Do you dare meet me?
Do you dare take the risk?
Are you scared I’ll have your life soon enough?
If you are foolish enough, come to the place you love the most.
Copperfield Lane.
The note slips from my fingers and falls to the ground.
She’s begging me to come to her—to end this once and for all.
I shake my head in frustration. I should have seen this coming. The day before my anniversary. It all makes sense now. She wasn’t giving up, she was biding her time.
I’ll give her what she wants…or so she thinks. I am going to take back my life. I am going to rewrite the ending to our story. She will not decide my fate. I’ve worked too goddamn hard for her to take everything from me.
As the adrenaline begins swirling its way through my body, I spin around, ready to sneak out of the shop, when I nearly run into Carolina standing in front of me.
“What are you doing?”
In my haste, I’m surprised I can come up with a sufficient lie. “I wanted to make sure Law cleaned out the refrigerator today to make room for the food.”
She narrows her eyes.
"If I hadn't been standing at the doorway the whole time, I might believe you. So, babe, tell me what you're really doing."
Crap.
This might not be the right moment to think about this, but she just solidified that she is going to be a great mom. She already has the no bullshit voice down pat.
“I have something I need to do,” I tell her. The less she knows, the better. If she knows more, she’ll tell Lawson, and then my plan will go up in smoke. I can’t have that.
“Lena—” she starts, but I don’t let her finish.
“Don’t, Carolina. I have to do this, okay?”
“No, whatever it is you think you have to do, you don’t. Not alone.”
“No one can come with me.”
“Selena, you aren’t going alone…wherever the fuck that may be.”
I give in a little to ease her curiosity. “I’m going to fix everything.”
She purses her lips, contemplating my words. “How are you going to do that?”
“I don’t know yet.”
“Let me come with you.”
“You’re pregnant.”
“So, whatever you are going to do is dangerous then?”
Shit. She’s setting me up.
"Can you do me a favor?" I ask her, deviating her from trying to talk me out of this.
“Depends.”
“If something were to happen, tell Lawson I didn’t get rid of the note. He’ll know what I am talking about. Tell him I love him, and that I tried.”
“Selena.”
Instead of trying to move around and go out through the front of the building, I turn and push out the emergency exit in the breakroom.
I know she’ll run back to tell Lawson. This only means I have a set amount of time to get to Copperfield Lane and finish this.
Then it dawns on me. I have no keys.
I can’t go back in the shop. I know for certain Lawson didn’t leave the keys in his truck. I look to my left and see Benny’s truck parked in his usual spot next to the dumpster. I run as stealthy as I can in my heels, and thank the gods above when it’s unlocked all the while hoping he left his keys. Hopping up into the truck, my hand slides over the ignition. No keys.
Shit!
It takes two point three seconds for my head to lower and my eyes to begin to close when they fall on something shiny in the cup holder.
My hand latches onto them like a snake claiming its prey. In quick succession, I put the correct key in the ignition and turn the engine over.
Thank God for small towns and the comfort of leaving your keys laying in your vehicle.
I throw the truck into reverse and get the hell out of dodge.
“She what?”
Benny spins around to face me. He was the first person I saw, so it was him or waste my time finding someone else.
I slap his chest with impatience and grit out, “She left. She left to do something stupid! Get your shit, we have to go.”
“First off, babe, you aren’t going anywhere. Second off, where’s Law?”
“I don’t know, but we have to go before she gets too much of a head start on us.”
“What vehicle did she take?” he asks, like it really goddamn matters.
I throw my hands up in even more frustration. “I don’t know, Ben!” I say louder than I should. A few people turn around to look at us. Shit. I lower my voice again. “She ran out the breakroom exit. I came and got you after that.”
“Fuck.”
He swivels his head from side to side and starts moving, whipping out his cell phone in the process. Screw this. I am not letting Selena get herself into a situation she can’t get herself out of. I run back to the breakroom. Before I hit the door, I see a piece of paper laying on the floor. I stop for a split second and snatch it up. I watch those damn crime shows. Everything is a clue. As I slam the door open, I read the words.
Well, son of a shit.
This is bad.
This is really fucking bad.
My hormones are kicking in, and I am going to freak out in a matter of seconds.
I rush back inside to the main lobby area and spin around, looking for the biggest badasses in the room.
“Oh my God,” I whisper to myself. There are too many people in this damn place. I can’t find anyone.
My anxiety is beginning to crush me. “Benny!” I yell. I yell it so loud, everyone shuts their mouths and turn around to face me. “Lawson! She’s going home!”
Out of goddamn nowhere, they are both right beside me. I start to make my way to the front door.
"Carolina," Benny growls. He's going to try to stop me from going. And he probably should. I need to think about my baby, but I can't stay here and give myself a heart attack and add even more stress to this baby not knowing what is happening to my best friend.
Twisting my head in his direction, my voice barely a whisper, I say, “Don’t stop me. Please, Benny, don’t stop me. She’s best friend.” My eyes close, and my head turns back to the door. “She’s my family. I’m going.” At this point, he can’t tell me what I’m going to do anyway.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” is muttered in unison.
Whatever.
I push the door open and walk out, Lawson and Benny following me.
“My truck,” Ben says as he rounds the corner of the shop at a slight jog heading to the back. “Fuck!” he yells, then stops dead in his tracks. “My fucking truck is gone!” I take notice of Lena’s dad standing behind me, and my heart begins to race at the look set on Darin’s face. It’s focused and etched with vengeance.
My ears pick up on the bustling of people coming out of the shop to investigate. A man I don’t recognize hollers to Lawson. “Mine’s parked on the street! Let’s go!”
The four of us start running toward the man’s truck, and I turn my head just enough to see men darting off to their own vehicles. Women staying in front of the shop.
Once we are loaded up, Benny brings out his phone again.
“You there? You got the shit I need?”
He pauses for a moment.
“Yeah, we got a whole town following behind us. Keep it discrete.”
My eyes widen. What the hell is he talking about?
Benny taps the man driving on the shoulder. “You got a qualm about firearms?”
The man shakes his head and removes one hand from the stirring wheel to open the console between him and Lawson in the front. He pulls out a gun.
Jesus.
Where am I?
Who carries guns in their trucks these days?
“Answers that question. I got a guy who is meeting us at the end of your lane, Law. I’m guessing here, but I’m sure your wife took my truck, which has all my fucking weapons in it.” Again, where the fuck am I and who the fuck is Benny? “He’s going to strap us with what we need. I wasn’t expecting a whole fucking army to follow us in, so we will have to handle that as well when we stop. But we are going in quiet. If Aria sees or hears us, it could spook her, and God knows what she’ll do. You good with that?”
“Do I have a choice?” Lawson asks.
“No,” Benny replies, then turns to me. “You are stupid for being in this truck.”
Whoa.
He did not just call me stupid.
“And you’re stupid if you think I’m gonna sit back and let my best friend get herself killed.”
“We’ll talk about this later.”
No, we gosh darn won’t, but I don’t tell him that. I turn my head to look out the window, praying we get to Selena in time.