by BETH KERY
But Lynn’s journals’ effect on Alice was what worried him most.
By nine thirty-three, he was starting to get concerned when Alice didn’t show up at their assigned spot in the woods. She was usually very prompt. He’d heard the music emanating from the marina beach as soon as he walked out of the house, of course. It was the traditional beach party they held on the next to the last night of camp. It was usually a pretty crazy affair, so at first, he figured that was why Alice was late. More than likely, she was celebrating the victory of her Durand job offer with the others and had lost track of time.
By nine thirty-five, he wasn’t so convinced, however. He was worked up by the contents of Lynn’s journals and more than a little anxious. For only the second time since Alice had arrived at the camp, he stalked up to her cabin front door, heedless of the glowing lights in the empty common area that could easily reveal his identity to any onlooker. He knocked, the first time sedately.
The second and third times, not so politely. He was about to run down to the marina when someone spoke from behind him.
“Mr. Fall?”
He spun around at the male voice. He saw a tall dark-haired man that he’d seen hanging around Alice at castle events alongside Kuvi. They stood a few feet from the cabin stoop, the male’s arm looped around Kuvi’s waist. They both looked a little taken aback at seeing him there.
“Kuvi,” he said, glad to see someone close to Alice. “Where’s Alice? Is she still at the party?”
“I think so. I haven’t seen her for a bit, though. Have you, Dave?”
The tall man shook his head. “No, she’s not at the party. She’s up at the castle.”
“What?” Dylan asked, descending the three steps.
“Yeah, she got a note with a message,” Dave said, eyeing him uneasily. “From you, right? I overheard Mira on the phone taking part of the message while I was getting supplies in the kitchen earlier.”
“Tell me everything. What did the note say? Quickly,” Dylan emphasized when Dave just looked perplexed by his request.
“I didn’t read the note myself, but I gave it to Alice maybe twenty minutes ago, just before sunset. I heard enough of Mira’s phone conversation to know it was from you, and that Alice was supposed to go to the castle because there was a family emergency or something like that.”
“Is Sal Rigo still at the party?” Dylan asked, barely restraining his feet from taking off down the path.
Kuvi and Dave exchanged a dubious glance. “I don’t know, to be honest. It’s kind of a madhouse down there.”
“Go back to the beach and look for him.” Kuvi nodded. “If you find him, tell him I never called Mira and that the note was a trick. Tell him to get up to the castle. I’ll call Jim Sheridan on the way up.”
“But—”
“Just do it,” Dylan interrupted Dave.
“Mr. Fall? Is Alice all right?” Kuvi asked, her eyes wide with alarm as he moved past the couple.
“She’d better be. Just do what I asked, Kuvi. Now,” he insisted before he took off down the path to the castle.
SOMEONE was dragging her, his hands beneath her armpits hurting her. No, it wasn’t dragging. Her feet were moving—weren’t they? Her legs felt loose and heavy as rocks at once, as if they were attached to her body inexpertly and malfunctioning at their task. Just as she thought it, they failed. She felt herself drop several inches.
“Stand up, you stupid bitch.”
“Leave me . . . alone,” she mumbled between gritted teeth. The sharp tugging on her arms and a knifing pain in her head had to stop. It was unbearable. Opening her eyelids took a monumental effort. Darkness and dizziness assailed her.
She retched.
“Don’t you dare throw up on me,” someone snarled in disgust.
She was shoved. Instinctively, she put out her hands to break a fall, but she was too late to do much good. Her palms collided against hard stone, and almost immediately her jaw and then her cheekbone struck the unforgiving surface. She fell to the ground on her knees, whimpering as white-hot pain raged and ruled over her entire body and brain. For a moment, she couldn’t tell up from down or left from right. She couldn’t draw breath.
Then someone was grasping her shoulders and lifting her once more, and her lungs unfroze. She inhaled raggedly. The new, fresh wave of pain had sliced through her vertigo some. As it remitted, she found the wherewithal to think.
