Page 46 of Treasured By Them
No point in pretending I don’t remember. He wouldn’t believe me, anyway.
But if I can get him talking…
“Why didn’t you kill me that night?” I ask.
He scoffs. “And break my best friend’s heart? I was going to do it. But you went unconscious. I felt bad. I revived you. Told you over and over that I was saving you, that you were going to be okay as long as you’d forget everything. You promised you would forget.”
“I did,” I whisper. I forgot for years.
“Move, Danica.” He shoves me toward the dock.
He’s going to kill me. Nobody will find me. It doesn’t matter what Malcolm’s plan is—and in fact, I don’t think he has a plan. He’s making this up as he goes along. He didn’t know my memories were coming back until just a few minutes ago.
“Malcolm! Danica? Are you guys out there?” Zora’s voice carries over the yard.
She’s back from her hike. I try to turn around, to see her. Malcolm and I are deep in the shadows at the lake’s edge. Can she see us? If I could just get her attention, maybe she could get help.
“One word,” Malcolm growls in my ear, “and I’ll kill both of you. I’d hate to do it, but I’ve gone fifteen years without getting caught, and that doesn’t fucking change tonight. Stay down, stay quiet.”
Zora stands on the deck for a long moment. Maybe she sees my stuff there, abandoned. Maybe she’ll worry enough to call for help.
After a tense minute, her footsteps echo and I hear the swooshing sound of the sliding glass door opening and closing. She went inside, taking my hope with her.
“Let’s go.” Malcolm pushes me forward on the dock. “Keep quiet.”
I don’t move voluntarily. I won’t make it easy for him. “How do you think you’ll get away with this?”
“Easy. I woke up from my nap, you were gone. I figured you went on that hike with Zora, so I took out the boat for some fishing. I came back late, and Zora was home. We noticed your phone on the deck, started worrying, called the police.” He pauses and shoves me forward again. “And your body will never be found. No body, no murder.”
Like with Britney. Nobody knew what happened to her. For fifteen years.
We reach the canoe. I struggle at the dock’s edge. If I can get away, I’ll jump in the water and fucking swim. Maybe he won’t be able to find me in the darkness. But he holds me so tight, I can’t escape.
He lifts me into the canoe along with him.
The canoe rocks dangerously under our weight.
If we leave here, I die. Simple as that. Nobody will rescue me. Edmund and Troy, even if they saw my text or thought it was odd, are still at least an hour away.
This is so stupid—I know it’s stupid even as I do it. But this is my last chance.
Instead of struggling to get away from Malcolm, I take a deep breath—and ram myself against him.
He makes an oof sound, loses his balance.
The canoe topples over.
We sink into the night-dark water.
17
Troy
I drive faster than I’ve ever driven. The curving roads leading up to Danish Lake are dangerously tight. Concentrating on the asphalt keeps me from spiraling over what might be happening to Dani.
“Anything new?” I ask Edmund.
“No.” His voice is low. He stares at his phone, at the message he recited to me when we tore out of the apartment building.
