Page 94 of A Cowboy's Trust
Melissa raised a brow. “Either you get in, or I throw him in and leave for good. Which will it be?”
Maybe trying to overpower Melissa was worth the risk, but fear Jeffrey would get hurt held Tansy back. Whatever else happened, the kiddo needed to have the chance for a better life. That couldn’t start with him in the trunk, vanishing from Heart Falls.
Good thing she and the little tyke were both thieves and sneaks. They spoke the same language.
Tansy looked Jeffrey straight in the eye. “People who don’t make Dixie smile get something else, don’t they?”
Her attention elsewhere, Tansy couldn’t move fast enough to dodge. Melissa had dropped the iron and slapped her hard with an open palm. “Stop spewing nonsense and get in the damn trunk.”
Climbing into the enclosed space wasn’t an ideal situation, but then again, Tansy had some options not available to the average person. She knew better than most how to get out of a trunk, so while it was a bad idea, it was better than any of her other current options.
In fact, it was one way to guarantee Tansy could get the jump on Melissa.
Tansy made eye contact with Jeffrey again. The kiddo was tight-lipped, with eyes wide as saucers, but he was also hyper-focused.
“No puppy smiles,” he whispered, and Tansy bared her teeth in her best Dixie impression.
“Shut up,” Melissa ordered, shaking Jeffrey as she stepped closer to the car.
“Cool your jets, I’m going,” Tansy offered, setting a foot into the back. She needed to move fast and smart and not leave her fingers in vulnerable positions. Just in case Melissa slammed the trunk shut before Tansy was all the way in.
She’d barely ducked her head when the lid crashed closed.
A second later, Melissa screamed. A thump sounded, followed by a scramble of rocks.
Cursing rang for a full minute before Melissa got herself together. “What the hell? The little asshole bit me.”
Good for Jeffrey. Tansy hoped he escaped along the path to the lake. There were a ton of places for someone with his skills to hide along the way, and it was a warm enough day. He’d be safe until Jake came and found him.
“You taught him to have that shitty attitude. Fine, Jake can have him, but he can’t have you as well.”
“Someone needs to up her meds,” Tansy sang out. She peered around for the emergency trunk latch releases. The car was new enough it had to have them. Somewhere close to her should be a glow-in-the-dark latch.
“Bitch.” Overhead, metal rang like a kettle drum as Melissa slammed something on the trunk. The tire iron? “You messed everything up.”
“Tell me about it. Oh, wait, maybe don’t. You’re nothing but a liar, and a thief, and far too stupid to have any sort of long-term plan. Do you even know your right hand from your left? Crazy bitch.”
Crude insults, and not very politically correct, but Jake had said a mad Melissa made unwise choices. Maybe she’d get close enough Tansy could open the trunk suddenly and smack her in the face.
Maybe she’d stand there beating on the metal until the cops arrived. Because by now Jake had to be looking for Tansy, which meant Petra as well, and there was no way her bestie didn’t have some kind of tracker to follow.
“Fuck you,” Melissa screamed, “I wasbrilliant. You ever wonder how I knew where to find him? I sent Jake a bunch of letters. I’d lost track of him and had no idea where he was anymore other than southern Alberta, and for some reason, his past employers wouldn’t give me his forwarding address.”
Because you’re clearly not mentally stable?Which didn’t matter at this point because as long as Melissa kept talking, she wasn’t going after Jeffrey. Tansy spotted the glowing catch release for the trunk. One problem solved. “How does that mean you showed up on his doorstep?”
“He answered back.” Melissa gloated. “I sent one letter a month until I got a response. That narrowed it down to two different towns, and as soon as I got here, people were more than happy to talk about the gorgeous Skye brothers and them taking over the animal rescue and running their retreat house. Ad nauseum.”
Mentally unstable, but slightly smart. Tansy clapped slowly then went back to feeling for the other release that should be close, just as a backup. “Well done. You could get a job with the police force, except for the fact you’re a thieving, cheating, psycho bitch.”
The screaming that followed was drowned out by the deafening volume of Melissa beating the hell out of the trunk with the tire iron. With every blow, the metal over Tansy’s head dented more until she figured it was possible the trunk latch would no longer open.
Tansy gritted her teeth against the racket, adjusted position, and found the second release pull. The one that when she decided to tug it, half the back seat would flip down and let her access the passenger space.
If Melissa took off now, getting access to attack her directly would be risky but still the safest possible solution. Surviving a car going off the road, especially if Tansy could time her escape to be in town when they were at lower speeds, was far better than whatever the hell else the woman had in mind.
The banging stopped and quiet fell, but Tansy’s ears still rang as she listened for a clue of what Melissa was doing. Headed to the driver’s door? Heading out to find Jeffrey?
If Mellissa walked away from the car, Tansy could be after her in seconds.
