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“I mean the fucker somehow found out where I was living, tracked her to my house, and just shot at me before kidnapping her!” I yelled. I was past rationality.
Nadine’s face went white, and she covered her mouth before turning to her husband. “Take him to see Jim, right now.”
I breathed at the sound of the sheriff’s name, who I’d had some differences with. “Jesus, Nadine. Jim and I—”
“Yes, yes, but what do you think you’ll be able to do without their resources?” she asked impatiently. “Leave Bucky here with me. I’ll take care of him.” She looked down at my feet for a second before turning back to Hank. “Get him some shoes too.”
24
MACY
“Don’t you worry, honey. When we get home, we’ll be able to put all of this behind us.”
I could hardly believe what I was hearing as he finished tying me to the chair in the hotel room, finally looking me in the face and reaching over to touch me on the cheek. I couldn’t help flinching back from his touch, wanting so badly to jump up and go over to the sink to wash his touch off my face. From all the things that have made me nauseous these past few weeks, I would love to throw up on him right then and there to show my disgust.
He didn’t even seem to register my wince of demise as he walked away from me, heading over to the bed and sitting down, balancing his elbows on his knees as he looked at me entreatingly. I’d seen him turn that look on a jury before and knew just how convincing it could be.
He was playing with me, and I didn’t know whether to be more insulted by the fact that he clearly didn’t see me as my own person or that he’d never expected me to fight back.
In the end, though, I guess it all came down to being angry about the same thing.
“You know,” he said, fixing me with that steady stare from his warm brown eyes that I’d always believed held love—without realizing they were just hiding an empty soul—and saying in his most imploring tone, “you left quite the mess for me to clean up, sweetheart. It hasn’t been easy since you left.”
I bit down on my tongue, hard, and felt the pain in my head from the strain of the muscles. I hadn’t made it easy for him to take me from the cabin, and I’d fought like a wildcat to get away from him once he got me into the car. I’d thrashed pretty intensely when he threw me over his shoulder, but there was a big enough difference in our sizes that it hadn’t done much good. When he’d driven us away, I hadn’t stopped screaming for Dillon as we’d driven off into the dark until I’d felt a hard pain against the back of my skull, and everything had gone black. Even then, I think I’d mumbled his name as I fell unconscious.
“Thankfully,” he continued, aloof to my silence, “everyone already knew that you were pretty fragile, so they’ve taken the news that you had a psychotic break with only concern for you. You don’t know how worried everyone has been.”
My mouth dropped open at that, and I couldn’t help the words that were bubbling to my lips at that. “You told people I had a psychotic break?”
His eyes grew wide, full of emotion and concern that looked almost real. “Well, yeah, honey. How else was I supposed to explain that you’d just vanished without a word? No one knew anything about where you’d gone. Mel had no idea how to get in touch with you.”
Ah, Melinda. His sister, who’d muscled her way into position as my maid of honor after we’d gotten engaged. I’d liked her a lot when Alex and I had first started dating, but after he’d asked me to marry him and the other side of him had started making itself known, she seemed to put on blinders to what was happening. Even when he stopped limiting the bruises to places that could be easily hidden by clothes, she’d never once asked what was going on, despite the fact that she and I saw each other often enough for her to tell how often it was happening.
I was about to shit-talk his sister when I remembered that it wasn’t just myself I was fearful for now.
It was hard to believe that I’d forgotten, even for a second, about what I’d just found out, but my worries had taken on a far different shape and tone. I’d just been worried about how Dillon would react to the news that he had gotten me pregnant, but now I couldn’t stop thinking of the idea that Dillon might never meet his child.
No. No, I wouldn’t think of that, because the only possibility of that happening when this was over was if I didn’t make it out of this alive, and I refused to consider that possibility.
I would make it out of here. I’d survived Alex before, and I would survive him again. And if I survived, that meant I was bringing my baby with me. There was no choice, I had to do believe in myself to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Hope is the only thing stronger than fear, as they say.
The sharp tug against my hair brought my attention back to the present moment, and I blinked rapidly as I looked up at him.
His eyes had gone flat and angry. “Why. Aren’t. You. Listening.”
“I am.” My throat had gone dry and raspy, and I blinked quickly to keep the tears from flowing down my cheeks. “I am, I swear.”
“You’re not, you lying bitch.” His other hand came up to clench around my jaw, squeezing hard. I felt the bones of my face grinding against each other. I shut my eyes as I tried to keep my face from folding in, knowing that if he wanted to, he could break my jaw. “I can always tell when you don’t.”
He shoved my face away, and I hastily moved my jaw around so I could get the blood moving again before he saw me do it.
As he walked away from me, I took a quick look around the hotel room. From what I could tell, we were in a decently nice place, but it had taken a turn for the disgusting since he’d rented it. The tasteful beige and forest green bedspread was stained with clear evidence of takeout meals that hadn’t yet settled into stains. There were newspaper clippings and photos of me that had been strewn about the counter, making me wonder what he’d actually been doing with his time. Dillon had said that he was working, but it was looking more and more like he’d been treating the search for me like a conspiracy theory.
“You really have to work on fixing that once we get married, honey,” he said, turning back to me from where he’d leaned against the deck. “Don’t worry, by the way. Mel has still kept everything going, so we’re still on track for the wedding in January.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, unable to keep my mouth shut. “You can’t actually think that we’re still getting married.”
“Of course we’re still getting married,” he said, his voice light and surprised. “I forgive you for leaving, you know, and I’m very invested in getting you the help you need, baby.”
