Page 100 of Surly Sheriff
“Impossible.”
“Humph.” She pursed her lips. Sighed. “The night of my birthday … our grandfather wasn’t supposed to be home. But” — she gave a harsh laugh — “I should’ve known he’d returned when our governess insisted that I wear a new white dress. Virginal white,” she spat. “The old man had cut short his month-long European business trip to return to celebrate his granddaughter’s birthday. He had thegallto wink at me, Beau.Wink. And throughout that dreadful meal, I knew what was going to happen afterward.”
23
Escape
Rae blinked away the tears. “We’d left our escape too late,” she whispered hoarsely, recalling the desperation that had surged through her soul that evening. Funny how some things stuck in one’s mind and others, far more important ones, took years to resurface. She wanted to take comfort in Beau’s arms like she had during her recurring nightmares when those memories returned, piece by harrowing piece, but she had thrown away that privilege when she turned her back on him. She straightened. Her move created a small gap between them. How fitting.
“Just before desserts were served,” she stared up again, “the old bastard announced hiscoup de grâce. The visitor with him, a man as old as Grandfather himself, was to be Kat’s husband. And they set the wedding for the next day.The next day.”
Rae met his startled look in the window. “She wasn’t evensixteenyet, Beau, her birthday still five weeks away,” she whispered. “After dessert came the rounds of vodka and toasts.And vulgar jokes. A group of depraved men and two young girls … It was awful. And then it was time to retire to the library.” Her lips curled into a sneer. “Just Grandfather and the birthday girl. Me,” she spat, stabbing a finger in her chest.
“That was when Kat spoke. ‘Let me come, too, Grandfather,’ she said. ‘Help Inessa.’
“The idea appealed to the perverted bastard. And so, Kat and I both joined him in the library.
“He wasted no time. ‘Come here, Inessa,’ he said, and sat in his favorite leather chair.
“‘No,’ I replied, full of false bravado.
“He smirked and unbuckled his belt. ‘Katerina, come show your sister how to pleasure a man.’
“But Kat had another plan. While he was concentrating on me, she had pulled his pistol from the desk drawer. ‘It ends tonight,’ she said, pointing the gun at him.
“He laughed at her. ‘Don’t be silly, girl.” The bastard pushed up from the chair and walked over to her.
“‘I mean it,’ she said, backing away.
“Kat’s arm was shaking so badly, I thought she’d drop the pistol.
“‘Coward,’ he mocked, grabbing the weapon right out of her hand. He whipped her across the face with it, and she fell to the floor.
“‘Whore,’ he snapped, the gun in his hand, watching her crawl away, ‘Come here, Inessa,” he repeated his earlier command. ‘Or I will shoot your weakling bitch of a sister.’
“I had no ch-choice. I went to him, stopping a short distance away. He reached and grabbed a fistful of my hair. ‘On your knees,’ he ordered, jerking me lower.”
Rae hated how her voice broke.
Hated how that night still haunted her.
Beau made a strangled sound and lifted his arm.
She shrunk away before his hand touched her. “Let me finish. Please.” She met his eyes in the window.
A gamut of emotions raged across his features — anger, compassion, helplessness, ending with resignation when he dropped his arm to his side.
He gave her a chin lift, his lips compressed.
“I knelt.‘Unzip me,’ he said, yanking my hair. ‘Want your mouth on me.’ I obeyed him. It was disgusting.” She shuddered, breaking eye contact. “The taste, the smell …
“And then Kat rushed over and jumped on his back, screaming, ‘No!’ over and over. He spun about and easily dislodged her and aimed the weapon at her. ‘I warned you,’ he snarled, his finger on the trigger.
“I grabbed the first sharp object I could find on his desk — the dagger he used as a letter opener — and stormed him. He sidestepped my move and pointed the gun at me, but his pants slipped down his legs, and he stumbled and fell. I leaped onto him” — she lifted her eyes — “and plunged the blade into his neck.”
Beau’s eyes widened, and his mouth slackened. “Jesus, Rae,” he whispered.
“I scrambled off him, and Kat and I stood over his body, watching the blood seep from his neck. I remember thinking how odd it was that his blood ran red, not black. We watched until his eyes turned lifeless.”
