Devoted to the Blizzard: A romantic winter thriller (Tellure Hollow Book 3)

by Adele Huxley

  She continued her insane tirade, but my mind latched onto that last statement. Especially in person. Has she hurt Liz? Jesus, did she get to her before I woke up? Is that why Josh was at the house, to see where she was? In that moment, I was more terrified than I ever have been.

  The car took a hard right and skidded along the gravel. My body slid against the side, crumpling and bending in ways that fired pain up and down my joints. I cried out despite my best efforts to keep silent.

  “Sorry baby! I’m still not used to driving on the wrong side of the road!” she called back in a sing-songy voice. “We’ll be there soon.”

  I fought the despair growing in my stomach, tried to keep my hopes up. I worked the thin rope at my wrists, twisting and pulling. I struggled long enough that the bindings tore my skin apart. The slippery blood that coated my hands thankfully made the process easier. Pushing through the pain, I ignored the sting and burn of each pull until I felt it began to loosen.

  Angie slammed the brakes, throwing me against the back seat. She cursed loudly and slapped her hand on the dash. “They were supposed to be gone! What are they doing? Why are they…” She paused and when she spoke again, she was disturbingly calm. “I’ll pull off down the road and wait. No harm in waiting a little bit.”

  So we sat in the idling car, which at least was warmer than before. I heard cars passing us on the road, so I surmised we were pulled off on the gravel shoulder. Despite my worry and fear, the pain coursing through my body was becoming the only thing I could focus on. I finally had to call out.

  “Angie, I need to get out of here. It hurts…”

  “Oh, baby! Okay, just a minute. They’re leaving. I’ll get you out of there!” she cried, as if she weren’t the very person who put me in the truck.

  A few minutes later, she leapt from the car and popped the trunk. I immediately noticed that the sun was much lower in the sky than when we’d first left. My estimation that I’d spent hours trapped inside that trunk probably wasn’t far off. She looped an arm around my legs, swung them out, and then helped me sit up. She also didn’t seem concerned that anyone would drive by and be suspicious of a tied up man being pulled from the trunk of a car.

  It was then that I noticed the bright red ski patrol jacket. The thought of what she could’ve used it for caused my stomach to drop. I tried to tell myself my imagination was worse than anything that could’ve possibly happened, but in the end, that wasn’t true. I never imagined the damage she was capable of.

  “My legs are asleep. I can’t stand,” I said quietly, deliberately slurring my speech. I needed her to think I was worse off than I actually was. Maintaining the element of surprise was my only chance.

  She tenderly rubbed my cheek and sighed. I couldn’t believe this woman was the same person I’d spent so much of my life with. “Of course, sweetie. Oh! I know,” Angie dove into the back and returned with the kitchen knife. With a deft hand, the sharp blade tore through the bindings at my ankles. “I’ll give you a minute and then we can move inside, okay?”

  With the knife still in her hand, she kissed me deeply. Her tongue swirled in my mouth and she nearly knocked me back into the trunk. She pulled away and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and flashed me a demure smile.

  “It’s been so long since you’ve kissed me like that, Bryan.” She tilted her head and smiled. “I can’t wait for sunset.”

  She’s not the same woman. Same eyes and lips, but the Angie I knew is long gone.

  Once I was a bit more secure with walking, she led me directly to the front door like she owned the place. After I watched her select a key from her key ring to get inside and then disengage the alarm system, it became clear she’d been planning this for a while. Not only had she infiltrated the house we’d stayed at, but managed to wiggle her way in with this place too.

  She peered over her shoulder as she led me down to a closed up bar. “We have a little under an hour until the timing is perfect. Let’s get a drink to calm all those nerves! It’s perfectly natural to get cold feet right before,” she winked.

  I didn’t want to wait to find out what was going to happen at sunset. I had to be proactive, to stop her before she took things too far.

  “Do you remember what my favorite drink is?” I asked. I forced my voice to sound friendly, sloppy, but upbeat.

