Page 104 of Wicked Ends
I moved as quickly as I could, lashing out a hand to tuck the tracker inside Dale’s boot, under the leather insole. I prayed that my brother wouldn’t find it. If I did go missing… at least the police would have a lead. Kenna would surely tell them about Dale.
“Awake already?” Dale stood over me. “Get up, then.”
I froze where I was, pain radiating down my neck when I craned it to look at him.
“I’m hurt,” I said emotionlessly. All the tips I’d learned over the years about dealing with abusive people had never really worked on Dale, but it was worth a try.
“Yeah, well, join the club,” he snarled and yanked me up by my hair.
I fought through the pain in my side to scramble up. He barely loosened the pressure as he dragged me to the bed and tossed me on it.
“Now…” He lit a cigarette. “Where is my money, Arianna?”
“It wasn’t your money. Gran left it to me, and me only,” I said quietly.
Dale took a long pull from his cigarette. “That dementia-ridden bag of bones didn’t know what she was doing at the end, and you took advantage of that… just like you convinced my wife to run away from me.”
A bitter laugh left me at that, and then I flinched when Dale raised his hand as if to backhand me. But he managed to stop himself before the blow came.
“Stop trying to goad me, Arianna, you know I won’t fall for your tricks.”
He had always been strangely controlled with his abuse. He never hit someone where it showed. That went for his wife and daughter, too. Nothing that would raise alarms at school orwork. Well, in the beginning… he’d started to break even those rules with Claire. That’s when we’d known we had to leave.
He yanked down my T-shirt, exposing my collarbone, and lowered his cigarette to my skin. Once. Twice. I screamed, but his hand quickly muffled the sound.
“Shh, stop making a fucking scene. Tell me where my money is, or else I’ll have to get it from somewhere else.”
“What does that mean?” I gasped, out after he removed his hand, his words sending fear through me.
Dale sank back in his seat and smirked at me. “You think I don’t know that you gave it to that whore I married? You gave so much of it away that you have to live here to get by.” He snorted. “You never were very smart, were you?”
“I don’t know where they are,” I said.
“Yeah, I figured, but you know they’re safe and sound from the big bad monster.” Dale laughed bitterly. “That’s the shit she’s filling my kid’s head with, that I’m a monster and they had to run away. I don’t need you to tell me where they are. Soon, I’ll know.”
“How?”
“Because Claire hired a lawyer—to divorce me. Stupid fucker couldn’t last through one day of a little questioning. I guess that’s what happens when a lawyer likes keeping all his fingers and toes more than his client’s privacy. In fact, they aren’t too far from here. This East Coast trip is killing two birds with one stone.”
“If you know, then why are you here?” I shot out.
He was bluffing, he had to be.
Dale smoked and watched me with an inscrutable expression. “You think I was going to let you get away with leaving me for dead? Or taking my money? It’s about the principle of the thing. Not to mention that you did me a favor getting rid of Claire and the brat. I’m free of them now, and it’s a relief. I want my money… and you’re going to get it for me.”
“How do you think I’m going to magic up all that money?”
“You should have thought about that before giving it away. Get me my money by this time tomorrow night… or you’re dead… but you won’t be dead right away. I’ll bring Lulu and Claire here first, get the money, and kill them in front of you. Got it? I’m done being humiliated by you witches. Now, just so we’re on the same page…”
He reached into his waistband and pulled out a gun. I stared at it.
He waved it in front of me. “This is for Claire and Lulu, if you don’t cough up the cash. It’s also for anyone you might go to for help… like your little friend, McKenna. I remember that bitch from school. Or your boyfriend. You think he’s a tough guy, and he can protect you? Let’s see if he can survive a gunshot. Tell anyone, and they die. Don’t pay me, and they die. Take too fucking long, and they die. Got it? And as for you? You’re already dead… your body just doesn’t know it yet.” He pressed the gun into my temple. “Get. Me. My. Money.”
Then he kicked me again, and I went under once more.
I woke up the next morning in immense pain. The kind of pain that made breathing painful. I sat up on the floor, bracing in case Dale was there waiting for round two, but it was quiet, the room empty.
Crushed beer cans littered the table and bed. The room smelled of smoke and my brother’s rank, old sweat—but I was alone.
