Page 114 of Bad Seed
Go.
Astin bats at the blinds like always, shoving a bunch aside. As they fly off, light beams through the window and lands upon her. My sleeping beauty, her naked breasts bathed in the stars.
I don’t take my eyes off of her until the hotel door closes behind me.
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CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
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SADIE
A rattle tries to pull me from my sleep, but I flip over, chasing the darkness. Light pierces my eyes instead. Flailing between the waking world and my dreams, I sit up. A tiny goblin chases across the room.
Looks a bit like a cat.
Itisa cat.
“Astin,” I call to him, trying to get him to stop running when I realize how empty the space is beside me. My hand slaps to the bed, certain he’s just hiding in the shadows.
Nothing.
Okay. He’s in the bathroom. Silently in the bathroom.
He wouldn’t leave again. Not after…
“Son of a bitch!” The gun’s gone.
In a flurry, I dress while telling Astin to stay put and that I’m going to find his daddy. Whether I kill him or not depends on his explanation.
By the time I fling open the door into the chilly Nevada night, flip-flops snapping on the concrete, my heart sinks. The only noise comes from the Interstate on the horizon and dozens of cars whipping into, or out of, Las Vegas. My first stop is to the truck, still shot to hell, still leaking fluids all over the pavement. He didn’t take that.
So where is…?
Headlights.
They cut across the parking lot, and I take off running. It’s a car. It could be anyone trying to get back home before their spouse catches on. The chances of it being Aubry are remote. He could have left hours ago, and I’ll never find him.
My brain keeps thinking of a hundred reasons why this is stupid. My heart tells me to leap in front of a car.
Brakes squeal. I extend my arms out like I’m a crossing guard as the car comes to a sharp stop. The long streetlight catches on the windshield wrong. I can’t see anything other than the insane woman in a tight shirt about to get mowed down in the middle of the night.
“What are you doing?” The driver doesn’t shout that. I do, my voice grinding like barbed wire in a blender.
The driver doesn’t blare his horn or pull to the side. Nor do I hear him put the car in park. He’s just sitting there, watching, foot on the brake.
“Are you leaving?” I cry out. “Again?”
The car lurches. A threat? I don’t back down, growing more certain with every second that it’s him.
“I won’t let you leave!” I’m at the top of my lungs, hoping to get someone’s attention so he can’t run away.
“Sadie...” The window rolls down. He sticks his head out and stares at me. “You have to move.”
“No!” Enraged, I leap onto the hood of the car. Oh shit, it’s hot. That was a bad idea. Even as my bare legs blister from the metal, I wrap my arms around the hood and dig in. “You’ll have to shake me off.”
“This is insane,” Aubry cries out.
