A Fresh Start (41 page)

“Wrap them up, along with the yellow she bought.”

“Do you want to choose some other designs?”

“No.” He sighed and smiled at Paige’s quirkiness. “She buys things like that. She’s an extremely efficient shopper.”

Sandra’s husband walked over to her and held her in his arms.
 

“She was so brave. Really. She was composed, and she looked like someone with a plan.”

“Thanks,” he said before paying for the clothes and left.
 

He got back into the car and sat quietly. Mr. Seymour had wound the window down, allowing some of the wind to get in. The weather was warmer than usual and the breeze didn’t help in alleviating the heat, but he needed it.

Having the rush of breeze against his face reminded him to breathe instead of getting weighed down by the heaviness in his heart.

Justin didn’t know what they could do now.

“Why don’t you get some more rest?”

Though he’d gone in and out of sleep, he was wide awake now. He closed his eyes as another breeze went by. It was so warm that day, why was Paige wearing a cardigan? “Her skin, she set off her rashes on purpose. In order to get us that note.”

“It worked.”

Why was he in her house? What was the point?

He groaned, then shook his head when he caught Mr. Seymour observing him with his raised brows.
 

Those two questions kept surfacing in his mind.
I don’t know, Lord. Tell me.

He wants to prepare a house for her. He wants her to like it.

Then the light bulbs went off.

He leaned forward, one hand on his knee while the other reached into his pocket for his phone. He called Andrew and said once the call went through, “Back in New York, did she use to record down her expenses and all?”

“Yeah, she’s been doing that since she started receiving her allowance on a monthly basis.”

“I once saw her transferring those records onto her computer.”

“She did that, too.”

Justin laughed. “Pottery Barn. She said she bought some furniture for her house from Pottery Barn. He’ll want her to like the house, that’s why he broke in.”

“What?”

“To see what she has inside her house and buy the same items for the new house,” Detective Linden said, equally thrilled.

“With Paige’s receipts, you’ll know what she bought for her house. There’s no way he’s buying and delivering the furniture on his own.”

“We just need to match it to an address that bought all that stuff,” Andrew concluded. “We’ll get back to you.”

He rubbed his palms together and steepled his fingers.

“You seem confident.”

“It’s a God-sent clue, can’t go wrong.”

He couldn’t stay seated. He got out of the car, pacing.

When his phone finally rang, he answered it, already knowing there was a match.

“We got it, the police are on their way. I’ll text you the address.”

Justin grinned as his fist curled, pumping into the air. This whole fiasco would be over soon and Paige would be back with them. He got back into the car and gave Mr. Seymour the address.

While turning on the engine, Mr. Seymour asked, “Do you have your gun with you?”

He grimaced. He’d given his to Paige and it was probably in her handbag back at his house. “Please tell me you have yours.”

Mr. Seymour grinned and pushed his shirt aside, revealing a black pistol. “I have another in the trunk.”

“Perfect.”

Paige sat up straight and stretched her back as the credits for the first
Lord of the Rings
began rolling.

It’s time.

“Do you want to get some rest? You seem tired.”

“It’s the medicine; it’s making me a little drowsy.” She shifted herself away from Daniel and turned to him. “Which of our rooms will we be changing to the master bedroom after we get married?”

“Why don’t you decide?”
 

Paige could see that her question pleased him.

She nodded, her focus moving toward the window as she pretended to be thinking through the question. After a moment, she finally gathered her courage and asked her intended question, “What about the garden? Can we plant some lavender or something? I don’t know much about plants, but I love the scent of lavender.”

He grinned at her, nodding.

Hopping to her feet, she returned his grin and asked, “Can we see the garden? Do we have one in the backyard? Imagine how nice the house will smell when the lavender is blooming.” She widened her smile and stretched both her hands out toward Daniel.

Her lower jaw trembled from the ache of holding her smile, and she forgot how to breathe.

She dropped her hand when Daniel didn’t reach out for her. Voices screamed in her head, telling her how her plan had failed and how she was going to die for it.

