“What was I supposed to do, Janie? I know you don’t believe me, but they were going to leave you. They were going to hurt you. I couldn’t let them leave again. I couldn’t let that happen.”
He gripped the wheel harder, his knuckles going white.
“I couldn’t let that happen,” he repeated.
Riley dropped her head in her hands, hopelessness creeping though every vein. Her shoulders slumped and now the pain was everywhere, wracking her entire body. He was going to win.
She thought of Shelby then, small and broken in her hospital bed.
“You hit my best friend. You hit her and tried to kill her.”
Tim slammed on the brakes, and Riley was flung forward, her ribcage screaming out as it slammed against the dashboard.
“I did that for you! I did that so you would understand and get a clue! They were all out to get you!”
The red went all the way to the tops of his ears, and he was breathing hard, fisting his hands and slamming them against his head as he spoke. “I don’t know why you won’t believe me! I have to make you see! You have to know I was right!”
Terror, cold and heavy, crept through Riley. She could feel a rivulet of blood dribbling over the lower lip she bit. She watched the blood drop, forming a perfect circle of velvet red when it dropped onto her shirt.
“I don’t believe you.” The voice that came out of Riley’s mouth—calm, determined—wasn’t her own. It was confident—it was mad. “You’re crazy.”
Tim turned to her, fire burning in his eyes. His lips were slightly parted in a snarl that contorted his whole face into something terrifying. Slowly, he reached for Riley, going directly for her bad shoulder. His hand closed over her delicate limb and he squeezed, effortlessly, the pain ruining her.
She screamed and he released her, shoving her against the car door with a simple flick of his wrist. Tim pushed the car back into drive and drove, eyes focused straight ahead, a low, eerie whistle seeping from between his puckered lips.
Riley was silent, cradling her arm as Tim slowly took the turn that led to the house.
She would die before she went back to that house.
Tim tapped the wheel with his fat fingers, whistling along to a song that only he could hear. Riley breathed deeply before launching herself across the cab. Startled, Tim’s hands went to his face.
But Riley’s went to the steering wheel.
She turned it in any direction it would go and kicked at the gearshift. It was only a split second before Tim regained his composure, one hand going for the wheel, the other grabbing Riley’s hair, but the damage had already been done. The car lurched and groaned; every light on the dashboard flashed before going out completely.
“You bitch!”
The car was aimed directly at the house, and Riley scrambled out of Tim’s grasp. She could hear each hair as it broke in his grip, her scalp burning. She screamed and kicked against him, biting at the hand he tried to clamp over her mouth.
He didn’t care.
His fingers moved over her chin and settled on her neck, squeezing, crushing at her windpipe. She was struggling to breathe. Her body, thrown into panic mode, was desperate for air—just like a panic attack.
Riley tried to stay calm. She took a short, shallow breath when his grip momentarily loosened, and it was in that moment of clarity that she heard the sirens.
Lord, please don’t let it be in my head.
Tim’s head snapped up and she knew it wasn’t.
He scrambled for the door, one hand still tangled in Riley’s hair, the other still clamped around her neck. He slid her right out with him, Riley struggling to gain her footing as he went for the walkway.
“Freeze!”
Tim stopped, his hand tightening around Riley’s throat. Her vision started to fade, even as the siren sounds became stronger.
They’re not going to make it…
Somewhere, in her periphery, Riley heard car doors slamming, but Tim was still pulling her.
“Riley Spencer!”
Tim switched his grip from her throat to her waist, propping her up like a rag doll. Her arms were pinned to her sides. Riley heard the rustling then the slick sound of a blade slicing air before the cold steel was pushed against her flesh. She saw the glimmer of the blade just under her right ear.
“Stay back! I don’t want to hurt her but I will! I won’t give her back to you alive. I won’t! I promised her I’d keep her safe! She’s better dead than with them!”
Riley’s stomach curled in on itself. Even when she saw Deputy Hempstead coming up the walk, she didn’t feel safe.
He had both hands splayed, his eyes locked on Tim’s.
“I need to know that Riley is OK.”
“I don’t know who Riley is,” Tim spat. “I’m just bringing my sister home.” He dug his fingers into Riley’s flesh, and she squeaked, her eyes damp with tears.
Riley’s teeth started to chatter. She was going to die. Tim was going to kill her and she was going to die.
She wanted to die.
The pain was all around her, throbbing, tearing, pulsing. She thought of her parents, the house in Crescent City, Shelby’s heap of a car. She absently wondered what name they would use on her tombstone.