CHAPTER 3
The next morning as Molly and Christopher have just left for school, Jeremy swallows the final sip of his coffee before grabbing his jacket. "Candy, you sure you're all right about being here alone?"
"Yes Jeremy, I'm fine. You just go and have a good day and don't you worry about me. I have plans to go to Ben's later this morning to pick up some supplies. But first I want to bake a cake."
"I hope it's a chocolate cake."
Nodding her head she says, "Well of course it is. I know that's your favorite and this cake is going to be especially for you." She kisses his cheek.
"Me? What did I do to deserve a cake?"
Candy laughs, "What haven't you done? You take good care of me, you love me, you comfort me, and you've given me, us, a baby. Oh my, I think I owe you more than a cake," she says as she slides her arms around his neck.
Jeremy chuckles. "Well,you do know I had some help with the baby. I couldn't do it all by myself." He wraps his arms around her and holds her tight, then pulls back a little so he can give her a sweet kiss. "I guess I better go. I'll see you this evening. I love you, Candy."
"And I love you, too. You be careful at work," she says walking him to the door.
"Candy, should I come home for lunch to check on you?"
"You'll do no such thing, Jeremy Bolt. I'll be fine. Now, you shoo!" she giggles.
"All right, I'm going. Love you." He bends down and kisses Candy's stomach. "Bye little one. I love you, too."
Candy watches until he gets to the end of the drive, they wave to each other, then she closes and locks the door.
When Candy gets home from Ben's, she locks the door and takes her supplies into the kitchen taking time to put them away. She decides to sew some missing buttons on Jeremy and Christopher's shirts. As she enters the parlor, she is greeted with a voice from the past.
"Hello, Candy Honey. I'm back!"
Candy stops in her tracks as she puts her hand over her mouth and gasps. "Richard. What are you doing here?"
"I came to see you. For some reason, I haven't been able to get you off my mind. I guess it must be love, Candy Honey."
"Richard, stop calling me that. You have to leave. If Jer. . ."
"I'm not afraid of him. I'd love the chance to have that fight over again and this time, I don't have an injured arm."
"There will be no fighting because you're leaving. Now!"
Rafe laughs at her. "Candy Honey, I know you went and married baby Bolt. Makes me mad as hell, but I forgive you. After all, you didn't know I was going to come back for you. Now the way I have it all planned out, is that you'll go pack a bag and we'll be on our way before old baby Bolt gets home."
Shaking her head no Candy says, "You're delusional if you think I would go anywhere with you after what you did. I love Jeremy and we have a wonderful life together."
Rafe rushes over to Candy, grabs her by her shoulders, and shakes her. Raising his voice he says, "Don't say that! Don't ever say that! You just think you love him. It's me you really want. You just don't know it yet."
"You're wrong, Richard. I love Jeremy with all that I am."
As Rafe slaps her he yells, "I told you not to say that! I didn't want to do that, Candy Honey, but I did warn you. Now go pack that bag and we'll be off."
Scared far beyond what she's ever been scared before she pleads, "Richard, please. Just go. I'm not going with you and that's final." She twists and squirms trying to break loose of the hold he has on her. "Richard, you need to forget about this nonsense and leave."
Grinning he says, "Oh, I'm leaving all right, but I'm not leaving alone. If you don't want to pack a bag that's fine by me. I'll just get whatever you need. You know I'm good at that. Remember all the things I had in the cave for you? I can do that again except this time we're going to live in a real nice house that I have already acquired. Of course, I had to convince the old man and woman to leave," he chuckles. "I hope you don't mind having two bodies buried in the backyard."
"You killed them?" Candy asks as her eyes grow larger.
"Well, I didn't want to, but they wouldn't leave on their own, so I helped them. Our house is a lot nicer than this shack. Baby Bolt didn't do too good in house building. I mean, it's all right for a regular woman, but you're no regular woman. You're a fine lady and you deserve better than this and I'm going to give you all the things you deserve, starting with me."
"I love my house. I don't want anything else. And baby Bolt has a name Richard. I wish you would use it and stop putting Jeremy down. He's a fine man and a wonderful husband. He makes me very happy."
