Laid Out and Candle Lit (26 page)

Ridge’s brain scrambled. Fragments of conversations exploded in his head.
Brownsboro has a low crime rate . . . Tizzy’s been in the middle of both of them . . . he’s in love with her . . . trophy hunting . . .
Ridge gasped. “Oh God. That’s the answer.”

Bubba jerked toward him. “What’s the answer?”

“Marlene . . . at Boone’s grave! What Rita said about the trophy hunt. Marlene was a trophy kill for Tizzy! Hell, it was never about Marlene. It’s always been about Tizzy!”

Bubba looked puzzled. “Who would do that? You’re saying somebody’s obsessed with Tizzy?”

Ridge picked up the brown envelope and ripped it open, ran his finger down the alphabetical listing. “Exactly, and I think I know who it is.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

T
izzy found a parking space directly in front of Hometown Grocery. For a small town, the meat market was top notch and would rival any big city butcher shop. She might not know a lot about Ridge, but she did know he was a meat-and-potato man. After the grocery store, she made a quick stop by the tavern and took a bottle of wine from the back.

She wheeled into her drive and angled the car into the garage. Suddenly, her head began to roar. She jerked her hands to her ears trying to stop the sound.

Whore . . . ranger . . . whore . . . ranger . . .

“Stop!” She screamed into empty space. “Stop! Too many of you are talking at the same time. You’re too loud.” As quickly as the roar started, it stopped. Tizzy relaxed her head back against the seat.

She gathered her wits and the grocery bags, then stepped onto the porch. She turned the knob as a breeze from out of nowhere wrapped around her and whispered.
Whore . . . ranger . . . whore. . . . .

She pushed the door open with her hip, stepped inside, and reached for the light.

Whore . . . ranger . . . whore . . . whore . . . Holt . . . danger. . . .

Too late she made sense of the warning, because out of the darkness his voice came. “Hello Tizzy.”

She flung herself against the wall. Bags fell to the floor, steak and potatoes spilling out in front of her. The wine bottle shot out across the hardwood, hit the iron leg of the coffee table so that broken glass and Merlot became air born. Tizzy grabbed onto the drapes to steady herself and pulled them down on top of her as she lost her footing. Dazed, she tried to focus.

He switched on the lamp. Ghostly white, he sat in the corner chair holding a gun. Tizzy struggled to get up, pushed broken glass into the palm of her hand. She worked for a breath. “Freddy . . . what are you doing here?”

Fear gripped her. She reached for the table to steady herself, and the glass buried into her flesh. She winced, raked crushed pieces onto the floor, except for one large shard lodged at the base of her thumb. She pulled the piece out and blood dripped from the wound.

Tizzy eased the door open a few inches and spoke quickly, running her sentences together, not giving Ridge a chance to say anything. “I’m sorry, Ridge, I’m not feeling well. I really can’t talk to you right now and I know what you’re thinking, you’re going to offer to keep Gracie for me, but I left her at Mom’s and you know what you always say about that. When she’s with Mom and Dad, she thinks she’d died and gone to heaven.”

Ridge lost the color in his face. The veins in his neck popped out. When a single drop of blood fell to the floor from her hand, she watched him scan everything within his vision.

He stepped back. “Yeah. You’re right. Okay, I’ll check on you later.” He started to leave, and stopped. “Tizzy, do whatever you have to do . . . to get better.”

Freddy yanked her away from the door and waited until he heard Ridge drive away. “You did good,” he said.

A wave of relief washed over her. She was in trouble, but Ridge got the message. All she had to do was stay alive. “What do you want?” she asked.

“You. I’ve always wanted you. And when Boone died, you were supposed to be mine. You love me. That’s why you had your mama and daddy hire me. You wanted to be near me like I wanted to be near you.”

He began to pace back and forth. “I love you, Tizzy. I’ve always loved you. But you went and fucked that Ranger.” Agitated, he pounded his head with the heel of his palm. “Why did you do that?” He waved his hands in the air.

Tizzy’s heart was in her throat. Her head was spinning. Her brain went into survival mode. “I had to. He thinks I killed Marlene. I had to do something to discredit him. Something to get him taken off the case. That’s the only thing I could do. All the evidence pointed to me. I didn’t kill her, but I don’t have an alibi, so I had to sleep with him. I’m sorry.”

He stopped pacing and laughed. “He thinks you killed her? That’s priceless. I killed her. I killed her for you.”

