Page 77 of Something Tangled Something True (Rosa Ranch #1)
APPLES & OTHER FRUITS
My face is puffy, and my eyes burn from crying the last hour. Ryder called to say he got to the gas station he’s meeting Nugget’s owner at. The service was bad, and he sounded choppy, but I appreciate the open communication. I don’t need another thing to worry about tonight.
I grab a pair of sweats and one of Ryder’s oversized hoodies, carrying them into the bathroom with me. Turning on the shower, I allow the room to fill with a comforting layer of warm steam.
I strip out of my clothes, still unsettled at the idea of showering when it’s storming out.
I know I won’t get struck by lightning, and the power isn’t going to suddenly go out because I stepped foot in the shower, but old habits die hard.
My mother would throw her chancleta at me if she saw me right now.
A loud crack startles me, causing me to lose my footing.
I slip, slamming my hip on the cold tile floor.
A sharp, burning pain sears through me, and I bite my lip to keep the scream climbing up my throat from bellowing out into the house.
The last thing I need right now is Teddy worried and running inside to see my naked ass crumpled on the floor.
I roll over, reaching for the lip of the counter, and pull myself up. Pain shoots down my leg, and I yelp, but the sound gets caught in my throat as banging and yelling fill the living room.
Adrenaline floods my limbs, and the pain I’d felt dries up.
I rush to shut the water off, slipping my hand into the bedroom to turn off the light and avoid alerting anyone to my presence.
I hurry to change, my foot getting caught in the pant leg.
I want to scream, tears welling in my eyes with frustration.
“Where are they?” A shrill, but familiar voice echoes through the house, and my limbs grow cold, my heart stopping in my chest with Teddy’s weak, raspy reply.
“Th-they went to Snapdragon to return N-nugget to his owner. I’m s-sorry, that’s all I know,” he tells them. I’ll be forever grateful for this sweet young man and his bravery. I plan to tell him as much if we make it out of this alive.
I turn the bathroom light off, grabbing my phone and shimmying into the linen closet, making sure to silence my cell.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from TV, it’s that people always call you during the worst of times.
I’m not about to let my Daddy Yankee ringtone be what gets me kidnapped or killed.
I type out a frantic message to the family group chat, my pulse thundering against my ribs, hands shaking with the effort it takes to remain upright. I’ve never been so scared in my whole damn life.
The bedroom door swings open, smacking the drywall behind it with a loud thud, the spring of the useless doorstop boinging with the effort. “All clear. They aren’t here.”
Scratch that— now I’ve never been so scared.
I haven’t heard that voice in months, and I most certainly never intended to again. The combination of the two has my temples pounding, chin quivering.
I have everything I’ve ever wanted, only for Russ and Amy, his spiteful mother, to take it all away. How fucking poetic.
If Amy has been behind everything this whole time, we’re fucked. She’s too unpredictable, and it’s impossible to foresee someone’s movement if you had no idea they were ever a player on the board at all.
“What are we looking for exactly?” Russ asks.
The egg limpia was right. Two figures.
“Evidence. We need proof this whole marriage is a sham if we're going to get her on insurance fraud and ruin her life the way she has ours. That Apple girl said the devices should be in here, and then we’ll have everything we need to prove your ex is the trailer trash I’d always suspected she was,” Amy says, her tone smug.
Lemmon’s been helping her? Out of everything, that’s the only part that makes sense.
I hear the whir of a drill and rest my head back on the wire shelves, my legs tingling from the lack of blood flow while standing in this cramped closet.
“If Lemmon knew there was evidence, why isn’t she here with us?” Russ asks, and it’s a damn good question.
The drill shuts off, followed by Amy’s frustrated huff. “ Because , honey, much like Lola, when things got tough, Lemmon walked away. Something about me ‘taking things too far’,” she finishes, mocking Lemmon’s explanation.
“What the hell do you mean by that, Mom? She was the one who suggested the marriage was insurance fraud in the first place. She’s why we’re here right now. Why would she have changed her mind?”
Does he not know about the barn fire? Was Amy behind it all along? I’d never thought of her as a mother figure to me, but could she really be so cruel as to burn down a building with over fifty people in it?
And for what? Money?
