Wild Fire (The Fairy Tale Match Series) (34 page)

“Nope,” he smiled smugly. “I bought
Laura her very own car this morning.” Bill and Kerry stared at him with their
mouths hanging open. “Before you say anything, I wanted her to know she is a
permanent part of my life now. She needs her own transport, not a hire car.”

“Of course she does,” Kerry
interrupted. “You did the right thing. I’m just surprised at how thoughtful you
were!”

“Thanks!” Jake said dryly. “I thought
you’d both like to know, I also bought Laura a ring.” He sipped his coffee
casually as he let the implications sink in. They didn’t disappoint him. Bill
shook his hand and clapped him on the back and Kerry hugged him, crying.

“I couldn’t be happier for you,” she
sobbed. “It’s about time.”

“I didn’t say she’d said yes yet,”
Jake laughed.

“Of course she did,” Kerry huffed,
rolling her eyes. “Laura loves you way too much to say no! And if the answer
had been no, you wouldn’t be sitting here looking so happy and smug.”

They sat around smiling and chatting
for another hour. Bill had made noises to head back to work, but Jake dissuaded
him. This day was special and a little time out for family would do them all
good. They had been working so hard over the barn raising and what with
Victoria and all the drama’s they’d been facing, they deserved some time out
and to enjoy themselves.

Kerry frowned, looking at her watch
again. “Shouldn’t Laura be home by now?” she asked.

Jake glanced at his own watch,
realising Laura was awfully late. He frowned. She’d promised she’d be home in
good time. “Maybe she’s caught up with Martha for some reason.” He grabbed the
phone and rang the diner. Nobody picked up. Feeling worried, Jake rang Martha’s
mobile. She picked up after three rings.

“Hi Martha, its Jake. Is Laura with
you by any chance?” he asked, trying to keep the worry from his voice.

“No,” came her surprised reply. “She
left ages ago. Isn’t she home yet?”

“Don’t worry,” Jake assured her, not
wanting to cause her concern. “She’s probably gone for a drive in her new car.”
He finished the call, worry creasing his brow. She promised him she wouldn’t be
late.

“That’s probably it,” Bill assured,
seeing his expression. “She’ll be back any minute.”

“I’ll just check my phone, in case
she’s left me a message.” Jake replaced the house phone on its stand and ran up
to his bedroom. He picked up his phone and switched it on as he walked back
downstairs. Before long, his phone beeped with a message from Laura. Jake
almost went giddy with relief. Opening it, he froze, his blood turning to ice
in his veins. For a moment, Jake couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t believe what he
was reading.

“What is it?” Kerry asked, fear
lacing her voice. She’d never seen Jake look so scared in her life. Bill shot
to his feet, grabbing the phone from Jake’s nerveless fingers.

“Oh my God!” he breathed. “Laura’s in
trouble.” He handed the phone to Kerry. She nearly dropped it in her panic.
Quickly, she read the message.

Jake, horses in danger. Walter behind
poisoning. Don’t let him near the water ……

There the message cut off, as if
Laura had been interrupted while writing the message. “I can’t believe it!
Walter was behind the poisoning? What are we going to do?” she cried, her voice
cracking.

“We call the Sherriff,” Bill advised,
already dialling.

Jake suddenly grabbed the phone from
his hand. “What if he hurts Laura?” he whispered, his eyes filled with pain and
fear. “If he sees the Sherriff here before he puts his plan in action, he might
run and we’ll never find her.”

“But we need the Sherriff and his men
to ensure Walter is caught before he puts poison in the water for the horses.
We have a number of places it could be that he’s targeting. Laura didn’t get
the chance to say where,” Bill protested.

“Nothing matters except Laura!” Jake
insisted. “We can guess he’s going after the water that the breeding stock has
access to, considering that’s where he targeted before. That cuts down where we
need to look.”

“But that still leaves four places
for us to cover. The three of us can’t manage that. One place will be left
without someone there. For all we know, he may intend on poisoning them all.
We’re taking an awfully big chance that he can get to one before we get to
him.”

“I could call Dan,” Kerry offered. “I
know he’d come.”

“Do it,” Jake said shortly. He
slammed his fist into the wall, feeling sick with fear. Laura had told him she
suspected Walter of something devious and he hadn’t listened to her. If he had,
she might not be in trouble right now. Determination filled him. Whatever
happened, he would catch Walter. He would do whatever it took to get Laura
back. If Walter had harmed her, he’d better pray for intervention; because Jake
would kill him!

