by Lily White
He shook his head answering the question. “I was told I could only tell you.”
“Me?”
Why me? I didn’t have anything to do with their deaths. Was this why Jonah was looking for me at the library?
Shifting his feet, Tristan’s expression fell, his frightened eyes clinging to mine as if begging me silently to listen.
“You have to stay away from Soren. As far away as possible. If he is still in your house, you need to tell him to leave and -“
“He’s gone already,” I admitted, my voice cracking with the pain of saying it out loud.
This entire situation sucked. I’d spent my entire life laughing about the idiots who chased Soren around like puppies, and now I was choking back tears to become one of them. Yes, it was for a different reason, but the feeling of rejection was the same.
Tristan’s words finally sunk in, my mind having had sufficient time to process the implication of what he’d said.
“Camilla’s dead?”
Nodding, he leaned against the office door and stared at me like I was so broken it was only a matter of time before I shattered apart on the floor.
“She died about a week before they found her. And she was last seen attending a party at your house.”
I was going to be sick. The lack of food in my stomach didn’t help. It only allowed bile to build up so much that it was now creeping up my throat to coat the back of my tongue.
Where in the hell is Nolan?
For the first time since any of this started, I feared that Jonah was right. Why would my brother disappear for so long? If he wasn’t dead like Teagan, Maia and now Camilla, then was he hiding because he was the one who’d murdered them?
It didn’t look good that two of them were his ex-girlfriends. But why Maia? He had no reason to hate her except for the fact that she was a bitch.
And why had Soren been driving Camilla’s car? Where did Grady and Quinton drive off to after Soren arrived home and handed it over?
Breathing out, I steadied myself and attempted in vain to stop the assault of questions screaming in my head.
“We need to get to work.”
I walked forward to leave, but Tristan moved to block me, his eyes directed at mine.
“Promise me you’ll stay away from Soren. Simon is convinced that he’s involved in this and I’d hate to see something happen because you got too close.”
Tristan wasn’t just saying this to me as a friend. He was genuinely frightened.
Agreeing to his request wouldn’t be a problem. Soren had already taken care of it.
“I’ll stay away from him, okay? I promise.”
Visible relief wilted Tristan’s shoulders.
“Yes. Thank you.”
Nodding my head, I tried to move around him, but he blocked me again. “Kendall is going to invite you to the party being thrown at the cabins for the next couple of days.”
My brows tugged together. “Wait. You’re perfectly fine with her being around Soren, but you’re throwing a fit to make sure I stay away? Why’s that?”
He shrugged. “Soren has no interest in her. Not like he has in you.”
Okay, I couldn’t argue with that, but still...
“Do Simon and Jonah know about this party? If Soren is so dangerous then why aren’t they warning everybody away? Why aren’t they storming the castle to bring Soren down and stop this crap before another woman gets killed?”
Silence, and then, “They’re doing what they can. But without sufficient evidence, their hands are tied on certain things.”
My lips pulled taut in a grin that didn’t last for more than a second. “Well, then they need to untie their hands before anybody else is killed.”
Finally, he moved away to give me room to open the door. Kendall started in on me the second I came around the corner to walk into the front dining room.
“Bitch! Tell me you’re going to the cabin party after Thanksgiving. It’s going to be three days and nights of all hell breaking loose.”
I sighed and stared at her. “You’re going to that? Why?”
The cabin party wasn’t anything new. Just about every family in Winter Ridge had a summerhouse across Grey Lake, which weren’t much different than the ones they owned in town. Usually, the families would go there for vacations when they weren’t in Europe or some other ritzy place. I didn’t understand the point. They were only twenty miles away. Less than that if you took the direct route and crossed Grey Lake.
Every year around this time, the kids of Winter Ridge Prep stayed at those cabins during Fall Break for a huge blowout party that lasted for days. Surprised that I’d forgotten about it before coming to work tonight, I stared at my best friend like she was insane.
Kendall laughed, her head tipping back. When her eyes caught mine again, she clicked her fingernails on the countertop and chuckled.
“Honey, please. Everyone who is anyone will be there. In fact, guess who’s back in town again just in time to party with the rest of us?”
Hope burst through me like a bomb. “Nolan is back?”
Why hadn’t he called me or come home? Our fight wasn’t that bad. There was no reason for him to stay away.
She shook her head. “No. I have no idea where Nolan is.”
Kendall paused with another tap of her fingers. “Elizabeth Banks. Bitch rolled in last night from what I heard so she could spend Thanksgiving with her family. But as soon as dinner’s over, she’s planning on going to the cabins with everybody else.”
I hadn’t thought of Elizabeth Banks in ages. She was the fourth wheel of the Teagan-Maia-Camilla foursome. After Teagan died, she skipped town and was attending college on the east coast from what I heard. That was all before Soren went to prison.
It felt like an entire lifetime had passed since all of that occurred.
“You shouldn’t go, Kendall. Shea can stay home too and we can all find something better to do than hang out at the cabins.”