A shudder ran up Tizzy’s spine and then back down. Bile began to rise from her stomach. “Why? I didn’t want her dead.”

He shook his head back and forth, waving the gun in the air. “She was a bitch. She was mean to you. She treated you like shit. She treated me like shit. She didn’t deserve to live. She didn’t even put up a fight.” He smiled, his eyes wild and wide.

“I waited in her car. I made her drive to the cemetery. She was drunk or high on something. She laughed at me. She thought I was joking. We walked over to Boone’s grave. I told her to kneel down and ask him to forgive her for the way she’d treated you. She knelt down and you know what she said?” He looked at Tizzy for an answer.

Tizzy bit her lip. “No.”

He smirked. “She said, ‘
I’m sorry Boone . . . that you married that little bitch.’
And then she laughed. I plunged the needle into the back of her arm, right through her blouse. She didn’t even flinch. She kept telling me how sorry I was gonna be and how she was gonna send me to prison. She kept yapping and yapping like a damn chained-up mongrel-mutt. She didn’t die quick. She suffered. I stood and listened to her gasp for her last breath, then got into her car, drove back to the bank, parked and walked away. Easy-peasy.”

“The guy who was gonna take you that night at the bar,” he said. “He went real quick, because I put the insulin right into his IV. I dressed in some of my mom’s old scrubs, went in with a mop and bucket, shot him up, and was out of there in a flash. That cop at the door never thought a thing about me. Invisible, that’s how people treat me.”

She took a deep breath. “Are you gonna kill me?”

“No. Tizzy, I would never hurt you. I love you. I
was
pissed about the ranger, but now I know why you slept with him, so I forgive you. I thought you might love ’im or something. You don’t love him, do you?”

“Say, ‘I love you,
Freddy.’”

“I’m not gonna do anything to you, I promise. Not until we’re married. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. But I wanna look at you. That Ranger’s seen you, so I wanna see you. Take’em off.”

“This isn’t like you, Freddy. What happened to you?”

“I’m tired of people treating me like I don’t matter. I’m invisible, to everybody—like that cop—and I’m tired of it. Now . . . take. your. fucking. clothes. off.”

As quickly as she could, she raised her tee shirt, pulled it over her head, and threw it toward him. She stepped out of her shoes, unbuttoned and unzipped her pants, pulled them down, and kicked them away. Gritting her teeth, fury raged through her. She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of seeing her slowly undress. She reached behind her back, unhooked her bra, slung it to the floor, then pulled her panties down. Standing naked before him, she spoke through clenched teeth. “There. Are you happy?”

He stood frozen, eyes glazed over. “Fuck! You’re beautiful.

She took a step back. “Stay away from me,” she said. “If you come near me, I’ll scream.”

“No you won’t. You, me, and little Gracie are gonna be a family. I’ll be a good daddy to her and a good husband to you. I will, I promise I will.”

Tizzy cried harder. The thought of Gracie with him was too much. She took a step toward him. “Okay. You win,” she said, sending up a silent prayer. “I‘ll let you do whatever you want to me. Just put the gun down.”

He smiled. “That’s better. I promise I won’t hurt you.” He placed the gun on the counter, and moved toward her, halving the distance between them. He smiled. “Tell me you love me again.”

Ridge knelt down and kissed her. “God, Tizzy. You scared the hell out of me.” He pulled her close and held her for a moment then pushed away and looked down at her. “If anything ever happened to you . . .” His voice trailed off and tears welled in his eyes.

Tizzy clung to him. “I thought Leah killed Marlene for sure. Boy, was I wrong. When I saw her grandfather’s name on the insulin list, I knew she’d lied to you about having access.”

“That wasn’t the only thing they lied about. She and Carl covered for each other. They weren’t together when they said they were.”

“So, how did you know it was Freddy?”

“Something Rita said to me about cat’s trophy killing to prove their love for their owners. Once Bubba confirmed Freddy’s mother was on the insulin list, it fell into place. I just came to warn you! I had no idea I’d find Freddy here. You
did
steal the list, right?”

He kissed her sweetly. “Let me look at your hand.” He inspected the cuts. “This one might need stitches. You wanna break into the clinic and stitch it up yourself, or should we see a doctor?”

RECIPE FROM SWEET THANGS BAKERY

“
Orgasm Pie”

Chocolate Coconut Pecan Pie

Ingredients: