Page 103 of Wicked Ends
Asher nodded slowly and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Then, we’re there. What does Professor Moore think about all this?”
“She doesn’t get to know any of it. It’s a surprise.”
“You suck at keeping secrets,” Asher pointed out.
I nodded. “But this one, I’ll keep.”
I wanted to see the look on my birthday girl’s face when she saw the cabin all fixed up, a home just for her.For us.
I had the perfect excuse to avoid her and get this done anyway. She wanted me to be good and stay away. I’d show her I was capable of that, while I fixed up her future home. Just the thought of having Ari in my brother’s house, safe and sound, and under my watchful eye, made me feel calm and centered, like it was the right thing… like it was always going to end up this way.
And I’d make sure it would.
Arianna
I came to slowly,the TV blaring in my ears. It was dark in the room, with only the dancing colors of the TV to orient myself.
I was at the Night Owl. The previous hours rushed back.
My brother was here. He’d shown up. He was alive, and apparently unharmed, and here.
Someone burped. Dale, drinking and being messy. I turned my head slightly, not enough for him to know I was awake, but enough to make him out, sitting on the waterbed and scrolling through my phone.
He tossed it away and reached for his own. He called someone and waited a long while until the call connected.
“I want the exact location.”
I could only imagine what the rest of the conversation was about.
I looked around as carefully as I could. The bathroom door was only a few feet away. The light was off, and the door was cracked open. I knew that room well. The window was gummed shut, and the lock wasn’t that strong, but there was a security cordnext to the shower, in case someone took a fall. It should set off an alarm at the reception desk. Earl would call an ambulance, I could only hope, instead of coming to check for himself.
I inched toward the bathroom, pushing myself with my heels across the carpet and only daring to move a tiny amount at a time. Loud gunshots came from the TV show Dale was watching sent my nerves higher and higher. My ribs ached. He’d clearly continued to kick me for a while after I’d lost consciousness.
My head was splitting, and there had to be a sizable egg on the side. It throbbed.
My hand brushed over my wallet. Dale had tipped my entire purse out onto the floor while searching for my phone. I dragged myself slowly over the contents. It felt like a suitable allegory for the state of my new life now… torn and spilled out everywhere.
I’d feared this moment would come, but it had come so damn fast. Tears threatened to fall, but I couldn’t let them. Crying was too noisy.
Something shiny caught my eye, a tiny round metal disk with a familiar logo on it. It was a tracking device; I’d seen them often. People put them in their instrument cases for if they were stolen. That had been in my purse?
Marcus.
Now, the thought of the hockey player who’d stolen my heart only made me want to cry even more. I wanted to see him. I wanted to tell him that I’d been wrong… staying apart was a waste of fucking time. I’d made the mistake of assuming I’d have time—that was always a mistake.
Nothing was guaranteed.
Keeping myself from him was my first mistake. My second had been lying to him. Maybe if I’d shared my past, he would have come to check on me. Maybe. All the maybes and regrets cluttered up my head. They were all useless, at the end of the day. I was here, now, and so was Dale. The worst had happened.
I gripped the tracker and tucked it into my palm.Fuck.I wish I could send a message to Marcus. Just the thought of him filled me with longing. I’d felt safe with him. For the first time in my life, I’d been truly safe. Even when I was a kid, living in my grandparents’ house, loved and protected, Dale had lived down the hall. I’d never been truly safe from the monster who lived in my own house. Here, though, in Hade Harbor, I’d finally felt safe. Effortlessly protected. Now, it was ruined.
I crawled a little farther, reaching Dale’s boots.
“You left me for dead, Arianna. I’ll return the favor…”
Would Dale leave me here in Hade Harbor, a body in a motel? Or would he make me go with him first… leaving the people I’d met here to wonder where I’d gone? Leaving Marcus to think I was another person who had abandoned him. Kenna would go to the police, of that I was sure, but what could they do if Dale forced me to leave, or worse, abandoned my body by the side of the highway?
I stared at the boots, an idea occurring to me. The chair across the other side of the room groaned as Dale stood.
