Chapter 30
THIRTY
SADIE
Henry kept the gun in his lap as he drove. His movements were jittery, his gaze glassy. His pupils were pinpricks that gave me shivers every time he glanced at me.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” he repeated for the hundredth time. “If you’d just come back to me like you were supposed to, this wouldn’t have had to happen. But you left, Sadie. You left and got married. You shouldn’t have done that.”
Fear choked me. We were almost at the I-95 freeway that would take us down the coast and out of Maine. The forest was thick and green on either side of the road, the sky blue. Summer beat down on us, incongruous with the horror icing my veins.
He’d taken my phone and set fire to Life’s a Stitch. I’d seen it go up in flames as we drove away. I never should have gotten into the car, but he’d held a gun to my waist and prodded me with the end of the barrel. Now I regretted my cowardice.
“You broke up with me, Henry,” I said with a voice that only trembled a little. My fear was so big it made everything go still. “You told me you didn’t want to be with me anymore. You kicked me out of our home.”
“You were supposed to come back to me,” he roared, leaning forward as he gripped the steering wheel.
His hand tightened on the gun, and I closed my eyes to suck in a slow breath.
“You were so mad at me for fucking Erin, but what was I supposed to do? Live without sex for the rest of my life? This would have been so easy if you just listened to me, Sadie.”
Erin had been the coworker he wanted to open the relationship for. My mouth was dry as I sat utterly still, watching him take a bend a little too fast. The gravel on the shoulder crunched under our tires, and he let go of the gun to wrench the wheel with both hands.
“You deserved to be punished for being so stuck-up.”
“That’s why you broke up with me.” I kept my voice low and calm, as much to keep my own panic at bay as to keep Henry calm.
He exhaled. “You were supposed to suffer, Sadie. And then you’d come back to me and everything would be okay. You’d see the error of your ways, and everything would be okay.”
We slowed as we reached the exit that would take us onto the freeway. Henry shook his head and guided the car onto the main road, then jammed his foot on the accelerator to speed up.
He’d wanted me to suffer. He’d planned it so that I would be so broken and desperate that I would come back to him.
As if from a distance, I realized that I was no longer the same person I’d been when Henry and I were together. I wasn’t a broken shell of a woman who accepted the scraps of a horrible man’s affection. I wasn’t the little girl who grew up as her mother’s punching bag.
I was better. I was whole.
Part of that had been my own work, my own healing. I’d learned that I deserved better.
But a lot of it had been Gideon. He’d treated me like I was worthy of being spoiled. He’d given without asking for anything back. He’d cherished me, held me, loved me.
No one had ever treated me like that before. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that I would make it out of this alive just so I could see him again.
“When you lost the studio, I thought it was only a matter of time,” Henry ranted, speeding down the freeway faster than was safe.
Something in the way he said that made me pause. It was in the tone of his voice—that gloating, condescending note that used to make me feel small.
Now it only made me feel angry.
“Henry,” I started slowly. “Did you have anything to do with the failure of my business?”
His smile was a wide, awful thing. “It was so easy,” he said, bursting with glee. “Almost all your clients came from me. All I had to do was stop referring people to you. And then a few phone calls to the right people, and I knew you’d need me again.”
“You badmouthed me in the industry.”
“Come on, Sadie. You needed me from the start. I made you. You didn’t deserve to be successful without me.”
It was a strange feeling to be horrified and relieved at the same time. Horrified because I was trapped in a speeding vehicle with a madman. Relieved because finally, the failure of my business made sense.
I hadn’t had to close up shop because I was awful at wedding dress design or because I’d mismanaged my affairs.
I’d had to shut down because I’d been sabotaged.
Henry had systematically made me rely on him for everything, and then he’d pulled the rug out from under me.
He wanted me to be utterly reliant on him.
My ex-fiancé gritted his teeth. “And then you left. And you got married.” He let out a scoff, and I flinched. His condescension had been constant when we were together. I’d accepted all his scoffs, his judgment, his derision.
Now I knew I deserved better.
But I was still trapped in a car with him. I took a deep breath in an attempt to keep the panic from overwhelming me. My fingertips trembled and my legs were twitching and restless. I swallowed convulsively, trying to stay calm.
I had to get him to stop the car. It was over seven hours to New York City, and I wasn’t sure we’d make it that far. Henry would snap at some point. I needed to save myself—and soon.
“You’re right,” I said softly, using the meek voice I remembered from our relationship. “I always needed you.”
He relaxed slightly. “Yes,” he said. “You did. You needed me, baby. You still do.”
“I still do.”
He nodded, relaxing.
Behind us, I heard the roar of an engine. Glancing in the side mirror, I saw two motorcycles speeding up the freeway toward us. Was that…?
No. It couldn’t be. I squinted at the mirror, but Henry glanced over at me, and I had to look away.
“Thank you for coming to get me,” I said.
Henry smiled. “You’re welcome. I knew you’d understand.”
“I need you more than ever,” I continued.
The motorcycles got closer, their headlights shining in the mirror. But not close enough for me to be sure of who they were.
Not until the sign for a rest stop came into view, and one of the bikes accelerated so I could see the logo on the driver’s jacket.
A flaming skull. One of Cash’s men. He dropped back so all I could see was the shining headlight in the mirror.
Hope flared in my gut, but I squeezed my eyes shut and forced my voice to stay small. “Babe?” I asked.
“Yes, darling.”
“I really need to pee.”
Henry’s jaw tightened. “Hold it in.”
“I’m so sorry, babe. I know I’m such an inconvenience, but I really need to go.”
“You just can’t make life easy, can you?”
“I’ll be so quick.”
Henry glanced at me, assessing. I kept my gaze wide and guileless, reaching deep in my gut for all the old insecurities that no longer felt like they fit. I hoped they showed in my gaze. Hoped he saw the broken, small woman he wanted me to be.
And then he wrenched the wheel toward the rest stop exit.
I stared straight ahead, afraid to check and see if the motorcycles had followed. What if I was wrong? Why would Cash have sent his men after me, anyway?
But even if it wasn’t him, this was my best chance at escape. I breathed in and out in slow cycles as Henry slowed, turned into the gas station lot, and parked in one of the spots to the side of the pumps.
He shoved his gun in the back of his pants as we got out, then circled the car and grabbed my shoulder to lead me inside. The gas station attendant looked bored. I tried to communicate with my eyes. Tried to mouth help, but he just grabbed the bathroom key when Henry asked for it.
“Bathroom’s around the side,” the attendant said, gesturing out the door and to the left. “Bring the key back when you’re done.”
My heart pounded. My throat was dry. I needed to run, but where would I go?
“Be quick,” Henry said as we walked out through the sliding glass doors.
“I will be,” I promised.
He unlocked the bathroom door and glanced inside. There was no window or other way to exit but the door. I had no phone and no way to call for help. He shoved me inside and closed the door, keeping the key. I still locked the door, even though he’d be able to barge in any minute.
Knowing I needed to stall, I sat on the toilet and made myself pee. Henry knocked impatiently. “Almost done!” I called back as I moved slowly through the necessary steps. I washed my hands thoroughly, my heart in my throat.
In the distance, I thought I heard the rumble of engines. Closing my eyes against the reflection in the grimy mirror, I prayed that I was right.
Then I walked out of the bathroom and faced the man who’d almost broken me. The man who had broken me.
The man who hadn’t expected me to put myself back together again.
GIDEON
I saw her walk around the corner of the gas station. Saw the other man’s hand gripping her shoulder too tight. Saw the way she jerked her head up when Cash and his men drove up and stopped around them to cut them off.
Then I was out of my car, and I was running.