My Texas Sweetheart (book one)

by Acheson, Pauliena

  I don’t reply, just keep moving away. He gets a dark look in his eyes and, before I can take another step, he is on me, pulling my hair. He starts trying to kiss me, but I knee him in the balls. As I try to run, he grabs my leg and pulls me down. I start kicking and screaming for him to let me go…

  “Maggie! Maggie, wake up!” My eyes pop open and I am staring at Dad, Mom, Jase, and Adam. It was just a nightmare. I get up and throw my arms around Dad. “It’s okay, baby girl. Just a nightmare,” he says.

  Looking around at all of them, I see how concerned they are. I give them a small smile. “I’m okay.”

  “What was your dream about, baby girl?” Dad asks.

  I didn’t really want to tell them so I just say, “Same as always.”

  “Well, you know that we’re here if you want to talk about it. How about we watch a movie and make some pizza?” Mom says. I smile and nod.

  Jase grabs my hand and pulls me into a hug. “You can always talk to me about anything, Maggie. There’s something I want to talk to you about later on, okay?” he says, raising his eyebrows at me.

  I smile. “Sure.”

  About a half-hour later, we finish putting the toppings on the pizzas and put them into the oven. I go to grab juice and ginger ale, chips and fruit. Creed and Jade walk into the house. “Hey, guys. How was the event?” Dad asks.

  “It was good. Jade beat my score this time.” Creed laughed.

  “Congrats Jade” I say smiling at him. He walks over and gives me a big bear hug,

  “How are you feeling baby girl” he whispers in my ear. Before I get a chance to answer Creed pulls me into him for a hug too. Smiling at my big brother I tell them I’m feeling fine, they nod but don’t looked convinced.

  I know there all concerned and that they blame themselves, and some days I want to slap the shit outta them. No matter what I know they love me and are just looking out for me in their own ways. Thinking back to what Jase said before has me wondering what he wants to talk about. I hope it has nothing to do with my freaking nightmare, I can’t tell them.

  Jase and I have grown a lot in the last month, he’s always around helping me or we just talk about anything. Yeah I’m falling more for him every single day and I am pretty sure he feels the same way about me. He just hasn’t said anything yet, if I had to guess why. It would be because of what happened to me.

  I hear my phone beep and go to see who was texting me. It was Amy saying that she was on her way over. “Amy is on her way, Mom.”

  She smiles. “Okay, baby girl.”

  Just as Amy gets there, my mom’s pulling the pizzas out of the oven. We all sat down to eat.

  Chapter 15 (Jase)

  Tonight is going to be the night that I tell Maggie how I feel about her. I just hope she knows I’ll wait for her, and we can take our time with the relationship. I know her brothers are all fine with it because I already talked to them and told them that I’m in love with her. They all got big grins on their faces and said that it’s about time. I even called Chase and told him. He said that it was awesome news “This pizza is great,” Adam says.

  Maggie’s phone beeped with a text. That’s weird because most of the people that she texted were all here. I hear her phone hit the floor and I look at her, seeing that she was pale. “Mags, what is it?” Brad asks, getting up.

  She looks about ready to have a panic attack. Creed grabs her phone and looks at it. When he looks up, we could tell who it was from just by the look on his face. “Son of a bitch. He’s going to pay for this shit,” he growls. He showed us the text:

  Christian: Maggie, did you enjoy yourself that night on the path? I know I did because it was the best sex of my life. Seeing your brothers’ and Jase’s face was even better. I’ll be seeing you again real soon!!)

  FUCK, this isn’t happening! Maggie was just starting to feel better about things, and her panic attacks weren’t so bad anymore. “He comes anywhere near her and he’s a dead man,” Jade growls.

  Lily and Amy take Maggie upstairs for a bath so she can relax. “I was going to tell her how I feel tonight. Probably should wait to do that now,” I say, hanging my head. Adam, Creed, and Jade just stare at me.

  Creed takes a deep breath. “Wait a second. No, you should still tell her. It’ll give her something else to think about.” He has a point.

  Jade looks at us, then at Maggie’s phone, picking it up:

  Maggie: Text her again and you’ll lose something you value. We will be showing your text to the police, but if you want to come visit me and the rest of the boys, we’ll be more than happy to clear our schedules.

