Fear spikes my heart rate. My head is on a swivel as I search the lot, panic threading through every nerve. I’m already so hyped on adrenaline that the fright makes me feel as if I’m about to implode.
“Andi!” I shout into the darkness.
James still hasn’t answered.
“Andi!”
Pick up. Pick up.
“Yeah?” James answers.
“I need you,” I say.
“Something wrong?” James asks.
“I don’t… I don’t…” I can’t think straight. I gasp as my breaths run too short. Too panicked. “It’s Andi. She isn’t—”
My eyes snag on a beige SUV on the other side of the back lot parked by the exit road. There’s a man placing a woman from his shoulder into the back seat. I squint against the dim street light that’s over the car. The man pauses outside the door. It looks as though he’s struggling with her.
A flash of purple slides from beneath the hood over the woman’s hair.
Purple hair.
“Mother fu—”
The phone drops. I jump over the banister down to the ground, and I bolt.
Andi.
“ANDI!”
I can see her kicking, hear the guy shouting. The distinct noise of a slap cuts the chilled air, and I see his hand swing back.
“ANDI!”
Her head whips up from the back seat. I can’t make out the expression on her face, but I hear the panic in her voice, see her hair falling over her features.
“MADDOX!”
“ANDI!”
The guy looks back over his shoulder and shoves her inside. She starts to jump out. The door slams in her face, and he practically dives into the front.
I reach him as he cranks up the car. I throw myself into the open window without thinking and drag the bastard out of the driver’s seat. His Myers mask falls off when we both topple to the ground.
I can’t feel my body as Adam stares back at me.
“I’ll fucking kill you—”
Adam scrambles to his feet. I’m faster. I hear Andi screaming and kicking on the back door, though I don’t try to get her out.
She’s safer in there than out here.
I lunge at Adam and slam him into the driver side door. He says something, but I don’t hear it. White hot rage has me blind, numb, and nearly fucking deaf to everything except her.
Something sharp drives into my side.
Fuck.