This isn’t a nightmare. The pain is way too real. I’m being attacked.
It was the first clear thought she’d had since being struck earlier. It came back to her in a split second, walking through the hallway of the castle, looking forward to seeing Dylan . . . a flash of pain and then nothingness.
Adrenaline shot through her at the incomplete memory, making her veins seem to burn. She elbowed her attacker in the belly as hard as she could.
He grunted and shoved her again. This time, she caught herself better, but the skin on her hands had been torn on her previous fall. She cried out at the impact of striking the stone with open flesh.
“Go on, hold yourself up if you want to. You always did imagine yourself strong and feisty. It certainly didn’t help matters, the way Lynn treated you. By the time you were three, you expected all of us to fall on our knees in worship in front of you. But you weren’t strong. You were just a spoiled little brat.”
Alice gasped. Only star shine provided any light, and it’d been too dark to see her attacker clearly. Her dizziness wasn’t helping matters. He was just a swooshing tall shadow to the right of her. Sometimes there were two of him. But she’d recognized the thick disdain in his tone just now. Tonight, it had grown exponentially from what she was used to at the camp.
“Kehoe,” she muttered.
“That’s right. Let’s make everything crystal clear tonight, of all nights. And you’re Addie Durand. Forgive me if I don’t drop to my knee in worship tonight, Addie.”
She closed her eyes, panting, trying desperately to still her vertigo and gather her wits. Kehoe had disabled her pretty badly. She just needed to steady herself sufficiently to fight. Run, if need be. Rigo had told her she was fast, hadn’t he?
She just needed to buy time to still her dizziness and for the pain to fade some.
Run, Addie. Hide.
“How did you know I was Addie?” she asked between ragged pants. Where was she? Was that the shimmer of water in the distance? Her fingers clutched at the surface where they still pressed. It’s the stonewall. Kehoe had dragged her down to the bluff. That rushing sound wasn’t just her blood pounding in her ears, but also the waves rushing the beach and crashing against the rocks.
“I didn’t, at first. Then I started to get the picture, as unlikely as it all seemed. Fall was too focused on you. Of course he’d want to make sure he got his hooks in you, just like he got them into Alan Durand. At first, I couldn’t believe it. But you look like her, without all the ugly makeup. Lynn, I mean. I noticed when it washed away after you swam. You’re taller and rougher than her. Did you honestly think you could compare to her by wearing that fancy dress and her pearls. Her pearls. You couldn’t hold a candle to Lynn Durand; you’re nowhere near as elegant. Every bit as full of yourself as her, though. There’s something of her in you, all right. I should know. I knew her better than anyone alive. Your mother and I were very close. As close as a man and woman could be.”
That sliced through her shock and disorientation more than anything.
“What?”
“Don’t sound so incredulous,” he hissed. “We were two of a kind, Lynn and I. We had the same philanthropic dreams, the same generous bent. We created Camp Durand together. We carved out the ideals that later became the driving principles of this whole damn company, even though Alan Durand took all the credit for what we’d done. I gave Lynn what she needed, more so than that defective husband of hers. She was lonely, you know. So beautiful. So sad.”
“Prime pickings for a predator like you?” Alice couldn’t stop herself f
rom saying. “Ow. No, stop.”
He’d grabbed the hair at the back of her head and snapped back her neck. It hurt so much.
“You’re not the prized little princess anymore, do you hear me?” he spat near her ear. Spittle struck her skin. Despite her pain and discomfort, the sound of his voice sent pure fear through her. He was a crazy man, shouting in her ear, a man so enraged, he no longer held any fear for the consequences of his actions. “Did your lover, the great Dylan Fall, tell you how your mother died, Alice?”
