Page 143 of Pretty Nightmare

I want to smack him. Force the crazy out of his head with a punch to the teeth.

“Donovan.” I growl out his name. “I don’t care if there is some rogue personality living inside your brain. If you don’t move that gun away from that little girl’s head—”

“You’ll what?” he growls back at me. “What are you gonna do, McKay? Put me in timeout? Take away my wireless password? Make me eat my vegetables?”

“Donovan.”

He looks over at Indie and snarls. “I’m. Not. Donovan.”

Indie is not convinced and she takes a step forward. “Oh, yes, you are. You are Donovan. And by the time we leave these woods here tonight, that’s the only person you’ll be.”

Carter laughs and presses the gun he’s holding to the side of Maggie’s head just a little harder. “I remember you. You know that, Indie? I remember you.” Then he looks at Nathan. Nods his head. “You too. Little fucking coward. Running away that night like a baby.”

“Like a baby?” Nathan says. “I was five, you sick son of a bitch. I was a baby. But you weren’t. You knew exactly what you were doing in those woods. You knew exactly why you were sent in to hunt kids. And you did it anyway.”

“Hey,” Carter laughs. “Perks of being Company, right?”

“Fuck you, Carter.” Indie steps forward with a gun of her own. The one missing from the foyer closet, from the looks of it. “You need to leave. Donovan!” She yells it. Like Donovan is somewhere in the woods and not lost inside his own head. Like if she could just shout a little louder, he’d call back and we’d track him down and bring him home.

But that’s not where Donovan is.

“Donovan,” she yells again. “I know you’re in there. And I know how much you love Maggie. You love to eat breakfast with her and make faces at her. You love us, Donovan—”

“Shut up!” Carter is the one yelling now.

I feel like I should be doing something. Rushing in like a hero, maybe? Saving Maggie. But both Adam and I are too far away and we’re not armed. So I leave it to Indie.

“No, I will not shut up! I will not shut up! I want to talk to Donovan!”

And then it occurs to me that Indie knew.

She knew. Maybe not consciously, but she was with Donovan at least twice while she was missing those four years.

“Donovan!” She’s still yelling. “Come out here and talk to me! Right now!”

At first, I think she’s just trying to find the more reasonable personality to deal with, but that’s not it.

Indie loves Donovan. Maybe not as much as she loves Nathan. But she never loved any of us the way she loves Nathan.

Carter begins to breathe hard and his gun hand gets a little too shaky for my comfort level. I watch his trigger finger, ready to rush in and take over if it gets any twitchier.

It’s not gonna help. I’m not close enough.

We have made a wide circle around Donovan now. Both Indie and Nathan are facing him dead on. Like this is some predetermined showdown with the villain and they’re the heroes.

And they are, aren’t they?

I only had to see Nathan St. James’s face for ten seconds yesterday morning for the truth to sink in.

He is Maggie’s father. Maybe I could pretend that Maggie was the spitting image of her mother, but it’s so clear now that she is the spitting image of them both, I look over at Adam—across from me, and on the other side of Donovan—to see if he’s seeing too.

He is. He knows. And if he had a gun right now, I know how this would end.

And Indie would never forgive him for that.

That’s why I let Nathan live four years ago and that’s why Adam won’t kill him tonight.

Maggie moans. Her eyes are open. She looked drowsy, like he drugged her, when we first got here. But she’s blinking rapidly now. Squirming in Donovan’s arms.