by Sienna Mynx
Chapter 13
Summer of 2000
Crystal Beach, Texas
“Angela, Macie! Hurry up, get your things and get in the car!” Jameson Turner shouted at his daughters. Kassidy could hear the seriousness in his tone. Her mother was dragging her to the door. She didn’t understand anything. She glanced back to see her father with Jesus Garcia. They were speaking.
“Ma? Where is Clarissa? I want to say goodbye.”
“Hush now Kassie, get in the car.”
“No! No!” Kassidy broke from her mother and ran to the house. She pushed past her father legs and ran inside. Clarissa was on the sofa crying. Her mother was yelling at her. None of it made sense.
“Clarissa? They say I have to go. We have to leave?”
Clarissa looked up. Kassidy went to her. She hugged her. “Don’t worry Kassidy. It’s going to be okay.”
“Kassie!” her mother said. “Come with me now.”
“Why are you crying? Why is everyone so upset.”
Clarissa looked up with fear in her eyes. Kassidy mother snatched her away. Kassidy screamed for her mother to let her go. But she was carried out of the house. She was then forced into the car. She had to sit between her sisters. Through her tears she saw her father take a gun from Jesus Garcia. He walked to the car with it in his hand. He handed it over to her mother.
“Why do you have this James?”
“Not now. Let’s go.” He put the car in reverse and turned to look back. It must have then he saw how distressed Kassidy was. He paused. “Kassidy, look at me. Stop crying. Everything is okay. We’re going home but we will come back. Promise princess.”
Kassidy nodded and wiped her tears. Her sister Angela used their mother’s handkerchief to clean her face. She then pulled her over closer. “It’s okay Kassie, you’re okay,” Angela said.
The car sped out of the Garcia’s bed and breakfast. Kassidy could see them all on the porch. Watching. Even Clarissa. She tried to wave but her father drove to fast. She put her head in her sister’s lap and drifted off to sleep.
Kassidy woke to her mother screaming. She opened her eyes and sat up.
“James!” her mother cried out.
There was a slam to the back of their car. Her sisters screamed. Kassidy didn’t understand. Someone was hitting their car. Her mother was screaming. Her sisters were crying. And her father was trying to control their vehicle on the dark road.
The person behind them hit them hard again and this time her father lost control. The car flipped into a roll. It flipped and flipped and flipped and Kassidy hit her head.
Kassidy opened her eyes. There was fire. She was on the side of the road and her leg hurt really bad. The car she was in with her family was on fire. Kassidy tried to understand but she saw the flames. Lots of flames. There were people coming to her. A man and a woman. The man picked her up as the car exploded. They were thrown back to the ground.
“Mama!” Kassidy cried. Where was her mother? Where was her daddy? Where were her sisters. Why was their car burning? All she could remember was the glass and the bang to her head. Now there was fire. None of it made sense.
Present
Tarek hit the back of the black Arabian mare named Smoke. “Let’s go, girl!”
The horse charged out of the barn and galloped across the snow covered land. Tarek leaned in. Smoke could easily get up to thirty miles an hour. Still in the weather, and with Kassidy on the roads in his truck, it wouldn’t be enough to stop her. Tarek knew he had to try. If she got to the police and reported him before he could get the leverage he needed on her and her accomplice, he was screwed.
26.
“Ow!” Kassidy groaned.
She blinked out of her stupor, and pain once again rattled her skull. She was upside down. The windows on both sides of the truck were shattered. Her vision blurred, but she refused to collapse into unconsciousness, again. She fumbled with the seat belt that was painfully tight on her chest and found the release. The airbag also made it hard to breathe. She dropped an inch or two onto the roof of the truck.
“Shit!” she panted.
With all the strength she could summon, Kassidy pushed herself to crawl out of the window. How did this happen? How did any of it happen? One moment she was working in an office printing off contracts for her boss. The next she was his prisoner and fighting for her life. The terror rose in her again. She had to get out of the truck and escape. Everything in her said he would be coming for her soon. She felt it.
Kassidy crawled through the window into the snow that was still falling. At first there was ringing in her ears. And then there was something more. It was a soft thumping. Thinking it could be her heartbeat, she fell over to her back and looked up to the grey clouded sky. The truck, the roll, and the glass smashing in, all of it reminded her of the day her family died. Remembering how at only six years old, she had to watch her family burn to death in the car fire. The memory was one locked away her mind. Years of therapy had kept it that way until now. She wept.
Kassidy tried to lift her head to look out to the road.
“Mama!” she called out.
“Daddy!” she wept.
Again her vision blurred and corrected, and she saw her parents. They weren't dead. They were standing over her and smiling.
“Mama!” she cried out again.
“Daddy! Help me!” she managed to roll over and get to her hands and knees.
She crawled away from the vehicle to the road. She saw nothing but white, and the glare of the day through her squinted eyes.
“Help—” Kassidy pushed up with her hands and managed to stand. No. No! It wasn't her parents. It was him. He rode a black horse and wore a cowboy hat that covered his face in shadow. He rode fast toward her like the devil himself. Kassidy turned to run but stumbled over her own feet. All she could manage was a stagger.
