Wild Fire (The Fairy Tale Match Series) (35 page)

Laura hardly dared to breathe.
Despite everything, she couldn’t help but feel for the young girl who’d had her
life ripped away from her and had been so cruelly abused. She couldn’t believe
that Jake’s father would have falsely accused someone of wrongdoing, but she
guessed that Victoria would never believe that her own father had been the one
responsible for tearing her world apart. It was so much easier to blame someone
else.

It seemed clear to Laura that
somewhere along the way, Victoria had lost her mind. She truly wished there was
some way she could help the woman, but her own predicament meant she couldn’t
afford to be too sympathetic. After all, Victoria planned to hand her over to
Walter for his own sexual perversion. As much as she hurt for the girl Victoria
had been, she had to fight the woman with everything in her.

Victoria suddenly snapped her head
up, pinning Laura with a strange stare. “Isn’t it a sad story,” she sniffed,
dabbing at her eyes with one gloved hand. “Walter and I used to keep ourselves
going with the thought of taking our revenge on Joe Carter one day. We used to
plan it all out so carefully. We wanted to take from him everything he loved
and cared about, just like he’d done to us. It was a wonderful dream.”

“But he’s dead,” Laura tried to
reason with her. “Jake had nothing to do with what happened. Why are you doing
this to him?”

Victoria jumped off the table, pacing
back and forth with agitation. “Have you never heard of the fact that the sins
of the father are passed to the son?” She whirled round, crouching in front of
Laura with a mad glint in her eyes. “As soon as I found out Joe was dead, I
knew I had to seek my revenge on his son.” Her fingers curled into fists. “He
has to pay for my life being ruined. Mine and Walter’s. He got to live happily
on his big ranch, all that money, his sister with him and his mother. He even
had a replacement father with Bill. What did we have? Nothing but pain and
misery.”

“I planned out a whole new revenge
with Jake in mind,” she continued. “It was perfect. I have always had male
attention, with every man I have ever met wanting me, panting after me. What I
thought was such a curse at one time became a blessing.” She smiled, Laura
getting the full benefit of seeing the cold calculating woman that Victoria had
become. “I made sure Jake and I met. It was so easy to make him fall in love
with me. I had him eating out of the palm of my hand.” She held her hand out to
Laura, her palm up as if to show her what she meant. “And right where I wanted
him.”

“By that time, I had managed to
master seducing any man I wanted, so getting Dan all hot and bothered for me
was easy. I could see the light of lust in his eyes. I knew he wanted me. He
was desperate, but oh so annoyingly loyal.” She rolled her eyes in disgust. “He
wouldn’t sleep with me no matter what stunt I pulled. The date of that blasted
wedding kept getting closer and closer. We were no nearer to him giving in,
like we’d planned. I knew what it would do to Jake. I also knew it would ruin
Kerry. She was like a puppy dog round Dan. How he couldn’t see it was amazing””

Laura shook her head in horror at how
devious Walter and Victoria really were. She’d never conceived that everything
that had happened two years ago had been a lie and was in fact, a carefully
planned out revenge. “How did you get him to give in and sleep with you? Right
on that last night. How?”

“Easy, Walter drugged his drink.”
Victoria laughed at the expression on Laura’s face. “He became a wild rutting
animal once he’d drunk that. It was amazing sex, I must say. One of the best
nights I’ve had. Dan scarring Jake was simply the cherry on my cake. I couldn’t
have asked for more. With their friendship finished and Jake on his knees when
I wouldn’t stay with him, I knew wrecking his personal life was complete. All
that was left was to kill his business. I left Walter in charge of that and he
did brilliantly. In just two years, the riding school was ready to fall apart
once he walked away. Just getting rid of Jake’s breeding stock stood in our
way. We had it timed so perfectly, when Dan was the only competent vet left in
town and Jake wouldn’t use him because of me.”

“You are sick!” Laura exclaimed in
disgust. Any sympathy she’d had for Victoria had fled in the face of the
woman’s sadistic cruelty. “How could you do that to them? And to plan to kill
all those beautiful horses……” She broke off, hardly able to go on.

