Tempestuous Taurus Read online

  “I’m happy you found the phone, Cassie. Things are moving along so nicely. So very nicely. I have to take care of Jared first, and that will happen very soon. I’ll leave your sister for last. I might even let you watch.”

  “What do you mean? Jared’s in prison. What are you gonna do to Tara?”

  She forgot herself and almost shook him but she knew from past punishment that would be a very bad idea.

  “You will find out very soon.” He turned and left the room.

  Cassie’s heart sank. He’d wanted her to call Tara. He’d wanted Cassie to bait her, and then he planned to hurt her. That time when he almost ran her down in the truck, he had no intention of actually killing her but now . . . She had to warn Tara. Had to escape from this room. What did he mean about Jared? Was he planning to have him killed in prison? Despite what Jared had done to her parents, Cassie couldn’t bring herself to want him to suffer. One thing she did believe—Bull was deadly dangerous. She saw him kill Bucky in cold blood and leave him on the street like carrion.

  I will find a way to save Tara.

  Chapter 41

  Tara couldn’t shake the feeling of inadequacy as she followed the ambulance. Please, please, please let him be okay.

  She slipped her phone out of her pocket, scrolled to Jared’s number, and waited.

  “Jared here.”

  “Jared, there’s been an accident and one of the therapy kids is hurt. El Junior. He’s on his way to Groover Hospital.”

  “Is he . . .?”

  “I don’t know. They’re working on him now.”

  “I’ll be there.” He hung up.

  She entered the hospital through the glass doors, in time to see the medics carry El in.

  “Little boy’s been kicked by a horse,” she heard one of them say.

  She watched them push the gurney toward an examination room.

  “Here. I’m a doctor,” a woman said as she rushed toward them. Her dark hair was pulled up into a French roll, and her shoes squeaked on the tiles as she walked. She had on blue scrubs and a stethoscope around her neck.

  Eldred and Sonya followed, their faces pale and anxious. One of the medics stopped and barred their way while the other pushed the gurney through a door. “You can wait in the visitors’ lounge near reception. You can’t come in with him.”

  “But . . . we’re his parents.”

  Tara’s head felt like it was filled with cotton wool. The sounds of people yelling, gurney wheels squeaking, and someone crying faded. Ronnie was one of the calmest, most reliable ponies. And whoever did this to him knew that.

  “Hey.”

  She turned and Jared was there. She fell into his arms and wept. Through her sobs, she told him what had happened. “We’re supposed to wait in the visitors’ lounge.”

  Jared held on to her, his hand warm and comforting, and guided her along the tiled corridors. “How could this happen?”

  He gently pushed her down onto an easy chair with wooden arms, and sank into the chair beside her, keeping her hand in his. “How is Ronnie? Is the pony okay?”

  “Oh, God, I don’t know. I’ve been so scared about El Junior.”

  Jared took his phone out and punched in a number. “Jules,” he said, “I’m at the hospital with Tara but we don’t have any news yet. They’re still working on El Junior. What in God’s name is happening there?”

  Tara couldn’t hear what Jules was saying. She could see it wasn’t good by the look on his face when he ended the call.

  “The pony died,” he said. “I’m sorry, Tara.”

  “What? No. He was such a sweet pony. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. You know that as well as me, so what in the world is going on?”

  “Jules said they’ve suspended all the remaining classes for those kids pending a police report. Another kid who was about to get on a horse is traumatized and the parents yelled at Christy and gave her a hard time, but they’re gone now. The cops have been there and they found that someone cut the fence behind the barn right there where I fixed it. The bastard must have snuck in when everyone was at lunch. I still don’t know what he does to the horses.”

  “We’ll be able to look at the camera footage, but he’ll be well disguised.” She hated crying, but it just seemed like everything was against her. She rubbed the tears off her face with the heels of her hands. Jared pulled a couple of tissues out of a Kleenex box on the table beside him and handed them to her.

  A doctor came in and everyone stopped talking and gazed anxiously at him. “Eldred Richland?”

  “Here.” Sonya spoke from outside the door. “He’s our son.”

  “Right this way.” The doctor led them away to have a private talk with her.

  Tara stood up, her legs shaking. Jared steadied her with his arm around her shoulders, but she could hear his elevated breathing that meant he was also afraid.

  “Look, El and Sonya are coming back.”

  Jared shook hands with them. “What news?”

  “The doctor seems to think he’ll be okay,” Eldred said, a quaver in his voice. “Physically. But we don’t know how this will affect him mentally or emotionally.”

  “They have to do an MRI and a few more tests just to be sure, but I think the doctor will let him come home tomorrow if he has a good night,” Sonya said.

  “Did you hear someone cut the fence and do something to the pony to make him crazy?” Jared said. “When we check the movie footage, we’ll be able to get a timeline, but he must have been pretty brazen. He would have had to have done whatever he did just before the lesson.”

  Tara didn’t hear the rest of the conversation. How? Who could have done this? What kind of monster would put children in such danger?

  She realized Jared was talking to her. “I’m gonna go and see to the pony. You coming?

  “Okay.” He was right, they needed to get over there and see what could be done about that poor pony. “I want Doc Grainger to do an autopsy.”

