Page 55 of The Perfect Revenge
“Not just that,” he said, waving the gun in front of him.“I found that it gave me fascinating insight into myself.But yes, you were the main reason.I had to get close.”
Her brain was working overtime now, putting the pieces together even as she tried to find a way out of this.The next realization hit her so hard that her legs wobbled slightly.
"You stabbed Finn, didn't you?He kept telling me that he didn't trust you.I thought it was just jealousy on his part.But he found out about you somehow and confronted you.And you attacked him."
She felt a pang of guilt.Finn had tried to warn her about Dallas multiple times, but she kept dismissing him, assuming that he was so besotted with her that he just couldn’t handle her interest in someone else.If only she’d given him the benefit of the doubt.
"He was a real pain in my ass," Dallas conceded."Do you know how stressful it's been, worrying that he might wake up and finger me?I thought I might be able to take him out for good in the hospital, but I was never alone with him because you wouldn't leave his side.It was exasperating.And then he got moved to some 'hospice.'I bought that for a while, but then I started wondering if he had been moved for his protection.I tried following you to see if you'd visit him, but you never did.Very frustrating."
Hannah thought of how Jessie had justified keeping her in the dark for that very reason, fearing that Finn’s attacker might use her to get to him.In retrospect, that choice seemed pretty smart.Hannah also recalled how, when she visited Finn, she’d promise to make whoever attacked him pay.Now she knew who was to blame.But she wasn’t in any position to deliver on her promise.
“So why are you coming clean now?”she asked.
Hannah genuinely wanted an answer, but she also wanted to keep Dallas talking.Whatever he had planned out here with her and his gun in the middle of nowhere, she needed to forestall it until she could come up with a way out of this.
"To be honest, I wanted this seduction and destruction thing to be more of a slow burn.But like I said, I know that the second Anderton wakes up, I'm cooked.So I had to accelerate things.I still think it will work out, though.Now I know that this is a bit of a cliché, but I'm going to need you to come over here so I can tie you up.I don't want to use the gun, but I will if I have to."
“Why do you want to tie me up?”she asked.
“Let’s just say I like a captive audience.I need to be certain that I’ve got your full attention, and I can’t know that if I’m worried that you’re going to do something foolish.So please turn around and walk backwards toward me.Do it very slowly.”
Hannah turned around as instructed.“Why do you really want to tie me up, Dallas?It’s just us out here.You can be honest.”
"I don't want to spoil the surprise," he said, sounding giddy, "but I'll give you a sneak preview.I'm going to do all kinds of damage to you—internal damage—with some of the little toys I've brought with me.Then, when you're too ruined to feel anything anymore, I'm going to end you.But here's the best part.After that's done, I'm going to shoot myself.Nothing life-threatening, but enough to make it believable.Then, when I'm rescued, I'll tell the authorities about the drifter who snuck up on us in the middle of the night, did all those horrible things to you, and left me for dead.I'll give them a detailed description of him.I'll tell your sister how hard you fought, right up until the end.Now, please start walking backward."
“Why would I do anything you say, knowing what you have in store for me?”
“Because if you don’t, I’ll kill Jessie too,” he said.“Right now, my plan is just to make her suffer by taking out her sister and her husband, the detective.That would be the most delicious outcome.But if you make this difficult, then I’ll end her too.Maybe I’ll do it at your house when I come by to offer condolences after your funeral.I’m sure she’d welcome me in, considering that I would have been the last person to see you alive, her final connection to you.So it’s up to you, Hannah.You’re going to die.So is Hernandez.But Jessie doesn’t have to, not if you’re a good little girl.Now walk back to me!”
Hannah knew she couldn't stall him any longer.She had to play along.As she took a small step back toward him, she looked up at the sky.In the middle of her apprehension, another sensation came over her.She felt a huge wave of exhausted sadness.
She had been through so much these last few years.Her adoptive parents were murdered by her serial killer father.She’d been kidnapped.She was being hunted by a hitwoman who wanted to torture and kill her.
And now a boy who she genuinely liked, who she thought there was a real romantic spark with, turned out to be playing her the whole time.He’d been manipulating her as part of his delusion that he was a victim and that women were the perpetrators.He wanted to make both her and her loved ones pay for some imagined transgression.
More than being scared, she was so very tired of being betrayed, lied to, and put in physical danger.Was there any place that was safe for her? Was there anyone she could trust?
She did her best to push those questions out of her head.If she wanted answers, she had be alive to get them.That meant refocusing on her current predicament.Trying to concentrate, she noticed that the moon was shining bright above her.But she could see that a fresh collection of clouds was approaching.Soon they would be shrouded in darkness again.
“Keep moving,” he barked.
I have to move slow so I don’t trip,” she said, glancing back to see how far away he was.The guy was still a half dozen paces behind her.The gun in his hand was pointed right at her.
She took another step back, trying to think of something—anything—she could do.She couldn't let him tie her up.Once that happened, it was all over.And there was no way it would end with her and Ryan.Dallas was pretending to hold out the hope that he would let Jessie live.But that wouldn't be finishing the job that Haddonfield had started.To complete the mission, he'd have to kill her, too.
She took another step back and glanced up again.The clouds were almost to the moon now.She wondered if, when darkness returned to the mountains again, her own light would be snuffed out as well.
And then a new thought wriggled its way into her brain.Darkness could be her friend.If Dallas couldn’t see her, he probably couldn’t shoot her.She just had to find a way to create some distance between them.But she had to move fast.Those clouds would blot out the moon any second now.That was her chance, maybe her last one.She took another step back.
“Pray all you want,” Dallas said, making the wrong assumption about why her eyes were on the sky.“It won’t help you.”
She took two more steps back, more quickly now.She could hear his excited breathing right behind her.One more step and he’d be able to reach out and grab her.
The first cloud crossed the moon, and they were enveloped in darkness.She took a final step back and waited for his hand to grasp her.A moment later, it did.
His left hand gripped the back of her left forearm and started to twist it back behind her.That's when she spun to her right, her right forearm whipping through the air toward where she guessed his gun hand was.She made contact and a second later, heard the gunfire.
She ignored the deafening noise.Now facing Dallas, she grabbed his right forearm with her fists and thrust it down hard as she brought her right knee up to meet it.Dallas yelped as the gun fell from his hand.
