Irreplaceable

“Seriously,” Hilary said, her eyes darting to her stomach, “does it look like luck’s on my side?”

“How about a movie then?” I chuckled, tossing the cards back in the drawer and heading back to the sofa.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Blindsided

That night, after Hilary left, Logan was there just before ten and had me wrapped around his body before the door was shut behind him. We spent the night making love and talking about nothing important, and yet it meant more to me than anything else. For the first time in a long time, I felt the connection I’d been longing for.

The next day, I went out to get groceries for dinner. I wanted to make something special for Logan and Oliver, and found myself walking blissfully through the grocery store when I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand.

I looked back, feeling eyes on me, only to see the back of someone’s legs as he or she left the aisle. I shook off the shiver and continued until I had a cart full of groceries and was on my way home.

The roads were icy and snow-covered, so I took my time, my nervousness about driving after the accident amplified even more by the weather. As I drove down a back road, I noticed a pickup truck behind me. It was close to my bumper, and then it was swerving.

I slowed, watching the scene unfold as the truck lost control and flew across the other lane into the ditch. I pulled over immediately and ran over, opening the driver door, when I noticed the man inside clutching his head.

“Are you all right? Did you hit your head?” I asked.

Slowly, his hands lowered, and I found myself staring into the familiar, menacing eyes of Kurt, my blind date who, last I heard, was still in jail.

My stomach dropped, but I tried to play it off. Maybe he wouldn’t remember me.

“I left my phone in my car, I’ll go grab it and call for help,” I explained, smiling, hoping he didn’t recognize me. I was about a quarter mile from my house and knew the tow truck wouldn’t be there for at least twenty minutes with the condition of the roads.

“Thank you,” he said with a smile, then dropped his head back into hands. “I hit my head on the steering column.”

“Just stay there, I’ll be right back.”

It was a lie. I’d get in my car, drive away, and then call for help. His head looked fine and so did his car, but I’d still call for help—I just wouldn’t leave myself out there with him, in case he did suddenly remember me.

As I walked to my car, I heard him step out, then slam his door behind him. I quickened my pace and made it to my car, rushing inside and grabbing my phone.

With a trembling finger, I shot a text to Logan.

Kurt near house.

The knock on my window startled me, my phone slipping through my hands as I looked up to see Kurt staring in.

“I just phoned the local garage for a tow truck. Do you want me to call for an ambulance?” I asked through the glass as I gripped my keys tightly.

“I can’t hear you!” he yelled through the glass.

“I said, do you want me to—”

He shook his head as though he still couldn’t understand me. I rolled the window down half an inch. I still wasn’t sure if he was a threat, since he didn’t appear to remember me. I reminded myself that I needed to calm down.

Lifting myself up slightly, I spoke through the open crack of the window. “Do you need me to call the paramedics?”

“No, thanks, that won’t be necessary, Cassandra!” His smile faded into a snarling scowl.

A scream shot out of me when his arm connected with my window. I flew across the seat as he beat on it again and again. My keys fell from my hands and I struggled to cover my face while scouring the floorboards to find them.

Glass showered over me with his final blow. His hand encompassed my ankle, while his other reached in through the broken window and unlocked the door.

“What’s the chance that I run into you before leaving this shitty little town, huh?”

Glass tore into my stomach as he yanked me across the seat. My feet were relentless, kicking, beating down as hard as I could manage while I clawed against the seat, fighting to reach the other door handle, desperate for an escape.

“Let me go!” I shrieked, finally grasping the handle.

“Why? I did nothing to you, yet I found myself sitting back in jail anyway! I thought I was helping you that night, but you’re just like every other woman out there!”

His hands were up my skirt, gripping the thick black leggings I was thankful I wore. In one painful move, he ripped them down my legs.

“Now I’ll get what I have coming to me! Take what I want, since being a gentleman isn’t what you’re looking for.”

His fingers gripped the band of my panties, and my adrenaline spiked into full-blown panic. With all my strength, I yanked my leg free and kicked back as hard as I could, landing my foot right on his face.

Kurt stumbled back, releasing his hold as blood gushed from his nose.

Taking full advantage, I pushed open the passenger door and scrambled out, darting into the dense forest beside the road. I knew I was close to my house and Logan’s house, so I ran, never once looking back through the heavy snow. It was bitterly cold; my leggings hung around my waist in pieces.

Over fallen trees and through dense, thorny brush I raced, my heart pounding against my chest. I could only hope I was going in the right direction. Rows of fat pine trees blocked the path, and in desperation, I slipped between them. The needles scratched my legs, and a frozen branch sliced into my cheek, but I never stopped. My pulse was racing and body trembling when I heard his sickening cackle.

“You can’t hide out here, Cassandra! You’ll freeze to death before you find help, because I’m not going anywhere until I have what was mine that night!”

I ran faster, tripping over a hidden pile of rocks covered by the snow. It didn’t slow me. I was back up and going.

Kurt’s voice was a constant, his words only growing angrier and nastier as he spouted out exactly what I had coming to me. The man was out of his mind—worse than a menace to society. He was psychotic!

Finally, hope was near. My house. I wasn’t sure if Kurt knew I lived there or if he’d only followed me from town, but it was my only shot. Nobody would be home at Logan’s, aside from the off chance that Natasha was back, but she’d be little help.

I needed my house, my phone, and my gun.

The instant my body collided with the back door, I scrambled for the small porcelain bird to the side that held an extra key, and with shaky hands, slid it into the lock.

“Where you going?” Kurt voice washed over me.

He was close, his voice no longer a yell. Still, I wasn’t looking back to see. The knob turned and I pushed myself inside, then twisted the lock back in place, only to come face to face with his black eyes staring at me through the glass.

“Well, this will be even better—I won’t have to freeze my ass off fucking you!”

I stepped back, eyes wide in terror as his foot connected with the door. There was no time to grab the phone on the wall. No time for anything.

Tears heating my eyes, I raced into my bedroom, slammed the door, and fell to my stomach, digging around under my bed for the safe. It only took a second to grasp the box and pull it out.

The shattering of glass echoed through the room, adding to the pulsating trembles wracking my body as I yanked open my side-table drawer and dumped it on the floor.