27.
Tarek looked to the crash scene, and then to Kassidy as she limped away. “Easy, Smoke, Whoa, girl,” he said and pulled on the reins of the horse. The mare slowed to a trot. Tarek couldn’t tell if Kassidy was hurt or not. But from the look of his Sema, she was lucky to be alive.
“Stay!” he commanded as he got down from Smoke.
How bad was she hurt? He went after her. Tarek could hear her screaming for her mother and father, which further confused and alarmed him. And she tried to run faster. When she dropped to her hands and knees, he seized her. This time she was too weak to fight him off. “Mama? Daddy!” she begged.
“It's me. I'm sorry. Fuck. You’re hurt. You’re hurt pretty bad. Let me help,” he pleaded as he struggled to get a hold of her.
“Someone please help my momma, please help them! Help me!”
He swept her up into his arms and held her to his chest. It was the only thing he could think to do. She wept in his arms and Tarek nearly came apart at the sound of her sorrow. He drew her away from his chest and looked into her face. There was no bruising to her face, just the little one over her brow. However, she did have scratches from the shattered windshield.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Forgive me Kassandra” he pleaded.
She continued to cry when he heaved her up into his arms. Her round brown eyes misted over with tears. She bit down on her lip, uncertain of his sincerity, but scared enough to cling to it. He was a monster. At least he’d behaved like one. And because of him she was almost killed. He carried her back toward Smoke. The horse took a step back at their approach, unsure of them both. “It’s okay, girl. This is Kassandra. We need to get her home. Now,” he said.
28.
Kassidy didn’t know what to make of the maddening behavior of Tarek Marshall. She was disoriented. Her mind kept switching from the past to the present and then back to the past again.
“My parents, did you save them?” she asked.
Tarek frowned at her question. Kassidy had prayed so hard the night of the accident for someone to come down the road and discover them. Coming out of her daydream she notice
d that Tarek delivered her to the horse, almost as if she were his new bride. She’d never ridden an animal before.
“I can't... I don't want too...” she protested.
“Grab the horn,” he said against her ear because her face was so close to his. She glanced at him and then at the top handle of the saddle. She did as he said. He heaved her up by pushing on her rump and thighs and she ignored the way his touch felt helpful and reassuring. She was able to heave herself over the horses back, and straddle the saddle with one final push. The horse took a step forward and Kassidy slumped of the animal.
“Good girl.” Tarek smiled for her. “Now my turn,” he told her. She scooted forward and he went over and behind her like a true cowboy. They were both on the horse now with him pressed against her backside. “Smoke, Home,” he commanded after the cluck of his tongue. He turned the horse and they started back.
Kassidy fought back against her dizzying headache. Despite her hatred of the man, and what he represented, she took comfort by leaning back against him. The protective hold of his strong arms around her kept her in place. He didn’t seem to react to their closeness and she was grateful for that because it wasn’t her intent to flirt. She was just tired of fighting. Her eyes started to flutter.
“Don’t close your eyes, Kassandra,” his deep authoritative voice warned. “Keep them open for me. You’ve hit your head twice darling. And I don’t know... how bad things are.”
“Doctor, I need a doctor,” she said in a weak voice she loathed.
“I agree. This ends now. I’ll call for help.”
Her eyes stretched open at his accession making her glance back at him. He didn’t look at her at least she didn’t think so. His black Stetson was pulled down low over his brow and he kept his gaze on the road. A deep pang of regret hit her. Maybe, she admitted, just maybe, this was her fault too. Not that she deserved his attack of her and Daniel. Violence was never something to be justified. But she did provoke the situation. There was enough guilt to be shared.
“I’ll confess. I’ll tell the police about Daniel, about everything. I swear.”
He didn’t respond.
She decided to leave it at that for now. Whatever madman ideas he had of torturing her, and her accomplice, had to have passed by now.
The horse ride was a bit uncomfortable. She ached in her chest, her neck, and her shoulders from the accident. And of course her head throbbed with excruciating pain. Each gallop made her bounce on the saddle, and she winced.
“How bad are you hurt?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Everything hurts. Not just one thing.”
“Does it hurt when I do this?” He squeezed her between his arms. To her surprise it did and it didn’t. She wasn’t sure how to respond. Only a masochist could find comfort in the arms of her tormentor.
“Ah no, not exactly,” she said while looking around. “Where are we?” she asked to divert the conversation in another direction.
“Outside of Haslet,” he told her. “You’re at the Marshall’s oldest ranch. My father’s great-grandfather won almost eleven-thousand acres of land in a poker game. This is what is left.”
“Are you kidding?” Kassidy looked out over the prairie covered in snow. “A poker game, really?”
“You’ve done your research on my family. You should know pretty much everything about us. Did you skip that part?” he asked with a bite of sarcasm.
She bit down on her bottom lip. She’d done her research on his father and him, not the entire family. She was never interested in what made them rich bastards. She wanted to use their greed to keep them from destroying lives. Atone for the lives of her own family. She wanted to avenge Clarissa. They were in the middle of nowhere from what she knew of the area. Haslet was a small town outside of Dallas.