  “Of course I do, silly,” she said as she pulled off the jacket. “But they lock up the liquor at night. It’ll just have to be a couple of beers for us.”

  “That’ll be great,” I replied, leaning against the bar.

  I casually looked around, trying to get a bearing on my surroundings. Like a slap across the face, I read a sign and realized where she’d taken me. We’re at the Kawarau Bridge bungee jump. The open and modern building was obviously designed to house large crowds, but the walls felt like they were closing in on me. As she had led me through the front of the building, I’d noticed it was poised on the edge of a large ravine. Now inside, I recognized a part of the bridge from which people jumped.

  Dark TVs sat in the corners. Advertisements dotted the walls, smiling people with elastic cords wrapped around their ankles stared back with blank happiness. If I focused hard enough, I could hear the rushing of the river beyond. Nerves fluttered even more in my chest as she set the beer down. I must’ve made a face because she pouted at me.

  “I didn’t put anything in it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “How am I supposed to…” I stated, waving my hands behind my back.

  “I’ll feed it to you. It’ll be cute,” she replied with a wicked grin. Angie flicked her hair over her shoulder and lifted the glass to my lips. After sloshing half the beer down the front of me, she grew sullen. “I didn’t want to drug you, you know. I tried to be nice. After all those emails and nasty things you said though…”

  “I’m sorry, baby,” I replied. “You know how bad I am at relationship stuff. I had no idea how important this was to you.” I thought if I played into this fantasy of hers, things might go easier.

  “Don’t give me that shit!” she snapped, her mood taking a complete reversal. “You basically told me to go to hell! It’s like I don’t even know you anymore. Since the accident, sometimes I feel like I’m with a completely different person.”

  The accident? That was over five years ago. What the hell is she…

  Before I had a chance to respond, she turned the corner around the bar and came close. “I have to say though, your dad dying was probably the best thing that ever happened to us. I feel so close to you, helping you through all the grief. I’m so good for you.” She kissed my cheek, her hands circling behind my back and down into my pants.

  My stomach roiled with hatred. “You egotistical, psychotic whore,” I said through clenched teeth. She swung back and looked at me like my reaction had come out of nowhere. “My father dying was the single worst thing that’s happened in my life. And then, you left me! Don’t you remember that? I was in a fucking wheelchair! My father had just died and you… left! But you didn’t just leave. You disappeared. Stopped coming by until poof, you were gone completely.”

  Angie backed up, tears instantly welling in her eyes as I shouted. “Why are you yelling at me,” she whimpered. “Why would I do something like that? I love you, Bryan!”

  “Because you’re insane. Because something is broken inside of that crazy head of yours and I feel like shouting is the only way I’m going to get through. What did you do to Liz? So help me God, if you hurt her, Angie…”

  She looked down and away, taking another step backwards like my anger repelled her. “The first device didn’t go off like it was supposed to. I wanted it to be quick, but there were a lot more injuries than I anticipated. I don’t think I killed her, though…” She looked guilty, like she was admitting to eating the last Oreo rather than plotting to maim dozens of people.

  “You don’t… think?!” I sputtered. I was helpless to do anything, my hands were literally tied behind my back. My L
iz… my beautiful Liz… I let out an inhuman anguished cry and sank to my knees. A deep, overwhelming apathy sank into my bones, crippling the last of my will to resist.

  Angie stomped forward, waving her knife around like her threats mattered anymore. If Liz was really dead, life had no meaning, but I needed to survive long enough to know for sure. “It doesn’t matter, though, does it? It’s just you and me, baby,” she threatened.

  We stared into each other’s eyes for a moment, the silence thick with tension. Never before have I wanted to kill someone, truly, passionately wished to end their lives. If I’d had half a chance, I think I could’ve done it with my bare hands.

  The sound of wheels against the gravel in front of the building echoed through the quiet room. Angie looked up in alarm, and the knife, still gripped in her white-knuckled fist, fell to her side.

  “What? Not expecting company?” I prodded. There was no anger in my voice, only a soft, empty despair.

  “You stay quiet,” she hissed, jabbing a finger into my chest with every word.

