Rubbing my hand across the back of my neck, I let out a frustrated groan. “Adaline, why don’t you go back to the bus? I’ll let Emmit know where you are.”
Smiling, I nodded and kissed Kate Elliot on the cheek. “I think I will. I’m exhausted and who knows how long this will take. Is Johnny still at the bus?”
Kate shook her head. “No, Robert’s mom went and got him a little bit ago.”
I placed my hand on Kate’s arm and smiled. “Thank you so much, Kate. I’ll talk to you soon.”
With each step I took back to the bus, I had a dreadful feeling move over me and I wasn’t sure why. The feeling of someone watching me caused the hair on my arms to rise as I glanced around. At one point, I stopped and turned back to look at Emmit. He must have sensed it because he looked directly at me and held up his hand to motion five more minutes.
Thank God. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed.
Opening the door to the bus, I took a step in. “Lola?” I called out as I looked for her. Huh. That’s strange she isn’t here to greet me.
Johnny must have turned all the lights out in the bus before he left because it was pitch-black. “Lola!” I called out as I turned the kitchen light on and headed to the bedroom. When I didn’t see her on the bed, I panicked. Shit! What if Johnny left the door open and she got out?
Turning on my heels, I went to go outside when I ran right into someone. Screaming, I stumbled back and looked at the woman standing in front of me. It didn’t take long for me to recognize her.
“Cookie?” I asked stunned.
Her eyes turned black as she pulled out a knife and said, “It’s Becca.”
Swallowing hard, I barely got the words out, “Becca? I thought your name was—” Then it clicked. Becca and Cookie were the same person.
I took a few steps back and hit the bed while my eyes darted between the knife in Becca’s hand and the look in her eyes. My body trembled and I wasn’t sure which one I should be more afraid of.
“Becca, what are you doing here? Why . . . why are you holding a knife?”
Her smile made my skin crawl as she let out a deep, haunting laugh. “It wasn’t hard finding you. After all, I’m best friends with Ashley. All I had to do was mention how cool it would be to do a girls’ weekend in Florida. It didn’t take her long to put two and two together and suggest coming to the race. I was hoping Emmit would win, but I wasn’t counting on you hanging all over him after he won. You were supposed to come back here over an hour ago. Your damn dog will be waking up any minute.”
I glanced behind her only to see Lola laying on the floor in the living room. I covered my mouth and gasped. “What did you do to her?”
Becca reached out and grabbed my arm, pulling me toward her as I let out a small gasp. “Relax, it’s just a sedative. I’d never kill Emmit’s dog. I know how much he loves that dog.”
Becca gave me a hard push, causing me to stumble and hit the wall. “Go into the living room. Now.”
I did as she asked, stepping over Lola who looked to be just sleeping. I shook my head and looked back at Becca. Confusion swept through my mind as I tried to figure out what in the hell was going on. “Wait, I’m confused, what are you doing, Becca?”
“I’m here to tell you Emmit is mine. He made a terrible mistake by marrying you. I tried to remind him of our night together. I sent him an email and asked him to meet me. He never answered.”
I continued to stare at Becca as my eyes looked between the knife and her face. My heart was pounding in my chest as I felt sick to my stomach.
“Then I sent him another email and begged him to reconsider. I even offered to meet him again in Dallas last November. He ignored me again. But then I got to thinking, maybe it was you deleting all my emails, keeping Emmit away from me.”
My heart dropped as I shook my head. “No,” I whispered.
“You were getting the emails first and deleting them before my precious Emmit could read them. I even sent him nude pictures of me. He wanted me once before, I knew if he saw what he could have, he’d want me again.”
My stomach churned and I covered my mouth. Emmit mentioned nothing to me about emails. “I-I don't have access to his emails. Only his assistant does.”
“Shut-up you lying bitch! Why couldn’t you have just called off the wedding? I destroyed your wedding dress! I did everything I possibly could to ruin that day and you still married him! Even when I gave you the video of us, you couldn’t see how he was looking at me. How much he wanted me. Me! Not you! Me!”
I jumped when Becca screamed out. I was praying someone had heard her and would be knocking on the door.
“Why don’t you just put the knife down and we can talk.”
Becca’s eyes turned evil as she took another step toward me and said, “There is no time to talk, Adaline. You have to get out of the picture. There’s only one way to do that now.” Becca held the knife higher as she took another step toward me.
Closing my eyes, I prayed Emmit would hear me when I screamed.
THE INTERVIEWS WERE FINALLY OVER and I was headed back to my bus. I had been riding on a high all evening. First winning the Daytona 500 and then finding out Adaline was pregnant. This day could not possibly get any better.
I lifted my baseball cap and pushed my hand through my hair as I smiled. Who was I kidding? The day was only going to get better the second I held Adaline in my arms.
“Emmit!”
My sister’s voice caused me to turn and look at my sister. “Hey, Ashley!”
“Emmit!” she called out again as she rushed over to me.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as she grabbed me and pulled me straight ahead. “Ashley, what in the hell is wrong with you?”
“It was Becca!”
I came to a stop, bringing my sister to a stop in the process. “What was who?”
The look on Ashley’s face was frantic. “Becca! Cookie, do you remember Cookie?”
My head pulled back and I looked away briefly before the name clicked. “Your girlfriend from Dallas?”
“Yes! Emmit, she was the one who tried to cancel your reservations. It was Becca who got into the villa and destroyed Adaline’s dress. It was Becca who came to the Bahamas and delivered the video for Adaline to see.”
My head started spinning. “Wait. What? Did Stephanie hire her or something?”
Ashley shook her head and said, “No! No! No! Stephanie didn’t have anything to do with that. My other friend Janet said she walked in on Becca earlier and she was going through my phone. When Janet asked her what she was doing, Becca told her everything. About how she had been looking through my emails and texts from you because she loved you and had to find a way to get Adaline to leave you.”
“How would she know all that information?”
Ashley quickly wiped a tear away and said, “Emmit, you emailed me all the information for the wedding. Remember, after Stephanie was fired? I called and arranged for the spa day and everything. Everything Becca needed was in that one email.”
“W-why would she do that?”
Ashley grabbed my hand again and ran to the bus. “She’s crazy, Emmit, and she wants you. I think she might try to hurt Adaline!”
The last sentence Ashley spoke hit me and I quickly ran past her and to the bus. As I went to reach for the door, Ashley pulled my arm back. “Wait!”
I looked back at her like she was crazy. Putting her finger to her mouth, she shook her head. “If the door is locked and she is in there, she’ll do something drastic.” Reaching into her purse, Ashley dug around until she pulled out her keys and looked for the key to the bus.
“Right,” I said, as I grabbed the key. Taking a deep breath, I prayed when I opened the door I would find Adaline sitting on the couch reading.
Quietly slipping the key into the lock, I turned it and opened the door as fast as I could as Ashley pushed me through the door with all her might.
I came to a halt when I saw Cookie . . . or Becca . . . or whatever the fuck her name was, standing in front of Adaline holding a knife. With a quick look down, I saw Lola lying on the floor.