“Like heck I am,” she says, standing up. “If that’s the case, we’ll be eating chips tonight for dinner.” She bends down and washes her hands off in the river. “I’m going to go get a book. I’m done with the fishing for now.”
“Bring it back here so you can give us moral support. You can sit on that downed tree over there and be the cheering section. You remember how to get back?”
“Yep. Through those trees and walk past all the ones we tied string to for five minutes, right?”
“You got it,” he says, casting his line into the water, his attention now on the fishing and not her. Liam is doing the same.
“Be right back,” she says, taking a moment to watch father and son having a moment. It warms her heart and makes her wish desperately that she could have that in her life forever. It’s days like this that make it seem possible.
Nicole picks her way over stumps and rocks and uneven, squishy terrain, through the trees for the five-minute walk back to the car. Birds chirp and occasionally take wing, the fluttering sounds giving her a start every time with their suddenness. Her feet crack small branches as she shuffles through dead leaves, and rays of light that penetrate the heavy branches occasionally flash on her face and give her a brief moment of warmth. Otherwise, it’s almost chilly in the dark woods, the mountain air getting cooler with every hour.
She reaches the edge of the campsite five minutes later, her eye on the truck. Brian’s put the key in a magnetic holder under the wheel well so he won’t risk losing it on their fishing expedition. His e-reader is in the back seat, and she knows just the book she’s going to start with. He downloaded it for her right before they left; it’s a romance with a happy ending and no cliffhanger, according to the reviews. Total bliss. She’s in the mood for some happy endings for a change.
As she’s walking around the back of the truck to reach the driver’s side, an unexpected shuffling in the leaves up ahead makes her stop. It sounds like there’s an animal just around the corner of the truck, and it must be a pretty big one, judging by the amount of leaves being moved.
Just as she’s thinking a bear might be trying to break into the truck, a head pops up, visible through the glass.
It’s not a bear.
A person is standing on the other side of the vehicle, right where she was headed.
It’s a man. A large one with dark hair and a familiar expression on his face.
John!
“NO!” She screams, immediately panicked. She turns around and runs as fast as her legs will carry her. Get back to Brian! Get back to Brian! Brian will save me! “No, John! No!” Her fear feels like its choking her. She wants to vomit but she has to breathe. Breathe! Run!
Heavy, pounding footsteps come up behind her, easily overtaking her.
Her heart is going to explode. Her legs are burning. She’s almost to the trees. If she can get to their safety, maybe she can dodge between them, find a big stick, do something to escape.
Something large and hard hits her on the back, making her lose her footing.
She goes down with a yell, her arms flying out in front of her to cushion her fall. The one in the cast is useless, the pain excruciating when her hand bends backwards inside it as it makes contact with the forest floor.
She rolls partway onto her side with John’s weight on her bottom half. He’s covering her legs, making it impossible for her to get away.
“Stop! Nikki, stop!” John grunts out, crawling up and putting all his weight on top of her. “I just want to talk to you!”
Nicole knows he doesn’t just want to talk. If that were the case, all he’d have to do is talk. He’s going to kill her now, she’s sure of it.
She kicks and screams and tears at him with her nails. She ignores the stabbing pains in her ribs and arm and back so she can inflict as much damage on him as possible. Maybe if she screams loud enough, Brian will come. “Brian! Brian! Help!”
“Shut up!” John grunts out, reaching up to put his hand over her mouth.
She tries to bite him every time he gets close. “No! Get away from me! Get away from me! Don’t touch me! Don’t you ever touch me again!”
“Okay, okay, Jesus!” he yells, rolling off. He gets unsteadily to his feet and stares down at her.
She kicks him hard in the shin, tears partially blinding her as her panic threatens to choke her. Her voice is raspy and high-pitched. “Get away! Don’t touch me! I’ll kill you, don’t touch me!” She digs her good hand into the dirt next to her, desperate to find something, to hold onto, something that could save her or help her get away.
