Country Gal Gone Wild - Chapter 23.1

Papa Hudson did not like the fact that Ruby and Gavin were going to turn their new home into a business. To him it meant that they didn’t really see it as a real home, but rather as some type of hotel – a temporary dwelling to lay their heads when they were in town. Yet he knew that there wasn’t anything he could do about it now. They had fulfilled all of his requirements. He couldn’t create another without raising suspicion. 

No one, not even his wife, could know the real reason Papa Hudson wanted Ruby to stay close. No one could know his secret fear. That fear was incited by a visiting preacher many years ago after a church revival.

You will lose two children in your lifetime, the preacher had prophesied to him as he drove him back to the airport. One has already been lost through miscarriage. The other will be lost to violence, so stay prayed up.

I will not lose you, Ruby, Papa Hudson thought determinedly even as he prepared to give her away in marriage on that Wednesday morning at the Blue-eyed Hollow courthouse.

>>>> 

I’m too late, Logan thought, feeling despair claw at his soul as he watched Ruby, her new husband, and their wedding guests leave the courthouse. They drove past his parked car a minute later with happy grins on their faces.

Had I gotten here twenty minutes ago, I could have stopped this train wreck of a marriage, he thought, clenching the steering wheel tighter.  

Logan headed back to Blue-eyed Hollow as soon as he heard that Ruby and Gavin had filed for marriage licenses. Since Virginia had no waiting period, no blood test requirements, or any other requirements outside of license fees and identification, he knew that there wasn’t anything to stop the union from happening besides himself.  

Unfortunately, Logan had been all the way in Florida at another policeman’s convention when he got that dreaded news from a fellow officer. Returning at the drop of a hat had been grueling. Every flight had been booked solid, so he had to drive his rental car to Savannah, Georgia, and then catch a flight from there.

The whole flight back, Logan thought about what he would do to stop Ruby’s wedding. He even failed to flirt with the pretty flight attendants. Everything he thought of, namely arson and first-degree murder, would jeopardize his career. Leaving the convention two days early had done enough damage to it. 

His uncle was still angry about not being able to get back the money the department shelled out to send him to that big convention in the first place. Uncle Leroy certainly didn’t buy Logan’s excuse about suddenly coming down with the flu. Flu season hadn’t even started yet.  

Though uncaring about his uncle’s ire, Logan did decide upon a lesser course of action. He didn’t want to kill Ruby by fire or any other way. He couldn’t kill her. He loved her too much to put her in an early grave. However, he didn’t care anything about disposing of her husband.  

I just need to think of a way to do it nice and clean like, Logan thought, starting up his vehicle. As for Ruby, he would kidnap her, leave the state, and then impregnate her as soon as possible to seal them together forever.  

Yeah, that’s a good plan. Logan smiled as he drove home. I just need some time to work out the kinks, that’s all . 

(c) 2014 by Mi'Chelle Dodson/Suprina Frazier  

Photo Credits:
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