Kitchen Boss

“You got scared,” I finish the sentence for him.

He taps his fingers on the windowsill. “I knew I had to do something, so I did. I paid Mr. Pitts to go to the prosecutor with that story. Needless to say, that didn’t work out. Well, I’ve dealt with him already.”

My eyebrows arch. Does he mean he had the poor old man killed? The fear in my veins steels into anger.

“You’re a despicable coward,” I spit at him.

“It would have been better for you if that plan had worked,” Simon tells me. “You’d be in jail, but at least you’d be alive. Now, I have only one way left to get rid of you.”

I should be trembling at his renewed threat, but I’m not scared anymore.

“Why are you so desperate to get rid of me, hmm? Is it because you killed Trisha?”

Simon says nothing.

“Tell me,” I urge him. “You’re going to kill me anyway.”

He pauses for a moment, then gives in. “Fine. I was partly responsible.”

I give him a puzzled look. “Partly?”

“I wanted Trisha from the moment I saw her when she came to visit Jackson at campus,” Simon says. “When I saw her in Staggart, I was overjoyed. I thought it was finally my chance to have her. But did she give me a chance? No. So I slipped a drug into a drink and I gave that to her.”

I feel the blood drain from my face. Drug? He drugged Trisha?

“I was supposed to take her back to my room after she passed out, but then you started drowning and she had to go save you.”

I tense.

“And then she realized she’d lost her bracelet, so she went back into the water. That’s when the drug took effect and she drowned.”

My hands clench into fists at my sides. So Trisha drowned because of the drug Simon gave her? She died because of it?

“So you see, it’s partly my fault and partly yours. We’re accomplices. But I’m afraid that also makes you a loose end.”

“How dare you say this is my fault.” I step forward. “You’re the one who drugged her.”

“Yes, and if you hadn’t drowned, she would still be alive. I would have brought her to my room, had my fun with her, and then brought her back to you.”

The thought of his filthy hands on her sends me seething with rage. “You son of a bitch.”

“But I didn’t get to have my fun with her, so I guess I’ll just have it with you.”

He walks towards me. I run to the chair without thinking and grab the bottle of beer from the floor. I break it on the back of the chair and threaten him with the biggest piece.

“I’ll kill you for what you did to Trisha.”

“No, you won’t.” Simon grins. “And now that you’ve run away from me again, I have to call the boys.”

I grow still as he puts his fingers in his mouth to whistle. But no sound comes out. Instead, I hear a shout from outside.

“Police. Put down your weapons!”

Relief washes over me.

The police are here. I’m safe.

Or so I think until I see the panic on Simon’s face. He runs towards me. I prepare to stab him with the glass shard in my hand.

Then all of a sudden, the door opens. Jackson crashes in. He tackles Simon and knocks him out with a single punch. Seconds later, cops follow.

I drop the shard in my hand and sink to the floor as my knees give way. My eyes close and I draw a deep breath.

It’s over.

Chapter 26

Jackson

“Are you sure you’re alright?” I ask Cathy once more as I drive her home. “Simon didn’t hurt you?”

“No,” Cathy answers.

Good. When I found out that Simon had a lakeside property, all the alarm bells in my head went off. I kept thinking he had drowned her, that she was gone, and the fear just kept gnawing at me, causing knots in my stomach and every muscle of my body. When I saw the thugs around Simon’s cabin, I was actually relieved because it meant she was still alive.

Thank God she’s alive.

I glance at her stomach. “Just to be safe, maybe we should have a doctor check on you and the baby.”

Cathy looks at me with wide eyes. “Ken told you?”

I nod. “Only because I was being stubborn and refusing to go after you.”

She directs her gaze straight ahead. “So you came after me because you found out I was pregnant?”

“That’s not the only reason,” I tell her. “I realized I should never have let you go in the first place.”

Cathy shakes her head. “But I chose to go. And I can’t go back. If I do, Betty will – ”

“I will deal with Betty,” I promise her. “And whatever happens, I’m not going to let you, Maisie or our baby go.”