Personally, based on all the things Daniel had written in the letters, based on how he had behaved, she would prefer death to whatever Daniel could do to her.

Her smile faded, allowing her jaws to get some rest. She couldn’t give up now, she’d played his game all morning.
 

I’ve never failed a test. I’m not going to fail this.
“You don’t want me to go outside,” she mumbled. “It’s all right, I’m tired anyway. I think I’ll take a nap in my room,” she said softly, purposely looking away from him.

She only realized the problem after a moment.

She couldn’t leave Daniel alone, not now. If he were to turn on the TV and find some news about her, he’d find out what she had done at the store. She pressed her lips into a thin line, her thumb rubbing against the ring on her index finger.

Taking in a deep breath, she tried calming herself down.
There’s a way, there’s always a way.

But she couldn’t think of any. She’d backed herself into a corner. So she did the last thing she could.
Jesus…

She couldn’t remember any bible phrases now.
 

Daniel reached under the coffee table and pulled out a gun.
 

She drew in another sharp breath, this time, involuntarily.

But instead of pointing the gun at her, he slipped it behind him and took her hand. He led her out the front door, his hand firmly gripping onto hers.

Though he had led her out, he didn’t give her any shoes. She walked around barefooted, carefully stepping over the twigs and anything she suspected would hurt her feet.

She took her time, taking small, tentative steps. She didn’t dare to complain or ask for her shoes.
 

Daniel was probably still judging if the decision to let her out of the house was a right one, and she didn’t want to do anything that would get her hauled back.

“Oh, this would make a great spot for the lavender. We can find another plant with white flowers. It’d make the whole place look so pretty. What do you think about roses?” She turned to him, then pointed to an area nearer to the house. “We can plant a row of it there.”

“Won’t the scent clash? I thought you love the smell of lavender.”

“I don’t think roses have much scent. I heard it takes three roses to get a drop of rose oil. Unless we’ve a lot of them, I don’t think it’ll make a difference.” Taking another few slow steps, she jumped over a few twigs and turned back to face the house.
 

She scanned the area. “We can plant a lot of stuff, but we should definitely plan. Otherwise, we might end up with colors that clash.” She took a step to the side, purposely stepping into the small ditch with the darker shade of grass.

She leaned precariously to the side and screamed as her ankle gave way.

A sickening crack of her bone startled Daniel as he tightened his grip on her, pulling her straight.
 

Paige lifted her right leg and reached for her ankle with a deeply etched frown. “My ankle,” she moaned.

Releasing her hand, Daniel moved and bent over her ankle.

Her skin on the outer area of her ankle was red and there was a sharp pain shooting up her leg. She clenched down on her jaws and dropped her leg.
 

Daniel got on one knee and examined her ankle, gently lifting it onto his knee.

With a deep breath, her heart racing, she raised her leg, kneeing Daniel in the nose.

The pain in her ankle hadn’t fully subsided yet, but it’d pass.

As Daniel fell back against the floor, she caught a glimpse of bright red blood flowing from his nose before sprinting out the direction where the car drove in.

She kept her head straight, her eyes staring ahead as she sprinted through the woods. Everything around her seemed to fade as her mind focused on the directions she had to keep while avoiding the trees.
 

Behind her, a loud ‘boom’ rang.

She ducked her head, her shoulders and arms flinched up to her ears in reaction.

But she kept running.

Statistically, there was a good chance that she wouldn’t be hit by the bullet as she ran. Even if she were hit, it probably wouldn’t be a vital organ.
 

She wasn’t sure if that statistic was actually in her favor. If she got shot and could no longer run, she’d wish for it to be a vital organ.

Shaking that thought out of her head, she swerved to the side and ran out toward the road.

She had headed in the directions of the trees for some form of shield against the bullet, but she couldn’t stay in that path for too long or she might get lost.

Regulating her breathing, she widened her strides and kept pushing forward like she did each morning during her run.

