Fresh Ice (38 page)

The weather in Red Valley changed quickly. One day summer
seemed like it would linger forever and the next, a bone-chilling wind turned the air crisp.

S
arah had heard about Red Valley’s two seasons, summer and winter, from the ladies at the salon and there was no doubt it was true. One day it was a hundred degrees and overnight the mercury dropped twenty degrees each night until it was bitterly cold out.

Even though the air was nippy, the sun beat down so bright it was almost blinding.
Sarah wore a short sleeved blouse and it was nice to feel the sun on her arms. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been able to wear short sleeves. Such a simple thing was monumental for her.

At the bus stop
Sarah put on her sweater and pulled it tight around her body. If this was how cold the winter months were going to be, she would need to invest in a new jacket.

It felt good to make plans for the future.
She could do that now and it was liberating.

While she waited for the bus, Sarah
checked her phone for messages. There were several missed calls. She had been a little preoccupied with Nathan and hadn’t even turned it on since the day before. Sometimes when they were alone it felt like they were the only two people on the planet and everyone else just faded away.

Before she could check the
first message, the phone rang. Maybe it was Nathan calling.

“Sarah? Sarah, its Miri. Something awful has happened.
”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

All Good Things

Sarah gripped the phone and listened closely to Miri.

“Sarah, I’m so glad you answered.
I’ve been trying to call you since yesterday. Oh, I have terrible news. Just terrible.”

“What happened, Miri?”

“You remember Dahlia, don’t you?”

“Yes.”
How could Sarah forget? Dahlia was the L.A. version of Kim. The one Sarah had been too afraid of to confront at the beauty school.

“Yesterday
Dahlia quit the program and left all in a huff over some argument with one of the other girls.”

Sarah didn’t know what that had to do with her
but urged Miri to continue anyway.

“
Well, before she left, she told me she talked to your uncle Dwight.”

“When?”

“That day when he came in to the school and I told him you went to Vegas. Apparently she talked to him after I did and told him you were going to Red Valley.”

“
No,
Miri!” she cried.

“Oh, Sarah, I don’t know how this happened.
”

“You didn’t tell anyone else where I really went, did you?”

“No. Dahlia said she overheard us talking about your plans. I still feel responsible.”

“It’s not
your fault, Miri. You did everything I asked you to do and more.”

Miri sighed.
“I know Dahlia has her issues, but I never thought she’d do something like this.”

“Me neither.”

“Sarah, Dwight came in a few weeks ago so he’s had a significant head start. I’m calling Peach.”

“No! Please don’t. Let me tell her after I figure out what I’m going to do.”

“I really think she should know what’s going on.”

“I’ll tell her.
I have to go.”
I have to go
.
I have to run
.

“I’m so sorry.”

Sarah assured Miri that everything was going to be all right and disconnected the call. She tucked the phone back into her purse and took a deep breath.

To the other people at the bus stop, Sarah looked like any normal person but inside she was quaking worse than the San Andre
as Fault.

She had to think. Sarah would do anything to avoid leaving Nathan but he said he’d protect her no matter what. As noble as it sounded, she couldn’t have him getting into a physical altercation with Dwight over her and risking his career. He’d already crossed the line in the heat of the moment once. She wouldn’t be the reason an Assault was slapped onto his permanent record.

She could do this. She could figure out a way to keep
control of her life. If Nathan could be fearless and face a puck flying through the air at his face at eighty miles an hour than she could stand up to one man. There were options available for people like her. If she had to involve the police then she was prepared to do that now. She had a support network of friends and people who cared about her. She wouldn’t continue to live in fear this time around. Now that she’d seen the other side, wild horses couldn’t drag her back to her old life.

Sarah had fought to get to this point in her life and she could keep on fighting some more. For so long, she’d let Dwight and other men control her. Standing up for
herself would take some getting used to but she didn’t have to lie back and take the abuse anymore.

She
just needed to formulate some kind of plan.

One thing was for sure, she didn’t have much time. Dwight had a few week
s head start. Going to Peach’s wasn’t the safest thing to do but she couldn’t just up and leave Peach with a salon full of clients while she figured out her life. She owed Peach at least enough to see the day through.

On the bus
, Sarah ran through all the scenarios in her head. Maybe involving the police was a bad idea. She didn’t have many options and the need to keep running was strong. It would mean leaving Nathan and any resemblance of a normal life behind, but she couldn’t let Dwight catch up to her. He’d made it clear in the past that the consequences would be heinous.

But t
he only life she wanted now was the one she’d made for herself in Red Valley. Starting over somewhere else wasn’t an option. Leaving Nathan wasn’t an option.

But if Dwight found out about Nathan, he would destroy him.

By the time she arrived at the salon, Sarah wasn’t any closer to a decision about what to do.

She had all day to think about what to do. One thing was for sure, she had to tell Nathan. They could deal with whatever came their way
together
. Wait, did she really want to drag him into this mess? He’d already done so much for her and now she was going to repay him by springing Dwight on him. But wasn’t that what love was all about? Sticking with a person through thick and thin? Better or worse?