  Angie left me alone while she investigated the sounds from the front. Although I nearly cried out in pain, I crawled far enough to see the side of a squad car parked just behind the car she’d used to kidnap me. I couldn’t spot anyone, but it sounded like multiple vehicles had driven up. At least they know where we are, I thought with relief. Just as a loud knocking rang through the room, she sprinted back, eyes wide with panic.

  She hooked me under the armpit and yanked me bodily to my feet with surprising strength. “We need to move outside.” I resisted as much as I could, pulling my way back towards the door and safety. But the knife was to my throat in an instant. “Sweetie, it’s almost sunset. We need to go outside,” she insisted with a psychotic smile.

  I nodded and relinquished what little control I had. “Sure, of course. Whatever you say.”

  Angie slammed through the back doors and led me to the bridge, pushing my back a few times when she felt I wasn’t moving fast enough. With a strong hand on my shoulder, she shoved me down out of sight as she fiddled with the gate protecting the bridge. No matter what I said, I couldn’t get through to her.

  “Angie, you gotta stop this. I don’t know what you’ve done, but I can promise you it’s not going to get any better for you the longer you carry on.”

  She finally popped open the gate and looked at me questioningly. “What do you mean? I’ve been dreaming about this day my whole life, Bry. What could I do to ruin that?” She grabbed me under the arm and yanked me down the bridge, making sure to shut the gate behind. She moved in a crouched position while I tried to remain upright for visibility.

  I glimpsed bright blue water between the cracks of the bridge. A swift river flowed beneath us, the steady sound of water beating against the rocks made the whole scene calmly surreal. There was literally no talking sense to her. Her mood shifted so rapidly and without real reason, I couldn’t keep up. At the very least, I needed to figure out just what she thought was going to happen at sunset.

  She pulled me to the floor of the wooden bridge, and glanced around every now and again. Voices grew louder as the police fanned out to check the perimeter. I heard a few crackles of their radios before it started to go quiet. I wanted to call out, but was all too aware of the knife Angie kept adjusting in her hand.

  “It’s going to be beautiful, you’ll see. It’ll be perfect,” she muttered. She knelt in front of me, her eyes rapidly shifting across my face. “We’ve been through a lot to get here, huh? But it means we were meant to be together. Soul mates always come back together.”

  “What are you…” I started to say as the gate at the far end swung open.

  A policeman shrouded in shadow paused, his hand on the door. He squinted into the darkness before letting out a shout. “Got her over here!”

  Like a trapped animal, Angie immediately recoiled. With another burst of might, she pulled me away from the wall, and further towards the center of the bridge. I’d been working at the restraints enough that I was fairly certain I could pull a hand free. I just needed her to be distracted long enough to really jerk at the tight, blood soaked string, and hopefully it’d snap. I went limp, my body now dead weight, her small frame unable to drag me very far with only one hand.

  Henry appeared at the entrance of the bridge. “Bryan? Are you hurt?”

  “I’m okay,” I shouted over the growing roar of the river. “She has a knife.” That earned an elbow in the side. “Is Liz alive?” My stomach lurched as I asked, hating it was even a viable question.

  “She’s fine, just fine,” he called back. Henry will never know how beautiful those four words sounded to me.

  “What are you talking about?” Angie hissed in my ear. “Officer, I think there’s been some sort of misunderstanding,” she called out, now sweetly innocent. Even with my resistance, she’d nearly dragged me to the open ledge where adrenaline junkies hooked up and took the plunge.

  “Angie, is it?” Henry asked politely. He carefully, slowly made his way across the bridge, trying not to disturb her any further.

  “We weren’t doing anything wrong. Bryan is going to propose to me at sunset!” Her voice cracked, a mixture of excitement and bubbly, loving emotion. When she looked at me, her eyes were filled with tears.

  As my brain was trying to wrap itself around that little tidbit of psychosis, Henry continued trying to talk her down.

  “Angie, do you have the proper permit for that? It’s important you file that in town before coming out here.”

