Page 105 of All You Want
“We have a missing person. Are you close enough to town, and is Nancy with you?”
“Nancy’s always with me,” he says. “I can get to town in thirty minutes.”
“Where are you parked? Maybe I can meet you and bring Nancy down.”
“Now, that don’t make any sense,” he says. “Takes longer to come and go. It’s starting to snow, so I better get down to where you are.”
“You’ve heard about Tami’s new Halloween Hotel, right? She invited you to the grand opening.”
“Yeah, but I’m not much of a party person,” he says. “Is Tami missing from there?”
“How’d you know it’s Tami?”
“Hitch in your voice, bro,” he pronounces as if he’s diagnosed me with a fatal illness. “I’ll be there.”
Thirty-Five
~ Tami ~
I have to keep calm and leave a trail for Todd. I’ve already dropped my cowgirl hat when I struggled with Justin, but he took my phone. Hopefully he left it on, and someone’s calling it. I have to do what I can to delay our progress.
“Keep moving.” He prods me with the gun. I don’t believe he’ll shoot—not if he wants to set up a situation where he’s the hero, but at the same time, I’m not quite sure of his sanity.
“I can’t see where I’m going.” I purposely stumble, crashing into a prickly bush. My shirt catches, and a portion of it rips when he yanks my arm to keep me moving.
“You can if you want to live.” He keeps a firm hold of me and propels me forward.
“This isn’t funny.” I’m sure he doesn’t care, but I’m going to talk anyway. “You know how much trouble you’re going to be in?”
“All I know is you owe me. You kept me away from Mooma.”
His words send chills down my spine. He sounds seriously unhinged. Does he believe I killed Mooma?
“I was only a kid. I didn’t mean to hurt Mooma.” My words come out as grunts and moans as I fall on my knees.
“Get up.” He yanks my arm, but I relax all my muscles, and it’s hard for him to get me moving. I whip my pillowcased face side to side, blindly, and shake like I’m terrified and having a seizure. Actually, I am terrified, and I’m probably about to seize in a panic attack.
He kicks me with his pointy-toed boots. “You’re going to get up and move.”
I’m not going to take this lying down. Wiggling to get out of his way, I’m able to wedge my foot between his legs and trip him up. He tumbles down into a ditch, and I use the opportunity to wriggle out of the pillowcase. Another piece of evidence for Todd. I bet he can analyze any hairs I leave inside as well as saliva for DNA.
“Dang it,” Justin growls, patting around for his gun and trying to point his flashlight. “You bitch. Get up.”
Without the use of my hands, it’s hard for me to get up, but I somehow regain my feet. I can see flashlights in the distance, probably a search party, so I take off that direction.
“You’re going to love me. You owe me.” He comes after me and tackles me.
I hit the ground hard.
“You’re not going to get away with this.”
He slaps me, stinging my face, and I gasp with pain.
I hear him call for backup, and I keep trying to get up, but he’s now decided to press me onto the ground and sit on my mouth so I can’t shout. I wish I could bite his ass, but his jeans are foul-smelling and oozing with dirt. I’m suffocating, and when he unleashes a silent stinker, I almost wish he’d shot me.
All I can do is peek at the flashlights swinging back and forth, but they don’t come closer. Instead, they converge to a place farther from me, like they found something.
The crunch of tires on gravel makes me realize we’re closer to one of the old logging roads than I thought.
