“You’ve never been my type, Abigail,” he said, his dark eyes glittering under the weak light of the moon pouring through the trees. “But God, you are persistent, aren’t you? Wah, my best friend was killed. Wah, her killer isn’t the right one! Wah, her boyfriend doesn’t love me.” He smiled mockingly at her. “You’re such a child.”
“Says the guy who keeps abducting teenage girls in a bid to prove a point to his daddy,” Abby spat. He wasn’t charging at her, he seemed almost relaxed, even with blood dripping down his forehead where she’d struck him with the rock. If she could keep him talking, at least he wasn’t looking for Robin.
“My father has no nuance,” Patten said, rolling his eyes. “He was a means to an end.”
“He has plenty more to say about you,” Abby said, licking her lips, trying to think fast. Patten was obsessed with proving himself to Wells, no matter what he said. They were obsessed with each other. That’s why Wells had finally decided to see her. He’d finally decided to teach his son a lesson, through Abby.
“When you found him, did he tell you he didn’t know about you?” She widened her eyes. She could do mocking too. “Did you really believe that lie? Of course he knew about you. But he didn’t think you were good enough.”
“Shut up!” Patten snapped.
“And then when you tracked him down, well . . . I guess he thought you had potential.” She sighed, shrugging. “I guess great men do sometimes make mistakes.”
“I’m the great man,” Patten hissed. “He’s a loser. I beat him,” Patten said. “I always beat him.”
“Yet here I am,” Abby said.
She caught a sliver of movement over his shoulder in the darkness. She tried not to tense up when she saw the figure moving toward them. Patten was still facing her, determined to prove himself, and she had to keep it that way.
“You really think you’ve won this time?” Abby asked, trying not to stare too hard over his shoulder. Who was that? Had Paul somehow found them? Were he and Cy heading toward her right now? God, she hoped so. At any second, Patten was going to snap and go for her, and she couldn’t outrun him.
“You’re not getting out of this,” Abby told him, her chin tilting up. “You can kill me, but they’re gonna find you. You coached Paul Harrison. You know what kind of man he is. He doesn’t give up. He’ll find you.” She waited a beat, her heart beating madly. “You’ve lost, Patten.”
His eyes bulged and he lunged toward her, intent on killing.
But he had barely taken that first step toward her, when . . .
Wham!
The makeshift club arced through the air, clipping him on the back of the skull. His head whipped to the side, spittle and blood flying everywhere as he fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes, unconscious.
Robin loomed over him, the stick clutched tightly in her hand. “Weaker sex, my ass,” the teen spat.
She raised her eyes—enormous pools of blue, brimming with tears—to meet Abby’s shocked gaze. And then promptly started sobbing.
“Oh, honey,” Abby said, hurrying over to hug her. “It’s okay. It’s okay. Thank you. That was amazing.” She kept one eye on Patten’s unconscious form. “We need to find rope or cuffs or chains or—”
“Robin?! Robin! Abby!”
She and Robin spun, Robin raising her club once again, a defensive move that was all instinct, as her adrenaline supply was supercharged.
Paul broke through the line of trees, coming to a halt when he saw the two of them.
“Uncle Paul!”
Robin dropped the club, rushing toward him. He swept her up in his arms, hugging her frantically, pushing her hair back, looking into her eyes, checking her pupils, firing questions at her that probably made her head spin.
Cyrus came hurrying down the embankment, a pair of cuffs in his hand. He bent down, securing them around the still-unconscious Coach Patten’s wrists, then checked for a pulse.
“She didn’t kill him,” Abby said quickly.
“Robin did this?” Cyrus asked, looking impressed. “Guess you two didn’t need our help,” he said.
“We got lucky,” Abby said, thinking about how scary it was, running through the woods. How she was sure it was going to be the last thing she ever did.
“Lucky? Smart, I’d say. Ambulance is en route,” Paul said, trying to sweep Robin up in his arms.
His niece batted his hands away crankily. “I’m fine, Uncle Paul,” she said, even though she still had tears tracing down her face. “Go check on Abby. She’s the one who had to fight him. I just knocked him out.”
Paul looked at Abby, his eyes saying everything. She wanted so badly to lean on him and she knew he was feeling the same, but they had Robin to think about. She was the priority here. They needed to get her to the hospital—and then home to her mom and dad.
She’d been through a deeply traumatizing experience. Abby was so relieved that Patten hadn’t done anything to her beyond lock her in a shed. Who the hell knew what kind of torture the other girls he’d taken had suffered in the months—or years—he kept them there. She thought about that rusty red stain on the concrete floor of the shed, felt sick again, and looked down at Patten’s prone body, wondering if she would be a terrible person if she kicked him a few times.
“Abby, she’s right, come on,” Paul said. “You need to get checked out.”
“I’m fine,” Abby insisted.
“You’ve got a cut on your calf that’s bleeding all over,” Robin said, pointing.
Abby looked down, surprised. There was a long, deep cut—probably from a branch or maybe from her swan-dive on top of Patten earlier—running down her leg.
“It doesn’t hurt,” she said.
“That’s the shock,” Paul said. “Come on. We need to get you out of the forest before the adrenaline fades and you start hurting.”
“I’ll stay here, make sure he doesn’t go anywhere,” Cyrus said.
Abby hesitated, not really wanting to leave. The idea of letting him out of her sight—even for a second—made something creepy and horrible crawl up her spine.
“Don’t worry,” Paul said, and his hand was suddenly in hers, the touch giving her strength she didn’t know she needed at that second.
She reached up and pressed her lips to his, not caring that Robin let out a little squeal when she did it—teenagers were resilient.
It was a quick kiss, a simple one lasting barely three seconds. But it made everything that had happened fade, just for a second when it was just him and her, and only them.
“Okay,” she said, softly, pulling away. “Let’s go.”
Abby wasn’t quite sure how they got to the hospital. By the time they had left the forest and saw the flashing lights of the ambulance heading down the road toward them, the adrenaline had started to ebb, and she was feeling distinctly spacey. She seemed to float from the ambulance to the hospital, where they stitched up her leg and tried to convince her to stay overnight.
“Absolutely not,” she said, pointing at the IV in her arm. “Get this out of me. I want to go home.”
“Abby.” Paul sighed, shooing the nurses away with an apologetic look.
“Where is he?” she demanded. “Has the interrogation started? I want to watch. I need to know what he says about Cass.”
“Abby,” he said softly. “Sit. Breathe.”
She pressed her lips together, annoyed. “I want to know,” she insisted.
“And I want you to rest,” he said. “Christ, I almost lost you.”
She felt a flash of shame. She hadn’t thought about how scary it must’ve been for him, to come back from the farmhouse to find her gone. She jerked up. “Roscoe!” she said. “Oh, my God, what happened to Jonah? Is he okay? Is Roscoe?”
“They’re both fine,” Paul assured her. “Jonah’s got a bump on his head. Roscoe was wandering around the goat orchard. He’s with my mom.”
“Where’s Robin now?” she asked. “Is she okay? Are Georgia and Jason here yet?”
“Robin’s already with her parents. It’s okay, Abby. You don’t have to worry about anything. You just need to lie back and rest.”
“I—” Abby bit her lip. “If I stop, I’m afraid I’m going to freak out,” she confessed.
“Oh, honey.” He pulled back her blankets, sliding into the bed next to her. She leaned into the solid length of his body, already feeling better as he wrapped her in his arms and cuddled her close. He kissed the top of her head.