Thirty and a Half Excuses (35 page)

I wiped a tear off my cheek and wrote the next item.

30. He’s not over Hilary
.

He swore he was, but a sick feeling of dread burrowed deep in my heart at the very thought of her. It felt like I was just waiting for my world to be jerked out from underneath me. Would I feel that way our entire marriage or would it eventually go away? Did I really want to live like that?

Exhausted, I set the list on the table and went into my bedroom to undress, wondering if I should put on something sexy to greet Joe with when he came home or something more practical to sleep in since I was so exhausted. I kicked off my shoes, and then stripped the gauzy part of the dress over my head, tossing it on the bed as I tried to make up my mind.

Muffy whimpered.

I looked down at her, the hair on my arms feeling prickly. “What is it, girl?”

A scratchy sound came from outside my window. What was that?

My head jerked up as my cell phone rang in the kitchen.

I crept down the hall to get my phone out of my purse, my heart pounding in my chest. Had I locked the side door after bringing Muffy in?

I was being silly and paranoid.

The microwave clock read 10:15. Snatching up my phone, I locked the kitchen door as I answered, “Hello.”

“Rose,” Mason said. “I wanted to check on you.”

I heard another noise outside my kitchen window. I was sure about it this time. “I think there’s someone creeping around outside my house.”

“Did you call the police?”

“I just heard it when you called.”

“You need to call the police. But stay on this line and call them on your home phone.”

Something felt really wrong. “Okay.”

I put my cell phone on the counter. My hands shook so badly I had a hard time pressing the buttons for 911. When they answered, I told them I thought there was a prowler outside my house.

“We’ll send someone over as soon as we can,” the female dispatcher answered in a bored voice. “But Ernie’s on a drunk and disorderly out by the Wagon Wheel.”

I hung up, panic rising from the pit of my belly as I picked up my cell phone again. “I don’t think they’re coming, Mason. She said Ernie’s on another call.”

“I’ll be there as soon as possible.” He sounded anxious.

My breath came in short bursts. This is what happened to Mason’s sister. The police didn’t believe her, and Joe came over too late. “You won’t get here in time.”

“Stop that right now!” he shouted. “You’re going to be fine.”

I nodded, trying to convince myself that Mason was right. “Yeah, it’s probably just my imagination.” But I knew it wasn’t. The paper I’d found that morning, now sitting on the kitchen table, caught my attention and my terror rose. “I forgot to tell you about the note. How could I have forgotten to tell you about the note?”

“What note?”

“I found it on my porch this morning under a rock. It said
Stay Away
in cut magazine letters.”

Mason’s voice sounded tight. “Rose, are all of your doors locked?”

“Maybe I should go over to Heidi Joy’s.”

“No! Stay inside.” He was out of breath. “What’s Muffy doing?”

“She’s whimpering.”

“Call 911 again.”

Tears flooded my eyes. “They won’t come, Mason.”

“I’m on my way.”

The whole house went dark, the lights flickering out into blackness. Muffy began to growl. “Mason, my lights just went out. I’m going to Heidi Joy’s.”

“
No
. Stay inside. You’re safer inside.”

I heard a noise in the back of the house. “Mason, if something happens—”

“Nothing’s going to happen, Rose. I’m not going to let it.”

I wrapped my free arm across my chest and gasped when I felt the silk against my skin. “Oh, God.” I was wearing the white slip part of my dress, and my feet were bare. But the most telling of all was the ring on my hand.

“
What
?”

“The woman in the vision is me.” My knees started to buckle, and I grabbed the counter.

“Why do you think that? What are you wearing?” He sounded panicked.

I grabbed the ring on my finger and tried to pull it off, but the band got stuck beneath my knuckle. “I can’t get it off.”

“Can’t get what off?
What are you wearing
?”

“What I saw in my vision.” I started crying.

“No, calm down.” His voice softened. “It doesn’t mean it’s going to come true. You said so yourself.”

I nodded, taking deep gulps of air as I opened my kitchen drawer and pulled out my rolling pin. I wasn’t going down without a fight.

Muffy growled again, and I moved to the kitchen sink to look out the window. I didn’t see anything lurking outside, but my vision shifted, and I saw a shadow image creeping up behind me in the reflection. I screamed, then turned around swinging, connecting with the intruder’s shoulder and dropping the phone in the process.