  “What are you up to?” I asked. He grins and shows me the text. I just grin back. I should have known that he would do something like that.

  The girls all come back into the kitchen, laughing. Wow, that’s not what I expected. “Well, this is nice to see,” Brad says, walking over to her. He wraps Maggie in his arms and kissed her forehead.

  “I don’t care what he texts, Daddy. I’m not gonna let him hurt me more than he already has.”

  Brad gets a huge smile on his face. “That’s my girl.” Wow, I’m in love with a brave girl.

  We all take turns hugging her. I pull her into my arms. “So, you ready for that talk?” I whisper. She nods and starts to pull away, but I wasn‘t ready to let go just yet. I look at all the faces in the kitchen. “Um, why don’t we go outside so we can have some privacy?” As we get to the door, I turn around and can see the huge smiles on all of their faces. I roll my eyes at them, Geez it’s not that big of a deal.

  We walk out the door and over to the swing. “So, what did you want to talk about, Jase?”

  How do I say this? I guess I just do it. I just hope it doesn’t scare her. “I want you and me to be together. If you’re not ready, I’ll wait for you.” She stares at me for a long time. Shit, am I pushing this? Maggie, please say something!

  “You don’t have to wait, Jase.”

  “Meaning?” I ask.

  She smiles at me and leans in, looking at my lips, then into my eyes. I close the distance between us and press my lips to hers, just a light kiss because I don’t want to scare her She smiles. “Meaning I want to be with you, too. I’m done putting my life on hold.”

  Grinning, I pull her into my arms and press my lips to hers. This time, she grabs my face to hold me there. I deepen the kiss and trace her bottom lip with my tongue. She opens her mouth and our tongues dance together. Her hands move into my hair, pulling me closer.

  I hear somebody clear their throat. Reluctantly, we break the kiss. “Well, it’s about time you two,” Amy says beaming. She wasn’t the only one out there, either.

  “I’m so happy for you two,” Lily says, smiling. I smile at her and look at Maggie, who was blushing.

  “Lily, let’s leave the kids alone now,” Brad laughs, shaking his head he pulls Lily inside.

  Adam and Amy both stay outside with us after everyone else went in. “Don’t move too fast, Maggie. You still need time,” Adam says.

  She rolls her pretty green eyes at him. “I know, Adam.” She gives him that look that he knew meant he should back off. Leaning over, I kiss her again. She wraps her arms around my neck.

  “Okay, you two, come on. I don’t need to see this,” Adam grumbles. Amy and Maggie both laugh at him. God, I missed her laugh.

  “You know, Adam, you’re going to see it a lot now,” I say with a smug smile, winking at him.

  Adam almost looks like he is ready to kill me, but then he smiles and shakes his head. “Yeah, I guess I’ll need to get used to it. For the record, I really am happy for you both.”

  Maggie gets up and hugs him. “Alright, get your hands off my girl. You’ve had her long enough,” I grumble and they laugh. Maggie walks back over to me, puts her arm across my back, and puts her head on my shoulder. I lean in and kiss her hair. I can’t believe that this girl is finally mine.

  Adam and I start talking about football and collage scouts coming out to
watch our game next week, while the girls talk about going to the spa this weekend with Lily and Amy’s mom. I didn’t know they had that planned. Adam and I had plans this weekend with Jake and Pete anyways, playing some football with his brothers, Brad, and my dad. Lily pokes her head out the door. “Maggie, Chase is on the phone!” She gives me a kiss on the cheek, then ran into the house.

  Adam stares at the door for a few minutes, then back at me. “Dude, be good to my sister. Don’t hurt her.” He knows I’d never hurt her, but I guess he needs me to reassure him. She’s been through a lot in the last few months. If I can help it, Maggie will never be hurt again.

  “You know I will, dude.” He nods.

  Jade and Creed come out to join us. “We still up for football this weekend, or has your woman told you that you can’t play anymore?” Creed asks.

  I look at him and laugh. “Yeah, we’re still playing. Maggie has ‘girl’ plans this weekend and, even if she didn’t, I’d still be playing.”

  He holds his hands up. “Okay, just checking,” he says, with a smile.

