Page 105 of Wicked Ends
I dragged myself into the bathroom and switched on the shower.
A glance at my watch told me it was Sunday, not Saturday like I’d imagined. I’d been fading in and out of consciousness for a whole night and day? That was terrifying. My head was tender, and I gingerly felt around the lump on it. Yep, not good.
I got into the shower and tried not to look at the dark bruising on my torso and arms. The areas that would be hidden by clothes. Dale’s specialty. The cigarette burn stung the most.
In there, under the hot water, the tears finally came. Dale said that if I didn’t give him back the money, he’d get it from Claire. She’d fled to Canada, or that was what I suspected, but I didn’t know for sure. I hadn’t let her tell me her plan in case this very thing happened, but if Dale had someone looking for her, almost finding her… everything would fall apart. All the running and hiding while she got settled somewhere new would have been for nothing. He was going to win again.
I got out of the shower and wrapped my aching body in a towel, then sat on the edge of my bed and stared at the wall. Dale had left me my cell phone, which might seem arrogant to anyone else, but he knew me well. I knew his threats were real. If I didn’tget him the money, he’d go after Lulu and Claire, and this time, he might not stop. Panic squeezed my chest, making it hard to breathe. The entire plan had hinged on Dale never finding them. It was all ruined.
Sure, even though I’d hoped he’d died that dark night, I’d suspected he hadn’t, since there’d been no obituary popping up in my hometown paper, no news of an investigation into a suspicious death, nothing. Still, I’d hoped that the name change alone would have been enough to keep me from being discovered. It had been naive. Hopeful in the worst way. Even then, I’d reasoned that if he tracked me down one day, it would only be me who would have to deal with him. I didn’t know where Claire had ended up. I couldn’t give any information away. Without being able to threaten Claire and Lulu, he’d have had no leverage, because I’d stopped caring what happened to me long ago.
Hadn’t that changed now, though? Didn’t I want this life I’d made here? Yes. I did. It was impossible to deny now that I stood on the cusp of losing it. But like always, I’d underestimated the lengths Dale would go to, the power he could exert, the boundaries he had no problem crossing.
My phone rang, and I answered on autopilot.
“Awake, are you?”
Dale’s voice immediately made me feel dirty, even after my shower.
“So, here’s what I’m thinking. You get me the money you stole by tonight. If you do that, I’ll go home, end of story. If not… my guy has almost gotten to them. Serves Claire right for trying to divorce me.”
My heart sank. Now I knew my brother was telling the truth. He was going to find them, and this time, they’d never get away.
“Where am I supposed to find that money?” I asked dully. “I can hardly get a hundred-thousand-dollar advance on my salary.”
“Not my problem. Rob a bank for all I care. You need to get it. You have until ten tonight.”
Then he hung up. Tears threatened to fall again, but I pushed them back. I had no room for them right now. I had no time to be weak.
I stared at my phone, my mind leaping to Marcus. I wanted to hear his voice. It was terrible to consider dragging him into my mess, but the urge to speak to him was nearly overwhelming. I couldn’t tell him what was going on, it would only endanger him. Dale had been through my phone; he knew about him. He had a gun, and he wasn’t afraid to use it. As ex-police, Dale always seemed to find sympathizers on the force, and I could already imagine him harming Marcus in the name of self-defense.
Still, the need to hear his voice and pretend my life hadn’t just ended was too strong to resist. I needed a hit of that comfort, just once. I needed it more than I needed to breathe for a second.
I pulled up his number and called. It rang, and then rang some more. Eventually it stopped, leaving my call unanswered. He was staying away, like I’d made him promise to. He was showing me how much he cared about me. I could have laughed if the irony wasn’t so bitterly painful.
I wrapped my arms around myself and tried to breathe deeply, fighting the sobs that kept bubbling up my throat.
I had to think. I’d stopped being a victim when I’d come here, taking my own fate into my hands for the first time… I couldn’t let all of that fall away. I wasn’t the same person I’d been as a terrified teen growing up in my brother’s house.
I wouldn’t let myself be.
I had to run away. It was the only thing I could do. If I ran away and somehow got a message to Claire, maybe all of this could still work out. The desperate plan we’d cooked up during evenings of tending to our own cuts at home, listening to Dale and his buddies from the police station get drunk and break things.
Maybe I could go to the police here?That thought gave me hope for a second or two, but then reality sank in. I was lying about my identity here. I’d gotten a job with fake papers. It would all come out, and Kenna would be the one who took the heat with HHU. What if she got fired? I stuffed my fist into my mouth to muffle the scream of sheer frustration. It was an old habit. I screamed around my fist and then let the tears come.
I could call her and tell her everything… and then what? Dale had a gun. What if Kenna got hurt because of me? I couldn’t live with that. I couldn’t risk her or Marcus. And if I didn’t get Dale the money… or stop him here, in Hade Harbor, he’d go after Claire and Lulu.
No. Not on my watch.
This was about me and my brother, and it always had been.
It had started that way, and it would end that way, too.
Arianna
I didn’t callMarcus again. I didn’t want to risk him getting caught up in all of this. Dale was dangerous. He had nothing to lose. He could hurt Marcus, or Kenna, or any other innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire, and then they’d have been hurt because of me. I couldn’t stand the thought.
Instead, I drove into town and parked outside the hardware shop and waited for it to open. I must have fallen asleep at the wheel in the lot, because one second, I was looking out at the quiet street, watching the shops gently waking on a lazy Maine Sunday, and the next, there was someone rapping lightly on my window.
