Texas Girl Grit Read online

  “I need to see her. The plan has changed, boy,” the stranger drawled in a thick, commanding Texas accent.

  I felt the color drain as recognition dawned. Tex Whelan was working with Scott.

  “No changes, Tex. My path is set. I warned you not to cross me from the beginning.”

  I felt sick at the thought that Liam’s grandfather was this involved. Sending threatening texts was one thing. Enabling a stalker was something entirely different. Boots thudded on the wood floor in the hallway, moving closer as the voices cleared.

  “You seem to think you’re in charge, boy. You’re not! Where is she? Out of my way,” he growled, as the sound of someone bumping into the wall penetrated the door.

  “You’re packing now, old man? Why don’t you have a couple of your henchmen with you?” Scott asked, now outside the cellar door.

  “You know why. Deniability. Now out of my way. This all goes away now. It’s over. I’m taking Kelly back home where she belongs, and before I do, you’re gonna tell her the video with the Estes bitch was staged. This is over, and I want you gone. Your hold over me and this family is over. You’ll be lucky if let you live, with what you’ve done.”

  Scott laughed. Hysterical laughter. As relief flooded through me, I sensed the ache in my chest dissipate. Liam had seemed out of it in the video. Maybe he’d thought Texanne was me. And someone else had been in the room, videoing the moment. Then the relief was replaced with a sense of dread.

  Scott was a machine. A lunatic. He wasn’t going to follow any commands from Tex.

  “I said, get out of my way now, boy.”

  “I’m not your boy!” Scott spat out. “And she’s not going anywhere--alive, anyway. She knows about me. She talks, I’m going down. Waive that gun all you want, old man. I know you don’t have the guts to use it.”

  A shot rang out, and with it, my involuntary scream.

  “Kelly! Girl, it’s Grandpa Whelan!”

  “Tex!”

  I listened helplessly as I heard them struggling outside the door. Another shot rang out.

  Thud.

  A body hit the floor.

  “Tex?” I called breathlessly.

  I could hear someone breathing heavily close to the crack under the door.

  “You took care of my girl, Kelly. My Allie-girl, she came to me this morning…told me he’d put his hands on her. Told me I had to get you away from him,” he rasped out.

  Oh my God. Allison…Scott.

  “Sorry, girl. This whole thing, my fault,” he mumbled, his voice becoming weaker.

  “Tex! No,” I screamed.

  Silence.

  I began to sob. Allison had shared with Tex, but I knew in my heart no one else knew. Tex was my only chance to escape whatever plan Scott had for me. And he lay dying on the other side of the door.

  Tex had put his life on the line to try to save me.

  I felt the love I knew he had, at least for his daughter and granddaughter, wash over me.

  “Tex,” I sobbed again, rubbing circles on Masen’s back as he continued to fuss.

  “Tex is gone, bitch. I’ve got you all to myself,” Scott hissed. The bolt on the door squeaked and then slid off and the door swung open, flooding the stairway with light. Tex’s face was eye level with me, blood draining from his mouth into a puddle on the floor. His eyes were open, staring at me.

  I choked back a sob.

  Scott waived a nine millimeter at me. It must have been Tex’s gun.

  “Get up here, NOW!”

  I pushed shakily to my feet, climbing the four stairs to step over Tex’s lifeless body. Just as I’d cleared him, Scott grabbed my arm and shoved me down the hallway. The front door stood open, Tex’s car still running in the driveway.

  “OUT!” Scott boomed, waiving the gun at me. Blood oozed from a wound on his shoulder on his left side, obviously where Tex had shot him. Scott had somehow managed to wrestle the gun from him after.

  Stumbling out the front door, I jostled Masen, who’d begun to cry during all the commotion.

  “Shut him up!” Scott growled, pointing the gun at him.

  Masen wailed louder, startled by all the shouting.

  “I said SHUT HIM UP!” He screamed, striking me on the side of the head with the gun. The hit knocked me to the ground. Stars washed in front of my eyes, my head spinning as I gripped Masen tighter. I shushed him as I rocked him in my arms. His arms gripped me tighter, but thankfully, he began to calm down.

