“Maybe I don’t care. I just need enough to get away from you. And I will somehow take Sabrina?—”
“Skylar, Skylar! Still the little fool! Did you think it could possibly be so simple? You’re not going anywhere. You’re going to stay right here. Sabrina is not yet twenty-one. She is legally in my custody. We’re going to continue to be the proper family. I want the whole package, Miss Skylar, just as I have always wanted it, needed it. My constituents like my family image, the United States senator and his two beautiful young daughters. We’re a family. We understand the difficulties of a family in this day and age. We know about God and society! You’re not going to do anything to jeopardize the career I’ve worked so hard to build?—”
“The career you’ve murdered for?” she accused him.
He hadn’t been more than a few feet away. A handsome, compelling man, one whose charm had served him well throughout the years, one whose charm masked the evil within him, a cruelty that was almost casual in its endeavors.
He’d been a strict stepfather throughout the years, his manner sad and despairing to his associates when he discussed discipline in the home, but he’d seemed to relish the task of finding the proper switches to use against his stepdaughters when they disobeyed. Despite the pleasure he had always found in inflicting pain and the ease with which he doled it out, she still wasn’t prepared for the force of the blow that came crashing down against the side of her head, knocking her to the floor. The pain was staggering. It robbed her of breath and of vision and, for seconds, even of consciousness. She awoke, blinking, still in pain. He was on top of her, his one hand clasped around her throat, the other moving over her cheek.
“Your mother really was in love with me, Skylar,” he told her coldly. “I was strong. She was weak. Your precious father was weak and naïve?—”
“My father was loyal. And honest. And a million other fine things you’d never even recognize?—”
“Was. An important word in this conversation. He is now very dead, my dear,” Dillman said matter-of-factly. “I’ve been enduring this petty argument with you for over a decade now, and I’m sick to death of it, Skylar. The rules have changed once again. You know me, I know you. You behave, you learn to keep your mouth shut and obey. You cause me any trouble, and I can reach you. I’ll kill you. You try to convince anyone that I’m a danger to you or your sister, and I can promise, you’ll wind up in an asylum for the insane—you know that I can do it. You’ve been fighting all this time, most of your life, Skylar. And when the hell has anyone ever believed you? When have you ever managedto beat me? You can’t. Give it up. Because I’ll win. And I’ll do whatever it takes to see that I do.”
“Murder me?”
He shrugged. “If necessary. But it would be such a pity. You’re really such a beautiful—if vicious—little creature. I always thought you were a pretty little thing, even as a child, but you know, my dear—and you should know well—that I am not a stupid man. I’d not have made advances to you or your sister while my dear wife lived, but then…I’m in mourning right now, of course, over your mother, but a man can be eased from his sorrows by a woman like you.”
She was going to be sick. “I would die first!”
He leaned against her, laughing. “Skylar, you continually miss the point. You have been a thorn in my side forever. You might well die an accidental death, but surely, after all these years, I deserve at least a bit of entertainment from you. You could be quite amusing. I wouldn’t think of killing you until after I had discovered what charms you may or may not possess.”
“You idiot bastard! I will get away?—”
“I’ll track you down. And have you locked up.”
“I’ll—”
“Notice, Skylar, I have you by the throat. I could squeeze my fingers tightly now, and you would pass out. I could do whatever I chose to do. Ah, imagine. Were you to go making accusations against me, I could build a case of dementia against you. Then they’d lock you up. In one of those places. Skylar, have you ever visited such a place? The insane! So pathetic. We must do our Christian duty by them! Yet how horrid to live among them. So many of them hosed down rather than bathed. Poor creatures, crying, screaming into all hours of the night! I, your loving stepparent, would visit. Why, my dear, they’ve not really rooms in most of those establishments. They’ve cages and cells. Withlocks and keys. I could come, and we could play for hours. And no one would ever hear your screams.”
“God, you are wretched! But I will get away?—”
“Umm. If you should, well, actually, I have always preferred Sabrina. And the poor dear. It’s amusing, really. I’m her legal guardian. She’d have to be very, very far away to escape me, wouldn’t she, Skylar? How would you ever do it? How would you manage the resources to do it? I’ll follow you to hell, girl, and so help me, I’ll have it all my way. Are we understood?”
Understood. Oh, God.
And it had gotten worse from there. Or better. If only Sabrina would arrive here quickly now. She could see her sister, standing behind Dillman, trying to tug him away from Skylar. She could see Dillman laughing. Turning on Sabrina. Threatening, promising, touching…
She remembered herself flying into action. She could see it all again, relive it. See Dillman falling, falling, falling, screaming. She could see his legs, twisted, and hear her sister. “Go, you have to go! If he lives, he’ll have you hanged, imprisoned, put away?—”
“I can’t leave you?—”
“Skylar, you’ve got to! You’ve got to get completely away, disappear! We’d be too visible trying to escape together, and he’d get the law out after both of us. He still has a legal claim on me. He’s still my guardian. But I’m safe for the moment! He can’t hurt me now. Go! Find us a way out, a new life, Skylar, not a prison sentence!”
“I can’t?—”
“Then we’ve got to kill him!”
“No! It would make us what he is! We can’t?—”
“Then you’ve got to run. Can’t you see, he can’t hurt me now.”
“I’ll get word to you as quickly as possible. Go to Pike’s. Jimmy Pike is our only friend.”
“Go! My God, go! Get far away before he can send someone for you, before he can come, before?—”
Words faded, darkness swirled around her. There were hands, reaching for her, dragging her down, pulling at her. She heard his laughter, felt herself falling, unable to breathe. She saw his face, and felt his touch…
