Raging Love (16 page)

“
Oh Colt, I can’t believe this is finally happening. We’re going to be a family, a real family baby.” He held me tight, spinning me around in circles.

Happy tears were shared between both of us, leaving us in momentary bliss. I was happier than I had ever been in my entire life. I had the most handsome and loving man as my husband, a beautiful home, a family that loved me, wonderful friends and my first child growing inside of me. Our life was perfect and Colt was the reason. He gave me it all, and I would be forever in awe with his devotion to me.

For the next four weeks, we managed to keep my pregnancy a secret. Colt had a more difficult time than me, especially being around his mother all of the time. For a while I thought he caved and told her, but I knew he hadn’t when I saw the look on her face when she did find out.

We had our normal family Sunday dinner. Conner had already left and Lucy was doing the dinner dishes. While Aunt Karen and my mother in law were gossiping during our card game, Colt cleared his throat and stood up from the table. They both looked and watched as he pulled me to stand next to him. He looked down into my eyes with the biggest smile I had ever seen before. He never looked away from me as he began to speak. “Savanna and I have somethin’ important to share.”

Colt’s mother literally yelped and stood up holding her hand on her heart. “OH MY GOD, YOUR PREGNANT?”

We both turned to face her as we started laughing and shaking our heads to confirm. Both of the
middle-aged
women came running to our side of the table, throwing their arms around us and feeling on my belly.

His mother cried for nearly an hour, pulling us into the living room to talk about her excitement some more. She offered to basically buy me anything my heart desired in preparation for our special delivery. As much as
I appreciated her thought, Colt and I could afford to do it all ourselves and we wanted to. This was our first child and we were
ecstatic
.

For the past six
months,
I had done nothing but think about baby matters. I had a nursery designed in my head. I knew what bedding I wanted and what kind of diapers I preferred. I had already fil
l
ed out information on cloth diapers and had them mailing me several coupons a month. I researched nipples and what type of bottles gave the least amount of gas. One day I had gone out to a department store and ended up trying out several strollers and car seats. I was so ready for this, so ready to give Colt the family that he wanted so badly.

My first
doctor’s
appointment was at ten weeks. The doctor wasn’t optimistic at first, but she was able to find the perfect little
heartbeat
. Colt
held my hand as we listened to it for the first time. It was the m
ost rapid, most beautiful thing
to hear. While the doctor wrote me my prescription for prenatal vitamins, she kept the monitor over my belly so we could continue to listen.

We left the o
ffice hand in hand. Even though
we already had known we were pregnant, hearing the heartbeat m
ade it all real. There was a lit
tle baby growing inside of me; a little Colt perhaps.

Ty and Miranda were just as excited when we shared the new
s
with them. Miranda had checked with her
doctor and they still had a little under a
year to go before they could start trying themselves. They were completely happy with Bella, but I think Ty was hoping for a little b
o
y to complete his perfect little family. They really were perfect too. Their friendship and love for each other was amazing to experience. If I had ever doubted them before, it was proven beyond a doubt that I had been wrong.

Miranda was really happy with the salon she was working at. She had made great friends there and she and Ty had even joined a local
billiards
league for a night out together. Ty’s mother was madly in love with Bella, apparently spoiling her like crazy. After four months, Ty and his father managed to do a
complete renovation to the
Carriage house. They had taken the back storage part, which had been a barn, and converted it to more living space. They had restored the original roof and gave the living room higher ceilings with exposed beams. It was such a big change, and looked like their own little cottage.

Of
course,
Bella got her own bedroom and playroom, as well as her own little bathr
oom.  In fact, the fu
ll addition added three bedrooms and a bathroom to the house. To make up for the loss of storage space, Ty
got his father a pole-
building
and had it installed
. They seemed happy living on the
farm. It wasn’t like they didn’t have privacy. The houses weren’t right up against one another and Ty and Miranda’s front door faced the opposite direction.

Colt and I had gone to visit them twice and for now, they had made one room for guests. Bella made it a point to drag us down the new hallway and show us her new rooms.
The best part was when she made Colt sit on the floor while she handed him each toy in her room, one at a time.

We had a really great visit and didn’t want it to end. I n
o longer even considered Ty an
ex-lover. Instead, he was a great friend and cousin. Miranda had helped me learn to discover myself and my body resulting in a deeper connection with Colt. We
’d
have secret conversation
s
labeled ‘girl talk’ and she never shared my private information with Ty. I had no idea if they ever talked about me, but Ty never mentioned it, so I assumed she hadn’t.

Ty’s mother also had changed her opinion of me. For so long I had wanted her to accept me and love me. On one of our visits, she pulled me aside and profusely apologized for being such a hardcore bitch.
Ty was happier than he had ever been, which meant she was happy. Maybe she had known all along that we weren’t meant for each other. Either way, to hear her saying those words to me made me so happy. From then on, she was never bitter.

We must have gotten pregnant right after our last visit to
North Carolina.
Colt came back to some issues with the ventilation in two of our chicken houses, so he had spent a whole week working late getting them up to par.
He was so tired when he finally came in at night that we didn’t have sex for over a week. I only remember because it was the longest we had ever gone without it. The night he finally had everything working, he came home and pretty much attacked me, pulling me in the shower with him first, then taking me back to our bed.

