’s the same color as my natural hair. Her skin, which was pale and pasty last time I saw her, now glows. She looks ten years younger.
“Of course. I am always glad to see you, but I didn’t know you were coming, or I’d have cooked dinner. We went out to eat tonight, so I have very little in the kitchen.”
My breath hitches in surprise, and my muscles tense as my eyes widen. “We?”
“I’ve met someone. You are going to love him.”
“You’ve met a man?” I know it’s selfish of me, but I feel some resentment hearing my mom talking about a man who isn’t my father.
I know Dad’s dead, and she has a right to live her life, so I clear the surprised look off my face and replace it with a fake smile and meet her gaze.
“As long as he treats you well, Mom, I’m happy for you. ”
My mother wraps me in a tight hug. “Thank you, Liv.” For a moment, I close my eyes and savor the feeling of being wrapped in my mother’s arms. I know I need to put aside any reservations I may have about her new boyfriend and just be grateful she’s happy.
My father would want her to move on and live her life.
My mother lets go of me and we walk around the corner into her living room. There’s a man standing in front of the windows with his back to me. It looks like he’s wearing a business suit. He’s tall and well-built. When he turns around, I let out a gasp.
“Hello, Olivia,” he says.
My mother looks back and forth between us, confused. “You know each other?”
My heart is pounding, and I feel like an elephant is sitting on my chest. “How? Why are you here?” Panic sets in. Before I can blink, Bryan Richards reaches into his suit jacket and pulls out a handgun.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” he says.
“Bryan! That’s my daughter you are holding a gun on,” my mother screams, her voice shrieking with fear. “What the hell is going on?”
“Your daughter killed my nephew, whom I was extremely close to. He was like a son to me. She murdered him like he was nothing more than an animal,” Bryan says as he looks at me with disgust.
My mother doesn’t know what happened with Knox—I never told her, so she’s completely baffled by what she’s seeing.
“Put your hands up and drop the bag, Olivia. You and your mother are getting into my car.”
He holds a gun to the back of my head and walks outside to the car I saw in the driveway when I arrived. With the cold steel of the gun pressing against the back of my head, Bryan hands me zip ties. “Zip tie her wrists and ankles, or I’ll shoot her first and make you watch.”
My mother sniffles and places her trembling hands behind her back for me to restrain them. It kills me to have to do this to her, but if I don’t, I have no doubt Richards will kill one of us, maybe even both of us.
“I’m so sorry, Mama,” I whisper.
He opens the trunk and pushes my mother in as she screams out.
“How can you do that to her?” I ask with a trembling voice.
“She was only a way to get to you. The woman annoys the shit out of me,” he says as he rolls his eyes in disgust.
Holding the gun to my head, he makes me climb into the driver’s seat and slide across to the passenger side. “If you try anything stupid, I’ll kill your mother.”
As I sit in the passenger seat and Bryan starts driving, I try to clear my mind and think of a way out of this.
My chest aches as I remember Mason and how I called him unhinged.
What he did was not okay, but it pales in comparison to this.
Mason only wanted to bind me tighter to him, whereas Bryan is out to hurt me.
Wrapping my arms around my middle, a loan tear rolls down my face. My poor baby will never get a chance to live. Mason won’t ever get to meet him or her, and it’s all because I’m an idiot.
I didn’t want to be pregnant, and now I’m going to lose the child that I suddenly want more than anything in this world. Bryan is going to kill me or my mother, possibly both.
“Stop your goddamn crying right now.”
“I’ll sign the papers, just please let my mother go.”
Chuckling, Bryan looks over at me. “It’s too late now. The police have raided my fucking businesses and are looking for me. I’m not going to prison.”
I look down at my trembling hands in my lap.
When Bryan looks away from me, I carefully work the cell phone out of my pants pocket and place it under the thigh closest to the passenger-side door, where Bryan can’t see it.
Slipping my right hand down beneath my leg first, I hit the silent button on the side, so it doesn’t ring or make any noise.
Then I click on the screen and carefully hit the button that dials Mason’s number.
My only chance is for him to find me, and to do that, I must get Bryan talking.
Once I know Mason has picked up the call, I get to work.
“Mr. Richards, where are you taking me?”
“I told you to shut the fuck up. No more of this Mr. Richards shit when you murdered my nephew in cold blood.”
“I just want to know where you’re taking me. My mom is in the trunk of your car and scared to death. Please.”
I purposefully feed Mason information, hoping that it will help him find us.
“Being in real estate, I own properties all over the state of Tennessee, and it just so happens that I own some properties right here in town. I’m taking you to a warehouse where your original buyer is meeting me.
He’s agreed to take your mother as well.
Apparently, there’s quite a fetish for older women in the skin trade. Sick fucks.”
Vomit rises in my throat. How can he speak so casually about something so heinous?
“He’s quite excited about fucking a mother and daughter.” Bryan’s sardonic laugh grates my nerves.
“How did you find the town my mother lives in? Why do you have a warehouse here in town?”
“What’s with the twenty questions? Shut the fuck up.” He swings, and I see a flash before his fist connects, knocking my head hard against the cold glass of the passenger window. Searing pain lashes against my cheek and it takes everything in me not to cry out.