They weren’t far out of town, but out here there was nothing but farm roads, paved and unpaved, no real landmarks. He felt thankful that they stuck to the paved streets, because the isolation of a dirt road would be too terrifying in this situation.
When they turned left one more time, a strange stir of interest bloomed inside Everett’s brain. He squinted, studying every structure he could see. A farmhouse on one side. A bigger farm with a cattle pen on another. A group of huge cottonwoods near a drainage ditch. And far up the road, getting larger every second, stood a group of three houses.
A chill bloomed over the back of his neck and raced down his spine.
Despite all his careful research and investigation, despite his many suspicions, Everett had been wrong about everything and everyone. Because this monster wasn’t taking them to some random spot in the country.
He was delivering them straight to Alex Bennick, and that suddenly seemed like the scariest possibility of all.
CHAPTER 35
The side of her head burned, and a deeper pain throbbed there with every beat of her heart. A concussion surely, because she could barely force her eyes open, and the world spun around her.
Or perhaps the world was flying by, greens and browns and blues sliding past. Yes. She was in a vehicle. She was with . . .
Lily cut her eyes hard to the side, and she saw him. Him. The man who’d put terror in Everett’s eyes. It all rushed back, and she clamped her teeth hard to hold back the nausea that rolled over her. She tasted metal and pain and sour blood. Her heart fluttered at the sight of the oozing wound on Mendelson’s cheek. She’d marked him. She’d hurt him.
But where were they?
She didn’t think her head was injured badly, more of a goose egg than a skull fracture, but combined with the pain in her temple, she felt caught in a vise. Still, she forced herself to twist around and look for Everett. The sight of him stabbed her with relief and horror. He looked sickly white and shocked, but he met her eyes and even tried to smile for her. His attempt choked her with a wave of painful love.
She tried to raise a hand to her head, but of course her hands were cuffed behind her, so she only made her ribs twinge with sharp pain.
There had to be a way out of this.
Wherever they were going, Mendelson would get out of the car before her. He’d take the key with him, so even if her hands were free, she couldn’t drive away, but he’d have to open her door for her at least. Maybe she could kick it into him. Or she could throw herself at him, give Everett enough time to flee.
But where would he run out here in the middle of cow pastures and turned fields of dirt? There was nowhere to hide.
Except that when the vehicle began to slow, they weren’t in the middle of nowhere. Instead he turned onto a short drive that sprouted off in three directions to three houses. Everett would only need to make it to one of those.
She tensed, drawing her body up from its woozy sprawl. She could do this. She didn’t need her arms. She would launch herself at him and bite him again, tear his nose off this time, fill his throat with blood, and Everett could run, run, run.
Elation spread its wings inside her for a moment. She could see it happening. Feel herself fly through the air. Taste the flood of his blood as his flesh gave way beneath her teeth. She could even hear the slapping of her son’s shoes against the drive, then the whoosh of his steps sinking into the dried lawn of the house next door.
Then the home they were driving toward opened like a mouth, the garage door rising to swallow them, and her hope dissolved and sank to the ground to soak uselessly into dirt.
“This is Alex’s house,” Everett whispered from the back seat.
“What?” she rasped.
“This is Alex Bennick’s house, Mom!”
She was swinging toward him in horrified confusion when she caught sight of Mendelson’s face. His smirking, gloating face. At least there was blood still leaking from that curving wound.
“What?” she managed before her tongue went too heavy and dry to function and they pulled into a garage crowded with boxes and tools and detritus.
When the door closed behind them, all her hopes for Everett were shut out with the sunlight.
The relative darkness helped her headache, at least, and her brain began churning with possibilities, none of them good. “What’s happening?” she demanded, but Mendelson just turned his smirk at her and winked.
Were he and Alex actually working together? To what end? What the hell could this possibly have to do with poor Amber running for her life?
Unless it didn’t have anything to do with her at all.
Maybe Alex really was a serial killer. Maybe the two men were some kind of ghoulish tag team. Her mind spiraled as Mendelson got out and shut the door, and she was spinning so hard she almost missed what Everett said. “Mom, I called 911. They know we’re in trouble. And they know he’s a cop. I couldn’t remember his name. I—”
And then Mendelson was opening her door and pulling her out, and she could only stare wide-eyed back at her son.
He’d called for help?
She huffed out a bark of pain or laughter, she wasn’t sure which. It didn’t matter. If help was coming, they could get through this. The whole force couldn’t be dirty. She just had to drag it out for as long as she could.
When Mendelson pulled Everett out, she rushed toward her son even though she couldn’t put her arms around him. “I love you,” she said into his sweaty hair. “I’m so proud of you, baby.”
“I love you, Mom,” he whispered back before Mendelson shoved them both toward the scarred wooden door past the front of the vehicle. She knew it wouldn’t change a thing, but she desperately wanted her hands free so she could touch her son, hold him and offer comfort. Instead, she only pressed her left arm as tightly as she could to his shoulder as they moved together.
“Let me go first,” she murmured, approaching the three steps that led up. Just get through this. Just draw it out. Just keep him talking.
Mendelson reached past her, turned the knob . . . and the horror awaiting her was just a laundry room. No one loomed with an axe or a gun. No one appeared at all. Mendelson shoved her through the doorway, and Everett followed right after.
“Turn right. Go sit on the couch. Both of you.”
She glanced back in question. “What are you going to do to us?”
“Go sit on the goddamn couch!”
She hurried forward, trying to rush without losing her balance, and stepped out into a very short hallway. A stairway in front of her led up to a second story. A dimly lit living room loomed to the right. To the left she caught sight of white linoleum. The kitchen.
But something that hadn’t registered in her vision dragged against her brain, and after one step toward the living room, she stopped and peered deeper into the shadows of the kitchen. At the very edge, the floor turned from white to blood red. She took a step back in that direction, pulled along by fear. She saw a limp arm on the floor. A body. Another victim.
Her stomach lurched, acid burned high in her throat. Then Mendelson shoved her hard.
“Want to join him?”
Pressing her body against Everett’s, she herded him in the other direction, toward the couch and away from the blood.
What the hell was happening? Either Alex was involved or he wasn’t. It didn’t make any sense to drag him in as another victim of Mendelson’s search for his wife.
She wanted to call out for Alex, but she wouldn’t let herself. She couldn’t bear it if he walked into the room wearing the same sick smile Mendelson had flashed. Something inside her would give way to animal panic, and she needed to be able to think.
The ancient hulk of a couch in that strange living room became an unexpected refuge, because as soon as she reached it, Everett sat right next to her and pressed himself to her side, halfway crawling onto her lap. They were together again.