Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 71074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
"No," Amelia says, coming to grab my hand. "Let's go now." She pulls me toward the truck now. My feet move as fast as I can while looking around to see if the man is there again.
We walk back toward her truck, and I get in. My eyes go everywhere once I get inside the truck. I look everywhere as she pulls out of the diner parking lot. When she turns, I can see someone in the woods. "There!" I shout at her, and she looks over, and he’s gone again. "He was right there."
Chapter 17
Mayson
I sit at the counter and finish my food right next to Quinn. Neither of us says a word, and the food feels like a brick in my stomach.
I toss the food around on my plate, waiting for Quinn to say something, knowing he has things to say. I get up, walking over to the sink and turn the water on to rinse off my plate.
"If you hurt her…" Quinn says, and I look over my shoulder at him. I turn off the water and put the dish in the dishwasher.
"I have no idea what you mean." I avoid his eyes. Quinn and I have always been cordial at best. We even shared a laugh a couple of times. But we’ve never been best friends.
"You can’t be that stupid," he says, putting down the spoon in his hand.
I turn, leaning on the counter, and cross my legs at the ankle. "Again," I say, "I have no idea what you mean."
"You had to have seen it." He looks straight at me. "She would always use excuses to be next to you." I swallow now, and I don’t say anything, giving him ample time to say more. "Like coming to the barn to check on her horse when you were in there." I remember exactly what he’s talking about, but I don’t tell him anything. "Every time you came to one of the Sunday dinners, she would always be right there next to you."
"Doesn’t mean nothing," I tell him.
He pushes off from the island and comes over, putting his plate in the dishwasher. "If she gets hurt," he says, his tone tight, "no one is going to save you from me."
"If she gets hurt," I say the words, the burning coming to my stomach, "someone is going to die."
I push off from the counter now and walk over to the bedroom. Sitting on the bed, I put my head back, looking at the ceiling, and close my eyes. I knew the game she was playing. I knew the signs. I just didn’t know that someone else was watching. I would always look around when it was the two of us, looking to make sure that no one was watching us. Usually, it would be just Amelia.
I’m about to lie back on the bed when I hear the crushed rocks and the sound of running. My heart speeds up, and I jump up, almost running out of the room when the front door swings open.
Her face is filled with tears, but it’s her eyes that make me take a step back. Filled with fear. Filled with confusion. Filled with all the things that they shouldn’t be filled with.
Quinn is beside me and now past me to stop her. "I saw," she says, now hyperventilating. I look over at Amelia, who is looking out the front door right and left and then closing the door.
"What the fuck happened?" I shout.
"I saw…" Chelsea starts to say, but no words are coming out. She puts her hands on her knees as she tries to get the words out.
"She saw someone," Amelia says, and the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I look over at her, and she puts her hands up. "I didn’t see him."
"Yeah, it’s me," Quinn says, and I turn to look at him holding a phone to his ear. "There is a situation at Chelsea’s." He looks over at me, the look telling me shit is about to go down. "Call your dad."
He puts the phone back in his jeans, and I finally snap out of it and walk over to Chelsea. I squat down in front of her, ignoring the pull of my bandages on my legs. "Hey," I say, and she just looks at me, shaking her head. "Just breathe," I tell her. "Breathe with me. In." I inhale with her. "Exhale." She copies me now. "That’s it, you can do it with me."
"What do you mean she freaked out?" I hear Quinn ask Amelia, and then I look over at them. They both stop talking.
I turn back to look at Chelsea. "Just breathe, baby. I have you," I say softly so just she can hear me. Her breathing starts to come back to normal when the door swings open, and her eyes go big as she turns to look at the door. I get up as Jacob, Ethan, and Beau run into the house.