  She frowned and shook her head. “No, but it’s okay. That’s silly! Love doesn’t need a permit. Could we just please have some privacy? This is kind of an important moment for me, and this wasn’t in the plan.” Her tone shifted again, the petulance returning. “God, what is with these guys?” she whispered in my ear.

  Henry pressed on but changed tactics. “Well of course it’s important, Angie.”

  “Stop saying my name like that,” she snarled.

  “Okay, okay,” he replied, holding his hands up to steady her. Switching up his approach again, he continued. “You want someone to take photos, right? I’d be happy to capture the special moment. That’s something you’ll want for the rest of your life. Show your grandkids years from now.”

  Her face lit up. “Oh my goodness, yes! This is amazing!” She nudged me with her toe. “So great, right? How lucky are we that these guys showed up? Do you have any money to tip him with?”

  Opting to placate, I nodded. “Of course, babe. It’s just… you’re going to have to help me up. The photos are going to look strange if I’m on the floor like this.”

  She rolled her eyes like I was acting like a playful child. “Of course you can’t be on the floor,” she laughed. Angie helped me to my feet as Henry carefully crept down the bridge. She smiled and waved him on. “Well, come on then. We’re going to miss the light if you don’t hurry up.”

  The tension on his face was evident, his brow creased. But he strode more confidently, meeting my eye a few times as he approached. Thankfully, Angie was oblivious.

  “So, obviously we can’t do a real bungee jump because we just missed them as we drove up,” she explained to Henry, “but I was thinking we could make it look like we were about to, ya’ know? Maybe Photoshop it in later!”

  With as much strength as I could muster at such an odd angle, I yanked my wrists apart. The pain nearly loosed a cry, but I bit my lip hard to stop any sound from escaping. One of the small strands snapped, loosening the others. The relief had less to do with removing the pain than gaining hope. In a fraction of a second, I went from helpless to hopeful.

  “Sounds good, Angie,” Henry said, only fifteen feet away or so.

  She took a step back, her blissful expression faltering. “Where’s your camera?”

  “Got it clipped back here,” he replied as he patted his belt. His rough expression stayed artificially sweet, almost patronizing. “Safest place for it.”

  She grabbed
my arm and took another step away. I clasped my fingers together to continue the illusion of restraint. “I think I’ve changed my mind,” she yelled out shakily. Henry hadn’t spent as much time with her as I unfortunately had. Sane Angie had the same tone. She was on the brink of a major meltdown.

  He was less than ten feet away, an insincere smile pinned to his face. “You’ll want to remember this day,” he encouraged. It was the tiniest flick of his eye that gave it all away, that brought the whole tower of cards fluttering to the ground.

  Henry happened to look up over Angie’s shoulder, an insignificant movement that attracted her attention. She followed his gaze to see two uniformed policeman creeping up behind us from the other side of the bridge. At some point, they must’ve circled around, closing in on the bridge unnoticed.

  “What is this?” she sputtered, shrinking away.

  The unintended consequence of their flanking pushed us out onto the narrow ledge. A swift breeze ruffled through my hair. A statistic popped into my head as I looked down into the impossibly turquoise water, something I’d read in a brochure. It’s over a hundred feet down to that river, I thought numbly. I knew I had to act fast.

  “Wait!” I shouted.

  Angie blinked at me. I tried to ignore the glint of the knife in her hand as I smiled. For this to work, I needed to appear genuine. “We’re losing the light. What proposal worth its salt happens at any other time than the golden hour?” She didn’t know how to respond. I could almost see the voices in her head fighting. I turned to the officers. “Please, gentleman. My girlfriend and I would like a few moments to ourselves. I can assure you, if we need any assistance, I’ll call.”

  Henry froze and held a hand up to the others. He looked at me questioningly, and I gave him a brief nod. I’ve got this under control… I hope.

  “Bryan?” she asked softly. The smile I returned dissolved her doubt. Blissful happiness spread across her face. For a moment, I caught a glimpse of the woman I’d once loved. “I’m your fiancée, not girlfriend! You can never remember that.”