Dangerous Intentions (7 page)

He ignored it. He was through with his brother. He had meant it when he’d said they should go their separate ways. He had given Nolan enough money to make himself disappear. Why couldn’t he just stop babysitting him and start over, like Jude intended to? Once he found Haley, they would have to move abroad. He already had everything prepared.

Their next adventure would be in Kenya. The fake passports and other paperwork had been easy to get. Even though he didn’t have much faith in banks, he had been impressed at the ease of transferring and keeping money abroad. They would live a comfortable life. But at the start, they’d have to live without the luxuries they had been accustomed to in the U.S. It didn’t matter. What mattered was that they would be starting a new life. He would be giving her another final chance. If she misbehaved again, he’d have no choice but to kill her in Africa, and no one would ever know.

The phone wouldn’t quit, so he dropped the saw and lunged for it. He pressed the button to switch it off. Then he switched on the saw and got to work.

Chapter Sixteen

Haley

“Going for your walk already?” Grace called from the kitchen when she heard me coming down the stairs.

It had become my routine over the past five days: At 5:30 p.m. I’d go for a short walk on the ranch, which included visiting the baby calf and its mother, sitting next to the babbling brook, and dropping by to greet the ranch hands who were usually getting ready to end their work day and hit a local pub. Sometimes Dustin accompanied them.

I entered the kitchen to find Grace’s back turned to the door. She was kneading dough on the worktop.

“I want to see if I can catch Dustin and the boys. I plan on tagging along today.”

Grace turned and gave me a motherly look. “Tag along? You mean to Krug?”

I inhaled. It sounded silly to my ears and the idea gave me stomach cramps just thinking about it, but I needed to get out. “That’s the plan.” I had been a prisoner for a long time. Earlier in the day I had even ventured out of the ranch, just to get my feet wet, and stopped at a few tiny shops nearby. I’d bought some necessary items. I felt uncomfortable having Grace run my errands again.

Grace smiled brightly. She had been trying to get me out of the house for a while. “I thought your going to the shops in the morning would be a rare occasion. I’m proud of you, love. That man shouldn’t stop you from living your life.”

I breathed in deeply and dropped into one of the chairs. “It’s scary, though. I keep worrying that he will see me. Today, at the drugstore, I saw someone who looked just like him from the back. He turned around and it wasn’t him.”

Grace went back to her kneading. “Like I said before, I don’t think you have anything to worry about. He wouldn’t think to come looking for you in this back of beyond.”

I rested my chin on my balled-up fists. “You don’t know him. A man with an obsession and too much money usually gets what he wants. I know it’s crazy, but even when I’m here, I feel him watching me.”

“But you can’t put your life on hold. You’d go just about mad. Either you go to the cops or you hide well and live your life.”

“Going to the cops is not an option at this point. I’m going for the second option… for now.” In just a little over a week, Dustin’s friend would be back from China to help me start my new life. “You’ll probably be gone when we get back. I’ll see you in the morning?” I stood and kissed Grace on her soft cheek.

“I’m guessing you’ll both eat at Krug? They have the best potato soup, served with fresh bread. I highly recommend it.” She turned back to her dough. “Say hello to Linda and Anton for me. They’re originally from Germany, you know. Been here fifty years, though.”

I stopped at the door and folded my arms, wanting to know more. “Are they the owners of the pub?”

“They sure are. Apparently krug means jar or jug in German. Try to have some fun, let your eyes sparkle for one night. You can continue worrying again tomorrow.” Grace laughed.

“I’ll try.” I waved goodbye and left the house.

Dustin and his men were overjoyed when I told them I’d be joining them.

“We’ll be the talk of town, being accompanied by such a pretty lady,” Johnathan said, nudging Mitch, the new ranch hand.

I laughed, climbing into Dustin’s truck as the others got into their own cars.

***

Krug, which was divided into a bar area and a restaurant area, was a bustle of activity.

Dustin took my arm gently and spoke into my ear, trying to raise his voice above the folk music, laughter, and conversations. “Once they all get wasted, we can get something to eat.”

