A cold weight settled in my gut as I watched him—sniffing, rubbing his nose against his shoulder, but never loosening his grip. He was high. On something potent. Maybe the same heroin they’d pumped into Dad, except a smaller dose.
There’d be no reasoning with Carter either. Not like this.
I whipped my head back around to Chelsea, warily eyeing the items she now held.
She’d always been deathly terrified of needles. So afraid that she’d passed out at the mere sight of them when Mom was sick—unless that had just been another act in a long list of skilled performances. But it was the whip she gripped that really confused me. She’d never been a horse person. Never learned to ride. What could she possibly want with it?
As if answering my unspoken question, she drew closer, clumsily slashing the whip through the air. Even with her poor form, it was enough for the tip to nick my chin right at the spot still healing from hitting the pavement. I gasped in pain.
Behind the stall door, Vader had recovered and was barking and snarling, hurling his body against the wood. Relief flooded through me knowing he was okay, but fear quickly followed—if he broke free, Chelsea might hurt him more.
“I promised you’d regret not leaving,” Chelsea said. “Now, you’ll die, the barn will burn, and maybe even the entire Harrington resort if yourfiancéisn’t quick enough.”
Even as she said it, she kicked over a red container I hadn’t noticed. The scent of gasoline filled the air, running in rivulets along the floor.
“Why, Chelsea? Why would you do this? You can’t possibly hate me this much.”
“I don’t hate you. I just don’t give a shit about you either. And you only have yourself to blame. It would have been simple if you’d just done what you were told. With Dad dead and you disappearing where no one could find you, all the money from the sale of his property and his life insurance would have been mine and mine alone.”
I shook my head in disgust. “Dad doesn’t have life insurance, Chelsea. He’s broke.”
She laughed, and it reminded me of the time she’d played the evil queen inSnow White. It had been dark and ugly and terrifying, even when I’d known she was acting, and now it was all the more frightening because I knew just how real it was.
“He actually does have insurance. I’ve been paying for it for three years, just biding my time. When I saw Carter in LA and he told me about the deal he’d been trying to make with Dad, I knew it was the perfect time. I just had to get you out of the way.”
“I can’t believe you’re willing to actually kill your family for money.”
My chest ached, and my shoulders burned as Carter yanked them back farther.
“Family. Some family. That poor, innocent Maisey routine you played at the mall almost cost me Gavin!” She slashed the air with the whip, but this time, I jerked to the side before it could hit me and almost struck Carter.
“Hey, watch it,” he snapped.
Chelsea acted like she hadn’t even heard him as she came closer, swirling the whip. “Gavin left. He fucking left me in that shack of a rental all because your idiot fiancé somehow convinced him with one sentence that I was a horrible person.”
“If he finally saw the real you behind your act, don’t blame me or Beckett. Maybe you just aren’t as good an actress as you like to believe.”
Fury flared across Chelsea’s face. She flicked the whip, but for the second time, it didn’t reach me.
“I should have already won an Academy Award for all the years I pretended to be your loving big sister.”
I snorted in disgust, even though the truth was, I had believed her for years. I’d believed her over Beckett trying to show me the truth.
“Chelsea, let’s just get this done,” Carter said behind me.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” she hissed at him before staring daggers at me again. “You may have tried to ruin my relationship, Cornlette, but Gavin will come back to me. When I wave a check for a million dollars in front of him, he’ll be begging me to be his again. Begging me to hand it over so we can finally film the movie we wrote together.”
“You’re never going to get that chance, Chelsea. Sheriff Wylee is already investigating you.”
“I have a plan,” she said, and she glanced behind me to Carter.
He didn’t seem to register the look, but I did. With a fresh wave of horror, I understood. Chelsea was going to lay this all at his feet. She’d kill me, set the barn on fire, and make sure Carter died in the process. She’d make it seem that he’d been the one behind all of it.
But Chelsea seemed to have forgotten one thing. I wasn’t alone.
I’d sent Chuck for help, and my absence would be noted at the lake. An entire team of people would be looking for me, and Beckett would be heading them up. He had my location on his phone. He’d be here.
I just had to delay, put up enough of a fight that Chelsea and Carter concentrated on me until help arrived.