Rafe slaps her again. "Now look Candy Honey, I've gone to a lot of trouble coming here for you and I'm not leaving empty handed! I always get my way, sooner or later. Ain't no woman gonna tell me no. You'll learn. I've been planning this for quite a while. I've been watching you and figured today was the best time to put my little plan in action."
Candy tastes blood from her split lip. "I knew I was being watched. It was you, wasn't it? You took mine and Jeremy's wedding picture down."
She watches him smirk. "I wanted to rip it to pieces, but that would have been too obvious that someone had been in your house. I couldn't risk giving myself away just yet. Now, grab what you need and let's go." He grasps her arm.
"You're crazy! I'm not leaving Jeremy! You'll have to kill me first!" she cries as she tries to break his grasp. Then she remembers the baby and if he kills her then he also kills the baby. Jeremy's baby. "Richard, please. I'm begging you. I'm pregnant."
"You're what?" he yells as he slaps her again. "You slut! I'm not taking care of Bolt's bastard!" He slaps her several more times. "How could you let him knock you up?" He stops to think and to calm down. "Well, I'll just have to get rid of the little brat and then you can have my baby. Just think Candy Honey. Think of what a pretty baby we'll have. It'll naturally take after me, so it'll be smart and good looking." Without any warning, he makes a fist and punches Candy hard in the stomach. She screams and doubles over.
With Rafe and Candy yelling at each other, they don't hear Christopher come in the back door. He decided he wasn't going to spend another minute in school. He has other plans which is fishing. When Chris got home he went to the back of the house to get his fishing pole, but seeing a horse tied up, he quickly went over to inspect it. Once he sees Rafe Holiday burnt into the saddle, he looks around and sees the back door has been kicked in. Chris walks over to the door and hears Candy shouting and crying. He quietly goes into the house and hides so he can see what's happening. He sees Rafe punch Candy in the stomach and he almost comes out of hiding to help his sister, but he knows he can't do anything to stop Rafe. He quickly leaves the house, unties Rafe's horse, and leads him up the road a ways to a big rock. He climbs on the rock, then puts his foot in the stirrups to straddle the horse. Then he rides as fast as he can up to the logging camp to get Jeremy.
After finally straightening up, Candy makes a mad dash for the door. Richard grabs her and pushes her up against the wall pressing his body into hers. "Look Candy Honey," he whispers in her ear. "You're just making it harder on yourself, but you know, you are really turning me on by playing hard to get." He grabs the neckline of her dress and rips it from her body tossing it on the floor.
"Richard, what's happened to you? You weren't like this before! Have you gone mad?" Candy cries.
"I was too nice before and I had to leave without you. But not this time. I'm taking whats mine and that's you," he laughs.
Candy knees him in the groin and runs back into the parlor, shutting and locking the door. She looks around to find a way to escape. Running to the window, she raises it as she hears Richard kicking at the door. While she tries to crawl out the window, he grabs her and shoves her to the floor, then begins kicking her.
"Help me, Jeremy!" she screams while trying to protect her stomach area by curling up into a fetal position.
Once Chris gets to the camp, the only person he sees is the cook, so he runs to the warning bell and rings it continuously until the men come running into camp. Jason grabs Chris to calm him down. "Chris, what's wrong?"
"Jeremy! I need Jeremy!" he cries. "Candy needs him!" he gasps for air as he's crying and talking. "Rafe punched her in the stomach!"
Jeremy runs up and hears only the "punched her in the stomach" part. "What's going on? Who got punched in the stomach?" he asks.
"Candy! Rafe hit her!" Chris cries. "Hurry Jeremy! You've got to help her!"
Jeremy can't believe what he's hearing. He takes Chris by the shoulders and asks, "Are you saying Rafe is with Candy and he punched her in the stomach?"
"Yeah, Jeremy. He was real mad and he kept slapping her and when she told him about the baby, he punched her real hard in the stomach."
Jeremy turns to run when Josh grabs him. "Jeremy, you can't just run in there! He's libel to shoot you, then you wouldn't be any help to Candy!"
"I don't care what he does to me! I have to help Candy!"
"We'll all go, but we have to do this the right way. We have to be quiet so we can surprise him," Jason says trying to calm Jeremy down. "Chris, ride into town and get Aaron and Allyn. Tell them to meet us at Jeremy's." He puts Chris on the horse and smacks the horse's rump.