“Quit asking questions you don’t want the answers to, Russ. You aren’t innocent in all of this,” she grits out, her tone practically begging him to say otherwise, always looking for a punching bag.
He doesn’t say anything else, and the whir of the drill starts back up again. I glance down at my phone, and to my absolute horror, the text never sent.
I clench my teeth, holding back a frustrated scream, and try again, smashing my thumb on the red “Message not sent. Tap to retry” button. I jam my finger onto the screen over and over until, finally , it goes through.
“They’re not here! How could they not be here?” Amy shrieks, her heavy footfalls smacking on the hardwood floors as she paces the living room. “If that girl lied to me, I’ll wring her damn neck.”
“Maybe this is a sign we should cut our losses. I’d love to get back at Lola for how she humiliated me, but I don’t have any interest in getting arrested in the process,” Russ tells her throatily.
Russ has managed a relationship where he’s the more reasonable one, and that’s enough to tell me just how unstable his mother has become.
“I did NOT come all this way and work with the likes of a girl named after a goddamn fruit to come up empty-handed.”
“Mom, seriously? I just want to go home, please . I have nothing left. Nothing!” he shouts at her. “I’ve got no money, no friends, no business, and now, no fucking dog. I’m so damn lonely . When you brought me to the shelter, I thought the dog was going to be *mine.* But now all this?”
“Russ,” Amy coos, a more motherly tone overtaking her voice, and I’m waiting on bated breath to find out what she could possibly say to justify this situation when the person who was, arguably most impacted is literally begging her to just let it go.
“That dog was a pawn. He’s played his part.
Now it’s time for you to play yours. Keep your eyes on the prize, honey.
If we have proof of what your ex has done, your investors might consider returning, and we can get our lives back.
I’ve worked too damn hard to make you into the man you were before Lola Lima came along and ruined everything. ”
My heart cracks, a small fissure of hurt forming on Russ’s behalf. He wasn’t a good man by any stretch of the imagination, but no one deserves to have a mother like his.
“Ma, please,” he murmurs, and I have to strain my ears to hear. “I just want the dog back. I could’ve met her husband at the gas station and?—”
Ryder . He’s either losing his mind with worry or about to walk into a complete shit show.
“We’ll get that stupid dog back just as soon as we have our proof.
You lost your damn company because of what your ex did to you.
She deserves more than the loss of a dog.
” A moment passes in tense silence. “Now, come on—I know exactly the person who can tell us where those recordings are, and if she can’t, we’ll use her as collateral.
Either way, Lola Lima will be locked up for insurance fraud by the end of the night. Mark my words. ”
My heart hammers in my chest, my stomach bottoming out as fear grips me.
I hold my breath, typing out one last message to warn Mayte, waiting for Amy’s crusade to be over and the door to slam shut before I jump into action.
“Jump” is generous, really. My joints are stiff, I’m shaking violently, and the pain in my hip is back with a vengeance.
I push it all to the side, finding my way to the living room on trembling limbs.
“Teddy! Teddy!” I call out, my eyes growing wide when I find him tied to a chair, his mouth duct taped shut. “I’m so sorry, Teddy,” I whisper, grabbing the corner of the silver-gray tape and yanking. It tears off his mouth with a shredding sound that makes me nauseous.
“L-lola, I n-need you to listen to me and pay attention. C-can you do that for me?” he asks, stuttering, but he works to keep his tone firm.
I feel lightheaded as the scent of iron fills my nostrils. Teddy’s blood sliding down his temple distracts me, but I find my way back to him, focusing on his eyes. “I can,” I tell him, my shaky voice not lending much confidence.
“I need you to leave me here.” My eyes widen, a refusal on the tip of my tongue, but he finishes before I get there. “I probably have a concussion, I’ll be no good to you, and it’ll take too long to untie me. Grab my gun before you go. It’s tucked into a holster under my jeans. Left ankle.”
The seriousness of the situation crashes into me, but I remain strong, focusing on his instructions. With trembling hands, I crouch, unholster the gun, and check the safety isn’t on before leaving him shouting behind me to be safe.
Someone coming after me is one thing, but my family? That’s an entirely different situation, and Amy better hope someone in the chat called the cops before I get to her. I’ll prove to be the more dangerous of her opponents if I catch her first.