“Rose!” I heard Mason’s panicked voice coming from the phone on the floor.

But my strike wasn’t strong enough to stop my attacker. I felt an electrical jolt rush through my body followed by intense pain as my muscles cramped.

And then there was only darkness.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

I woke up face down in the seat of a car, my hands tied in front of me. Every part of my body felt so heavy I could hardly move. A wave of panic raced through me before I took a deep breath and told myself to calm down. Panicking wasn’t going to help me. However, the hood over my head wasn’t helping either.

Just when I’d calmed down enough to start assessing my situation, the car stopped. Moments later the door next to me opened and rough hands grabbed my arms, pulling me out of the seat. My legs wouldn’t support my weight, so I lost my balance. I fell to the ground, concrete scrapping my knee.

Two thoughts came to mind: One, I was in Jonah’s driveway. And two, I didn’t remember seeing a scrape on my knee in the vision. If the future was already diverging from what I’d seen, I still had a chance at surviving this.

Something pointed and metallic poked into my side. “Don’t even think about shouting. I’ll shoot you right where you stand.”

I had no doubt he would—only
he
sounded like a
she
. He or she, I’d watched this person shoot me in the head. My knees buckled, and my head swam at the thought. Now was
not
the time to pass out.

A hand jerked me up, but from the angle, I could tell that the kidnapper was surprisingly short, further evidence that she was a woman.

“You’re a sluttin’ whore. I knew it the moment I saw you. What you’re wearin’ right now is proof of that. Now start walking.”

Had Miss Mildred gone rogue and kidnapped me?

Then I realized who had taken me and icy fear crawled up my back. “I’m not interested in Jonah…I mean Reverend Pruitt. We’re friends is all. I have a boyfriend. Did I tell you that? His name is Joe, and he’s a state police officer.”

The gun jammed into my side again. “Shut up and keep walking.”

“There’s been a misunderstanding here. If you just let me go, we’ll forget all about it.”

“You’re just like all the others.” Rhonda said. “They thought they were fooling me since they were so much older than my boy. But they all wanted to steal him away. Just like you do.”

“I don’t, really I don’t.”

“I’m not blind. I’ve seen you with him. Hanging around him at the church of all places.” Her voice lowered into a hateful tone. “And don’t think I didn’t see you with him in the sanctuary.” Something hard hit me square in the back, and I cried out in pain as I fell to my knees.

“Get up, whore.” She jerked me upright again. “Jesus carried his cross on his back for miles after he’d been beaten. If I had time, I’d make you suffer his miseries as penance.”

I fought the hysteria bubbling up in my chest. “Maybe we could pray for my soul. Would you pray with me, Miss Rhonda?”

She leaned around me, and a door opened as she leaned down into my ear. “I’ll pray with you all right. I’ll be praying over your dead body. Now keep quiet, or I’ll shoot you right here. And that’s not an empty promise.”

Was it better to get shot now or let her tie me to a chair, knowing without a doubt what would happen? Running seemed like a better option. I started to bolt, but something hard came down on the middle of my back again, and I cried out.

“Keep your mouth shut.”

She dragged me through the doorway and gave me a shove. I stumbled into a table, which made a screeching noise as it scraped across the floor. That was good. It hadn’t been in my vision either.

The hood was jerked off my head, and I blinked as I took in my surroundings as quickly as possible. We were in a dark kitchen just like in my vision, and the moonlight was streaming in through the window. Rhonda held the gun out toward me, the hood of a sweatshirt over her head.

“Sit in the chair,” she hissed, waving me toward the table.

The last thing I wanted was to sit in one of those chairs. “I think I’ll just stand.”

Before I realized what was happening, Rhonda pulled a stun gun from her jacket pocket with her left hand and aimed it at me.

I cried out as the pain flooded my body, but I fought the darkness at the edges of my vision. I needed to keep conscious.

Rhonda pulled the barbs out of my skin and dragged me over to one of the chairs, not an easy task given the fact that all of the muscles in my body refused to work. My head hung forward as she wrapped a rope around my chest, securing me to the chair. “If you’d just done this the easy way…”

“Mother?” Jonah asked from the doorway.

