Summer's End (Wildflowers #5) - Jill Sanders Page 0,88

this time.

Bridgett laughed. “Oh, we’re not going to wait around any longer for the old man to die.”

A shiver raced down Aubrey’s spine at the heartlessness of the women’s attitude. Could someone really care so little about others? They were so focused on what they wanted that it didn’t faze them to hurt others.

Oddly, this reminded her of her relationship with Aiden. For the past three years, he’d only asked her for one thing. And she’d been determined to keep it from him because of her own selfish beliefs. She was no better than Bridgett and her mother. Not really.

“No.” Martha shook her head. “We’re just going to hold onto you until dear old dad pays the price we want.”

She held in a laugh as what they were doing sunk in. “You’re going to ransom me? That’s your plan?”

“He’ll pay it,” Bridgett hissed.

“No, he won’t,” she retorted.

“You forget, I’ve been around him for the past few years,” Martha said as her voice rose. “The man would do anything for you.”

“No.” She glanced at Martha and could see even more crazy behind the woman’s eyes than she’d seen behind Bridgett’s. “He wouldn’t.”

Aubrey knew she was running out of time. She didn’t know the women’s plan for where they were going to take her or how they were going to leave the grounds. At this point, she could hear the wind and rain increasing outside and doubted they’d get far before the weather would overpower them. If she was going to escape, she had to make her move soon.

“Harold Smith only cares about himself. Until last week, I hadn’t seen him since my eighteenth birthday,” she told them.

“That’s because I convinced Harold to invite you along to the party. I made sure to hint that your presence would make me happy.” Bridgett shifted slightly and Aubrey felt the hand she was holding the knife in relax slightly. “After all that your mother took away from us, I just had to see you suffer like we did.”

The more the pair talked, the less on guard they were. Aubrey knew that if she was going to have any chance at distracting them long enough to overpower them, she had to keep them talking.

“Why? It wasn’t as if I did anything to you.” She asked Bridgett.

“Because of you, I lost my father.” She practically screamed it. Aubrey felt the knife dig into her side even more. Okay, so it wasn’t wise to talk about Bridgett’s father.

“My father hates me. He told me that I was nothing but a disappointment to him.” She said, trying to change tactics.

“That doesn’t mean that he doesn’t watch out for you,” Martha replied. “Do you know how much he worries about you?” She laughed. “It was almost sickening hearing him constantly talk about you. He kept trying to figure out a way to get you back to the city, back under his control so he could try and change you, mold you into what he wanted his heir to be.”

Martha took another few steps towards her, and Aubrey saw her opening. Releasing a breath and relaxing her body so that muscle memory would take over, she prepared for the pain of the knife in her side as she got ready to kick out.

At that exact moment, her walkie-talkie buzzed to life as Zoey’s voice rang out.

“Aub, check in.”

Martha’s eyes darted away as the gun waved away from her chest and zoned in on the walking talkie that hung off Aubrey’s hip.

Kicking out and knocking the gun out of Martha’s hands was the easy part. Twisting and grabbing hold of Bridgett’s wrist and yanking the knife out of her hold proved a little more difficult.

They struggled for a moment, and Zoey called again.

“Aubrey, please check in.”

Bridgett yanked the walkie-talkie from her hip and threw it across the boathouse. It landed in the water with a plop, but it gave Aubrey enough time to knock the knife free of Bridgett’s hold.

She twisted Bridgett’s wrist until she heard a snap and the knife hit the ground. Then she focused on stopping Martha from racing to grab the gun on the ground.

Aubrey had practiced so much in her life that she didn’t have to think about what she was going to do beforehand. Her body moved, twisted, and avoided being hit by both Martha and Bridgett as if it had a mind of its own.

She’d practiced with multiple partners over the years, but none of them had actually been trying to kill her. She