  Maggie comes walking back out, smiling. “Chase, Nate, and Todd are coming for a visit in three weeks,” she tells us. That’s good news. I know how hard it was on the three of them when they had to leave. Even though we would have anyway, Chase made us promise to take care of Maggie. We told him not to worry and to take care of himself so he could come home safe and sound.

  “Sweet, did he say for how long?” Jade asks.

  “He isn’t sure yet,” she says. Even a short visit would be awesome.

  I wonder how long I’ll have to wait before I can tell Maggie that I’m in love with her. I guess I’ll just have to play it by ear. Amy gets up and grabs Maggie’s hand. “Walk me to my car?” I look at her brothers and I can tell that we all have the same thought. We all get up. Amy looks at us, puzzled, but doesn’t say anything.

  We are making our way out to Amy’s car when we hear what sounds like a whine. I raise an eyebrow at Creed. He shrugs and starts walking towards the barn. The rest of us boys tell the girls to stay put and we follow him. As we get closer, the whining noise gets louder. What hell is that? Why can we smell smoke? Shit, that whining noise must be the cattle. Why aren’t the horses making noise? What the hell is going on? “Fuck me! Adam, run and get dad! Tell him to call the fire station!” Creed roars.

  I look back to see Maggie and Amy huddled together, scared. I’m about to run over to them when Creed yells that we need to get the cattle and horses out. The three of us rush into the barn. “We need to take the cattle one at a time or all hell will break lose!” Jade yells.

  We open the back doors to let the cattle and horses out into the fields. We get to work on opening the stalls for the horses and rush them out. Adam and Brad rush in to help us with the cattle and tell us that the fire department is on the way. Brad starts working on putting out the fire while we take care of the cattle. Just as the last of the cattle leave the barn, the firemen show up. Maybe we can still save what’s left of the barn. As they start battling the blaze, we go out to make sure the cattle and horses are far enough away.

  Suddenly, we hear screaming. We all stop and look around. What the hell? Shit, that sounds like the girls! We take off for the driveway. When we get to the front of the barn, we see someone pushing Lily into a car, Maggie and Amy already inside. Fuck, this is not happening! We take off running towards them. The guy looks over and see us. He pushes Lily to the ground and jumps into the car. Brad goes for Lily and the rest of us jump into Creed’s truck to go after him.

  As we get to the end of the lane, Creed slams on the breaks. “Dammit! We lost them! Which way should I go?!” he yells. We all tell him left, but we never find them.

  When we pull back into the ranch, we can see Brad pacing outside, waiting for us. When we climb out of the truck, he says, “You didn’t find them.” It wasn’t a question; it was a statement of defeat. “We need to call the police,” he says.

  Adam slams his fist on the truck. “Like that’s helped so far, Dad! Christian hasn’t been found yet! Whoever took them could be working with him!” Brad shakes his head and goes inside.

  “What we should do is call Chase,” Adam mutters. We think about that for a second.

  Jade shakes his head and growls, “Chase will kill whoever took them, and then us for not protecting them.”

  Creed says, “But we didn’t know the fire was set only to keep us busy.”

  Brad comes back out to tell us he called the police…and Chase. We all nod and head back inside. Lily is sitting at the table crying. She looks at us when we came into house. “The guy said that he was taking Maggie to Christian. Amy and I were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.” I close my eyes, knowing what this means. Please, God, keep them safe.

  “Chase and his crew are on their way to look for them,” Brad tells us. That makes us feel a little better. They’ll be able to find them faster than the police.

  The fire chief comes to the door and lets Brad know that the fire is out. Brad tells him that we know it was deliberately set, and what happened to the girls. The chief says how sorry he is and that an investigator will come out to officially look into how the fire was started.

  Tara and Bill, Amy’s parents, arrive at the ranch an hour later to sit and wait with us. Maggie must be having a panic attack right now. Hopefully, with Amy there, she’ll be able to deal with it.

  Adam jumps up. “Hey, Maggie and Amy should have their cell phones. Will that help Chase fined them?”

  Brad runs to the phone. “Chase, your sister might still have her phone on her. Will that help you fined them?” He smiles. “Okay, son.” Hanging up, he says, “He said that they can track them using their phones.” Lily gets up to make coffee and tea for everyone because all we can do is sit and wait.