The bell above the door rang behind me and I turned to see Mr. Killian walk in. Flashing him a smile, I pointed to a booth and then held up a finger to tell him I’d be there in a second.
Nodding his head, he shuffled his way to the booth and sat down. His silver hair shone under the overhead lights, and suspenders held up his pants as usual.
Turning back to Kendall, I whisper hissed, “Seriously. Stay home. Aren’t you getting back together with Tristan? What’s the point of going to the cabins?”
Her eyes searched the back area for Tristan as her lips tugged into a grin.
“We are back together, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have fun. He has to work all week and understands I don’t want to spend the entire break hanging out with him in the diner.”
I threw up my hands in defeat. “Fine. But I’m not going.”
She spoke at my back in a singsong voice as I walked to take Mr. Killian’s order. “Don’t forget to tattoo Loser on your forehead.”
With a roll of my eyes, I dismissed her and slapped on a fake smile to take Mr. Killian’s typical order of a burger and fries. Running to the back, I gave the order to Tristan. He got to work frying everything up as I returned to the dining room.
Within a few minutes, I heard him yell from the back, pain obvious in his voice. Kendall and I both rushed to see what was wrong. By the time we reached him, he was clutching his arm, his expression tight as he leaned against a wall and tried not to cry like a little bitch in front of us.
“I burned myself,” he groaned.
Kendall lunged forward, taking his arm after a few seconds of him resisting. “Let me see, damn it.”
Gingerly, she studied his arm. “This is bad, Tristan. You need to go to the hospital.”
“I’m fine,” he argued, but Kendall wasn’t hearing it.
“No. You’re not.” Spinning to face me, she asked, “Can you manage the diner by yourself? I need to take him to get this looked at.”
Nodding, I watched as Kendall hurried him along. Pau
sing just long enough to grab her purse and phone, she lifted a hand to wave goodbye as they walked out the door.
Mr. Killian looked up at me in confusion. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Everything’s fine. I just need to run in back real quick to finish your order.”
He smiled politely and went back to reading the book he brought.
Heading to the back, I set to work finishing his food, knowing that by the time he was done and paid to leave, I would be all by myself...again.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Olive
The night moved on with only one other customer coming in to eat.
Although time dragged while I stood at the counter by myself, the lack of business made for easy clean up. I was shutting down the diner by ten and walking out to my car.
Light snow continued to fall around me, the thin layer of it covering the lot. It was clean of footprints, still in that pretty phase before people came along and screwed it up. I always enjoyed seeing snow when it first fell and was still fluffy and white.
No cars drove down the road and the only light came from a few lamps above my head that illuminated the lot. My feet crunched with every step, the sound echoing against the silence of the night.
I wasn’t in the best of moods. Everything Tristan told me was running through my head. It made me uncomfortable to think three girls had died and they still hadn’t found the killer.
It was for that reason that I kept glancing behind me as I walked through the parking lot. It was why I held my key between my fingers in case I needed to stab someone should they attack.
Tristan and Simon may have been convinced that Soren was the murderer, but I wasn’t entirely persuaded.
Maybe it wasn’t anybody we knew. It could have been a complete stranger that was attacking girls who were walking alone.
My thoughts went back to the man at the library that dropped his books. I didn’t recognize him. I had been by myself. And by the expression on Jonah’s face, he didn’t trust the guy as far as he could throw him.
Had I been targeted that day and only Jonah’s presence saved me?
The thought gave me chills and I walked a little faster to reach my car.
Unlocking and pulling open the door, I glanced around the parking lot one last time, satisfied that nobody lurked in the shadows waiting for me. Breathing out a sigh of relief, I shut the door, tossed my bag in the passenger seat and reached to stick the key in the ignition.
The sound of fabric rustling behind me was the only warning that I wasn’t alone. Before I could turn around, a bag was pulled over my head, the rough cloth cinched around my throat so tight that I could barely catch a breath.
Still, I screamed as loud as I possibly could, my hands reaching up to tug at the bag and rip it off.
There was no use. Whoever was in the backseat of my car had the advantage.
Strong fingers wrapped over my wrists and pulled my arms back sending pain shooting over my shoulders. My heart was pumping with such a furious beat that I feared it would give out.
I kept fighting, kept struggling to break free, but I wasn’t strong enough. With my hands bound and my vision cut off, I was at the mercy of whoever had me.
Tears streamed down my cheeks, my legs kicking and body thrashing against my bonds. Low laughter sounded behind me before my door was ripped open and another pair of hands grabbed my shoulders.
Same people...Simon believes there are more than one of them committing these crimes.
Oh my God. Tristan has tried to warn me, but I didn’t listen. And now as I was being dragged away from my car, my feet sliding over the snow, I realized it was too late to heed his warning now.
Thrashing more, I kept screaming, but a hand clamped over my mouth as another car pulled up, its tires sliding as it came to a quick stop. I heard a door open just before I was shoved inside to another set of hands, the tips of the fingers clenching down on my skin hard enough to bruise as I was pulled into somebody’s lap.