“Are you dizzy, nauseous?” he asked.
“A little nauseous I think. The horse ride isn’t the most comfortable.”
“We need to get you out of this weather. Hold on for me,” he warned. Before she could respond, he leaned in on her back and urged the mare to go faster than a slow trot. Kassidy squealed in fright closing her eyes tightly shut. The horse picked up speed and she felt everything, the wind, and road, all of it. And then she could feel the horse turn right she whimpered. What if she was thrown? This was dangerous. The snow came down in a heavy pour, and when she opened her eyes, she could barely see anything. But Tarek had control. He pulled back on the horse’s reins and they came to a slower pace. The horse brought them to the front door of the ranch.
Tarek got off the horse first and then helped her. She tried to stand, to walk on her own, but she found her legs to be too weak and sore. Using caution, Kaleb again swept her up in his arms.
“This is not necessary!” she protested, pushing at his chest. “I can manage to walk if you give me a chance.”
He ignored her protests. Carrying her seemed to be an effortless act for him. He carried her as if she weighed nothing. And Kassidy was a good one hundred and fifty-five pounds. She put her arm around his neck and let him carry her back inside.
Chapter 14
Tarek thought to take her in to the sitting room, but he wasn’t sure of her injuries. Instead, he carried her up the stairs. She wheezed a little and that alarmed him. When he tried to look into her face, she turned away. But even in her battered state, he found her strong and determined.
“Does your chest hurt?” he asked against her ear. She was in his arms and for that moment his.
“A little,” came her soft reply. “From the seatbelt I think.”
He brought her inside his room, but stood before the bed. Her arms were around his neck when she looked into his face. Hers was so close he could see the sparks of life in her dark brown pupils.
“You’ll be okay,” he said. In that moment he wanted to reassure her. Make her hate him just a little less.
“Can you put me down please?”
He carried her over to the bed and eased her on top gently. The moment he released her from his embrace she scooted back against the pillows. He guessed he deserved her distrust. But it did hurt his pride a bit. Women didn’t recoil from his touch. And there was a time when she didn’t regard him with disgust either. Or was that all part of her game. Was she always disgusted by him and just pretending? His anger had gotten the best of him when he discovered she had infiltrated his company to destroy his family. And now he was in deep shit. She was right. This was kidnapping. No matter the consequence, it wouldn’t end well.
“About that doctor,” she said. “Please call an ambulance. I don’t feel good.”
“Show me,” he stepped toward the bed. “Where does it hurt?”
“No!” She put up her hand and scooted over to the other side of the bed. “Don’t come near me.”
He saw fear in her eyes and the wet clothes she wore from the snow. The temperature had dropped another ten degrees inside his home. It chilled them both. And the sun had almost disappeared from the sky. Soon it would be dark and even more impossible to get here.
“You’re right. I’ll call for a paramedic,” he reached in his pocket for his cell phone. It wasn’t there. Tarek patted both of his pockets. “What the fuck?”
“What? What is it?” she asked with a tremor in her voice. Earlier he had spoken to his attorney and then he heard her go out the door, and he followed. Did he put the phone down or in his pocket?
“Wait here,” he said.
“Tarek!” she called after him. He was forced to ignore the worry in her voice. He bounded back down the stairs and rushed into the sitting room. He searched the desk and the chair. He tried to remember where he put the damn phone. Why couldn’t he remember? And then he recalled her digging in his pocket for his keys. Tarek looked up to the ceiling. If she had taken the phone from him she wouldn’t be up there screaming his name. Could it have fallen in the snow when she fought him? He shook his head in confusion and went out the front door. Smoke looked up at him when he came down the steps. The h
orse hadn’t moved from where he left her. But snow now covered the poor animal, and the frigid air had her breathing out plumes of smoke from her flared nostrils. The snow continued to drift in from the storm clouds nearly covering their tracks from earlier, having already fallen an inch. He went back to the area he thought to be where they fought and kicked the snow around. He looked everywhere he could think and found nothing but more snow.
“Damn it! Where the hell is it?”
He glanced back to the house. Kassidy had gotten up from the bed. She stood at the window staring down at him. Their eyes locked. The accusation in hers made his gaze shift away. He’d have to try to reach the offices located inside the livestock barn and call for help. She could have internal injuries. He thought to go back inside to tell her but didn’t want to appear like a complete idiot for dropping the damn thing. Instead Tarek climbed his horse and rode it, hard and fast, out to the stables.
29.
Kassidy stood at the window and caught the image of him stomping around in the snow. When he saw her, he walked off and climbed on his horse. He rode the animal away from the house. Then he was gone. She glanced back to the bed and then to the open door of the bathroom. Where could he be going? Did he have another car? She wanted out of the nightmare he forced her into. But every time she stood, another stab of pain hit her in the head. Kassidy limped around the room in search of something, anything she could use. Besides the fire poker, there wasn’t much to offer in the form of a weapon. And even if there was something, she couldn't leverage it. Not now.