  “Maybe I need to change him,” I whispered.

  Scott paced around us agitatedly, tapping the gun on the side of his head.

  If only the gun would discharge while he did that.

  I couldn’t believe I’d had the thought. I realized a part of me--a tiny part of me, felt sorry for him. He’d been raised by a single mother. I knew the misery of wanting a family and a mother’s or father’s love. I knew the heartache of not knowing who your father was, and not having one. We’d both been manipulated, hurt and abused by Reeves.

  But abuse in my past didn’t make me a monster.

  “Get up and move,” he finally said, his voice emotionless.

  I stood shakily, my head still spinning from the blow. Shoving me forward toward the Escalade, he jerked the backseat door open and shoved me in.

  “Where are you taking us?”

  “Shut up, bitch!” he barked, slamming the door and then rounding the vehicle to climb in. He started the engine and then violently dragged the gear into drive, shoving the accelerator down. We fishtailed down the driveway as he circled left, grazing an oak tree with the rear end. My head slammed painfully into the side window.

  “Why do you have to do this? Please, let us go. I can insist they get you some help,” I pleaded. I’d quit worrying about agitating him. I had nothing to lose.

  “She should already be dead. I should have killed that Sanger bitch and dumped her body, let them think the drug cartel did it.”

  He mumbled to himself in the front seat. It appeared he was talking about someone else when he talked about killing me – as though I wasn’t there.

  “You made me fall in love with you.”

  My stomach turned over. He was talking to me, his voice now almost childlike. My heart began to race, thinking of ways to placate him.

  “Liam was my friend. Always got what he wanted. He’s the golden boy, not me. Went to work for his dad…bodyguard, shit! All I was ever good for,” he spat.

  “That’s not true,” I said, urging him to talk.

  “His dad loves him. Worships the ground he walks on. He messed up, didn’t matter. Came out smellin’ like a rose. Then he got you. Golden boy, beautiful girl. He got you,” he murmured again, taking a swig from another bottle he’d dragged from under the seat. “Took scraps they threw my way after my football career was through. They gave the poor boy a job.”

  Scott drove further into the country, the roads winding through the rocky, cactus filled terrain. The weather had turned, and it began to sleet.

  “Take you to a place…get you alone,” he mumbled abruptly. “Make you want me. You, always smiling, laughin’…made yourself a family. I wanted a family. Wanted you.” He sucked back another drink, seemingly deep in thought. Then he murmured, “Couldn’t kill her, that Sanger bitch. My dad said it. He always said it. He said, dad said, ‘she’s a whore…she’sawhoreshe’sawhoreshe’sawhore,’” he grumbled on, driving erratically all over the road. “But you, you’re beautiful. So sweet…” then his voice dropped, mimicking his dad’s voice, “Her ass is sweet, son. Take her and kill her, she’s a whore!” he roared, swinging the mostly empty scotch bottle at me. The bottle grazed my cheek as it hit the window beside me. Thankfully, it didn’t break.

  I could feel the blood running down my cheek, but from the bottle, my head hitting the window, or the blow he’d given me with his gun, I wasn’t sure.

  “But you love me,” I shakily urged him to continue what he’d said earlier, hoping to get him thinking about me, not
the Kelly Sanger he was supposed to kill.

  “Yeah, only woman I’ve ever loved. Jen, she’s sweet, too. I didn’t want to hurt her…Jen’s sweet. She made me hurt her. She wouldn’t shut up! Women think they can get in my head.”

  Oh my God in heaven…he’d done something to Jen! I fought to keep the tears at bay, trying to stay calm. I had to get to someone or a phone.

  “Where do you want to take me, Scott? Just the two of us.”

  I hoped it would make him feel safe, calm him down.

  “Cyprus Creek. Swimming hole—perfect date. You, in one of those bikinis you wear around the pool. Out in the country, no one else around. Maybe you’d come on to me.” He continued to mumble to himself, concentrating hard on his driving. “You’d be my woman, not Liam’s. He always got what I wanted. The position on tha team, Sean’s bes frien,” he murmured, his words becoming more slurred.