  He took her hand, and they walked out to the parking lot in silence. “You okay to drive?”

  “Sure. I’m fine now. But—we have to find this asshole. Children could have been killed.” Jared ran his thumb across her hand and warmth flooded her body. Somehow, the situation didn’t seem quite as bad with Jared by her side.

  Chapter 42

  Cassie looked around at the sparse room in the cabin’s basement. She wondered if she would ever know where she had been living before they came here. She knew they were close to Hardship, Texas now. Had the house been in Texas too?

  The day they had left that house had started like any other. The breakfast tray was on the bedside table when she came out of the shower—bagels and cream cheese and a bottle of water. She was still eating when he burst into the room, grabbed her arm, and jerked her onto her feet.

  “Hands behind your back,” he had demanded. He’d threaded a cable tie over them and pulled it as tight as he could, cutting off almost all the blood. He pushed her down the long, familiar and hated hallway, past his bedroom. “This way,” he said, shoving her to the stairs. “Hurry up.” He jerked her forward and she teetered and almost fell, but he held her arm again. “Clumsy bitch.”

  They stopped in front of an imposing wooden double door set, which he unlocked, and he pushed her in front of him.

  Oh, my God. I’m outside. Who could imagine that being out in the fresh air would evoke such strong emotions in her? At that moment, she didn’t care where he was taking her, it felt awesome to be outside. Her heart felt like it had been lifted out of dark and gloomy corner. She looked up at the sky and smiled, and almost stumbled again. It was so blue. She couldn’t remember the sky being that bright.

  “Watch where you’re going!” He slapped her hard across her face.

  She ignored the pain. The trees w
ere intensely green and the birdsong—she had never heard anything so beautiful. He guided her to an old double cab pickup truck.

  “Get in the back,” he had yelled. She climbed into the back seat and he pushed her face down onto the floor. He chained her ankles and arms to floor bolts and covered her completely with a blanket. There was no chance of escape, but in spite of all that, she felt something—a new hope. There had been no chance of escape inside the house. The windows had all been welded shut, and the doors were always locked.

  They had driven for hours until she lost all feeling in her hands. She dozed off and woke several times. If she could just see where they were going, but he was too smart to let that happen. He appeared anxious about something and in a hurry. Could the cops be onto him?

  Wait. He’s slowing down. Now he’s turned. Oh, this road is bumpy.

  A while later, maybe twenty or thirty minutes of sharp curves and bumps, the vehicle had stopped. She strained her ears and heard the front car door open and slam shut. She hardly dared breathe. His footsteps crunched on something and moved away from her. It smelled pungent, like crushed weeds. She heard birdsong and cicadas. She strained against her bonds, ignoring the pain.

  Oh, my God. He’s taken me to the woods to kill me and dump my body.

  His footsteps had come back and he threw the blanket off her. He used a knife to cut the ties that bound her wrists to the truck. The pain from the blood returning to her hands was excruciating, and she shook her arms to try and mitigate some of the burning.

  They were in the woods. They were parked on an overgrown track outside a rustic cabin. How would he kill her? With a knife? Would he shoot her? Her mouth was so dry she couldn’t swallow. He pushed her toward the cabin—a far cry from the beautiful home they had lived in before. She wondered if that house had belonged to him, or did he just rent it? If he did, he must have a lot of money. She had no idea where it was—in California or Texas, or in between.

  Inside the cabin, it was dark and smelled musty. Dust balls floated in a ray of light that shone through a chink in the bat and board wall. She realized it was more than just a cabin when he marched her down some stairs into a dark basement with no windows. She fell onto the lower of two bunk beds against the wall. The only light came from the door, which he closed. She heard a padlock clicking. Still, she jumped up and tried the door.

  Once her eyes adjusted, she could just make out the bed. The mattress had seen better days and the single blanket smelled of smoke. She felt her way along the wall to a room with no door, which contained a toilet and a sink. She tried a faucet and a thin trickle of water ran out and stopped.

  After that move, it seemed like something about him had changed. He had always been immaculately groomed before and had worn good quality pants and button-up shirts. Maybe he had a job and went to work that way. She didn’t know, but in the weeks that had followed their move to the cabin, he stopped shaving and started dressing in jeans and plaid shirts instead.

  He dressed her in flimsy night dresses. Sometimes when he came into the room, he carried a rifle with him. She often thought about grabbing it and turning it on him, but he kept it away from her and she never had an opportunity. His dark beard and hair grew long and unkempt, and his eyes seemed to become wilder. She wondered if he was taking drugs of some sort.

  And then, one day, he put her in the truck, and almost ran over Tara. Intentionally.

  Seeing Tara had brought so much emotion. Tara was close. She never knew where she was being held until now. They weren’t far from Hardship, Texas. Home for so many wonderful years, and then the horrible murders. Why had she left the way she did? Did she really believe she could make it in Hollywood? So naïve and stupid. Tara had tried to warn her and she was right. Cassie couldn’t count the hundreds of times she had wished she could go back and change things.

  Chapter 43

  Jared drove fast. He wanted to get to the Taurus Center before Tara.

