Lucky Forever - Cee Bowerman Page 0,60
do you? After all these years?”
“No,” she shook her head. “I don’t want him to be mad at me. They poisoned his mind against me already and I can’t fix that. I don’t want him to get angry.”
“Then you should leave before he gets here. The girls will take care of your baby for you until you can come back and talk to Rowdy when he’s calm.”
“You’re going to make them come out of there.”
“I can’t,” I shook my head. “If it’s locked from the inside, I can’t get in and they can’t hear anything from the outside.”
“Then how will they know when Rowdy comes to get them out?”
I scrambled, realizing that I may have painted myself into a corner, “He has a secret knock. I don’t even know it. Only he and Leia know it.”
“Leia?” Beverly whispered. “That’s her name?”
“Yeah,” I nodded. “Her name is Leia.”
“Come with me,” Beverly moved so quickly, I wasn’t prepared when she grabbed my arm and jerked me to walk beside her. “I’ll call out to her. She’ll know it’s me since I’m her mother. A little girl can trust her mother.”
My eyebrows rose and I tried hard to silence my features. If she saw that I thought she was totally insane, she’d get mad again. I needed her calm while I figured out what to do.
My first thought was to get some sort of weapon out of the tack room, but she jerked me along behind her so fast, I didn’t have a chance to even glance in there before we passed it.
“Leia!” Beverly screamed over and over again. “I’m your mother, Leia, and I order you to come out right this instant!”
I could tell by the sounds in the barn that our horses were agitated because of Beverly’s screaming and when I glanced into the stall that held the newest rescue, I saw her face through the bars of the door and realized she was crazed. I could see the whites of her eyes and she was breathing hard. I knew that any second now she would go off and be uncontrollable.
I almost laughed when I compared the horse to Beverly in my head and then realized that I must be losing my fucking mind to find anything funny at a time like this.
“Leia!”
“She can’t hear you, Beverly,” I yelled. “The girls are safe and won’t unlock that door for anything but their Daddy.”
I prayed that the girls could hear my voice and understand that I was telling them that no matter what they heard, they should leave the door locked.
As if there wasn’t enough chaos around us, my phone started ringing from my purse. I glanced down at it and knew in my heart it was Rowdy calling to see what to pick up for dinner. The phone rang until it went to voicemail and then immediately started ringing again.
“Don’t you dare answer that phone!”
“If I don’t answer it, he’ll think something’s wrong and call the police.”
“He wouldn’t dare!”
“He’s all the way in town, Beverly. He’s working and can’t get away. If I don’t answer, he’ll assume the worst and the police will come right out. If they do, you’ll never get to meet Leia or hold your baby again.”
I wondered where in the hell this woman had gotten a baby in the first place, but shook that thought off. I had a plan to save us, I just needed to keep Beverly talking until I could warn Rowdy and maybe even get him out here to distract her.
The phone started ringing again and I watched Beverly’s face.
“You can answer it, but don’t tell him I’m here. I want it to be a surprise. Just act like everything is normal and talk to him like you always do. If you warn him, I will shoot you in the fucking head.”
“Okay,” I nodded as I scrambled to get the phone out of my bag. “Whatever you say.”
“Hey, Rowdy Roo,” I purred into the phone. “Sorry I didn’t pick up when you first called, I was in Buttercup’s stall giving her some carrots.”
“You what?” Rowdy asked me, confused.
“Yeah, she and Thumper were all worked up, so I thought I’d give them some treats to make them happier. Orange is their best color, you know,” I laughed shrilly.
Beverly glared at me and I just shrugged my shoulders like I was stupid enough to really follow her directions.
“What the fuck is going on, Sierra? Buttercup? Thump… ,” Rowdy kept talking but I interrupted him. I