Chapter 19
HALEY
I woke up in the dark, my head aching, blood in my mouth and my cheek stinging.
I tried to think, but the strain made me dizzy.
Danger. Brad. The memory came back to me intensifying the pain in my head.
Brad had grabbed my hair. I reached for my neck, but it was bare.
Damn him. He’d broken my necklace. The scent of gasoline was strong.
I realized after a moment while my head swam, and I was getting my bearings that I was moving. I was in the trunk of a car.
It was a clear indication of Brad’s intentions. If he was taking me back to Atlanta, he wouldn’t have put me in the trunk. The implications of that made dread slither down my spine and caused my stomach to heave.
The numbness began to fade and fear took its place.
Tears rose to burn the backs of my eyes.
As I lay there panting for breath in the stagnant heat, the sounds of the tires on the road rumbled like the murmur of a distant ocean.
Whatever road we were on, it was dirt, and rough from the constant dips and jolts.
I felt the vehicle swerve and then roll to a stop, as tires crunched on the gravel behind me.
Two separate doors opened then slammed. I started to frantically feel for something in the trunk that could be used as a weapon.
My hand moved over my purse. I moved on and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when my hand closed over metal. A tire iron.
I heard footsteps, then voices. Brad and his daddy were talking.
“I’m going to take her car to that metal salvage place and make sure it gets crushed along with all her stuff.
” Nerves trilled at the base of my neck, prickling like icy spikes.
You wait here for me and then we’ll take her in to the swamp and get rid of her.
” His voice had an edge of desperation to it, the sound of a junkie who’s access to drugs was in jeopardy.
It was a cruel mistress. “Once she’s out of the picture all of it will be mine.
” My skin crawled and pebbled with goose bumps at his words, the realization like a white-hot poker in my brain.
“We’ll get our stories straight and we’ll be free and clear. Don’t screw this up.”
“This was your idea, Brad! This is crazy! I told you to let her go. It’s not worth it.” His daddy’s gruff voice had the sound of reason in it, but he was caught up in Brad’s nightmare now. He had always enabled him.
“You’re now in it as deep as I am,” Brad sneered. “She’ll never give up the money, and I need it! If she divorces me, I’m sunk. Just stick with the plan and keep your mouth shut and we’ll get through this without a hitch.”
“Brad—”
I heard a bit of a scuffle, then I heard Brad’s daddy say. “Let go of me, son.”
“Don’t you touch her. Do you hear me. She’s still my wife. You lecherous bastard.”
“Okay. Okay. I won’t touch her.”
More footsteps, then the start of the engine, and finally Brad drove away.
I was shaking uncontrollably, remembering how Brad had been before our marriage and after, once the drugs had taken him.
In that moment, I hated him as much as I hated his daddy.
More. But it wasn’t going to do any good to dwell on the past. The present was rife with danger.
The sense of dread and disgust seeped deep into my bones.
They were going to kill me.
It came down to the money, and I was nothing now but an impediment. I had already laid the groundwork for them. Disappeared and if they buried me out here, no one would ever find me. I had effectively turned myself into a ghost.
I bit my stinging lip to get a grip. I was going to need all my energy—physical and mental—to get out of this alive. I couldn’t overpower them, but I could outwit them.
I didn’t know how much time passed, there was nothing but silence.
I had no illusions, so when the sound of his daddy’s footsteps headed toward me, I knew he couldn’t leave me alone.
He was as sick as his son. It was suffocating in the trunk.
Cold sweat slicked my body, sour with the stench of fear.
Swiveling my body, I grasped the tire iron in my sweaty palm and pulled my knees to my chest. I would only get one chance at this, but I was going to fight with everything I had.
The fact they hadn’t tied me up spoke to their arrogance and sadly to how much they underestimated me.
It would be one of their biggest mistakes.
I heard him pop the trunk lock and every muscle in my body tightened.
As soon as the trunk lid opened, I kicked out with all the force of my body weight.
I hit Brad’s daddy square in the groin and heard his intake of air and a whimper as he clutched himself and doubled over.
Then I scrambled out of the trunk and brought the tire iron hard across his temple. He dropped like a rock.