“I’m not touching you, Nikki!” he yells. “Look! I’m not touching you! I just want to talk to you!” He hisses out a breath and takes another step back, running his hands through his hair. He’s staring at her.
She sits up as best she can. Her body is covered in leaves, small twigs, and dirt. She begins to slide and drag herself over to the edge of the forest, never taking her eyes off him.
“Where are you going? Just sit still and talk to me for a second.”
“I don’t want to talk to you,” she says, no longer screaming, but her voice wavering. “Go away and never come back here, do you hear me?” Her calm disappears like a wisp of smoke. “Stay away from me!” Her voice sounds un-hinged even to her own ears, but she can no more control it than she can make this situation end well. She’s about to die. She knows this.
“You’re being hysterical. Just talk normal for a minute. That’s all I ask.”
“You don’t get a minute!” she screams. “You get nothing! Do you hear me! Nothing!”
He strides over to her, reaching down to grab her shirt.
“No! Don’t touch me!” she yells, scratching at his hands, throwing the handful of dirt she grabbed into his face.
He yanks her to her feet and shakes her hard several times before letting her go. “Shut the fuck up, would you?” Dirt falls down his face, and he blinks it away. “Jesus Christ you sound like a crazy person. I said I just want to talk.” He backs up. “See? I’m not touching you. I just helped you up, that’s all.” He shakes his head and brushes the dirt away.
She wipes her face off with the back of her hand and then she spits at him, hitting him on his pants. “You are not allowed to touch me ever again, do you hear me? You are a monster and a criminal. You should be in jail for what you did.”
His eyes narrow. “What I did. What I did?” He laughs cruelly. “Are you fucking kidding me? I’m not the one who killed someone, okay? That was you.”
Her face drains of blood.
She sees red.
Anything else he says is lost on her as she charges him. She hits him full in the chest, screaming and scratching and using her cast to cause as much damage to his face as possible. He can kill her if he wants, but she’s not going to go down without a fight. It’s time to avenge wrongs, to make things just a little bit right. This is how she will end her life.
“Murderer! Murderer!” she screams. “I’m going to kill you for what you did to Kitten!”
“Get off me, you psycho bitch!” he grinds out, throwing her from him like she’s a piece of paper that floated into his path.
She lands on the ground, her head hitting the trunk of a nearby tree. She’s instantly dizzy and sick.
He’s breathing heavy. “I just came up here to apologize, okay? To tell you I’m sorry. To ask you to come back. But you know what? Fuck that. I don’t owe you any apologies. You’re lucky I’ll take you back. But you’re going to pay for this, I can promise you that.” He walks over and grabs her by the hair.
She gets to her feet as quickly as possible, knowing if she doesn’t go with the hair, the hair will keep going without her. “Don’t, John, don’t, that hurts.” She grabs onto his forearm and digs her nails in. “Let go!”
“What are you fighting me for?” He’s confused. “You never fight me, Nikki. You like learning lessons. Come on.”
She digs her heels in, trying to keep him fr
om dragging her off.
He stops pulling her by the hair and steps close, punching her once hard in the face. It knocks her almost to the ground, the only thing keeping her up being the fresh hold he has on her hair.
She’s bawling now, realizing that she’s too far for Brian to find her and it’s too late for her to protect herself. He caught her out in the open and vulnerable. She never should have left the house. She could have gotten her revenge like Helen and Brian asked her to, but instead she ran from him, hid from him. She should have stood her ground like she’s doing now. It’s too late. Too late.
“Briana?”
The tiny voice comes to her amid her screams, cutting them off like a switch. John’s hold on her hair disappears, making it possible for her to turn around and see the nightmare before her.
Liam. Gorgeous, adorable, innocent Liam is standing on the edge of the clearing, his expression stricken as he takes in the situation before him.
John takes a step towards the boy, Nicole temporarily forgotten.
