Page 139 of Pretty Nightmare

“Yeah,” I say, breathing out a sigh. “You can.”

The whispering up ahead becomes yelling and then abruptly stops. And then it’s just Nathan’s whispers, no Indie.

McKay is still looking at me. And I don’t need to say a word for him to know what I’m thinking. “We’ll find her. And Donovan. But first, we need to save Indie. Come on.”

We creep forward in stealth mode. McKay is leading, since he has always been better at this than me. It only takes a few minutes for the low whispers to become truly audible and we stop to pick out some words as we process the scene on the banks of the narrow creek that feeds into the river.

Nathan is sitting in the mud holding Indie in his arms. Rocking back and forth. Cradling her.

McKay bursts forward, all stealth gone now. “What the fuck—”

That’s as far as he gets, because I pull him back. “Easy,” I say. “Hold up.”

“She hit her head, McKay! Twice!” Nathan is frantic to explain. “I didn’t hurt her! I’m trying to save her!”

“From who?” I am seething with anger from the accusations in his voice.

“From Carter!”

McKay and I both go still. Then McKay says, “He’s here?”

“Of course he’s here! He’s always been here! What the fuck—”

Indie begins to moan and McKay rushes over to her, bending down to hold her head in his hands. She’s got a wound and it’s bleeding pretty good. But head wounds do that. It’s not always a sign of trauma. “Indie!” McKay is right down in her face now. “Indie, can you hear me?”

“Don’t kill him,” she grumbles. “Please, don’t kill him.”

I walk over to them and kneel down in the mud next to McKay. “Indie, we’re not going to kill Nathan. Don’t worry. As long as he cooperates—”

“Not Nathan!” She screams it. “Donovan, Adam! Don’t let him kill Donovan!”

McKay is confused. “Indie, we’re not gonna kill Donovan!”

At the same time I’m saying, “Why the fuck would we kill Donovan?”

And then Indie opens her eyes and looks up at Nathan. She’s begging him with those eyes. “Please. Don’t kill him. He’s my friend. He’s always been—”

“Indie!” Nathan yells it. “You know he’s not your friend! You know this! You saw what he did to those kids on the island! You saw him! You were there. We”—he pokes her in the chest, then pokes himself too—“we were there! And if you saw what I just saw on my way down here—if you even knew what he was doing all these years”—Nathan shakes his head—“you would not ask me to save him!”

“That wasn’t him!” Indie is screaming now too.

And McKay is saying, “What the fuck is happening? What the fuck are you talking about? Why the hell are we talking about Donovan?”

But I know why.

Suddenly all those pieces I was missing to this puzzle fall right into their proper places.

And then an offhanded thought pops into my head:

Someone has to die at the end.

That’s just how these stories go.

And that’s when Maggie screams from somewhere deep inside the woods.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR - DONOVAN

Carter cocks his head at me. Smiles. “Are you sure about that, Donny?”