“Mr. Edgewood!” Kellen calls, following me. “I can drive to?—”
“I’m going.” I throw open the door to the garage. “Come with me or not.”
“I’m coming,” Kellen says firmly. Then he looks at his boyfriend.
“As if I would miss this,” Ignacio says, piling into the back of my 4x4. “A rescue mission for a damsel in distress? Once in a lifetime.”
When the doors are closed, I nearly drive through the garage door waiting for it to open. Then we’re on the road, and I’m gunning it through the woods, the car bouncing as we go. Kellen and Ignacio grab onto the handles, neither of them saying a word about my driving.
I’m going to get to Peony before anything bad happens to her. I have to.
peony
The trip to Tennysville isn’t that long, and I feel like a fucking idiot. I should never have gone to Penn Rock, a town so close to where Andy lives. I was arrogant and overconfident, thinking there was no way I would run into him at the upscale grocery store.
“Wondering how I finally caught you?” Andy asks. He runs one hand through his disheveled, greasy hair, making it stand up even straighter. “After you left in the middle of the night without a word, you callous bitch?”
Why bother asking me a question when I have duct tape over my face?
“That’s what you are. After I took care of you for years, you vanished. You stole mycar!”
I did do that, I guess. He must not have reported it missing, though, if the cops never stopped me.
“It was Mandy,” he goes on, “who told me where she saw you.” He knows me well enough to guess what I’d ask if I could.
I don’t say anything behind the duct tape—mostly because I can’t—but I’m thinking murderous thoughts. I wish I’d told Mandy why I really left. Maybe then she’d have kept her mouth shut.
“Nice car you were driving.” Andy casts me a sidelong glance. “Who’s the new sugar daddy? That’s what she said—you got some nice new gig with a rich guy.”
I don’t even try to answer. Why is he bothering to ask me questions when he’s got me gagged?
“That money is mine, you know,” he says, taking a left turn abruptly. “You owe me.”
Of course he would think that, when he’s the one who convinced me to leave my job, when he’s the one who wanted me to depend on him so he could dangle it in front of me and use it to control me.
We trundle down a road I’ve never been on before, into the woods. I thought for sure that Andy would take me back to the old single-wide. That would make the most sense, as he can’t very well whisk me off to the welding shop where he works—or worked, before I left. Who knows what he’s been doing in the meantime?
But now we’re headed into the undeveloped forest that backs up against the trailer park. Where is he taking me?
I had thought that perhaps Kellen could find me if Andy took me back to my old house. It’s still my registered address, in case they reported me missing, and there was a chance the cops might show up after a day or two.
Not if he’s taking me into the middle of nowhere, though.My heart sinks as the tree cover closes in around us, blocking out the sun. There’s no way anyone will find me out here.
After a time, the truck slows and Andy pulls off to the side of the road, going down an even smaller path. Up ahead, a tiny building sits nestled in the woods, barely more than a utility shack.
Fuck. What is he going to do with me? How is he going to punish me for leaving?
I knew Andy had an ugly side, a very ugly side. Now, though, I think I’ve underestimated exactly how far he’s willing to go to get revenge.
He brings the truck to a stop in front of the shack. My skin feels cold, my blood like ice. If he murdered me out here, Rupert would never know what happened to me.
I wanted to talk to Dad again. I wanted to get back into restaurant work. I wanted the chance to live a new life, to live formyself, and here I am at the same place I started, or worse.
Potentially much, much worse.
Andy hops out of the driver’s seat and then opens the passenger-side door, grabbing me and yanking me out. I fight with my legs—as my hands are still taped together—but I’m no match for him. I forgot what a big guy he is, and he’s certainly stronger than I am.
I’m so fucked.