  As he drove, troubled thoughts churned in his mind. How could he make her see how much he loved her? He was sure she loved him. She was just confused. The Taurus Center was her home. Sure, she’d made a life for herself in Arizona. He couldn’t dispute that and he couldn’t blame her for not wanting to live with the sad and terrifying memories.

  I won’t give up, ever. She has to see how much she loves her home and the Center, and me. If she insists on going back to that other life, I’ll follow her and . . . And what?

  She wouldn’t need him there.

  He parked his truck and got out to see Julia and Christy standing over the dead pony, their faces white.

  Christy’s eye makeup was smudged and had left dark marks on her cheeks.

  “El Junior’s okay, but they don’t know if he’ll have brain damage. They have to do more tests.” He looked down at the pony. “What a fuck-up. Have you heard from Doc Grainger? He’s supposed to come and do an autopsy.”

  Jules nodded. “He’s on his way. What in hell’s name are we gonna do, Jared? I mean, we’re gonna be out of a job and the Taurus Center is gonna be sued now. So many people rely on us. They need us.” She stared at his face. “What happened to your eye?”

  He put his hand up to the eye. “I’m okay. The cops been here?”

  “Yeah, you just missed them. They couldn’t find anything except the fence being broken and they said there were no footprints or anything.”

  “This is—so fucking messed up.” Christy dissolved into tears and Jared pulled her into him. She threw her arms around his neck and buried her face in his chest and sobbed.

  He patted her on her back. Over her head, he could see Tara approaching them.

  “I don’t know what’s gonna happen, but I’m gonna find whoever it is and I’ll kill him. I swear I will,” Jared said as Tara reached them. He tried to loosen Christy’s arms from his neck.

  Christy took out a tissue and blew her nose, and Jared stepped back and away from her. He could see anger smoldering in Tara’s eyes, and he wondered if it was all about the pony, or if she had seen him with Christy. She had always been the jealous type.

  Tara bent and stroked the pony’s neck. “Poor baby,” she said through gritted teeth as the veterinarian’s truck pulled in and parked beside Jared’s.

  Chapter 44

  A pang of jealousy hit Tara like a wall when she saw Jared’s arms around Christy. She hadn’t forgotten that Jules had told her they’d been seeing one another on and off.

  Doc Grainger loped up to them and enclosed Tara in his long arms. “I’m so glad you’re here, honey,” he said. “I would hate for this place to close down permanently or be taken over by strangers. Lacey would turn over in her grave. Where are we gonna do this?”

  “Right here will be fine,” Tara said. “I’m so mad I could . . . I don’t know.” She felt tears well up and forced them down with a couple of deep breaths.

  “Yup. This is crazy all right.” He went back to his truck and came back carrying a tarp. “Gonna need some help to roll the body onto this,” he said as he spread it out on the ground. “I’ll need a helper, too.”

  “I’ll help,” Jared said.

  “We’ll all help,” Tara echoed, staring at Christy.

  The veterinarian knelt down and opened his bag.

  “I hope you can figure out what caused this—why the horses go crazy,” Tara said.

  “We have a better chance this time because I can send the stomach contents for analysis. The blood never showed anything, but we may be luckier with the stomach.”

  “I c—c— I have to go. I don’t think I can watch,” Christy said.

  “You don’t have to stay,” Jared said. “We don’t need you puking all over the place.”

  Christy threw her arms around him. “Thank you.” She whispered something in his ear and then stood back. “I mean it. Will you come?”<
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  “I’ll see,” Jared said. He glanced at Tara and knelt down to help the doc.

  “Can you hold this for me?” Doc Cooper asked.

  After the veterinarian had completed the autopsy, Jared said, “I’m going to supervise the pony’s burial. Looks like Roberto’s almost done digging. I’ll bring the backhoe and we’ll load the body onto it to get over there, near the pasture.”

  Jules said, “I have to go home. You don’t need me for anything else, do you?”

  “No,” Tara said.

  Jules put her arms around Tara and said in a quiet tone, “I’m so sorry. Things are just so crazy.” She hugged Tara tight and then headed to her car.

  Tara took a couple of deep breaths to calm the wild emotions swirling around in her head. “Why don’t you come and have a cup of tea, Doc? You must be tired.”

  “That sounds nice. Let me put my bag in the truck and shed my coveralls, and I’ll wash up in the bathroom out there in the rec center.”

  Tara filled the kettle and got a mug and a tall glass out of the cabinet.

  “Let’s sit out on the porch—where it’s private,” Tara said when he walked into the house. “Here’s some sweet tea for you. I’ve been keeping it in the refrigerator recently, even though I prefer my tea hot. Everyone else around here likes it sweet and cold. ”

  Dr. Grainger sat on one of the wooden chairs and Tara sank into the swing seat.

  “Nothing much has changed in the—how many years have you been gone? Nine or ten, I think. Except Lacey’s passing. Your aunt loved sittin’ right there,” he said, shaking his head. “Such a shame she had to go so soon, but the Lord had things for her to do up there.” He looked up into the sky.

  “I know. I miss her.” Tara took a sip of tea. “I wish I’d made more of an effort to come back here before it was too late.”