  I noticed we’d somehow bypassed Fredericksburg, and were traveling on Hwy 290 back toward Austin. But abruptly, he detoured south. We weren’t even thirty minutes from our house. If only I had my phone. But Liam, not knowing we were in danger, wouldn’t know to look for us...unless someone found Tex. Allison and Ellen would be devastated, and my heart broke for them. Even as cruel as he’d been to me, Tex had tried to help me in the end. Because he’d finally had a change of heart, or because I’d helped Allison, I’d never know. But in my mind, he’d redeemed himself.

  Scott veered sharply to the right, almost missing a cut-off. We’d passed a sign for Blanco a few miles back and I knew we were about halfway between Austin and San Antonio on a country road.

  It was full sleet now, not merely a wintery mix. Scott had the wipers on low, and the sleet was collecting on the windshield, making it harder to see. Scott was drunk enough not to notice.

  “Is that where we’re going? To this creek?”

  “Used to come here when I was a kid. Gonna show you a real, deep swimmin’ hole. Real deep. Yeah, real deep. Can’t dive there, anymore. Not safe. No divin’,” he murmured, straining to see now through the sleet.

  Pulling into a small paved area, he stopped.

  “Get out,” he growled.

  There were signs pointing to “Cyprus Creek,” “Swimming Area,” and “Jacob’s Well.”

  I’d heard of Jacob’s Well.

  It was a popular swimming attraction, off the beaten path. I’d always wanted to come here when I was a student at UT but had never gotten around to it.

  Now, the dead of winter, January in Texas…it was deserted.

  Out of the car, the temperature had dropped dramatically. I tucked Masen’s blanket tighter around him and flipped the corner over his head. I wasn’t as lucky. My sweater dress and leggings were no match for the cold wind and sleet. I began to shiver violently as Scott grabbed my hand.

  “Just a ways up here… you and me,” he said, waiving Tex’s gun around.

  Chapter Thirty

  Tana and Sean

  S ean stood in his kitchen, watching Tana make a call. He’d come to the realization he could watch her all day. He was enthralled by her doing anything. Usually, in January, if the Texans were out of the playoffs this early, he’d be depressed, climbing the walls. They’d lost last week, and the season had been so-so. After the disappointment, his first thought had been more time with Tana. Wow, the feeling was a first for him.

  As she waited for it to connect, she turned her back to him, running her hand across the marble on the massive island in his kitchen. Sean’s eyes roamed over her perfect, tight body--long, slender legs and an ass he couldn’t seem to keep his hands off. He smirked, thinking she looked damn good in his kitchen. Where in the hell had that thought come from? He’d never considered how a woman looked in his kitchen before. His bed, yes. Kitchen, no. Bringing him out of his thoughts, Tana tapped her phone off and turned to him.

  “She’s still not answering.” Her stomach rolled, thinking something was wrong. She hadn’t been able to get in touch with Kelly all day.

  “When was the last time you talked to her?”

  “The Monday after Christmas.” She sighed, laying her phone down on the countertop.

  “Liam hasn’t talked to her since she left the hospital. She won’t pick up. He said Scott was checking in with him until yesterday, and now he isn’t picking up, either,” Sean said, his tone alarmed.

  Tana moved toward him, and Sean opened his arms, pulling her in. “Did Liam tell you why she left?” she asked, snuggling into his chest.

  “Yeah. Something about needing space, and a video of him and Texanne at the hospital. He says it’s ridiculous, and she’s being unreasonable.”

  Tana pulled away, agitated. “It’s not ridiculous, and she’s not unreasonable! I’ve…I’ve seen it.”

  “Do you have a copy of it?” he asked, surprised.

  Tana picked the phone up and held it up to him, her lips pursed. “On here.”

  Swiping the screen, she pulled up the e-mail from Kelly and clicked on the video to play it, turning the phone to Sean. He took it from her. As he watched, his forehead creased and the muscle in his jaw tightened. The video finished. He leaned his hip into the counter, one hand clutching the edge, the phone pressed to his temple in the other.

  After several moments, he opened his eyes to a silent Tana. “Do you think he knew what he was doing? I know Texanne did, but did Liam?”

