Page 68 of Anything For This Love

Suddenly, my prayers are answered and my worst nightmares come to life at the same time, as a scream echoes through the trees.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Abby

“Caleb,”I whimper.

He releases me, pushing me forward, deeper into the woods.

“Miss me?” he sneers, triumph and arrogance lacing his voice.

“Wh-when did you get out?”

A sinister smile creeps across his mouth. “Oh, I’ve been out for a while.”

Memories come flooding back. He’d only been given a twenty-eight-month sentence for his attempted abduction of me, which means his sentence would've been up in…

September.

“Ah, I see that light bulb turning on.” He taps the side of his head. “Let me confirm your assumptions while we take a little walk.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you!” I reply shakily.

“My little friend here would beg to differ.” He brandishes a knife, pointing it at my belly and pushing it forward. I stumble back to avoid being stabbed and he laughs, the maniacal chortle of a lunatic. I gulp, terror gripping my throat in a stranglehold. “Walk!” he barks.

I follow his command without another word.

“I kept my head down and did what I was supposed to do while inside. They even shortened my sentence by two months for good behavior.Two measly months,” he scoffs.

My hands ball into fists, the anger of his disproportionately short sentence rolling through me. He should’ve stayed there far longer.

“Anyway, I had a plan in place. I was going to grab you after the music festival last fall. I knew your brother’s band was playing, so I planned to cut his brake line then follow you to your car and grab you there.”

I gasp at his confession. Did he cause my brother’s…?

“And no, I didn’t do anything to your brother’s truck,” he interrupts my train of thought. “Not then, and not before his recent accident. I had nothing to do with his wreck. Scout’s honor,” he claims with faux respectability. “It was your whore of a best friend who causedthat.” He throws his hands up and shakes his head. “I can’t believe she fucked him behind your back for so many years and you never caught on.”

My heart plummets. This means he’s been watching me and my loved ones for months. The uneasy feeling I’ve experienced over the last several months, as though someone was hiding around the corner spying on me suddenly makes sense. It’s been Caleb this whole time.

“Anyway, when that pretty boy, GQ wannabe showed back up to town, he ruined my plans. I knew I’d never get you alone. I knew I couldn’t grab you from the music festival, so I went back to the drawing board.” He grabs my arm and stops me so he can turn me to face him. “I studied your schedule and memorized your patterns. I even followed you to Arlington a few times.”

I try to keep my face impassive, but hearing him say he knows where Jacob lives fills me with dread and fear. He pushes roughly against my shoulder, forcing me to sit. I fall hard on my butt, wincing in pain.

“When your hours got cut back, I had to learn your schedule all over again,” he begins again, sounding as if he blames me for making him work harder to set his plan in motion. “I wanted this to be perfect. I didn’t want to be sloppy and get caught this time.”

My eyes grow wide and frightened. “Why are you doing this? Why now?”

“Because I’m not waiting around until you’re surrounded by Secret Service,” he sneers.

Oh, God. He has this all planned out.He knows that if Arthur wins the primary, his family will be under the protection of the Secret Service. My stomach flips, the maniacal calculation and hatred burning in his eyes causing me to shrink back.

“As for the why? Well,” he huffs out a humorless laugh, “you stole everything from me.” He stalks slowly toward me, a predator circling his prey. “I lost more than two years of my life, my trust fund, my friends, and my reputation. Do you haveany ideawhat other inmates do to guys like me in prison?”

I shudder at the thought. However, I find it difficult to feel even an ounce of empathy toward him, considering what he probably had planned for me that night and what he plans to do to me now.

He crouches in front of me and I scramble back, hitting a tree. “My life is ruined because of you!” his voice booms in my face, spittle flying out to land on my cheek. “And now I’m going to collect that debt. I’m going to enjoy watching the light dim from your eyes after I take what’s owed to me.”

Adrenaline courses through my veins, my fight or flight instinct kicking into overdrive and warring inside my head. Every sound is drowned out by the blood rushing in my ears. He’s so close, close enough for me to-

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