Page 90 of Forever Theirs

Leaping up the porch steps, keys in hand, I quickly unlocked the door and swung it open, humming a pop song as I stepped over the threshold.

“Jubie,” I sang over my shoulder as I tugged off my coat and hung it on a hook by the door.

Whirling around to search for my snuggle buddy, my wide smile that had been firmly in place since Dave’s vanished. I blinked, unable to understand what I was witnessing with the wine clouding my thoughts.

Frozen in place, I stared at the strange woman hovering over Jubie’s limp body by the open back door. She said nothing, only stared back, as if she was just as shocked to see me, Jubie’s back legs clutched in her tight grip.

Nothing made sense. Why was she here, and why did it look like she was attempting to drag the ninety-five-pound dog out the back door?

“Um…” I licked my lips, still studying the woman’s face when recognition hit me. “It’s you, the woman from the bar that first night. It’s Jessica, right?”

Jubie’s legs slapped to the floor when Jessica released her hold to stand tall. She was beautiful, that was for sure, but in a cruel way. Anger and malicious intent wafted off her, warning me away even from across the living room. I dared a single step closer, holding both hands out in surrender. My gaze kept flicking to Jubie, who had yet to stir, and the woman tracked my every move.

“You know me?” I nodded in response. “They talked about me, then.” Jessica huffed a humorless laugh. A cruel smirk pulled at her lips. “That figures. Men always realize they used and abused the good ones when it’s too late to come crawling back.”

“Yeah,” I drawled, not really agreeing with her but knowing it was best to play along with her delusions in this situation. I’d seen enough crime shows to know you didn’t disagree with the crazy person in the room. “What’s wrong with Jubie?”

And what the fuck did you do to her?I wanted to scream.

Jessica shrugged like the unconscious dog wasn’t a big deal. “Just sleeping. I think.” She nudged the unmoving Jubie with the toe of her tennis shoe. “Pretty sure. I wasn’t certain about her weight for the drugs, so maybe not.”

I swallowed hard to silence my pitiful whimper that was desperate to escape at her words and nonchalant tone.

“Let’s go with just sleeping.” Please let Jubie just be sleeping.“What are you doing here, Jessica?” I dared another step, keeping my movements slow and controlled to not startle her. I didn’t know if she was armed, which had me proceeding with caution. When I reached the other side of the couch, I wrapped both hands around the back in a death grip.

“What amIdoing here? What areyoudoing here?”

“Checking on Jubie,” I blurted. Pretty sure telling her this was my cabin now, too, would not go over well with Miss Crazy Eyes.

She narrowed her eyes like she didn’t believe me. “I’ve decided it’s time to finally leave this shitty little town, but first, I wanted to give those two assholes a little payback. So they would fully understand what they did and pay the consequences.” Her voice rose with every word until she was almost shouting. “They can’t keep doing this to women like us.” I nodded, even though I didn’t understand the craziness she spewed, which had nothing to do with the wine fogging my brain. “When I watched you, I knew?—”

“You knew what?” I gaped.

Jessica rolled her eyes and slipped both hands into the back pockets of her jeans. “Don’t look so surprised and outraged. I did it for you. Maybe you should be a little more grateful rather than all judgy.” All I could do was nod back. She continued. “I needed to see if you were like me, falling for two men who would shred your heart into tiny little bits that would never be put back together again.”

“Oh, yeah, of course. And yes, thank you for checking in on me. That was very… thoughtful.” Fucking hell, I was terrible at this appeasing-a-crazy thing. The TV shows made it seem much easier. It would be nice if I could call for help, but my new cell phone was in my coat pocket by the front door. Jubie’s best bet was for me to keep Jessica talking until the guys arrived, whenever that would be, and maybe we would both make it out of this unscathed. “Wait, were you the one who followed me that night?”

She tilted her head to the side. “You need to be more specific.”

Right. “The night I walked alone to the main building at The Nest taking the path that wove through the cottages.”

“Alone? No, why would I do that?”

“Um, because you said you watched me?”

“Only when you were with them.” She rolled her eyes like her answer made all the sense in the world. Maybe it did, to her. “Well, there was the whole cabin thing. We’re about the same size. Did you know that?” I looked at her, then down my frame. “I really liked that green sweater. It fit perfectly, and the material was super soft. I ordered one once I left.”

My sluggish thoughts grasped on to that creepy-as-hell comment. I tightened my hold on the couch to keep from bolting out the front door.

“Yeah, that’s a good sweater.” One I would never wear again. I inched along the couch, hoping to get close enough to see if Jubie was breathing. “And what did you find out after watching me with them?”

“That they were doing the same thing to you that they did to me. We are the innocent victims in their fucked-up mind game, and you’d end up just like me. Broken and angry. They have to learn that they can’t keep doing this to us. Which is why I’m here and why you’re going to stop coming closer and turn around and walk out the front door like you saw nothing out of the ordinary going on.”

Her matter-of-fact tone made it sound like she expected me to immediately obey her ludicrous command.

“Or,” I responded, “we could talk this out. You tell me all the things that are making you angry while I make sure Jubie is okay.”

The corner of her lips curled in a sneer. “The dumb animal is fine. Why do you care what happens to her? It’s just a dog.”

---