  We all start pacing until Brad says he’s going to check out the barn. We all decide to go with him, at least it will feel like we’re doing something. From the outside, you could never tell that there even was a fire. However, once the doors are open, we can tell that it’s going to need a lot of work to restore. At least the cattle and horses are safe.

  ****

  Four hours later and there’s still no news from Chase. Come on, dude. Give us some news. The phone rings and Brad runs to grab it, “Hello?...Chase, did you find them? Are they okay?...What do you mean you’re not sure?...Why haven’t any of you moved in yet?...Okay, call when you have more news…Stay safe.” Shit.

  Chapter 16 (Maggie)

  How would our barn catch on fire? Amy and I stand there and watch in horror as Creed, Jase, and Jade run into the burning barn. I know that they need to save the cattle and horses, but I am scared for them, too. Dad and Adam come running out of the house, headed to the barn. Mom runs over to us. “Oh, my god. How did this happen?” Mom says.

  I feel relieved when the fire trucks start coming up the lane. “Look, Mom. The firemen are here.”

  Just as the fire trucks get closer, I notice there’s a car following behind them. What the hell? Who is that? I look over at Mom and Amy. The car is coming towards us. My eyes go wide. “Girls, run. NOW!” Mom yells, but it’s already too late.

  Wait, it’s not Christian, but I don’t like the look of this guy, either. We all start to scream. He grabs Amy and shoves her into the car, then he grabs me. “You are gorgeous, baby. We’re going to visit a friend of yours, but maybe I’ll have a go at you first.” I start to fight him off, but he pulls out a gun and shoves it into my side. “Get in or I’ll shoot you all,” he growls.

  I get in but, as he’s trying to put mom in, I hear shouting. He pushes mom to the ground, jumps into the car, and guns it. I look out the back window to see Dad picking mom up and the rest jumping into Creed’s truck. I grab hold of Amy’s hand. “Amy, look behind us,” I whisper.

  She does but, when she looks back, I see tears in her eyes. “They lost us, Maggie. I can’t see them,” she whispers, frantic.

  Okay, I need to stay strong
so we can find a way to get out of this. We can’t wait for them to find us. “We’ll find a way to get out of this, Amy. I promise,” I whisper. She nods.

  He drives for a while longer, then pulls into what looks to be an abandoned farm. Okay, stupid. We both know this area better than you. I remember that I still have my cell phone and quickly turn the sound off. I whisper to Amy, “Turn your cell sound off.”

  The guy opens up Amy’s door and tells us to get out. He points his gun at us. “Walk towards the barn.” When we walk into the barn, he tells us to sit down and shut up.

  When he walks away, I look at Amy and mouth, we need to run now. She nods.

  Just as we start to get up, he comes back. “I said don’t move.” Dammit, now he’s got rope. Getting away is going to take a lot longer now.

  He ties our hands and feet. “Who are you? Why are you helping Christian?” I ask.

  He looks at me and sneers, “My name doesn’t matter. As far as helping Christian…eh, I had nothing else to do tonight.”

  I can feel my phone vibrating. Someone must be calling or texting, but he’s looking so I can’t do anything about it. “Just sit tight, girls. Christian should be here within a few hours.” He laughs and walks away. I’m about to reach for my phone when I see that he just went to grab a chair. Seriously, why can’t he go far away so we can get out of here?

  I move closer to Amy. “If we get a chance, do you think that you can undo your ropes?” I whisper, and she nods.

  ****

  Its a few hours later and he still hasn’t moved. If he doesn’t leave us, we can’t try and escape. We hear a car pull up. I look at Amy and see that she is starting to panic. I whisper, “Amy, stay calm. We’re gonna get out of here.”

  He gets up and peeks out. “Shit,” he mumbles. It must not be Christian.

  He runs over to us and starts to pull us up, but then decides to cut the ropes on our feet. He tells us to move up the steps. As we get to the top, I can just make out a few figures outside. He mumbles. “Christian is two fucking hours late and now I gotta deal with company?” He looks at us and raises his eyebrows. “If either one of you scream, I’ll put a bullet in your heads.” We nod.