“I told you, I deserve my revenge!”
Victoria shrieked. “And I would have had it too if you hadn’t come along and
started putting Jake back together again. He would never have called in Dan if
it hadn’t been for you.”

“You have no right to seek revenge on
anyone other than your own father,” Laura raged back at her, completely losing
her temper. “He’s the one that ruined your life, not Jake’s father and even if
he had that doesn’t give you the right to hurt an innocent man that had nothing
to do with it.” She cried out as Victoria back handed her across the face.

“How dare you!” she screamed, spit
flying from her mouth. She looked like a raging banshee, her eyes wild and
almost rolling in their sockets. Laura’s anger fled in the face of Victoria’s
wild rage. Fear turned her blood to ice. “My father was innocent. That man
framed him!” Victoria began hitting Laura in a wild fit. Laura couldn’t even
cover her head to protect herself from the hard blows she was receiving, since
her arms were still tied behind her back. Her breathing came hard and fast,
panic rising up. She should have known better than to provoke a madwoman.

Victoria began to kick Laura in the
ribs, her angry screams filling the room. Laura screamed in pain, saying she
was sorry over and over again, but nothing seemed to penetrate through
Victoria’s haze of madness. Laura felt herself beginning to pass out, terrified
that she would lose her battle to stay alive. She had no doubt that if Victoria
kept going, she’d probably kill her.

Suddenly a tremendous crash sounded
from outside, drawing Victoria’s attention. She stopped her beating, her eyes
darting about wildly. A strange calm descended on her, as she crept to the door
to peek outside. She turned back to Laura, who lay terrified with her lip
bleeding, her hair falling in wild disarray around her and her face already
beginning to swell and bruise. Her soft cries of pain filled the room, but
Victoria acted as if she couldn’t hear them.

“It must have been a cat,” Victoria
informed her, laughing for all the world like they’d simply had afternoon tea
disrupted. She walked calmly back to the table, perching on top of it.

A beep sounded into the room. Looking
at her phone, Victoria exclaimed in delight. “He’s done it!” She looked at
Laura with a bright happy smile. “In no time at all, Walter will be back here
and you’ll be heading for a new life with him. Isn’t that wonderful?”

Laura tried to stop the tears that
were welling in her eyes from spilling down her painful face. Her eyes were
already beginning to swell shut. She wondered if it wouldn’t have been better
to die at Victoria’s hands than the fate that awaited her with Walter. Gritting
her teeth against the pain she was feeling, she wondered if there was any
chance that Jake would find her but she didn’t see how. If she’d only been able
to send that message.

*****

Jake waited, hunched down in the
bushes not far from the small lake that was one of the biggest water supplies
he used for his horses. His heart hammered in his chest with the worry he felt
for Laura. He had no idea where she was or what was happening to her. He’d had
one text that was meant to be from her, telling him she’d gone shopping. He
snorted. Thank goodness the other text had come first or he might have believed
that and not even known anything was wrong.

The wait was killing him. His phone
was sitting in his back pocket, ready and waiting should any of the others text
him that they’d caught Walter. He dearly hoped Walter was heading for this
place first. He wanted to get his hands on that creep, even though he’d
promised a panicking Kerry that he wouldn’t beat the guy up. And he wouldn’t,
unless the man kept from him where he’d hidden Laura.

A rustle drew his attention. Glancing
to his right, he saw Walter creeping through the trees, a bag gripped in one
gloved hand. Jake hunched down further to avoid Walter seeing him. Walter crept
to the edge of the lake and crouched down, opening the bag, his back to Jake.
Taking his time, Jake crept forward, as Walter removed a box from the bag.
Knowing he’d have to move fast to prevent Walter from being able to dump the
poison in the water, Jake picked up his speed.

His boot hit a twig with a sharp
snap. Walter’s head whipped round, a gasp coming out of his mouth. He dropped
the box he held and grabbed for his phone. Jake dived on him, the phone
dropping from Walters hand and sliding to the edge of the lake. They rolled
together on the ground, each one trying to get a punch in on the other. Walter
attempted to bite Jake in the arm, but he pulled back, managing to hit Walter
square in the mouth. Blood spurted out instantly from the split in his lip. He
tried to buck Jake off, but Jake held his seat on top of Walter and punched him
in the face again.

