Page 103 of Third Time is the Charm
Beth shook her head.This was not what she wanted.Now, all she could do was wait patiently and hope that they caught Caroline before she got away. She walked towards the main doors since she was going to have to go back up to their room to get her pair of black flats to wear.
As she moved, she kept her eyes trained on the Caroline fleeing. It only took her a second longer of staring before Beth’s eyes widened in realization.The woman wasn’t Caroline.From Darcy’s vantage point, she knew he couldn’t tell, but from where she was, when the woman stood, Beth was able to get a glimpse of her face, and it wasn’t Caro.
Which meant that Caro was still here, somewhere.
Beth’s nausea worsened as her eyes moved around the room. The other blonde had just been a ploy, to draw out Darcy and whomever he had hired to detain her. Her eyes scanned towards the doorway, knowing that Caroline was there somewhere, watching the whole thing.
Just as her gaze crossed the second door, something –someone –caught her eye. A blonde, turning and walking away down the hall.
It couldn’t be her,Beth thought at first; this woman’s hair was cut chin length which was why she almost skimmed over her. But her face, there was no mistaking it.
She had found Caroline.
And she was going to get away.
Beth groaned, a quick glance telling her that Darcy and John were still pursuing the decoy out the back exit of the room. Caroline probably used the decoy to see if they were on to her. And now that she knew that they were, she was leaving to try again another day. Beth’s stomach clenched.This game with Caroline couldn’t continue; she needed to confront her.She didn’t know how to tell if it was a trick – and she didn’t have time to find someone else to go with her and help her catch the real Caroline.
Before she knew it, shoes in hand, her feet padded softly against the carpet between the tables of guests that were still focused on the show in front of them. She didn’t know what else to do. Beth had to stop Caroline; she couldn’t continue to live like this anymore.
She just prayed Darcy would realize and be able to come find her in time.
Chapter 29
She carefully slipped out the door of the ballroom into the eerily empty seating around just outside. Her head turned from side to side, searching for the blonde bob that had disappeared out the same door just moments before. Looking up the hallway on the right, she saw the familiar figure rounding the corner at the end of it, not looking behind her.
She must be going back to her room to regroup, realizing that we had more security waiting for her.
Beth tiptoed hurriedly in the same direction, stopping just short of the corner as she heard a door close. Peering around the corner, she saw an empty hallway. Her brows furrowed, wondering where Caro had gone to. There were really only two options – either she’d went out through the ‘Exit’ door into the stairwell at the other end of the passage or her room was one of the ones in the hall and she’d gone inside.
Hoping for the latter, Beth continued quietly down the hall, trying to listen against each doorway for Caroline’s voice.
“Listening for me?” That very voice slithered through the space and up Beth’s spine. She froze in her tracks, adrenaline pumping through her veins.
“As a matter of fact, yes,” Beth replied as she turned to face her tormenter who stood not even five feet away from her; at least her voice managed to come out cool and confident even though she felt like she couldn’t breathe.
Caroline smirked. “Well, I’m glad I could pull you away from your date.” The word ‘date’ dripped with disdain, but the whole phrase made Beth realize that this had been Caro’s plan all along – to get her out of the room and alone.
“What do you want, Caroline? What is your problem?”
“You know what I want.” Her eyes narrowed. “Darcy is mine. He has always been mine and he will always be mine.”
“Except he doesn’t want you,” Beth scoffed. “And you don’t need him – you have Mrs. DeBourgh funding your entire life. You let him go –for years –before, why can’t you do that now?”
“That old hag was barely useful to me. No, Darcy is mine, you little, annoying bitch. He wants me,” she spat. “I know how to make him want me.”
Beth felt her fists clenching at Caro’s faulty and insulting assumptions, barely paying attention to the fact that it seemed like her relationship with Mrs. DeBourgh had been severed. “Darcy. Will. Never. Want. You.”Her words punctuated with her vehemence for this woman. Her hands gripped her shoes, pulling them to her chest as though she was trying to protect her heart from the hate that Caroline was exuding.
Too late she realized her mistake.
Caro’s eyes narrowed on Beth’s hand – herlefthand – and the ring that was sitting on her finger.
“What have you done?” Rage seethed from her voice before a crazed laugh escaped from her lips. “It doesn’t matter – Darcy will want me; I’m not going to leave him any choice,” she snarled. Beth felt her heart coming to a stop as Caroline reached into her purse and pulled out a gun, aiming it directly at Beth. “And then, when you’re gone, I’ll just take that lovely bit of ice from your finger for myself. Just like I’ll take him.”
In slow motion, Beth saw Caroline cock the gun with an assured smile that said she knew she had won. The moment she pulled the trigger was the same moment Beth saw Darcy and John round the corner, stopping dead in their tracks at the sight in front of them.
“Beth!”Darcy yelled, causing Caroline’s shot to fly just to the right of her arm.
Beth stared at him, the fact that she’d been shot at not yet registering in her mind.