His snide, taunting tone—or perhaps the question itself—sent fury and panic through her. He’d stepped closer to grab her hair. She elbowed him again, but this time she didn’t hit him as squarely as before. He cursed and tightened his fingers in her hair, stretching her neck and forcing her back into an arch. His forearm pressed to her throat. She gagged at the pressure. She started clawing at his arm to free her airway, but he wouldn’t budge.
“She went right off this bluff, Addie. They found her body on the rocks below, bloody and broken.”
“Did . . . you. . .” She gurgled when he pressed the bone of his forearm tighter against her trachea.
“No. I didn’t throw her off, if that’s what you’re wondering. I’ll tell you a little secret though, Addie,” he whispered in her ear, causing her shivers of fear and disgust to amplify. “I was right here when she did it. You might say I had a front-row seat. And I didn’t stop her. It was her guilt that killed her, not me. She wanted a baby so bad, she chose to be unfaithful to her husband. She chose me. I hated seeing her suffer when we stood here together at this bluff, so I thought it would be cruel to stop her once she’d made up her mind. What else would she do, once I told her that all the rumors were true? Her precious little Addie was definitely dead. Or she was supposed to be, anyway. That’s what I paid those worthless idiots, Cunningham and Stout, good money for. But at the time, when I stood here with Lynn on this bluff, I thought they’d done their job. I felt bad, telling Lynn that Addie was dead. But your mother had it coming. She’d left me bleeding and broken years before by abandoning me. And then later, by telling me what she did about you. She actually believed she could go back to Alan, and the three of you were going to live out her little dream, the rich king, and the beautiful queen and the darling little princess, all of you so happy,” he mocked. “Well I couldn’t let that happen, Addie. Not after Lynn had led me down the path she did. I didn’t let it happen.”
Rage at what he was saying had made Alice’s mind go blank. All she wanted to do was hurt Sebastian Kehoe in that moment, and she didn’t care how she accomplished it. She pulled with all her might on her head and sunk her teeth into his forearm. Kehoe shouted in pain and surprise.
She clamped her jaw, her teeth cutting into flesh. The taste of his blood spread on her tongue.
He howled in agony, but she held as fast as a furious dog with its prey in its jaws. He clumsily struck her temple with his free fist. Sensing the break of his hold, Alice loosened her jaw and dropped to the earth. She rolled on the ground away from him.
“I’m going to kill you for that, you worthless, snot-nosed little bitch,” Kehoe seethed. “This time, I’m not going to be a spectator, either. I’ll send you over the bluff myself. Maybe I’ll follow you, and we can be broken and bleeding together. Would you like the company, Addie? I wouldn’t mind. I’ll die with the satisfaction of knowing that Dylan Fall will find you, and be as wrecked for the rest of his miserable life as Alan Durand was when he found Lynn.”
Alice scurried farther away on the lawn, wild to put distance between herself and the sound of his ranting voice. Horror filled every cell of her being. He was completely mad.
Her fall to the ground and rolling away amplified her disorientation. A distant, blaring alarm began to pulse in her ears. She sat in the grass, the darkness her only cloak, trying her mightiest to steady herself so that she could stand. It was only a matter of seconds, however, before Kehoe’s shadow lurched above her. Panicked, she scuttled several yards on her hands and feet. She gave a wild, frustrated cry when he followed her with ease.
“I see you, Addie,” he laughed.
Shit. He could see her glow-in-the-dark Camp Durand T-shirt. She cried out in anguish when his hands clamped on her shoulders and squeezed. God, she was really going to die.
“Get up, Addie. You lived twenty years longer than I planned. What have you got to complain about?”
“No!” Alice resisted, one fist punching at his neck and head as he leaned down over her, the other hand reaching for the ground, digging into the grass in desperation, seeking a firm hold that wasn’t there. She would lose. He was strong, and he’d weakened her so badly. “Dylan. Dylan!” she screamed.
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 we
nt 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.
Again, she couldn’t find it. Was that a banging sound in the distance? Someone was coming. Panic rose in her. Lower still.