“Sounds great.” I watched a woman in a German dirndl push her way through a crowd of cheering men with a tray topped with plates of the largest pork chops I’d ever laid my eyes on. My mouth instantly watered. Forget the potato soup Grace had recommended. I needed to taste those pork chops.

“Do you know your mouth is open?” Dustin said as he led me to the table they had reserved in the back.

“Mine?” My eyes widening. “That’s not true.”

He cocked an eyebrow and pulled out a chair for me. “You were staring at Linda. Or was it what she was carrying?”

I laughed and sat down. “That food just looked so good.”

Dustin took a seat and so did the other men. They were already shouting out their orders. Except for Mitch, who was clearly still finding his place in the group. I could imagine it was difficult for him, since the others were much older than him. He had to be twenty, twenty-five at the most, with the biggest and bluest eyes I’d ever seen, and the looks of someone who should have been in Hollywood doing commercials or movies. Maybe he would one day. Dustin said he was only working on the ranch for a month.

“On second thought,” Dustin said, “would you prefer to eat first? We could get away from this crazy lot.” He slapped Sam on the back, a man who was opposite Mitch in age. I always wondered where he found the strength required to work on the land.

I shook my head. “No, let’s have a drink first.”

The boys cheered. “Our kind of girl,” one of them said. Mitch just stared at me, unsmiling. But he didn’t look unfriendly either.

The beer appeared quickly and the men poured it down their throats like water. Watching them drink reminded me of my mother for moment. I imagined her in a place like this, surrounded by men, drinking herself silly, letting them touch her, do things to her. But I pushed away the bad memories. People drank all the time and had fun. Not everyone ended up like my mother. I intended to enjoy myself too. With a soda.

In the end I had two Sprites and Dustin had mineral water, claiming he didn’t like to have a drop of alcohol in him when he was driving.

The guys asked me about my background. I hoped they were not the type to read tabloids. Although Jude had done his best to keep our life private, it still leaked sometimes, but only the glamorous part of it—not the parts that counted.

I didn’t tell them much, just that I grew up in Serendipity and attended the same school as Dustin. Dustin told them a bit about how we had dated. Mitch’s eyes finally lit up and he seemed to come alive with interest.

“You two make a bloody good-looking couple,” Sam slurred.

“Well, thank you.” Dustin looked at me. He didn’t elaborate that we were just friends now. And that I was actually married, even though I had no ring on my finger. Just the pale mark it had left behind.

“You really do,” Mitch said. He pulled out his phone and focused his attention on it for the next thirty minutes, looking up only when Linda and Anton’s teenage daughter, Rosemarie, appeared at the table with more beers.

After another half an hour, Dustin suggested we get some food. I accepted happily. The conversation at the table was no longer making sense as it was being drowned in alcohol, and my stomach was starting to groan louder.

Since it was too loud at Krug, we decided to go eat somewhere else.

“How do you do it?” I asked Dustin as we strolled comfortably side by side past a closed bridal store and a gambling joint, music and the clink of machines spilling out of the door. It was darker outside now and the small streets were starting to empty.

“Do what?” Dustin had his hands inside his jeans pockets. Was it to keep them from touching me?

“You make more money than anyone I know and yet you live a normal life.”

“Normal life is more fun.” He moved out of the way to let a toddler run by, chased by his exasperated mother. “Money doesn’t have to be the evil some people think it is. It doesn’t have to change you unless you let it.”

“So what do you do with all of it?” It was clear what Jude did with his money. It had been hard to miss.

“I do spend it on nice things. I have houses and the jet, and other toys, but I don’t let riches define me. I use the rest of my money to do good.”

“Like?” I just couldn’t stop. He fascinated me. I wanted to know everything about the man he had become.

“I recently built a second school in Nigeria. And I have an adopted daughter in South Africa, an orphan. I send money to give her the best shot at a life.”

I looked at him with renewed awe. “You do? What’s her name?”

“Malika.” He halted in front of a small restaurant with a meat and spice aroma wafting out of it. “Should we eat here?”

“Sure, why not?” I didn’t care where we had dinner. I just wanted to sit with Dustin, to talk to him.

