Suddenly, bright light filled the room as an electric switch was thrown. The unexpected brilliance caught Adrianna by complete surprise. In her shock, she stumbled on the stairs, and suddenly what was once up was now down. With a crash, she slammed down onto the stairs, the air nearly driven from her lungs. Dazed, she expected Reuben’s large hands to grab hold of her, but nothing happened. Instead, the only sign of him was a deep roll of laughter from the bottom of the stairs. The next sound that Adrianna heard caused her blood to freeze.
“Well, well, well! What do we have here?”
Adrianna looked to the top of the stairs, to the place from which the voice had emanated. Standing there, a long knife in her hand, its blade shining in the sudden light, was Lola.
“B
ITCH
! D
ID YOU
think I was just gonna sit back and let you waltz in and take my man!” Lola shouted. Spittle formed at the corners of her mouth, and her eyes danced maniacally. The knife flashed menacingly in her hand.
“Quinn’s not your man!” Adrianna answered as Lola made her way down the stairs.
“Since the day you first showed your ugly, snooty face, I’ve watched as you picked here and there at all I’ve tried to do! You’ve strutted around here like you were the Queen of England, flashing a smile and shaking your titties in Quinn’s face!” the wild-haired woman screeched. “I’ve had enough, you hear? I’ve had enough!”
Without question, Adrianna knew her life was in danger. Tentatively, she took a quick glance behind her at Reuben. Her heart sank as she realized he was too close for her to even try to run. Before she could manage to scramble to her feet, he would have been upon her.
“Don’t look at him,” Lola barked. “He ain’t gonna help you!”
“You ain’t just a shittin’,” Reuben grunted.
“You shut your mouth!” Lola suddenly shouted at her accomplice.
“Now, honey bun,” Reuben said in a placating tone.
“Don’t honey bun me! Just shut up!” she yelled. Adrianna realized Lola wanted all the attention to be on her, to be the one in charge.
Adrianna tried to think. If she didn’t do something, she’d be dead in a matter of minutes. It seemed unlikely that she had any chance of overpowering or escaping her attacker’s grasp. Her only hope was to bide her time until help could arrive.
Hurry, Quinn! Please hurry!
With the way Lola was yelling, there was the possibility, no matter how small, that someone might hear. Then there was Gabe. If she could only keep them talking long enough for him to come to, then he could help her.
But what if he is dead?
She quickly pushed the thought out of her head; it was more dreadful than she could bear to think about.
“You’ll not get away with this,” Adrianna declared as defiantly as she could.
Oh, Lord. If they kill me, they would surely go after Jesse and . . . have they already hurt him?
“Ain’t no one ever gonna be any the wiser,” Lola chuckled, the knife passing from one hand to the other, as she taunted. “Oh, sure, there’ll be questions asked, but folks will figure you ran back to Shreveport. Maybe it’ll be that you just left town to get away from that older fella that chased you here. Either way, it won’t make no difference. You ain’t never gonna be found. There’s plenty of hungry gators in the swamp,” Lola said with an evil smile on her face.
A shiver of dread raced down the length of Adrianna’s spine. Fear grasped her so tightly that she had to force her jaw to work against its will. “Quinn will look for me.”
“It’ll be too late,” Lola said flippantly. “It didn’t have to be this way, you know. If Reuben had done what he was told to do, you’d have been brained at the Whipsaw, accidentally of course, and that would have been the end of it. Or, if you’d just have died in the attic, all my problems woulda been over.”
“You deliberately locked me in,” Adrianna stated, her ire rising. Memories flashed back to the excruciating heat of the attic. She thought of how she had struggled to free herself and nearly lost her life in the process.
“Of course I did.” Lola sneered. “You’ve been walking around here with your nose held so high in the air that you couldn’t see what was right before your eyes. Hell, you didn’t even realize that the reason you got so gut sick was because I put oleander leaves in your soup!”
Adrianna was certain that all the color drained from her face. She could scarcely believe what she had heard. Lola had tried to kill her with poison! She had suffered, pain roiling throughout her body, keeping her in bed for a week with Quinn and Jesse worrying about her. All because of this jealous woman!