I crouched down and frantically searched his pockets, but came up empty. Brad must have taken the keys or he’d had them all along. I had no idea who had been driving what car. I continued to search and almost cried when I found his cell phone. I pressed in Ethan’s number.
He answered on the first ring. “Haley, where are you?”
“Brad took me. They’re going to kill me, Ethan. I was so wrong. I should have never sent you away.”
“Don’t worry about that now, sugar. Tell me where you are.”
I looked around, but there was nothing but brush and trees. “On a dirt road in the bayou. No, wait. It’s not far from a metal salvage. Brad took my car there to get rid of it. It can’t be far because he has to walk back here.”
“Newcomb’s. Gotta be,” I heard a deep voice say.
“Haley. We’re on our way. Stay strong, babe!”
“Please hurry, Ethan.” I heard a shout and my head whipped around to see Brad pelting down the road, his face contorted in rage. “Oh, God, he’s coming. I’ve got to run.”
“Haley!”
I couldn’t respond as I tucked the phone into my jeans’ pocket leaving it on. I rose still clutching the tire iron and ran into the brush, it would slow me down, but it would also slow him down. He would easily catch me on the road.
Branches slapped at me, making me feel as if I was slogging through quicksand.
Heedless of the scrapes and the scratches, I pushed my way through, fueled by my panic and fear.
The growth was so thick, I couldn’t see anything in front of me.
Everything seemed distorted in my terror as I heard Brad, his breath laboring in the almost liquid-saturated air, crashing through the brush after me.
He was big enough to leave a trail for Ethan to follow.
I just had to hold on until he got here.
In the near distance, thunder rolled and lightning flashed behind a bank of clouds. East, I thought automatically, as sweat stung my eyes. I stumbled on the rough and uneven ground, my only saving grace was that Brad was impeded, too.
I burst out in to a clearing, there was a house in the distance, but it was much too far for me to get help there. He would catch up to me.
The storm was almost over us, the sky rumbling and crackling.
The first flurry of fat raindrops hitting me as I ran toward a rickety dock in front of me.
The boards groaned and dipped, elastic with rot, but they held as I turned and saw Brad break from the trees.
He was bathed in sweat, running in rivulets down his face, his shirt soaked.
The rain came harder. Lightning shattered the darkened sky, and the clouds ripped open, drenching me. Gasping, I raised the tire iron as he came toward me.
“There’s nowhere for you to go, Haley, and I’m not letting you get away from me this time.”
“Don’t come near me, Brad. I swear I won’t hold back.” Behind me, the downpour pounded like nails on the tin roof of the crumbling shack.
“What happened to my little kitten? She’s grown some claws since she’s been gone.”
“I’m not your anything, Brad, except the woman who’s going to divorce you and take back her life.” I shouted over the rain.
“You don’t have a life anymore. You’re a talking dead woman.”
I straightened, my eyes narrowed. He stepped on the dock and the wood groaned, then one of the boards snapped. I heard several splashes and looked around. Gators. Big ones had been alerted by the wood hitting the water. They glided nearby only their scaly eye sockets and ridged backs visible.
“You’re still afraid of me,” he taunted.
“No. I was coming home to fight you,” I growled, seizing my anger and hate, using them as shields to beat back the fear. “You’re nothing but a pathetic addict and you made me miss my flight, you son of a bitch.”
He laughed without any amusement. In fact, he was getting angrier by the minute. Good, come and underestimate me some more, Brad. “Wow, Haley. You’ve developed a dirty mouth since you’ve been away.”
“How much of my money do you have on you. Oh, nevermind. After I beat you senseless with this tire iron, I’ll find out myself.”
He roared and charged toward me, like a bull aiming for a red cape just as four figures broke out of the trees.
But my full attention was on Brad. I was ready for him, goading him on purpose.
As he barreled toward me, I stood my ground, and at the very last minute, I threw myself to the side.
His hand glanced off my shoulder, but Brad couldn’t check his forward momentum, his anger making him reckless.
I was no longer that woman who he’d bullied into submission.
He hit the end of the dock and teetered there, his arms frantically windmilling, but it was no use, he had too much forward momentum and physics and gravity always won. He plunged into the water with a huge splash. Immediately, before he even surfaced, the gators were on the move.