Page 64 of Not Exactly a Small-Town Romance

I’m relieved she’s close enough that I can get to her. I break out into a run toward the baseball field.

“Maybe a while longer?” she says, and that sounds enough like a cry for help that I push into a full-on sprint.

I pass the risers near the stage, hearing the faint delay of what is live and what is passing through the phone. “Are you on the field?”

“Close,” she says.

I halt on the far side of the concession stand. The field is black, the metal stands empty.

Then I see the smallest glint of light.

Her cell phone.

They’re underneath the farthest set of bleachers. I spot the shadows and a hint of her yellow dress in the dark.

If he’s laid a hand on her, I will kill him.

The shortest distance isn’t around the field but across it. I don’t know where the entrance is, probably by each dugout, but I’m in a hurry. I quickly scale the fence and drop into the dirt of the field.

I race across it, scale the fence again, and in seconds I’m underneath the bleachers and pulling Kelsey behind me.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I demand.

“Nothing,” Popcorn Asshat says. “She just started crying.”

“Come on, Kelsey,” I say.

“Hey,” he says. “I’m trying to help.”

Hardly. My voice is a roar. “You’ve done enough.”

“Dude, she told me you’re not her brother.” He takes a step toward me, and I don’t have anything else to say. I come in swinging, and my fist hits his chin with a satisfying crunch.

He stumbles back. “What the hell, you piece of shit!”

I’m ready to hit him again, but Kelsey takes my arm. “Let’s go.”

She folds into me, and I pick her up. I don’t have to go the fast way now, so I simply carry her through the packed parking lot.

We dart between cars until we reach the street.

“I can walk,” she says. “Let me walk.”

I set her down, glancing behind to make sure nobody followed us. There are only a few families lugging tired kids out of the fair.

We’re quiet until we reach the bed-and-breakfast.

“You want to talk about it?” I ask her.

“I will. Let’s go to your room.”

But I swear, as we go hand in hand up the stairs, that if he’s done even one-fifth of what I think he has, I will kill him.

Chapter 21

KELSEYROUNDS THEBASES

I sit on the end of Zachery’s blue bed, surrounded by pretty wallpaper and lace, like the setting of an old-fashioned story.Pride and Prejudice, maybe. OrThe Age of Innocence.

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