*****

“We are going to be in so much
trouble for sending that message,” Lotta exclaimed, wringing her hands in
worry.

“What else could we do? Laura didn’t
get the chance to send it. How else was Jake going to find her?” Flo huffed.
“He wouldn’t have even known what Walter was up to and all those horses could
have died. We couldn’t let that happen.”

“Of course not,” Lotta agreed, still
wringing her hands. “It’s just we’re going against every rule we’re meant to
follow. Laura will know she never sent that message. Walter got her phone
before she could press send! It won’t blend in!”

“Sometimes you should worry less
about making everything blend in,” Flo patted her hand soothingly. “There are
times the end result is more important. In this case, we need to keep our
charge alive.”

Both fairy godmothers looked down at
the unconscious Laura, her hands and feet securely tied. They glanced over to
Victoria and Walter, in the middle of an argument. They knew just how dangerous
this situation had become. Anything could happen from here on in.

“You’re right Flo,” Lotta smiled, her
face turning determined. “We can’t let our charge down. I couldn’t live with
myself if anything happened to her and we could have prevented it. If it costs
us our wands, so be it!” She pulled her wand from thin air, its tip sparking
wildly.

Flo raised her wand with Lotta. Both
took up a battle stance, as they got ready to step in where they were needed.
And they were sure they would be needed!

The sound of raised voices drew Laura
back to consciousness, her head feeling as if a hundred drums were banging away
in it. She held back the groan that threatened to erupt from her dry throat.
She could feel the hard ground biting into her bruised body. Her arms were
pulled behind her, ropes cutting into her soft skin where her hands had been securely
tied together. She tried to test the knots, but they were tied too tight for
her to even have a hope of working her hands free. She was dismayed to realise
her legs had also been tied together. She wouldn’t be able to get to her feet
and make a run for it either.

Laura pushed aside her discomfort to
focus in on the argument going on somewhere near where she was laying. “You
haven’t thought this through!” came Walter’s irate voice. “We’re going to get
caught at this rate!”

“You’re the one not thinking things
through,” Victoria snapped back. “We won’t get caught. This is going to be
perfect!” Her tone took on a childish excitement that chilled Laura to the
bone. She cracked her eyes open slightly, trying to peep through her lashes at
the events taking place. She tried to hold back a moan as pain stabbed through
her head. She had to blink several times in order to clear her vision. She
could see Victoria standing several feet from her, tapping out a message on
Laura’s phone. Walter paced a few feet from her.

“What are you saying to him?” Walter
asked agitated. “You have to be careful or you could put your foot in it and
give something away.”

Victoria snorted. “Give me some
credit. Didn’t you notice the ring on her finger? Jake has obviously proposed.
If I know him, he’ll be planning some kind of celebration. I am merely telling
him Laura will be late as she’s shopping for something special to wear tonight
and not to worry.” Victoria’s face glowed with smug satisfaction as she
finished the message and hit send.

“Why didn’t you do that straight
away?” Walter complained. “We’ve lost enough time as it is!”

“Because you kept panicking and
shouting at me; I couldn’t think straight.” She tossed her hair, her expression
becoming fierce. Laura was beginning to realise that Victoria was not right in
the head. Her only chance was if she could talk Walter round. He’d seemed to
care about her at one time, unless it had all been an act. Somehow she would
have to risk it. If she could just get him to see reason and let her go, but
she wasn’t sure she could chance working on him unless Victoria left them alone
for a short time. She doubted she could get through to him with her around.

“So now what?” Walter’s tone had
become placating. Victoria seemed to calm down slightly at his subservient
attitude. She tapped a long manicured finger against her jaw, her eyes turning
speculative.

“I’ve been thinking of adjusting our
plans somewhat,” she informed him. “Laura landing in our laps is going to
benefit us tremendously.” She patted him affectionately on the cheek. “I will
still get to drive Jake into a breakdown and it will also give you your desire
to have her.”

Laura’s blood turned to ice, her
stomach rolling over. Just what did that mean? Walter’s face had lit up like
Victoria just offered him the moon. Suddenly Laura’s plan to talk him into
letting her go fizzled out. It seemed unlikely she could talk him around,
judging by the look on his face. Her hopes popped like a balloon, leaving her
feeling deflated, scared and shaken.

“How?” he asked simply, rubbing his
hands together with delicious anticipation.

