Page 108 of Wicked Ends
I took the gun and slipped it into my bag and then returned the duffel to the locker, paying for another few weeks. I needed to get it back to Marcus, but I couldn’t risk taking it to him just now, not with Dale around. It was safest locked up.
After the bus station, I headed back to the motel. Earl waved at me through the window as I drove by and I waved back. The dark green pines kissed the blue sky in the distance, framing the motel roof in a picturesque scene. I got out of the car and breathed in the pine- and salt-scented air. Tears sprang up behind my lids, and I barely got inside before breaking down.
God, I was going to miss it here. I was going to miss HHU and having a job I loved. I was going to miss the noisy staff room and the hilarious trio of Sally, Bill, and Wade. I was going to miss Kenna so much, and I already knew how worried she’d be about me if I disappeared.
I was going to miss the forests and the jagged rocky coast. I was going to miss the Hellions games and sitting in the rink and watching the goalie on the ice…
I was going to miss him. Marcus. The man I loved. Despite my best efforts, despite it being forbidden, I’d fallen in love for the very first time.
I’d nearly had a life, and it was being ripped away by the man who had already taken so much from me.
And I was done.
I set up a chair behind the door, despite it being locked, and angled it so that it would take effort to dislodge. I wanted Dale to have to lean into the door to open it. Maybe that way, if I was waiting behind the door, I could kick the chair out and he’d be off-balance when the door opened. I planned to hit him with the heavy lamp by the window and then tie him up when he was unconscious. Then I could use the gun to threaten him… Then?
I didn’t know. I was terrible at this, and none of the odds were in my favor. If only I could get some bullets without attracting too much attention, but Hade Harbor was a tiny town, and people talked. Besides, I couldn’t risk having a weapon that could be turned against me. Dale was a lot more proficient with firearms than I was.
Then I sat and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
A car door slamming outside jolted me awake. It took a second to remember where I was. It was the room I’d grown used to at the Night Owl, just from a different angle. I was sitting on the floor behind the door, the gun loosely gripped in my hand. My whole body ached, the pain hitting me as soon as I opened my eyes. It was light outside, that kind of gray light of very early morning.
I grabbed my phone and checked the time.
Four a.m. I’d fallen asleep, and Dale hadn’t come. He hadn’t shown up. I pushed myself to my feet, dizzy for a second from the pain.
Where is he?
I searched my room for any sign that he’d been there when I was asleep, but there was nothing. Sinking down onto the bed, I checked my phone again. He hadn’t shown after all those threats? That wasn’t like Dale at all. He must have been held up; there was no other reason he wouldn’t have come for his money.
Had he been hurt? Gotten in an accident? No, probably not. I wasn’t that lucky. Maybe he’d decided to go straight to Claire and Lulu, a thought that made me sick to even consider. Why would he do that when he was threateningmefor the money? It wasn’t in his character to leave money behind, and he’d been confident he could force me to come up with it from somewhere. He’d be back, I decided. He’d be back, and I’d be ready.
I hid the gun in a bag in the bathroom and then collapsed on my bed. It was Monday. I had classes to get to and a life to pretend to live while I waited… for the end. If I could have a few more days of this perfect, normal life, then I wasn’t going to waste them.
Marcus
After a dayof backbreaking work at the cabin, I took the pizzas from the delivery guy and headed back inside.
“Okay, as promised, dinner!” I shouted through the house.
“It better be good after all this unpaid labor,” Beckett grumbled as he ambled down the stairs and eyed the pizza boxes. “Cheapskate.”
“Hey, don’t be grumpy because I didn’t let you call in professional decorators. I wanted a homemade touch.” I grinned at him.
He took a pizza box and rolled his eyes.
“Don’t mind him. He’s just not used to manual labor, unlike the rest of us. The little prince can’t hack it—” Eve broke off in a scream as Beckett bent down and heaved her over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift, smacking her butt with his free hand and taking her and his pizza box out to the back deck.
“I get it.” Cayden opened the top box before sorting through the rest, looking for his girl Lily’s favorite toppings. He opened the ham and pineapple and sighed.
I happened to know how much he hated that particular flavor, but Lily didn’t, and he didn’t intend for her to find out. “I want to share her favorite things with her,”he’d once told me. I hadn’t gotten it then, but I did now.
“Actions speak louder than words, or limitless credit cards,” he finished and took the pizza over to Lily.
“Spoken like a guy who doesn’t have one!” Beckett called from the open door to the deck, where he was feeding Eve bites of pizza on his lap.