At lunch, Sarah managed to choke down a few bites of her sandwich only because she knew she needed the strength to get through the day.
By midafternoon she still hadn’t come to a decision. If it weren’t for Nathan, the decision would be simple. Get the heck out of Red Valley and don’t look back. But she’d found something with Nathan that didn’t come around very often, if at all. Unconditional true love.

Sarah chose to stay.

* * *

When Dwight pulled up to Peach’s Salon
feeling like he’d climbed Mt. Everest with no legs, he knew in his gut that this was the right Peach’s. He could easily see into the salon because the sun was going down and the inside of the salon was lit up like a Christmas tree. When he caught a glimpse of Sarah through the picture window he almost whooped for joy.

“Aren’t we going in?” Troy asked with his hand on the door handle.

“Just shut up and sit tight,” Dwight instructed.

For a few minutes, h
e just sat and watched her through the window while she swept the floor. It was thrilling because he could see her but she couldn’t see him.

Right away
, he noticed how happy she was. She smiled and said something to another woman. A little rat of a dog trotted up to her and she lovingly scratched it behind the ears.

The
next thing he noticed was how she looked almost…healthy. Instead of a hollow boniness in her face, she had filled out with a subtle softness.

She looked damn happy and
Dwight couldn’t wait to wipe that sickening smile off her face. Not only had she lied to him and stolen from him, she’d taken him for a fool. And Dwight Hammond was no fool. She had no idea what she’d put him through these past few weeks. Well, she was about to find out.

Dwight
gripped the steering wheel and took three deep breaths. When he exhaled, the button on his jeans scraped against his belly. Next to him, Troy unwrapped a candy bar and noisily bit off a chunk.

He pulled out his cell phone
and dialed the number painted on the salon window. He couldn’t just waltz into a snooty salon and expect Sarah to go willingly away with him. This was a much more delicate situation that required a bit of…finesse.

* * *

“Sarah, there’s a phone call for you,” Destiny announced from the front desk.

Half expecting to hear Nathan’s voice on the other line, Sarah answered with a cheery hello.

“Sarah,” Dwight dragged out the syllable in her name and her heart slammed inside her chest.

Dwight had
found her
.

Goosebumps slithered up her body and crawled across her scalp. She gripped the counterto
p for fear of collapsing.

“
Dwight,” she answered breathlessly.

“You didn’t think I forgot about you, did you?”
he sneered.

She swallowed back the bile that oozed up her throat.
“What do you want?”

He chuckled
and the wicked sound made her knees shake. She could almost feel his grimy hands squeezing bruises into her flesh and cutting scars into her skin. Her whole body shook with terror.

“I want you to come back home where you belong.”

“Never,” she breathed.

“You might want to rethink that, my dear, Sarah. You wouldn’t want to wake up to find all your new friends at the sa
lon had their throats cut, would ya? You don’t want something like that riding on your pretty little conscience.”

“No!” she
cried.

“
Oh, yes. I’ll take care of them one by one until you come home with me. You know I will, Sarah. So, you might as well save everyone the grief and do what I say.”

“I can’t,” she wheezed.

“Okay,” he said calmly. “I’ll start with the fat one with the orange hair. It won’t be quick either, Sarah. Oh no. I’ll drag it out nice and slow. And I’ll make sure she knows that you’re the reason her family will never see her again. Then I’ll move on to that little mutt.”

“I’ll meet you
tonight,” she said quickly before he could elaborate.

“
Now
Sarah.”

She looked around at the bustling salon.
“If I leave now, they’ll be suspicious. I’ll meet you at the bus station in an hour.” The bus station was where she’d started her journey to Red Valley and it was where she’d end it. “Give me until the end of my shift.”

He chuckled.
“You sure got to be awful bossy these last few weeks.”

In the past, Sarah had
learned not to back-talk him. The consequences of standing up to him had been gruesome.

“I’m sorry. I just…they’ll be suspicious.
Please, let me end things here and then I’ll go with you.
Please
,” she pleaded.

“I’m watching you
, Sarah. You try to run and you’ll just make it harder on yourself. Do you understand?”

“Yes
,” she answered meekly.

“That’s better.
If you aren’t at the bus station—“

“I’ll be there.
I promise. Just don’t hurt them. Please.”

“
If you aren’t at the bus station,” he continued, “I’ll go into the salon and kill everyone in there. Then I’ll drive back to L.A. and pay your friend Miriam another visit.”

“
Okay, okay, I’ll be there
.”

“
And don’t tell anyone about our little chat, Sarah. You know how I hate it when people stick their noses in our business.”

“I won’t tell anyone. I promise.”

“One hour, Sarah.” The phone went dead.

Sarah’s stomach lurched and she made it to the bathroom just in time to be sick.

* * *

S
arah splashed water on her face and leaned against the sink. Just when she thought she was free, she’d been given a life sentence for a crime she didn’t commit.

More than anything, s
he wanted to buy a bus ticket and keep running. Far, far away. To the most distant point of the country like New York or Florida. As far as she could get without a passport.

B
ut she couldn’t put the people in danger who had welcomed her into their lives. It would break her heart to leave them, but she couldn’t, she
wouldn’t
endanger their lives. This was her fight, not theirs.