“We still poison the horses,”
Victoria explained. “But we’re going to leave a little something behind.” She
walked to the corner of the room and pulled out a bag she’d stashed there.
Putting on a pair of gloves, she removed a box from the bag, opened it and
picked out a long glass tube with a stopper in the top. “This poison is lethal.
It doesn’t take much to kill a whole herd of horses. You will poison all the
water sources for their breeding stock and leave this somewhere, not too
obvious mind, for them to find.”

“Why?” Walter asked, coming over to
view the box full of poison.

“Really, isn’t it obvious?” Victoria
smirked. “I am going to plant Laura’s fingerprints on it.” She giggled in glee.

“He’ll never believe that,” Walter
said doubtfully.

Victoria rolled her eyes in
annoyance, her lips pursing angrily. “Of course he will. The evidence will be
right there before his eyes. After all, Charger was only poisoned after she
arrived and when this happens to his other horses, he’ll have to believe it’s
true. Also, she will be gone. Packed up and run off as far as he’s concerned.”
Her eyes glittered maliciously. “He’ll fall apart so bad, there will be no
putting him back together again this time.”

Horror filled Laura at the callous
way they were talking about destroying a man’s life. She couldn’t understand
why they were doing this. Victoria was obviously linked with Walter somehow.
She talked with an English accent while she was around him. How they knew each
other, Laura had no idea. Right now, all she cared about was getting away and
warning Jake.

She’d like to believe he would never
think her capable of such a hideous crime, but she was afraid that if she
wasn’t there to defend herself, he might believe the evidence they were going
to leave behind. Laura couldn’t bear the thought of him thinking she’d betrayed
him. She tried again, in sheer desperation, to get her hands out of the ropes.
Slowly, she twisted and pulled, the ropes cutting in painfully making her eyes
water. No matter what, she couldn’t give up.

Suddenly a noise to her right made
her glance up. Victoria stood over her, that chilling half smile on her lips.
“Looks like our little wren has woken up,” she called to Walter. She crouched
down and leaned in close to Laura, her breath brushing over Laura’s cheek.
“There’s no point trying to get free of those ropes, sugar,” she whispered, her
American accent back in place. “They’re tight as can be. You’re going nowhere.”
She patted Laura on the head with a fake sympathetic smile.

“Why are you doing this?” Laura
croaked, trying to get her voice out through her dry throat.

“All in good time, sugar. We need to
give Walter what he needs to get this job done, then we can talk.” She grabbed
Laura’s bound hands, yanking so hard Laura screamed in pain. Refusing to give
this woman easy access to her fingerprints, Laura twisted on the ground and
tried to kick Victoria with her bound feet. She missed, as Victoria sprang
back, hissing like an angry alley cat.

“Hold her legs,” She ordered Walter.
He came rapidly forward. Laura tried to kick out at him, but he grabbed hold of
her legs, lying down on top of them to secure her in place. She struggled
wildly, but she couldn’t dislodge his weight. Finally she collapsed back, her
energy almost completely spent.

Laura sobbed uncontrollably. “Please
Walter, don’t do this,” she begged him. She had to try to appeal to him and
hope he had a conscience left that would come to her aid.

He stared at her with a sorrowful
look. “It needn’t have been this way my love,” he told her, running his hand up
her leg, making her freeze in horror. “If you’d only let me comfort you last
night, as you were meant to, none of this would be happening to you right now.”

Victoria yanked on her arms again,
causing sharp pains to shoot through Laura’s protesting arms. Her face hit the
floor with punishing brutality, leaving her hardly able to draw breath. She
tried to close her hands into fists, but they were numb from being bound so
long. As hard as she tried she could not keep the pressure needed to avoid
Victoria forcing the tube into her hand. She felt the cool smooth glass of the
tube of poison as Victoria held it in her hand, making sure the fingerprints
were well and truly on the glass. Carefully, she took the tube out of Laura’s
hand and placed it back into the box.

Walter continued to sit on Laura even
though Victoria had achieved her goal and moved away. His eyes stared at her in
an unnerving way, his hands beginning to rove all over her body at leisure.
Laura desperately wanted him to get off her. How could she have thought she’d
be able to reason with him? He was obviously as twisted as Victoria. She tried
to pull back from his questing fingers, but her struggles only seemed to excite
him more.

Victoria walked back over and slapped
him on the back of his head. “You can play with your new toy later,” she
snapped. “Right now you have a job to take care of. And don’t let me down!”