Another loud shot caused her to instinctively arched her shoulders forward and bring her head in. But even as she did that, she noticed a piece of the tree bark chipping off right before her.
 

Keep moving, it won’t hit you.
 

“Turn left here,” Justin stated while his eyes remained on the Google map application.

Mr. Seymour turned into the street, and Justin noticed the drop in volume of the car’s engine.

On the highway, Mr. Seymour had driven as fast as he could, cutting cars that were moving too slow for them, changing lanes just so they could push that little faster toward where Paige was held.
 

Justin hadn’t rushed him. Mr. Seymour probably didn’t want Paige to be in Daniel’s hand for another second longer than she had to.

Once they were over the turn, Mr. Seymour sped up, following the Justin’s instructions through several windings. Halfway through, Justin noticed the pointer on the speedometer dropping lower.

He was about to hurry Mr. Seymour when he heard a muffled gunshot.

The shot sounded distant, but the muscles around Mr. Seymour’s eyes tightened as he scanned the surrounding area. The sound appeared to have triggered the soldier in him.
 

Keeping one hand on the steering wheel, Mr. Seymour took out his gun and passed it to Justin.

“Slow down,” Justin told Mr. Seymour. If fake Daniel was the one shooting, it could be because Paige had made a run for it. He quickly pulled out the gun’s magazine to ensure that it was loaded.

Staring out, Justin watched for any movements in the woods while Mr. Seymour further slowed the car.

“Stop!” Justin shouted when he saw a silhouette dashing toward their car. Holding out his elbow, he braced for the impact of the sudden brake.

He looked up from the dashboard as he heard a thump on the front of the car and found a wide pair of eyes staring back at him. “Paige!”

The shock and fear melted from her face as Justin pushed his door open.

Just as he got outside, he heard another shot.

He bent down behind the door just as the windshield shattered. His head snapped toward the noise, then peered over at where Paige was standing. “Stay down!” he shouted.

He couldn’t see her, but there wasn’t any blood over the hood of the car.

He looked over his shoulder and back at Mr. Seymour.

“I’m fine. Get her!”

Flinging the gun back into the car, Justin hollered again, “Paige, stay down!”

Mr. Seymour pumped two shots from his gun, giving Justin some cover as he ran toward Paige.
 

He looped his arm over her back and pressed her head against his chest before dragging her over to the driver side of the car.

He’d just sat Paige down safely in the car when Mr. Seymour shouted, “He’s running!”

He had to end this today.
 

“Stay here,” he instructed Paige. He took the gun from Mr. Seymour and sprinted after Daniel.

He entered the woods, pausing for a moment to listen to the loud crunching sound of dried leaves being crushed as Daniel ran.
 

Three rapid shots reverberated through the woods, and the loud crunching stopped.
 

Justin moved behind a tree, his arm raised and ready to take a shot while his eyes continued sweeping through the woods.

One more shot pierced through the woods, followed by several rapid shots.

The police
, he thought.

Carefully, he moved toward where the gun shots were coming from. Though the crossfire seemed to have ceased, Justin was careful of where he was heading.

“Officer down! Officer down!”

Justin craned his neck when he heard the frantic voice. Lowering his arms, he hastened his steps. He stepped closer to the young officer who was keeping his hands on an older officer’s wound.

“Stop moving!” The young officer fumbled to reach for the gun when he noticed Justin.

Despite holding on to the gun, he held out his arms by his chest. “I’m Justin Doyle. You’re here for Paige Watson, right? I’m her boyfriend.” He looked over at the older officer. “Are you all right?” he asked, his eyes scanning their surroundings.

“He ran that way,” the officer said through clenched teeth. “I shot him, too.”

Justin didn’t know if he should go after Daniel or stay and help the officer.

“Go, I’ll be fine. It’s just a flesh wound.”

He nodded and was about to go after Daniel when he remembered what all this was about, or rather who, it was about. Daniel had planned all this thinking he’d be with Paige forever; he wasn’t going to run and give up everything.