“RUN, LIAM! RUN!!!” she screams with everything she has in her, the sound bursting from her lungs like a train whistle, blasting her own eardrums. The sound echoes all over the forest, birds taking flight and other animals rustling the leaves in their escape from the horrific pitch.
Liam turns and runs back towards the river, hopping like a tiny dear over the branches in his way. He goes down on his knees as John begins to go after him.
“Noooooo!” Nicole screams as she sprints after John with her last bit of energy and jumps on his back, taking him down into the dirt. She hooks the fingers of her good hand around his head and buries them into his eye as she wraps her cast around his throat.
Chapter Forty-Three
BRIAN COCKS HIS HEAD, A sound much like a scream coming to his ears. He’s dangling his meaty hook right in front of his dinner when something suddenly feels wrong. The end of his pole drops into the water as he twists around and looks back in the direction of the campsite.
“Screw it,” he says, yanking the line out of the water and dropping the pole on the ground by the stream. He’ll come back and get it later after he checks on Liam and Nicole.
He brushes off his misgivings, trying to be realistic. They’re out here in the middle of nowhere and he made sure that no one followed them. The only one in the world who might want to is over a hundred miles away. She probably saw a bug or something or another worm and lost her cool. He smiles at her girliness, glad she can be capable when she needs to be but is willing to be squeamish when something doesn’t suit her.
Lost in thought, he doesn’t realize Liam’s on his way back until the little boy almost crashes into him.
“Dad!” the boy screams, half crying, half trying to breathe.
Brian rushes forward, grabbing his son under the armpits and lifting him up. “What’s wrong?” He begins running in the direction of the campsite as he holds Liam to him. The little boy’s arms and legs flop all over as he tries to hold onto his dad.
“There’s a man! That man! He’s hurting Briannaaaaaa!” Liam’s crying now, big sobs choking him.
Brian feels the vomit going down his back as his son surges forward over his shoulder and unloads his lunch.
“Waaahhhh! I want my daaaaadeeeeee!” He cries, his head bouncing around.
Brian doesn’t stop. “Where is she?” he asks loudly, pushing the words out despite being nearly breathless. He’s tempted to leave Liam here out of harm’s way, but the idea of leaving him alone is too terrifying. He can protect him better if he can see him.
“Waaaaahhh hhhaaa!!!” Liam can’t seem to stop crying long enough to answer.
Brian breaks into the empty clearing and drops Liam unceremoniously to his feet, keeping him close by pressing his hand into the boy’s back. “Where is she, Li-Li? Where did you see her?”
“Rriiii … riiii … right there…” He points to a spot near the back of the car and starts crying again.
Brian kneels down and wipes the tears roughly from his son’s cheeks. “Li-Li, listen to me for a second. I need to know what you saw exactly. Was it the man that you hit the baseball through his house?”
“Yes!” The boy is screaming now instead of crying, his face bright red.
“And he was with Briana? Hurting her?”
“Yes! He was pulling her hair and being very mean!”
Brian casts his eyes around the campsite and notices the signs of a scuffle. Standing, he sweeps Liam up into his arms and runs to the car.
“Where are we going?” the little boy whines.
“To the police. We have to find her.”
Brian’s hands are shaking as he searches under the car for the key. It’s not there! Where’s the fucking key?! “Oh my god, he took the goddamn key.”
“No, he didn’t,” says Liam in a tiny voice.
Brian swings around to look at him. “Where is it, Liam? Do you know?”
The little boy nods and points at the ground. The key holder is peeking out from under a pile of leaves near the tire. Brian grabs his son in a bear hug. “I love you, little boy, you know that?” He buries his face in his son’s neck for a moment before putting him down again.
“That squished me.” Liam’s frowning, but he doesn’t look mad.
Brian grabs the key, opens the doors, and dumps his son in the back. “Buckle up, buddy. We’re about to have a bumpy ride.”