“Can’t I have a little time with her
now?” Walter begged, licking his lips in anticipation and squeezing Laura’s
breast with punishing fingers. Laura began to hyperventilate in her mounting
terror. “Look,” he whispered eagerly. “See how she’s panting for me?” Laura
closed her eyes against the nightmare she found herself in. She’d never been so
scared in her life. She wished she could black out again and save herself from
this ordeal.

“No,” Victoria insisted. “We only
have so much time to get this done. I want Jake to pay. You’ll have years to
enjoy her. You’ll just have to wait.”

“Fine!” Walter snapped. Laura thought
she might just faint from relief. “But one little taste won’t hurt.” Caught off
guard, Laura had no time to react before his lips were over hers, grinding into
her so hard, he mashed her lips against her teeth until she could taste blood.
He grabbed hold of her jaw and forced her mouth open, plunging his tongue
inside, making her want to gag as he sucked at her tongue. His other hand
played with her breast as he ground his pelvis into her hip. Laura felt tears
sliding down her face, a deep desperate longing for Jake filling her. How she
wished he was here to save her. She tried to drown out what Walter was doing,
but somehow everything was in sharp focus and she was all too painfully aware
of every detail.

Suddenly, Walter jerked back with a
strangled cry, grabbing at his butt. He glared at Victoria. “I was only having
a little taste. You didn’t have to stab me. I told you I’m going!”

“What the hell are you talking
about?” Victoria snarled. “I’m getting the bag ready. I couldn’t care less
about your little tryst.” She zipped it shut. “Now get off the floor and get
going.” She shoved the bag at him as he got to his feet. He nearly dropped it.
Victoria glared daggers at him. “Don’t let anything happen to that bag!”

“I’ll text you when it’s done,”
Walter snapped, stamping out the door. Laura slumped forward on the floor,
grateful he was gone. She took deep cleansing breaths, but the taste of him
still filled her mouth, making her want to gag.

“I wouldn’t feel too relieved sugar,”
Victoria’s taunting voice flowed over her. “You’ll be spending a lot of quality
time with Walter when this is done. He’s going to keep you somewhere that
nobody will find you. See, he wants you badly and what he wants, he gets.”

Laura struggled to sit up, curling
her legs to the side in an effort to balance herself. “Why are you doing this?”
she asked. “I have the right to know why I’m here, trussed up like a Christmas
turkey.” She sniffed, wishing she could wipe her face. “And what could Jake
possibly have done to deserve what you’re doing to him?”

“I suppose it would be fun at that,
to tell you a little story while we wait for Walter’s text.” Victoria sat on an
old table that stood in the corner of the room. “See it all began twenty years
ago, when Walter and I were very young. If you haven’t already guessed, he’s my
brother.” Laura gasped in shock. Somehow that had never occurred to her.  They
looked nothing alike, but it seemed obvious now, considering both of them were
English and Walter had never taken a sexual interest in the beautiful Victoria,
when he seemed to love every other female that breathed.

Victoria laughed long and low. “It
would seem from your reaction that you had no idea, how delicious.” She swung
her legs back and forth in childish delight. “Anyway, our father knew Jake’s
father through the racing circuit. They both used to race horses and generally,
they won a lot of competitions. Jake’s father made a lot of money selling the
offspring of his champions and so did my father. They were in a fierce rivalry
at the time. My father took a lot of business away from Jake’s. Then one day,
Jake’s father set mine up by shopping him to the police, accusing my father of
drugging horses and fixing races.”

Victoria broke off, her face twisting
in hatred. Nothing beautiful remained in her features. Laura shivered at the
burning anger in the other woman’s eyes. ”They took Jake’s father’s evidence as
if it was real. They never listened to the fact he was being set up. My father
was arrested and charged. He got a hefty jail sentence, thanks to that back
stabbing liar,” she spat, her face turning several shades of red. Laura sat
frozen, too afraid to say anything.

“My mother had a nervous breakdown
after my father went to jail,” she continued, her voice becoming like a broken
little girl. “She lost her mind completely. Didn’t even know who Walter and I
were any more. We went into care because she simply couldn’t take care of us
herself and nobody else in the family would take us on. We were sent to live
with a foster family in Cornwall.”

She began to rock on the table,
hugging herself. “They were horrible, the family we were put with. The woman
treated us like servants and him,” she shuddered, staring off into the
distance. “He made me his special little girl. He came to me nearly every
night, even though I cried and begged him not to. Walter tried to defend me,
but he’d get beaten so badly in the end I told him not to.” She broke off,
seeming to have lost herself in her nightmare memories.