“I wish to God I’d used more than I did,” Lola continued, a look of disappointment crossing her face. “It would have been so much easier. No one would have asked any questions.”
“Quinn would have. He’d have found out what happened.”
“Don’t you so much as even speak his name!” Lola snarled. She reacted so violently that it was as if she suddenly had gone berserk. “I won’t stand for you to say my husband’s name! You aren’t worthy of saying it! It sounds filthy coming out of your mouth!”
With that, any doubts that Adrianna had about Lola’s sanity were erased. Somehow, she had wrapped herself inside a fantasy life from which she could not escape, from which she didn’t
want
to escape. Even though none of it was real, she believed it to be the truth. Because of that, she saw Adrianna as a threat.
A threat that had to be eliminated!
Instead of frightening her, the realization emboldened Adrianna. “He doesn’t love you,” she taunted. The fear that had run coldly through her veins began to quickly warm with anger. “He doesn’t love you, and he never has!”
“What did you say?” Lola asked incredulously.
“You aren’t married to Quinn Baxter. He’s not going to be your husband!” Adrianna shot back, her voice rising with every word. “You’re crazy if you think you’re good enough for him! All you are is the woman who cleans his house! Nothing more! What you think is a lie!”
Lola’s mouth opened and closed but no words came out. Instead, her fist tightened around the knife’s handle, and she began slowly to walk down the steps toward Adrianna. Rage had taken control of her mind, moving her along with a will that was not entirely her own.
Adrianna could do little more than watch Lola descend the stairs. She heard the sound of Reuben’s heavy footsteps behind her. In a matter of seconds, he would have hold of her, rendering her helpless for the moment that Lola would slide the long knife into her.
“What the hell’s goin’ on out here?”
Adrianna’s heart sank in her chest at the sight of Jesse wheeling his chair through the door of his room. He had apparently been in a deep sleep. His usually well-combed hair was going every which way. His nightshirt hung crookedly from his shoulders and barely fell far enough to cover his knees. He held Cowboy tightly at his side by his collar. The dog began to growl deeply, his eyes locked tightly on Reuben.
“Jesse . . .” Adrianna muttered.
“How’s a guy supposed to get any sleep with all this racket?” Jesse’s eyes passed from one face to another as if he were searching for an answer. When he glanced at Reuben, the boy’s eyes seemed to look past him, staring at something in the distance. When Adrianna turned to see what had grabbed his attention, she gasped; lying at the edge of the light was Gabe’s unconscious body. Jesse’s eyes suddenly found hers, confusion running wild across his face.
“Just go back to your room,” she said quickly. Her mind was in turmoil. The thought of harm coming to the boy made her body quiver with dread. If she could just get him out of the room and back to bed, maybe he would be safe until Quinn came home.
“He ain’t goin’ nowhere,” Reuben snarled.
“He doesn’t have anything to do with this,” Adrianna pleaded. She looked up at Lola, hoping for any sign that she understood. “Just let him go, and you can do whatever you want to me.”
“We’re gonna do that anyway,” Reuben explained with an evil smile.
“I told you to shut up,” Lola barked at the large man. His smile vanished but it didn’t seem to Adrianna that he was angry; Lola certainly kept her dog on a short leash.
“That’s all right, Adrianna,” Jesse suddenly spoke up, all the while trying to keep Cowboy under control. “I’ll protect you from this rabble!” From the gleam in his eye, she could see that he saw himself as one of the sheriffs in his pulp magazines. But this wasn’t some dime novel; this was real life, and it was dangerous.
“It’s too late for him anyway,” Lola explained with a shrug. “He’s seen and heard too much. Besides, I’m sick of always havin’ to wait on the brat hand and foot. I sure as shit ain’t gonna miss him.”
“Let me do it,” Reuben suggested. “I’ve always wanted a crack at that smart-ass kid.” With that, the thuggish man took a step toward Jesse’s chair, his hands clenching in spastic glee. Adrianna was amazed to see a smile cross Jesse’s lips, anticipation dancing in his eyes.