The men grab whatever they can use for a weapon and they run to Jeremy's house with him leading the way.
By this time, Rafe has worn Candy down. She has put up a good fight, but she's no match for Richard. Her face is bruised and bleeding, her eye and lips are swollen, and her clothes are ripped to pieces. He has her pinned down on the floor. "I told you before Candy Honey, that I like my women feisty, but you're trying my patience. Now this is gonna happen whether you want it to or not. This is your fault. If you would have just left with me when I wanted to go, then I wouldn't be doing this right now. But no, you had to be stubborn and now I have to teach you a lesson. But that's all right. You'll learn soon enough not to disobey me." He laughs as he unbuttons his pants and moves them down. "You have a beautiful body, Candy Honey. I can't wait to get my fill of you."
Candy is laying under him squirming and trying her best to get away from him. "Jeremy, please help me," she whispers.
"Now Candy Honey, do I have to get rough with you again? Stop calling for Bolt. He's not going to help you and he sure won't want you after this. No, it's just me and you now, and I'm going to help you realize what you've been missing. You'll see what it's like to make love to a real man, not a little boy."
"Jeremy is more of a man than you'll ever be. I don't consider you a man at all. You're an animal and this isn't making love. It's rape. Richard, please don't do this," she begs as he ignores her pleas. She looks around the room in a panic. She sees her sewing basket near her side so she reaches out and grabs her scissors bringing them close to her side so Richard doesn't see them. "Richard! Richard, I can't breathe! Help me! Please, get up!" she cries as she feels his hardness on her inner thigh.
Rafe raises his chest up and looks her in the eyes. "You're all right. I'm going to leave you breathless anyways," he laughs. "Stop squirming and enjoy this. I know I am."
As he goes to lay back down on her, Candy puts the scissors between them and pushes the point into his chest as hard as she is able. Rafe stops, raises up with blood coming from his mouth and chest and astonishment in his eyes. He starts to fall down on her, but Candy pushes him over onto the floor. She lays there a minute to get her breath and feels a sharp pain in her stomach area with wetness running down her legs. Seeing Richard laying there with his eyes open and not moving or making a sound, she sees this as her chance to get away. She has to hide, so she crawls to a back corner of the room where she is mostly hidden and sits quietly with her knees bent and pulled up to her chest, her head laying on her knees.
When Jeremy and the men arrive at the house, they stop and listen, but don't hear anything. Some of the men go to the back and the rest surround the house. There's no way they're going to let him escape. Jeremy, Jason, and Josh creep onto the front porch. Jeremy quietly unlocks the door, but then he rushes in not waiting for anyone else. Startled at Jeremy's actions, the other men rush in afterwards.
Jeremy is stunned to see Rafe sprawled out on the floor with his pants down around his ankles. Jason runs over to him and checks to see if he's alive. Shaking his head he says, "He's dead."
"Candy! Candy!" Jeremy shouts. "Candy, where are you?" He does a quick scan of the room and not seeing her, he starts out of the parlor to search the house.
Corky grabs his arm and says, "Uh, Jeremy, we found her," as he nods over towards the back corner. He grabs a quilt off the settee and hands it to Jeremy. "Here, you'll need this."
When Jeremy gets to the back corner, his heart breaks. Candy is sitting there with only shreds of clothes on, blood all over her, her face bruised, bloody, and swollen. She just sits and stares. He puts his arms around her and holds her tight, but she doesn't respond. "Candy? Candy, I'm so sorry. I'm here now." Still no response.
Aaron and Allyn arrive and rush over to Jeremy. Seeing Allyn, Jeremy says, "Allyn, she hasn't said a word. It's like she doesn't even know I'm here."
"Jeremy, she's in shock. Let's get her upstairs. Can you manage carrying her?"
Jeremy nods. "I'm not letting anyone touch her. Never again." He wraps the quilt around her and lifts her up in his arms carrying her upstairs.
"What happened, Jason?" Aaron asks.
"Aaron, you saw what he did to her. She killed him in self-defense."
"I thought as much. I'll see to it there are no charges brought against her. I just hope she can recover from this. And Jeremy too," Aaron replies.
