He caught a handful of her hair.Natalie screamed as he hauled her up.Fire scorched her scalp, and she rose onto her tiptoes to alleviate the pressure.
He brought her face close to his.“Oh, baby, you have no idea,” he said, each word seeping from his lips like leakage from a sewage plant.His eyes were ruthless stones, and wrath twisted his features, which had aged so much over the last decade.
“You were always pretty,” he mumbled.“Just not that fucking smart.”He steered her in front of him and pushed her along the trail.“Can’t just leave your body in the woods.I know how those searches go.They’ll check the water, too.”His tone turned pensive, as though he was still working out the details of his plan.
“So, what?”she said derisively.“You’re gonna bury me?That’s not super smart either.”
“Shut up,” he hissed.Seconds slipped into a minute.They moved deeper into the woods.“You know how you always take Bray swimming?Kid loves the water.”
Her heart ached and tears rushed to her eyes as the vivid image of Bray launching himself off the pool ledge came to her mind.“I’m surprised you cared to remember that about him,” she said softly.Honestly.Maybe underneath all that hate was a man capable of love.Perhaps on some level he gave a damn.
If Keetan had any compassion remaining, now was the time to find it.“Things didn’t have to turn out this way.I know we have our differences, but you’re not a murderer.”
Keetan snorted.“Don’t try to pull that shit on me.I saw the way you looked at me after Shelby.Things changed between us after that.”
“Of course they did,” she countered, despairingly.“But they would have changed regardless of how we handled that situation.I was afraid you blamed me.”
He said nothing.
Branches swatted her arms and neck, but he didn’t slow or allow her the chance to move them away.Dread crept over her.The only thing scarier than Keetan’s temper was his silence.
“Keetan.They’re looking for me.You kidnapped me from the police station.They’ll figure out it was you and then you’ll go to jail.Right now, you have time to change this.”
They reached a clearing.A sandy beach met her feet and the gentle lapping of water on a wide shore caught her eye just before he wheeled her around to face him.Her heart thumped against her chest.She’d also seen a small motorboat bobbing next to a dock.
A quiet sense of doom rolled off the water, and fear pulled her belly to her toes.She wished the sand would suck her into its grains.
“You had it good with me.Before you slept with that douchebag.”With that, he towed her across the beach, his movements hurried.“After you had that kid, I knew this was inevitable.”
“Keetan—”
He stopped again and yanked her around to face him.“We could’ve had a nice life.I would’ve given youmychild.”His lip curled.“After we go out on that boat,” he said, nodding to the dock, “that bastard son of his will grow up hating the water.”
Anguish hit the back of her throat and tears stung her eyes.She shoved at his chest.“You’re a monster!”A sob ripped from her lungs.Dying was one thing.Dying in a way that would hurt her son even more only intensified her determination to fight.
He grabbed her shoulders.She hiked up her knee and slammed it into his groin.Tearing out of his grasp she ran, a scream billowing from her lungs.Keetan’s body slammed against hers, taking them both to the ground.Sand filled her face and tiny particles invaded her lungs.She grabbed a handful as Keetan wrestled them to their feet, then hurled it at his face.
The grains peppered his cheeks and hit him in the eyes.He cried out, clutching his face.
She turned and once again ran for her life.The sand sucked at her feet, every step trying to drag her back to him.
CHAPTER 21
While Taschen drove,Brick’s gaze flicked from the road to the clock on the dashboard: 6:18p.m.He wanted to be behind the wheel because even breakneck speed wasn’t fast enough, but he wasn’t going to waste precious seconds switching spots.
According to the GPS, they had forty fucking minutes ahead of them.He couldn’t let his mind venture to what Keetan might be doing with Natalie at the state park.They certainly weren’t sightseeing.He fisted his hands on his lap.The minutes dragged.
We’re too late.
Sickening worry burned his esophagus.He massaged the center of his chest, needing some kind of relief from the disturbing reality that Natalie might not be alive when they found her.
“She’s going to be okay,” Taschen said, his voice thick with confidence.A confidence Brick didn’t share.
He shook his head.If he allowed himself to think the worst, he wouldn’t be able to put one foot in front of the other.“I swear to god, if he touched her...”
“All this might be a scare tactic.”
Brick scoffed.“You don’t believe that.”
