Hunter (Stud Ranch 2)

She reached down and flipped one of the non-lined pills over, thinking maybe they were just lined on one side.

But nope, the lined ones were lined on both sides and others were smooth on both sides.

Isobel’s eyes flipped back and forth between the two pills, nothing making sense for a long moment.

But like downstairs, it eventually dawned on her and she swung in the direction of her door. The same killing fury as earlier made her fists shake all over again.

“Bitch!” she screamed.

It would have served Catrina right if Isobel hadn’t stopped earlier. She’d been fucking with Isobel’s medication in addition to adding the protein powder to her smoothies?

Isobel’s hand shook as she swept all the pills back into the bottle. Had Catrina switched out half her meds with sugar pills so she’d only be taking half her regular dosage? Or were they something worse? Something meant to make her moods more volatile?

What the fuck? Why?

Was Catrina just a fucking psychopath who got off on tormenting people and Isobel had always been the closest, convenient target? Isobel’s adolescence had been hell. It started almost as soon as Catrina moved in after the wedding. The snide comments about Isobel’s looks just got more and more nasty as time went on. But only when no one was around.

Isobel cried and ran to her dad about it in the beginning. Catrina of course denied everything. They sent Isobel to Dr. Rubenstein and he didn’t believe her either. He told her father it was normal for kids to ‘act out’ when significant changes were introduced in a household.

Dad grew less and less tolerant of Isobel’s complaints and by the end of Catrina’s first year with them, Isobel knew it was useless to say anything. Which just made Catrina more vicious since she knew she could get away with it. Dad traveled a lot for his import/export business. He always told Isobel how all he wanted was for her and Catrina to get along. That was one of the reasons he had wanted to remarry in the first place. He wanted Isobel to have a female role model to look up to since Mom was gone.

Too bad Catrina was a vicious hell-whore.

Isobel stared at the pill bottle.

It was evidence.

For once she had evidence. It wasn’t just Catrina’s word against hers.

Then she started laughing hysterically.

Because no, that wasn’t true. This wasn’t any different than it had ever been. What did Isobel have? A bottle of some unknown pills? With her luck, Catrina would get her booked on assault and possession for whatever the hell was in this bottle. After all, there was nothing tying the pills to Catrina. Did Isobel think she’d find Catrina’s fingerprints on the bottle or something?

Even if she did, that was hardly a smoking gun. Catrina could just say that she’d picked up the bottle from the pharmacy for her stepdaughter, so of course her fingerprints were on it.

Isobel was well and truly fucked. She hiccupped, something between a laugh and a sob. Her hands shook as she pushed her hair out of her face.

Back to the original plan. Get the hell out of here.

And go where, exactly?

Fuck knew. She’d figure that part out later.

She ran to the other room and picked up the bag she’d haphazardly stuffed full of clothes and her purse. On a whim, she also grabbed her riding boots from her closet since the time she’d been happiest in her life was when she’d worked in the stables near their house in New Hampshire. She clutched it all to her chest as she ran down the stairs and out the back door.

Catrina hadn’t been anywhere in sight, thank God.

Isobel ran toward her little Toyota parked in their narrow garage. Her hands were trembling so badly, it took her three tries to get her key in the lock. She finally managed. She jumped in the car. A few seconds later, she had it in reverse and was peeling out onto the street.

“Okay,” she whispered to herself as she wove through Manhattan’s night traffic. “Okay, you’re okay. You’re okay.”

So what if she had no clue where she was going? Starting from the shit show she’d just left behind, things could only be looking up from here, right?

Right?

Chapter 2

HUNTER