Walter grabbed a handful of dirt and
slung it into Jake’s eyes. He cried out, clawing at his face to clear his
vision. Walter bucked again, this time unseating Jake. He punched Jake in the
stomach, knocking the wind right out of him. Wasting no time, Walter pounced on
Jake, pounding his head on the floor a couple of times to stun him. As Jake lay
unresisting on the ground, Walter wrapped his hands around Jake’s throat and
began to choke the life right out of him, laughing in triumph the entire time.

Jake grabbed hold of Walter’s hands,
trying to pry his fingers loose, but Walter had suddenly seemed to gain a super
human strength and he simply couldn’t get free. He tried to buck and twist to
unseat Walter, but nothing worked. Spots danced in front of his eyes, making
Jake panic. If he didn’t break free soon, Walter would win and then what would
become of his beautiful Laura?

Suddenly, Walter jerked with a scream
his hands flying to his butt. Jake lay stunned for one moment, coughing and
gasping in air. Quickly gathering his wits, he punched Walter before the man
could regain his grip. Walter flew backwards, as if Jake had hit him with a
cannon ball instead of his weakened fist. Shocked, Jake sat up rubbing absently
at his sore throat. He fully expected for Walter to get up and come at him
again, but the man lay unmoving. Jake crawled forward, surprised to see that
Walter was out cold. Shaking his head, Jake couldn’t imagine what had happened.
One moment the man had been choking him to death, the next he’d let go for no
apparent reason. Jake couldn’t understand how he’d knocked him out either. His
other punches had been much harder.

Shrugging it off, Jake retrieved the
rope he’d brought with him in case he’d needed to restrain Walter. He tied up
the man’s hands and feet, then texted Kerry, Dan and Bill. As soon as that was
completed, he rang the sheriff. As he waited for the others to join him, he
spotted Walter’s phone on the ground. Who had he been about to contact when
Jake had jumped him? Jake wondered over to the phone, picking it up. He touched
the contacts icon, scrolling down the numbers. His heart skipped several beats
when he spotted Victoria’s name on the screen. Laura had been right, it seemed.
Walter did know Victoria. Shaking his head, he wondered where she was. It stood
to reason she was watching Laura and waiting to hear from Walter. Gripping the
phone, he put it into his pocket just as Kerry, Dan and Bill arrived.

“You got him then?” Bill called out.
“Now all we have to do is get that lying piece of rubbish to tell us where he
has Laura.”

“I don’t think it’s quite as simple
as that,” Jake croaked out, his throat almost refusing to work. “I found
Victoria’s number on his phone. He’s not in this alone.”

Kerry swore. “What the hell happened
to you?” she hissed, gently touching the already bruising flesh around his
neck.

“Walter tried to strangle me,” Jake
replied. “He certainly wasn’t going down without a fight.”

“Bastard,” Kerry hissed. “Did you say
Victoria is in on this?” Jake nodded. Kerry swore again. “I knew that woman was
nothing but trouble. Now what?”

“We make him tell us where they have
her,” Jake said his voice sounding strained. He kicked Walter’s still form with
his boot.

“Then we’d best wake him up.” Bill
indicated to Dan to help him and both men hauled the unconscious form to the
edge of the water, dunking his head underneath. Walter came up sputtering and
coughing.

“What the hell do you think you’re
doing?” he yelled. “Let me go.”

“Not a chance,” Jake said in a deadly
voice. “You’re going to tell me where you have Laura.”

Walter’s eyes widened. “I don’t know
what you’re talking about.” he tried to look innocent. “You’ve gone completely
insane, jumping on me like that. Just wait till I tell the sheriff what you’ve
done. I’ll have you for assault.”

“I think you’ll find that hard to
pull off once I show the sheriff the bruises around my neck from where you
tried to choke me and then there’s what you have in that box.” Jake nodded with
his head to where the box lay in the grass.

“I don’t know what you’re talking
about,” Walter said stubbornly, but his eyes were darting wildly about as if he
was trying to find a way to escape.