He slapped her face. Hard. She gasped in shock.
“Your suck-up knight in shining armor isn’t going to save you this time. In fact”—she whimpered in shock when he hauled her roughly to her feet—“you have him to blame for all your misery, Addie. If Fall would have left well enough alone, you’d be safe and sound right now, wouldn’t you? You would have never returned to Morgantown. You have him to thank for tonight, even. I knew he was getting suspicious of me, forcing me to go on that damn trip to Reno, laughing at me under his breath the whole time because he thought I was helpless. Well guess what? I don’t give a damn about whether or not the mighty Dylan Fall wants to fire me. Fuck him and his job. The job was never as important as Lynn. She was what counted.” He shoved her in the direction of the beach, and she cried out. “Don’t be a coward, Addie. Your mother wasn’t, in the end. She was beautiful and brave when she went over that bluff. I should have followed her then. I should have ended it with her, not with you. I would have, but I kept on living for her. I wanted to make sure her dreams came to life. Everything I’ve done since she died, I’ve done for her.”
He pushed her and she staggered in the direction of the sound of the crashing water. Terror seized her chest, gripping so hard that Alice thought she’d die of a heart attack in that very moment instead of falling to her death.
Falling . . . falling.
“No,” she grated out, gripping both her hands tightly in front of her, preparing to throw her balled hands and all her weight against him in one last desperate attempt at survival. The thudding sound of a fist striking flesh entered her ears, followed by a grunt of pain. Kehoe’s hold on her loosened. What was happening? She’d been preparing to lash out at him, but her hands hadn’t moved, had they?
Another thud of bone against flesh and Kehoe’s grasp broke completely.
“Run, Alice. Get out of here.”
“Thad?” she gasped, amazed. She squinted, making out the shadow of another figure. There was another thud, and Thad’s shadow staggered back. Kehoe had retaliated for Thad’s surprise attack. Alice hesitated. If Kehoe had wanted to throw Alice over the bluff, he probably wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to Thad for interfering.
“You dumb-ass, Schaefer,” Kehoe said, his tone thick with exhausted disdain. Alice thought she saw Kehoe’s hand push back roughly on Thad’s shoulder. Thad’s shadow stumbled. Kehoe’s daily workouts must really work. But it was more than that. His strength was that of a madness long held in check, and suddenly liberated. “No wonder you’re father thinks you’re such an idiot. God, is it impossible to hire anybody decent these days?” Kehoe wondered disgustedly.
She heard another thud and a grunt of pain.
“Thad?”
There was another surprised grunt, and this time, Alice thought it was Kehoe. Thad had got in a good one.
“Go, Alice,” Thad seethed.
This time, Alice didn’t hesitate.
She whipped the telltale shirt over her head and tossed it aside. Wearing only a black exercise bra now, she lurched in the direction of the castle. Her feet held her, but barely. She kept veering unintentionally to the left. Kehoe’s blow to her head had done something to her brain’s steering mechanism. The vertigo wouldn’t go away. She crashed into some shrubbery and went to her knees.
Somehow, she managed to get herself upright again. There was a horrible, pulsing wail in her head. Her trip through the backyard was the blurry, claustrophobic, fear-soaked stuff of nightmares.
Her feet hitting the stone terrace was a major triumph. It only struck her as she staggered toward the back doors of the castle that the wailing claxon wasn’t in her head. The castle alarms were blaring. They seemed to pulse in rhythm with the pain in her head and jaw. When she finally reached the French doors, she realized one of them was hanging open.
God, she was so confused. And she was so nauseated. She was never going to feel right again.
Where was Dylan? She needed him so much . . .
Kehoe could be right behind her.
Run, Addie. Hide.
The thought galvanized her. She entered the castle like a drunkard, staggering and bumping into furniture. One thought consumed her: Find the closest secret place and hide. Her feet took her to the kitchen. She reached for the pantry door. Without turning on the light, she shut the door behind her. In the closed room, the security alarm was muted a bit. It mingled with the sound of her harsh breathing.
“I can do it in the dark. Do you want me to show you how?”
Mommy could do everything. But she could do it, too. The dark wasn’t scary. The dark could hide you. Her hands outstretched, she found the back wall of the pantry. Her fingers traced the edge of a shelf and sought.
No, you were littler then. Lower down.