“Get ’em, boy!” he shouted as he released his grip on Cowboy’s collar.
With a sharp bark, the dog sprang at Reuben, covering the distance quickly. Every muscle in the animal’s body was taut, the coarse hair on his back stood on end, and his mouth curled in a vicious snarl.
Before Cowboy could reach his target, the big man squared his shoulders and threw a back fist that struck the dog against the side of his head. There wasn’t even time for Cowboy to yelp before he crashed hard to the floor, slid across the hardwood, and slammed into the wall with a thud. The loyal pet whimpered, tried to raise his head, but could only shudder before falling completely limp.
“Cowboy!” Jesse wailed.
Something deep inside Adrianna began to give way. As she watched Jesse, anguish coloring his face, the anger she had felt at Lola’s interference in her life became a raging inferno. In that moment, she knew what she had to do. It was just as Jesse had told her when she was ill; she had to take control of her own life. She was not a coward!
Without another thought, Adrianna turned and headed up the stairs straight for Lola. In only a couple of strides she was a few feet from her foe. She paid the knife no mind; it wouldn’t have mattered if Lola had held a gun. A look of surprise crossed over the housekeeper’s face, and her mouth gaped in shock.
“What do you think—” was all Lola managed to get out before Adrianna raised her fist and brought it crashing into the woman’s nose. There was a loud crunching sound, the cartilage breaking, and then crimson blood began to flow freely. Lola let out a howl of pain, and the knife fell from her hand to land on the stairs with a clatter.
“I hate you!” Adrianna shouted.
With all of the strength and anger she could muster, she fell on Lola as if she were a wild animal. In turn, Lola grabbed a handful of Adrianna’s hair and yanked hard on it, but she felt nothing. Instead, Adrianna responded in kind, tugging hard enough at Lola’s locks that she was sure she would pull hair out by the handful!
“Get her, Annie!” Jesse shouted his encouragement.
“Haw! Haw! Haw!” Reuben laughed and slapped his hand against his thigh.
Although she had never been in a fight in her entire life, Adrianna gave as good as she got. Lola slammed her fist into Adrianna’s jaw; and, instead of going down in a heap or shouting in pain, she balled up her hand and struck the other woman.
“I’ll kill you for this, you bitch!” Lola screamed.
“Not if I kill you first!”
Suddenly, Adrianna’s foot caught on the steps. Grasping Lola’s blouse, she held on tenaciously as she tumbled down the stairs. Her back slammed into the wall and pain shot through her body but, before she could try to think straight, she was lifted off the floor and slammed yet again.
Finally, she fell hard onto her back at the base of the stairs. She gasped for air, and darkness colored the edges of her vision, but she quickly shook her head and tried to get her bearings. Lola lay beside her, blood smeared across her face, her eyes blinking slowly.
“You’ll not hurt anyone! Not anymore!” Adrianna shouted.
Rolling over, Adrianna threw herself at Lola. She straddled her, towering over her prone body. Grabbing her by the ears, she began to slam Lola’s head into the floor, rage taking control. With each blow, she thought of Jesse and Quinn and all that this woman had done to them, all that she had tried to take from their lives.
It felt good!
Without warning, Adrianna was grabbed roughly by the shoulders and lifted off Lola like a sack of flour. She tried to hold on to Lola, but the hands that held her were insistent and finally wrestled her free. She was spun around to stare into enraged eyes.
“That done be enough!” Reuben bellowed.
Before that moment, Adrianna had thought little of her own death. To her, it had always been something far away. But now, it was bearing down on her as if it were a speeding locomotive.
“I’m gonna kill you for what you done to Lola!”
It was all Adrianna could do to close her eyes. No scream waited to escape her lips. No tears waited to slide hot down her cheeks. The fatigue and pain of her scrap with Lola began to seep into her joints. She only hoped that what was to come would be quick.
Suddenly, a loud crash filled the room, and Adrianna was dropped to the floor, collapsing in a heap. When she finally managed to open her eyes, what stood before her seemed to be some kind of a miracle!