Page 89 of Bad Seed
“I am not a coward. Sure, maybe she wouldn’t have believed me. Laughed at me. Told me to get the fuck away from her. So…either way it ends with us in Mexico, and her safe back in—”
A sandpaper tongue grates my forehead. I sigh, realizing that Astin wasn’t questioning my decision. He just wanted to drink the sweat off my forehead.
“Missing the braincell today, huh?” I ask, swooping my fingers through his fur. It’s been falling out in clumps ever since we left Loomis. He doesn’t like being stuck in a tight container. Not that I can blame him after the ship’s containers.
After grooming me clean, Astin gives a little turn on my chest, making sure to dig in with his claws. Then he plops down for a nap, managing to gain another thirty pounds in the process. I can hear my ribs cracking, but I don’t dare move.
“You miss her, don’t you?” I ask my snoring cat. “The way she’d smile at you to coax you over. Slip you a bit of dinner when I pretended to not look…”
My breath deepens as the Cancun beach vanishes before my eyes. “How she’d always wear two sweaters, but take one off the second we got anywhere. That little divot in her cheek that was neither dimple nor scar. How she’d say the most filthy things while blushing like a virgin.”
I flip over my phone. The screen’s on her messages.
It’s always on her messages now.
She berates me, asks why, tells me to fuck off, begs for me back.
I hurt her, I know that. But if I’d stayed I could have done so much worse than break her heart.
I might have shattered it for good.
“Sadie…”
She’s typing to me. Right now.
I have to let this go. Just let it be another thing in my past. One day I’ll lose the ache. In my heart.
I’ll always keep the one in my balls for her.
My finger scrolls up. I have to block her number. I have to delete all of this. We can’t stay. We both need to move on.
Just as I pull down the menu, the messages jump up. A lot.
Did she write me an essay?
Curiosity punctures through my conviction and I look.
It’s an image of a woman blindfolded, hands tied with duct tape, on her knees in the back of a filthy van. Why would she send me…?
I leap up, sending Astin flying to the sand. Opening the image, I don’t even have to zoom to see the familiar red panties, the divot in her cheek, and the frown as if she’s already had her heart ripped out of her chest.
“Sadie!” I scream, my body shaking in rage. Someone’s kidnapped her, tied her up, and put her in a van. A someone I know all too well.
They send one last message, “Crudité.” Then her side goes dark.
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CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
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SADIE
My ass hits a chair after who knows how long I’ve been trapped in the back of a vehicle. Two men who reek of cologne pace around, grunting as they stare. I try to not tremble, or cry out. They kept telling me to stay quiet and no one has to get hurt.
Greasy fingers drag down my forehead. I pull back.
Light.
