“Yeah. Alex, the assistant manager at the bar? She has a thingfor me and was more than happy to lie to the cops. I didn’t want you figuring that out.”
I tried to absorb his words, but my mind grew fuzzy as my vision darkened further.
Just as I was about to slip into oblivion, Bodie eased up the pressure on my throat and hauled me up the stairs.
I tried to scream while I had the chance, while he didn’t have my mouth covered or my airway blocked, but I was still trying to catch my breath and my throat felt so bruised. When I tried to yell, I ended up coughing. By the time I stopped sputtering, Bodie had dragged me out the door and onto the roof.
The wind whipped through my tangled hair and stung my tear-filled eyes. I grabbed at the corner of the rooftop enclosure. Bodie yanked me away.
I cried out as the stucco scraped the skin off my fingertips.
I kicked and flailed so fiercely that Bodie had to use both arms to restrain me, leaving my mouth uncovered.
“Help!” I screamed, over and over. The wind whipped my words away, up into the sky where no one would hear them.
Bodie dragged me to the edge of the roof. I scratched at his face with my fingernails, drawing a trickle of blood from his cheek. He reared back and smacked my face. My head rang from the impact, and little pinpricks of silver light flashed in my vision.
“I’m sorry, Emersyn.”
He sounded genuinely remorseful, but then he took advantage of my momentary shock to heave me up and over the four-foot barrier at the edge of the roof.
“No!” I screamed into the wind.
I thrashed about and pummeled my fists against any part of him that I could reach. My legs dangled over the edge. One of my shoes slipped off and fell away. I kicked up one leg and managed to hook it over the barrier. Latching on to Bodie’s shoulder and wrenching him down toward me, I used him as leverage to swingmyself up and over the wall. He grabbed for my shoulder as I tumbled to the floor of the roof. His fingers caught the strap of my dress. With a ripping of stitches, the strap broke away, leaving him with nothing but fabric in his grasp. I crawled away from him, losing my other shoe in the process. I clambered to my feet and ran for the door.
Bodie tackled me to the floor, right by the bench where I’d sat with Mr. Nagy. Pain split through my knee and elbow. I screamed with the fierce power of combined fear and frustration.
He jammed his knee into my back, pinning me down. My cheek pressed against the gritty rooftop, tiny pebbles cutting into my skin.
I saw Livy’s smiling face so clearly in my mind.
A sob broke out of me.
“I can’t go to jail, Emersyn. I really am sorry.”
“Help!” I screamed again, but my voice had gone hoarse.
Bodie grabbed me by the shoulders.
Then the door to the stairway flew open.
Wyatt and Jemma burst through it, a gaggle of seniors behind them.
I felt more than saw Bodie’s hesitation.
I reached under the bench, and my hand closed around cool glass. I whipped out Mr. Nagy’s bottle of pálinka and twisted around, smashing the bottle against the back of Bodie’s head.
The glass shattered.
Bodie crumpled.
The pungent, fruity smell of pálinka burned my nose.
I scrambled up and away from Bodie, scared he might rise again at any second.
Tears blurred my vision. I blinked.
When I could see again, Wyatt had a barely conscious Bodie pinned to the floor.