Brian wastes no time starting the SUV, throwing it into gear, and racing down the mountain. No way in hell is he going to let that bastard take his girl from him. No fucking way. He whips his phone open and starts dialing as soon as he has a signal.
Chapter Forty-Four
“I’M NOT STAYING WITH YOU,” Nicole says, refusing to look at John. She stares out the front windshield, leaning as close to the door as she can. He’s already punched her in the face once for trying to open it and escape, so she’s biding her time, waiting for a good opportunity to get away. As soon as they’re in the city again where there are witnesses, she’ll be able to. She keeps her seatbelt on in the meantime.
John’s driving with only one eye on the road half the time. The rest of the time he’s looking over at her, the expression on his face telling her he can’t figure out why she’s fighting him so hard.
“Yes, you are. You’re my wife.”
“I’m not your wife. I never married you and I never will. I hate you.”
“You don’t hate me. Know how I know?” He reaches over and flips down the sun visor in front of her. “Look in the mirror. If you hated me, you wouldn’t have kept coming back for more.” He puts both hands back on the wheel. “We’re together forever, Nikki. Til death do us part.”
Nicole grinds her teeth together, hating that what he says makes sense in a way. It makes her feel pitiful and small and exceedingly stupid.
“I was weak. I was afraid. You made me that way before, but not anymore. I’m not afraid of you, John.” She looks at him and then disgusted with the satisfied look on his face, hurls a glob of spit at him, not caring that it will infuriate him. Hoping it will. “You’re nothing to me,” she says. “Garbage. A waste of space.”
He points a finger in her face as he half-pays attention to the winding road. “Quit spitting on me. I’m not kidding. I’ll fucking smash your teeth in.”
Giving him the ugliest grin she can, she says, “You already did, asshole! See!” She backs away and turns her head as his hand comes out to strike her. He hits the side of her head instead of her face, and she considers that a win. Fighting back feels good.
His hands are back on the wheel, so she dares to glance over at him again.
He looks so smug. So sure of himself. So convinced he’s just going to drive on home and lock her up and treat her like his personal punching bag.
Just seeing him sitting there in the driver’s seat, behind the wheel, driving her away from Brian and Liam … it’s more than she can take. Something snaps inside her and in a split-second, she decides she’d
rather die in a car wreck than go another mile with him at the wheel. She leaps at him, fingernails out.
She goes for his eyes, succeeding in gouging the one that’s already bloodshot from her earlier attack. As he leans over in shocked pain, she grabs his hair with her bad hand and yanks on it for all she’s worth.
His hands follow his upper body and jerk the wheel in her direction and then sharply the other way. The red truck swerves across the mountain path and off the side of the road.
Chapter Forty-Five
BRIAN MAKES IT HOME IN record time. The police and Helen are waiting for him in the house.
Opening the door, the first thing he does is give Liam to his mother. “I’m so sorry, Helen,” he says, certain she’s going to blame him for this fiasco. She warned him about it, and as usual, she turned out right.
“Let’s talk about it later.” She pushes her son’s hair back away from his face. His sleepy eyes are at half-mast. “You okay, Li-Li?”
“Yeah, but I’m tired.” He yawns big.
“Did you get hurt anywhere?”
“No.” His face sags. “But Briana did.”
“We’re going to need a statement from him,” says a female police officer. “Whatever he saw might be helpful.”
“He’s too tired right now. I can tell you what you need to know,” says Brian. “It’s her ex-boyfriend who attacked her and took her. He followed us up there and grabbed her when I was away. Liam said he was hitting her.”
“Do you know this man?”
Brian sighs heavily. “It’s kind of a long story, but yes, I know of him. He lives on the next street over.” Brian looks at Helen who’s holding Liam on her hip awkwardly. He’s too big to be carried that way, but he understands her need to do it. “Did you tell them what I told you on the phone?”
She nods. “Yes. And I’ll be happy to help you figure this all out, after I’ve put Liam to bed.” She leaves the room and enters the hall.