Tessa felt him shake his head, and she cringed as she realized her mistake. The pills…
“But you didn’t take any pills,” he said suspiciously. “You said you didn’t need them.”
? ? ?
I’ll see you later, OK?
Eric choked on the sour aftertaste of those words—his parting blow when he delivered his attacker to security. He hadn’t thought about the consequences at the time. He had no one but himself to blame if she’d come back. He’d invited her, after all. I’ll see you later. His lies may have soothed her at the time, but they’d only fueled her obsession in the long run.
He saw the truth so clearly now, as his car crept down the road and his eyes scanned across the darkened Texas landscape.
He never should have trusted security to deal with her. He should have ignored those guards. Handled it himself. Eric knew what he would do differently if he could hit Rewind…relive that night again. They probably wouldn’t have played the video on the morning talk shows the next day. Or if they had, the viewing public wouldn’t have LOL’ed. They probably would’ve called for his arrest. Put him in jail and thrown away the key. But he’d do it anyway, without a second thought, if he had the chance.
He could see the whole dark fantasy play out in his mind’s eye. He held the girl in his arms once more and danced her around the stage. And he spoke to her again. He said every single line the same, except the parting words. He altered those just slightly. Not: See you later. Not this time.
This time, he gazed straight through her ink-black eyes to the depths of her deluded soul. “I’ll see you in hell, OK?”
Then he glided her over to the edge of the stage and pushed her.
Let her fall and break her skinny, little neck.
? ? ?
Tessa blinked. He’d almost caught her.
But you didn’t take any pills. You said you didn’t need them.
She pressed her face into Blair’s shoulder to cover her wince, but she didn’t lose her nerve. Maybe it was the cold night air or maybe the adrenaline coursing through her veins, but her mind remained clear and calm. Another lie rolled smoothly from her tongue. “I took a whole bunch before though. In the car on the way over. I was so nervous to meet you!”
He let out a huff. “You dummy. You took too many, didn’t you?” His voice dripped with disapproval, but Tessa heard an undercurrent of affection as his arms squeezed around her. She felt the tip of the knife blade prick the skin of her back. “Stupid girl,” he said. “What am I going to do with you? Will it pass soon, do you think?”
Tessa took a few fluttery breaths for good measure as she nodded against his chest. “Soon,” she said. “Really dizzy now. Can we just lean against the railing for a sec?”
She lifted her head and tilted it toward the far edge of the deck.
“Of course.” Blair smiled at her condescendingly, smoothing a strand of wild hair away from her face. “Just relax and lean on me.”
He shuffled backward in the direction of the railing, pulling her along by the waist. Tessa rested her forehead trustingly against him. She didn’t lift her head again until she knew they must be close. She felt him crane his neck around to watch where he was going, and she closed her eyes to gather her courage.
It all came down to this. No room for second-guessing. Her one and only chance. She prayed what felt like a hundred prayers at once: that she had the strength inside herself to fight…that the knife he held wouldn’t slash her…that the railing was as weak as her mother claimed…
The railing. She could sense it right behind him now. The time had come to act.
With a single fluid motion, Tessa reared backward and stamped down hard on top of his foot.
She felt his arms go slack. He took one more step backward, his head snapping around to look at her in surprise. Tessa kept her eyes fixed firmly on his chest as she closed the distance between them. She drove her fists into his stomach—and she channeled every last ounce of fear and anger, hatred and disgust into the blow.
He reeled, arms flailing.
Tessa heard the clatter of the falling knife and the groan of wood as it gave way with a crack.
She met his gaze one final time. His eyes stretched wide with panic as he sensed the open space behind his back.
Then all at once, he vanished—the monster who had haunted her, the memory that had held her hostage for so long. He disappeared into the pitch-dark void below. Only a gaping hole remained where he had stood.
27
DARKNESS
“There!”
Eric leaned forward in his seat as his eyes landed on what looked like a narrow driveway. That had to be it. Sycamore Lane. He hit the gas, and the Ferrari’s engine roared as the car shot around the corner of the unmarked intersection.
Proceed on the current route. Destination is ahead…
Well, at least the GPS lady seemed confident. Eric didn’t quite share her enthusiasm. If anything, this road was even darker than the last one. Eric couldn’t see a thing beyond the arc of illumination provided by his headlights. Was this even a real street? The pavement left off after a few feet, and he felt the crunch of loose gravel beneath his tires. No sign of any houses yet. Just a clump of trees off to one side.
Eric hoped to God that they were sycamores. If this wasn’t Tessa’s street, then he’d have to give in to the thought that made his stomach churn with fear. He might not get to her in time. He was lost.
? ? ?
Blair lay still in the darkness, unwilling to open his eyes for fear that he might lose the warm glow in the pit of his stomach. He’d been having the most satisfying dream.
What was it about again? The details had already receded. He could only remember the sensation—that delicious prickle of desire, the anticipation of sweet fulfillment. Why did his dreams always end before he got to the good part? It was maddening, really. Just when he had his object within reach…
He sighed and cracked his eyes open, blinking to clear his vision. He couldn’t see a thing. A cold wind blanketed him as he felt around with his hands. In some dim corner of his mind, he expected to feel the splintery surface of a wooden deck, but his fingers only encountered frozen ground. A few clumps of dried-up grass. Mostly rocks and hard-packed earth.
Blair propped himself up on his elbows, ignoring the waves of dizziness. He must have hit his head. His eyes adjusted slowly to the dark of the moonless night, and a few indistinct memories filtered through the haze. He’d been on a deck in his dream. A wooden deck. At least, he thought it was a dream. When he looked up now, he could just make out the slats of the deck railing looming overhead. He must have fallen. But why was he up there? He had the vaguest recollection of standing and…swaying. Dancing. Slow dancing. Slow dancing with…
Tessa.