Page 121 of Camera Stays On

My voice shook as I finished the phrase. “Something new, something borrowed, something blue.”

He stopped in the middle of the yard, just as the rain began to pick up. The sky darkened quickly, and the thunder grew louder. Lightning flashed in the distance.

“Do we have everything then?”

“Everything what?” I was too concerned with him murdering me at any moment to pay attention to his nonsensical ramblings.

“We need something old, new, borrowed, and blue. We can’t get married without something old, new, borrowed, and blue!” He dropped my hand and began to tear at his hair. “This has to be right. I can’t keep repeating this and making mistakes. This needs to be perfect!” he shouted like a maniac, and I flinched back.

“Okay, let’s... Let’s think on this.” Think as in stall. If he couldn’t perform another ceremony until he had all the things, let’s prolong it. “We have something borrowed.” I blinked the rainwater out of my eyes and raised my now drenched skirt. “How about something new?”

Sawyer thought for a moment. He didn’t even seem to register the rain. “You need a ring. That will be the new thing. I don’t have a ring to give you, Purdy Doll,” he moaned.

“We could make one,” I suggested, and his eyes lit up.

“Oh! Yes! With string. “ He sprinted off toward his truck. I stood there, getting rained on, as he rummaged through the vehicle. Looking around, I realized this was my time to escape. He was so busy finding me a ring, he wouldn’t see me dart into the woods. But...I couldn’t leave Ash. Lifting my heavy, soaked dress, I went to the truck, and just as I neared it, he popped out, holding something between his fingers.

“Bailing twine.” He grinned, showing me his handmade ring. “Now, what’s left?”

“Old, and blue.” I swallowed. How much more time could I waste? Why hadn’t Asher come yet? What did “watching some home movies” even mean?

“Old. Old...” Sawyer thought for a moment, and I stood there, refusing to help him. “Oh! Your dress. It is the old one. Sorry I didn’t upgrade you when I came up with this whole plan. I had this grand idea to recreate what we could from the first time. I thought you’d find it romantic, a do-over. Oh well. So, the last thing is...blue?”

“Sawyer, I’m cold.” I put my arms around myself. It wasn’t a lie. The rain was growing harder and colder. It hurt my skin on impact. “Can we go inside?” I shouted over the rain.

“And ruin those floors? No. After we get back from the honeymoon and clean up, this place is ours. I don’t want to damage it any further.”

Ours? Honeymoon? What was he going on about?

“What about Asher? Isn’t it his house?”

“Ash offered me the house in exchange for his life. He’s gone,” he snarled. “You’re mine from now until forever, and I’ll kill anyone who touches you.”

No. That couldn’t be. Asher would never. “I d-d-don’t believe you. You’re a l-l-liar.”

Sawyer snickered. “Doesn’t matter, you’ll never see him again anyway.” He reached for me, and I turned. Sprinting toward the house, I tripped and fell over my soaked dress. The water made it weigh twice what it did dry, and despite pushing through the pain in my leg, I struggled to run.

“Purdy!” Sawyer screamed, but I kept moving. I had to try. There was no way Asher had abandoned me. So, if he hadn’t left, that meant he was in danger. I couldn’t let Asher die in that house. Not when he’d worked so hard for it.

Not when I loved him.

I was tackled from behind and thrown to the ground. I raised my head up, my vision spinning, my thoughts jumbled. I opened my mouth, but my words were cut short by Sawyer’s hand in my hair, fisting it tightly to the point of pain. I cried out as he took my arms with his other hand and pulled them behind my back.

“You’re mine from now until forever, Purdy Doll.”

With those final words, he took my head and slammed it into the ground. The hard, freezing dirt against my cheek was the last thing I noticed before everything went black.

Chapter 56

Asher

I SAT, TIED up, staring at the blank computer screens in front of me. I was given the directions to—when I was ready—push play with the remote in my hand. I was dreading whatever he’d wanted me to see. So, while I sat there, trying to figure out how to get out of pressing the remote, I reflected on how I got into this situation.

With his gun to my back, Sawyer had forced me to sit while he restrained me again.

“I wouldn’t bother to fight back.” He snickered when my hand twitched. “If you hurt me, I’ll just go up and kill her.”

“Why would you do that, after all of this?” I’d asked.