We got a small, round table in the back and gave our orders.

“I love this town. I come here when I need a break from the big world. People here treat me like a resident. They don’t care what I own.”

“Do they know who you really are? About your firm?”

“Many do. They just don’t bring it up in conversation. They like me. I like them. They give me my privacy, and I help many of them out financially.”

“No wonder they look at you with so much respect.” I folded my arms in front of me. “You’re a wonderful person. I knew that from the moment I met you. There was just something about you.”

Dustin leaned forward and whispered, “And yet you didn’t stay with me.”

“You know why.” I leaned back in my chair. “My life was complicated.”

“I loved you. I wouldn’t have given a shit. I’d have been there for you. You didn’t have to do it alone.”

“I wish I’d believed that at the time. Too late now. I wish I could undo all of it.”

“We would probably have been married by now,” he said with a tiny smile. “You were the girl for me. But you wouldn’t take my calls or return my letters.”

“I was hurting.” I paused. “And I was doing things…”

“It’s okay.” He took my hands. “Let’s forget all that. Let’s fix what can be fixed.”

What could be fixed? My heart, my life, my sanity? “Okay.”

The food arrived then, and we shared the large plate of potato chips with sausages and salad. It wasn’t pork chops, but it was delicious.

We moved on from talking about us—or the lack of us. Instead we talked about the small town, Dustin’s brothers, and his mother, who was still waiting for him to tie the knot with someone. And we talked about life in high school.

We returned to his truck, hand in hand. He escorted me to the passenger side and I thought he would open the door for me, but instead he spun me around and kissed me. His kiss was familiar and strange at the same time, sweet and sour, the past and the present. It knocked me off my feet, turned my knees to mush. I kissed him back and then I came to my senses, even as my lips still ached for his.

“You know…” I started but he placed a finger on my lips and moved it down my chin. He moved it away and pressed his forehead to mine.

“I know your life is still complicated. I just wish we didn’t let complicated stand in the way.” He sighed and closed his eyes, and I did the same. “I know you’re married. But to the wrong man. I wish you were married to me. Maybe…”

“Shhh.” I swallowed the sob inside my throat. A heartbeat passed between us and then I spoke. “Don’t say it.” The words were cracked around the edges. They shattered between us as soon as they exited my mouth.

I was in no position to make relationship decisions or promises right now. Not when I wasn’t sure who I would be a few days, weeks, or months from now. Once Jude was done with me, would there even be anything left?

We drove back to the ranch in silence and said our goodnights. Alone in my room, I pulled out one of the bags I’d brought home from the shops this morning and took out a small box. I disappeared with it into the bathroom, my heart inside my throat.

Chapter Seventeen

A rock dropped into the pit of my stomach. I slumped against the door and slid to the floor, tightening my fingers around the pregnancy test stick.

Two days ago, I missed my period. I never, ever missed my period. But I hadn’t worried, thinking it was my body reacting to the stress. When I was with Jude, I’d been on the pill. When I left suddenly, I didn’t have time to get them from where I had hidden them, but I also hadn’t planned on having sex in the near future. I wasn’t even sure why I bought the pregnancy test. I guess I just wanted to rule out all possibilities.

Confusion whirled through my mind. How could this have happened? Yes, Jude raped me repeatedly, but I’d also religiously taken my pill, never forgetting it once.

A chilling thought hit me and I clapped my hand against my mouth, gagging. Jude had something to do with it. That was the only explanation. What if he had somehow found the pills and replaced them with something else? He had been determined to get me pregnant and he would have done anything to make sure it happened. Well, he had succeeded.

Saliva pooled into my mouth and I crawled over to the toilet, vomiting until I felt completely empty. I dabbed my mouth with a wad of toilet paper and then wept into it.

A baby. What would I do with a baby while on the run? Even worse, Jude’s baby. A monster’s baby, growing inside me.

Jude had done it again, just like he always did. He’d succeeded, even from a distance, at controlling the course of my life. No matter how far or how fast I ran from him, we’d forever be linked by a life—an innocent life. My life as I knew it was well and truly over. How could I run now? How could I go to the cops? It was no longer just about me.