  She cocked her eyebrow at him, her arms crossed. Sean thought it was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about the video sooner?” he asked with a chin lift.

  She shrugged her shoulders. “Liam’s your best friend. Kelly’s mine. I didn’t want you to think I was forcing you to take sides.”

  He reached out and grabbed her, pulling her tiny frame into his as he fit his hands perfectly around her hip bones. “That’s sweet, Babe. Of all the things you could have said, that’s the most surprising. And one of the reasons I like you.”

  Tana grinned up at him, her cute dimple showing at the left corner of her mouth. “Oh, yeah?”

  “Yeah. Definitely.” He smirked, cupping her jaw as he pulled her in to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. Yeah, he was gone for Tana.

  He pulled away, breaking the kiss and handing the phone back to her. “I need to show this to Liam. He needs to make a move. This has gone on long enough, and I don’t feel good about Scott.”

  She looked up from her phone, surprised. “What about Scott?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t put my finger on it, but he’s changed. He’s not the same guy we knew back at UT. I think he’s unstable.”

  Tana studied him and then said, “Kelly’s never felt at ease around him. I don’t think she trusts him.”

  Sean pushed off the counter and grabbed her hand. “More reason to get Liam to put a stop to this and go and get her.”

  * * *

  As Tana worried from the passenger side of his truck, Sean maneuvered through the icy traffic. When he turned into Liam and Kelly’s gated subdivision, his cell rang through the truck radio. The screen said, “Liam calling.”

  “I guess he’s seen the video,” Tana said nervously.

  Sean leaned over and squeezed her hand reassuringly, then touched the screen.

  “Talk to me, brother,” Sean answered on speaker.

  “How in the ever lovin’ fuck is this possible?” Liam roared into the phone. “I’ve never kissed the bitch! I have no memory of her ever being in my room except when the nurse ran her out! And I’ve never,” he started, his voice tapering off.

  “What?” Sean called out.

  “Shit. I vaguely remember thinking Kelly was in my room, telling me she missed me, and I pulled her in and kissed her. I thought it was a dream. Was I that fucked up, Sean?” he asked, incredulous.

  Tana could tell, listening to the desperation in his voice, he absolutely did not know the scene had played out as it had in the video. She believed him.

  “I don
’t know, man,” Sean answered, looking at Tana. “You were on some pretty powerful drugs, even after we knew you were back with the living. And you were in and out of it for days. Anything is possible, I guess.”

  Tana could hear the pain in Liam’s voice. “I can’t even…I don’t want to even think how watching this video made Kelly feel. After everything she’s been through, I have to see her. I’m going to Fredericksburg to get her and bring her home. I haven’t been released to drive yet, will you go with me?” Liam asked.

  “Absolutely. We’re blocks from your house, see you in a few,” Sean said, turning the phone off in the truck.

  * * *

  “Hey, man…thanks for coming,” Liam greeted Sean as he pulled Tana in for a hug.

  “I knew you couldn’t do that to Kelly,” she whispered in his ear then kissed his cheek.

  “I love her, Tana. You have to get her to listen to me,” he said, stepping back into the room and then running his hands through his hair. “She alluded to there being more than the video. She said it was complicated, and leaving was the best thing for me. Do you know what she was talking about?”

  Tana looked guiltily at Sean and back to Liam. “Yeah, I think I do. She’d gotten another threat she didn’t tell you about.” Tana sighed and sat down on the sofa in the great room where they’d moved from the entry.

  “From this blackmailer?” he asked, coming closer.

  “I guess it was the same one. And Kelly said Tex knew something about it.”

  “Wait…what? Tex knew what?”

  Tana glanced nervously back to Sean. “Tex said something to Kelly at the farm on Thanksgiving. He told her if she didn’t leave you and take that bastard boy with her, something would come out which would ruin her and end your career. Something he couldn’t stop.”

  “Why in the hell didn’t she tell me?” Liam demanded. Getting more and more upset by the minute, he put his hand to his chest as if he was in pain, and sank down beside Tana on the sofa.

  Tana winced as she watched him hold his chest, wary of upsetting him too much. “She didn’t want to put you against your grandfather. She was thinking about telling you, I think, but then she got the last threat.”