It had been so intense from the sexual tension building up between us, that we just had an entire night of making love to each other. We slept the whole next day, only getting up to eat, drink and use the bathroom. I never wanted to go that long without being with Colt, but I will never forget how awesome it was when we finally did it.

The first trimester of my pregnancy was perfect. I was tired at first, but it subsided and I felt fantastic and excited. I never really got morning sickness
.  It was cool to finally start getting a little baby
bump to my belly. It was not
noticeable
unless I was naked, but Colt was the only one feeling around every night anyway. He would always lay next to me, kissing and rubbing my belly, sometimes even talking to it.

My mother was freaking out, knowing that she and my father we
re
so far away, but I wasn’t really scared about being alone, besides Colt told them that he would fly them down immediately when the baby was coming.

One morning Colt went out to work somewhere on the ranch. We were running low on groceries and I refused to let Lucy do our shopping for us, so I grabbed my purse and headed out toward town.
For some reason I had become obsessed with couponing
,
after watching the extreme couponing show on television. We didn’t need to necessarily save money, but I did it as more of something to do with my extra time. We may have been well off, but I liked to get good deals still.

I went into the store with my book of coupons and the list of what I was going to buy. Early in the
mornings,
the stores weren’t ever busy, so I could take my time without dealing with long lines of people.

After checking out, I headed toward my car, hitting the trunk button on my
key ring
.

As I started unloading the groceries, I heard someone come up b
ehind me and grab me
. Something hard pointed into my side. “If you fucking scream, I will kill you right here.”

I froze, trying not to make a sound as he pushed me toward the passenger side of my car. Th
e man opened the door and shoved
me inside. “Don’t look up. Keep you
r
god
damn head down.”

I looked
to the floor
, hoping and praying he would just take my purse and leave me. I didn’t want to die. I couldn’t even remember if I had told Colt how much I loved him this morning.
How could this be happening to me?
We lived in such a small town.

“Please don’t hurt me. Just take my whole purse. There is over a hundred dollars in there and several credit cards. I won’t say anything. I swear.” I pleaded with my eyes closed the entire time, just praying to myself that he would listen.

My body began to tremble and I could feel my teeth chattering, not from being cold, but from being completely petrified. I started crying out loud and I felt the car door slam next to me. For a brief
moment,
I thought he had left, but then the
driver’s
side opened. At that very precise
moment,
I had looked up to see if the coast was clear. I got one brief look at the perpetrator before feeling a blow to my face.

When I came to, I tried to move, but my hands were restrained behind my back. Something was tied around my head and stuffed into my
mouth. My tongue lay dry against it. I began to gag, but no one came to help me or relieve the bindings. I sat there on some sort of
dirty
basement floor and cried, with nobody to hear me.

Some time had passed before I was awoken suddenly to someone slapping me in the face. I realized that I must have fallen asleep from crying so badly. I looked up to see the shadow of a man standing behind me. He was tapping on something that looked big and long in the shadow.
As he smack
ed
it repeatedly against his hand, I could tell that it was not metal, but more of a plastic sound. His country accent filled my ears. “You just sit still and mind your business and I won’t hurt you. I bet you thought you were lucky marryin’ someone like Colt Mitchell. Miranda thinks she can just get me locked up while she is livin’ all large somewhere, well that shit is about to change. I seen her and that cousin getting’ all cozy. It’s kinda funny how I wasn’t good enough, but they accept her havin’ some kind of incest relationship.”

Oh God! I have been kidnapped by Tucker Chase.

“
That is some kind of sick shit. It don’t matter to me who that little whore is bangin’. I’m gonna gets me some of that money and get the fuck out of this town. Once I gets mines I will let you go.”

This can’t be happening to me. I just want to go home. I want to forget this day ever happened to me.

I was mumbling words from beneath the cloth shoved in my mouth, but Tucker never
relieved me from it. I could hear him pacing behind me and when he began to talk again, the sound of his voice startled me. I hadn’t noticed before, but my head was throbbing and when I moved my eyebrows, my forehead and cheek felt wei
rd, like when I wore face masks
for my skin. With the pain coming from my eye, I realized I must have had dried blood from where he had originally hit me to knock me unconscious.

Tears s
treamed down my eyes as I listened
to Tucker talking on the phone to someone. “I did everything as planned. Yeah, I gots her tied up
, what
do you think I
’m an
idiot or somethin’? No M
amma, she is fine. YES, I WILL GET THE DAMN MONEY. Stop your whinin’.
Do you think I would have been lyin’ low all of these months if I wanted to get caught?
I had Charlie make the call already. It’s all takin’ care of.
Just calm down and wait for my call.
”

What the fuck? His mother was also in on this?

Tucker must have got off the phone. He stopped talking and even pacing. He was so quiet for a few seconds that I considered he was right
behind me, preparing to kill me here on this dirty floor, with whatever object he was holding in his hand. I could see his shadow and he was just standing behind me.

I tried to silence my tears enough where my body wasn’t trembling so much, but I was afraid for my life and it was just impossible to try and be calm. Eventually, I saw the dark shadow move and
finally
heard him climbing up
the
steps,
and then
shutting a door. As soon as I heard that door shutting, I tried to wiggle my way around to decipher just how my hands were bound and if there was any
way,
I could possibly free myself.