“Please let me go. Please,” I begged, but my cries were only answered by laughter.
There were three of them from what I could hear, but before the car lurched forward and drove off, I heard another door close for the fourth.
Strong arms held me in place, easily subduing my fight. I kicked and thrashed, refusing to sit still and make it simple for them to steal me away.
“Calm down,” a deep voice crooned against my ear. “Just let this happen.”
I wasn’t letting shit happen. There was probably no hope for me to fight off four people, but that didn’t mean I wouldn’t try.
“Fuck you,” I yelled, my foot kicking out again, hitting the back of a seat.
“Shit,” the car swerved. “Soren, you dick. Try to control her a little better would you?”
Recognizing Quinton’s voice, I froze in place not knowing whether it was a good or bad thing that Soren was the person holding on to me.
“Let me go!”
His arms clamped around me tighter. “No can do, Little Olly. You’ve been asking for this and now it’s time to deliver.”
My shoulders shook with how hard I was crying.
“Take a left here, Quinton. There’s a shortcut out into the woods.”
I recognized that voice as well. “Nolan?”
The tiniest flicker of hope came to life inside me.
“Nolan, please make them let me go. This is scaring the shit out me.”
He laughed in such a way that he may as well have stomped my hope out with the heel of his boot.
“Not gonna happen, Sis. Aren’t you glad you decided to play with the big kids? I tried to warn you.”
More tears fell as understanding rolled in, my fear catapulting me into full fight or flight. I tried to lunge forward to break Soren’s hold, but he tightened his arms even more, holding my back firm to his chest.
Whispering against my ear, his voice was an insidious warning.
“Keep wiggling over my lap like that and I may not wait to get out of the car to fuck you.”
He moved to press his hard bulge against my ass and drive the message home. “You’re turning me on, little girl. Your fear turns me on.”
Quinton and Grady laughed from their positions in the car, but it was Nolan that spoke up first.
“Soren, cut it the fuck out. That’s gross.”
“I’m just telling her what to expect.”
More laughter filled the car at what he said.
I was sobbing at that point. Defeated. Terrified that everything Tristan and Jonah had told me was true.
Guessing it hadn’t been one or the other, but both my brother and Soren who had been killing girls, I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from begging for my life. Refusing to give them the satisfaction, I fought against Soren again, using my elbows and the back of my head to hurt him just as much as he was hurting me.
“Ow, fuck,” Soren roared when my head caught him in the nose.
Nolan laughed from the front of the car.
“That’a girl. Exactly like I taught you. It should be fun as hell when we release her to run her down.”
Run me down? What the fuck?
“Could have warned me, asshole.”
Sick of my continued fighting, Soren moved enough to lay me down on the seat while he pinned me with his body. Our weight shifted as the car took a corner too fast, pain shooting over my shoulders and arms from where my wrists were still bound beneath my back.
Soren’s right hand locked over my hip while his left closed over my breast.
“See what you made us do, Olly? All because you couldn’t sit still like you were told. I would think that after everything that happened over the past couple of weeks, you would know to obey when given an order. I don’t back down.”
He laughed, the sound pure evil. “But you do.”
Every movement caused me pain. I couldn’t fight against him in this position.
“Where are you taking me? What are you planning to do?”
His body was a wall of heat against mine, a steel barrier that held me in place. I squirmed when his hand released my breast to run down my body and trace the edge of my dress where it had bunched up at my hip.
“It’s hunting season,” Soren whispered against my ear. “And you’re our favorite prey.”
My sobs came harder, my tears soaking the bag that covered my face.
“Soren,” Nolan called from the front. “Save it for the woods, brother. She’s going to need her strength to run.”
How could my brother do this to me? Why now after everything he gave up to take care of me after our parents died? The pain inside me at his betrayal was worse than the pain of my body from being held down.
“Why?” I screamed. “Why are you doing this to me? I’m your sister.”
Nolan laughed. “Why not? You’ll be gone and I can sell the house to keep all the money for myself.”
My throat was full with bile and snot, the inside of my cheeks raw from biting them. But still, I managed to speak around it because I couldn’t believe this was happening.
“This is about money? I don’t care about money. You can have it. Just let me go.”
Silence fell over the car for several minutes before he answered. “Sorry, Olly. You were warned. Try not to forget that.”
The car took another sharp turn and I cried out in pain just before Soren spoke against my ear again.
“If I let you up, will you sit still on my lap like a good little girl?”
What was the use in fighting? My brother was betraying me for money. Soren really was a murderer. And I was the stupid girl who refused to believe what a federal agent was trying to tell me. My world was falling apart.
Nodding my head, I answered, “Yes. I’ll behave.”
“Good.”
Pushing up, Soren pulled me from the car seat to sit me on his lap, and we spent the rest of the drive to my death in silence.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Olive
There was no telling how much time passed as we drove to our destination.
One hour?
Two?
Time was playing with me again while I sat helpless, ticking by slowly and then speeding up again so fast that my head spun with the change.