Mother
? Rhonda was Jonah’s mother? I tried to lift my head, but my body refused to cooperate.

“Mother, what are you doing? Who is that?”

None of this happened in my vision. I nearly cried with happiness.

“That slut who keeps sniffing around you at the church. I saw through her just like I saw through all those other women.”

“
Rose
?” Jonah’s voice broke. “What other women?”

“Those church women who tried to lure you away from your mission.”

“Oh, Mother.” Jonah sounded devastated.

“Jesus was celibate. He devoted his entire life to his ministry. I know you can’t be a real priest now, Jonas, but you can still act like one.”

“Momma, give me the gun.”

The energy started to flow back into my muscles, and I could lift my head enough to see Jonah extending his hand to Rhonda.

“That’s a good idea,” she said. “
You
can kill her. You can prove your loyalty to your calling.”

I could see Jonah’s hand reaching for the gun.

Rhonda backed up. “No.” She sounded disappointed. “You’re not strong enough to do it. All these women have made you weak. It’s up to me to save you.”

“I swear to you that Rose hasn’t done anything. I asked her to help me. If anyone should be shot, it’s me.” Jonah dropped to his knees, pleading with his mother. “God the Father sacrificed his only son for the salvation of the world. You can do the same.” He reached for her but she stayed just out of reach. “You can sacrifice your son for the souls of the damned. The whores and the drug addicts and the thieves.”

She hesitated, finally, shaking her head. “No. They don’t deserve such a sacrifice.”

“But did the prostitutes and tax collectors deserve Jesus’s attention and love? If anyone should die, it should be me, Mother, so I can follow Jesus’s example.”

I shook my head, although it took more energy than I’d expected. “No. Jonah, don’t do it,” I said, but my words came out slurred.

Rhonda turned to me with a glare and whacked the side of my head with the butt of her gun. “Keep your heathen mouth shut!”

White light burst into my vision, but I clung to consciousness, even though my stomach rebelled.

Jonah cried out. “Mother! No!” He stood and crept toward her, his eyes wide. “There’s another way.”

She held the gun to my temple, and I fought a sob rising in my throat.

Jonah held up his hands. “Wait! Wait.” He was close to hyperventilating. His gaze turned to the doorway, and Rhonda’s followed, even though she was still holding the gun to my head.

Mason stood there, a shotgun in his hand, his face deadly calm. “Put the gun down. I can assure you that I won’t hesitate to use this.”

She sneered, “I know who you are. You’re the assistant DA. You won’t shoot me.”

A murderous gleam filled his eyes. “Don’t be so sure about that. I beat a man into an irreversible coma. Shooting you wouldn’t begin to faze me.”

Her hand shook, jabbing the tip of the gun into the place where she’d hit me. Bolts of pain shot through my head. I started crying harder.

Jonah reached out his hand. “Momma, just hand me the gun, and everything will be okay.
Please
.”

For the first time, she faltered in her conviction, tears filling her voice. “I just want what’s best for you, Jonas.”

Mason still stood in the doorway, his gaze turning to me for a moment. When he saw the blood dripping down the side of my face, his eyes hardened.

Jonah moved closer. “I know you do, Momma. You always have. That’s why we’re here. You realized I was about to get in trouble in Homer, so you suggested we move here.”

Rhonda nodded. “Yes! It needed to be done, Jonas. I needed to keep you pure. But I didn’t want people to blame you for killing those women. But women in this town are so much looser.” Her voice hardened again. “Like this one here, throwin’ herself at you.”

Mason turned the shotgun toward Jonah. “How much do you love your son?”

Rhonda gasped.

I tried to shake my head, but pain sent spots into my vision. “Mason. Stop!’

“I assure you, if you kill her, I
will
kill your son.”

Jonah lifted his hands in resignation. He would truly die to help save me.

The gun dug into my head. “You wouldn’t,” Rhonda challenged, but she didn’t sound so certain.

“Are you willing to risk his life to find out?”

I couldn’t sit here and let Jonah get killed or Mason ruin his career again, especially over me. I also knew Rhonda was too crazy for there to be any hope of reasoning with her.