Bittersweet Hope (16 page)

He nodded and got out of the truck. It only took a few strides for him to reach my side, and he opened the door and helped me down. When he sat me on the ground his lips touched my forehead. My eyes fluttered closed. That one simple gesture made me feel so much better. Not totally better, but at least I didn’t feel like my heart was chewing on itself anymore.

At my bedroom door Caleb pulled me to him and I melded myself into his solid torso, taking any strength I could.

“Night.” The words were barely audible even to me.

“Goodnight, Audrey.” One more quick kiss and I was standing in the doorway alone. I swung it closed and changed into a night shirt, then slid into my bed. The moonlight draped over me and my eyelids shut involuntarily.

Please, God. The only thing I want in this world is for Sadie to be okay. Just keep her safe. Please.

Chapter Twenty

Bzzzzzzzz

Bzzzzzzzz

My lead like legs kicked around underneath the covers as my body fought to wake up. I struggled to twist into a position where my hand could reach over and grab the stupid phone from the nightstand. Squinting my eyes, dried and cakey from sleep, I tried to read the number glaring up at me from the neon screen. I didn’t recognize it. But with all the stuff going on with Sadie, it probably wouldn’t be smart not to answer. There weren’t even but four people who would have the number, and two of them were asleep down the hall.

Remembering that, I shot up in bed, wide awake now. It had to be one of my sisters. Which meant something had to be wrong.

“Hello?” I asked, my voice breathless. “Hello, is someone there?
“Audrey?”

A deep male voice came across the crackling line.

“Who is this?” My stomach wrenched.

“Zach.”

I snapped the phone shut before the thought fully developed in my mind. How the hell did he get my number? I stared at the small black device in my hand as if it were a snake about to strike at me. When it started buzzing again, I dropped it onto the bed, my eyes watching in silent fear until it stopped. The same number had come up on caller I.D. It was Zach again.

I picked up my phone with two fingers and set it back on my nightstand, then pushed myself as far as I could under my covers. My heart pounded in my chest. I couldn’t even imagine what he would want, but the idea of him calling me at two o’clock in the morning made my stomach hurt.

I moved my head around on my pillow until I felt comfortable. Moonlight streamed in through the blinds on my windows, and I could hear the soft night air blowing around outside.

Bzzz Bzzz

Stiff as a board, I pulled myself up again and stared at my phone. The screen was lit up, a black envelope in the middle of it. Text message.

My lips were dry, so I ran my tongue over them, sucking my upper lip into my teeth. Hesitating for a second, I finally stretched my hand out and picked up the phone, then flipped it open.

ANSER YOUR PHONE. ITS ABOUT YOUR SISTER.

What would Zach know about one of my sisters? The fact that he misspelled “answer” made me shake my head. What an idiot.

Bzzzzzzzzz

The stupid thing went off a fourth time, the same number once again showing on the brightly lit screen.

“What do you want, Zach?” I asked when I opened it, not even bothering to say hello.

“Huh, a guy tries to help out and all he gets in return is attitude? I should say screw you right now and let her walk home in the dark all by herself.”

My spine went rigid. “Sadie?” Air escaped from my lungs in a deep
whoosh
.

“Yeah, Sadie. I went to get a hit from my buddy walla go and your little sister was there. She’s messed up pretty bad.” He laughed, a stupid horse
like sound. “I figured you might wanna know, so I brought her to my hunting cabin. It’s where I come when I’m messed up. You know, sleep it off. She might not want to go home this way.”

I was already getting out of bed and pulling jeans and a t-shirt on. I jammed my feet into a pair of flip flops lying on the floor and threw on the pink hoodie that was flung on the back of my desk chair.

“Wasn’t there anybody with her?”

“Nope. Just her. So you comin, or what?”

“Yes, I’ll be right there. Where are you?”

“I’ll text you the address.”

“Okay.” I halted at my bedroom door. “Thanks, Zach.” I hated having to thank him for anything. But it was best to keep him happy right now. He had my sister.

“Sure.”

Darkness met my eyes when I peeked out into the hallway. There wasn’t a single sound. I hurriedly walked as quietly as I could toward the stairs and down them. When I reached the bottom my phone buzzed, making me jump.

The tiny black envelope appeared on the screen.

42 COUNTY ROAD 4

Snapping the phone shut, I went into the living room. There was a green glass bowl on the bookcase near the door, where Anna left the keys to her car. I chewed on my bottom lip. She would be so disappointed. I was about to steal her flipping car. But surely she would understand if it was for Sadie. I hoped.

Caleb was gonna be so pissed at me for not waking him up and getting him to take me. He’d been involved in enough of my mess, though. He didn’t need to have to deal with this, to see Sadie like this, whatever state she was in. Besides, the last thing I needed was a reason to tick Zach off too, and Caleb’s presence would be more than enough to do that. The scene at the catfish pond had taught me that much.

I closed my eyes for a second and apologized to Anna in my head. Then I grabbed the keys and made my way out the door. Flying down the porch steps to her gold SUV, my feet got away from me and I tripped, landing face first in the dewy grass. I managed to push myself up, and I headed to the car as fast as possible, putting the key into the ignition and cranking it, hoping the sound wouldn’t wake Anna or Caleb.

Fearing that it did, I put the gear shifter into drive and pressed the gas pedal to the floor. Gravel shot into the air as I peeled out of the driveway. I didn’t care if they saw me leave, as long as it was too late for them to stop me. I had to get to my sister. I had to get to Sadie.

Chapter Twenty-One

The indigo sky loomed before me, a spackling of stars twinkling like diamonds against it. Trees whizzed by through the car windows as I sped along the pavement, nerves sizzling and heart roaring.

I knew Sadie was going to get herself into trouble. To think of her being in the kind of place Zach would go to get high…good God, what was she thinking? She wasn’t, that was the answer. She was trying to impress Tori and piss me off all at the same time. It had backfired on her, and she would likely be furious that I was coming to her rescue. There was nothing else for me to do, though. There was no way she was staying with Zach for the night, until she was well enough to go home to the Gable’s. Bringing her back to Anna’s with me was the only option. Where we would go from there I wasn’t sure.

I had no idea how to get to Zach’s hunting cabin, but Anna had a GPS system in her car. Reaching beside me into the passenger seat for my phone, I was surprised when my hand felt only the plush leather seat. The interior lights were above my head; I flipped them on and glanced over. It was empty.

Shit. The stupid text message with the address was in my phone. That was just wonderful.  I chewed on my lower lip, trying to decide if I should turn around and try and find it at Anna’s. I could have dropped it outside when I fell. If I had, it could be anywhere, in the bushes, under the porch. It might take me precious minutes to find it, minutes that Sadie was alone with Zach. Those were minutes I did not want to lose. Plus, Anna or Caleb could have been woken up by the sound of the car cranking, and if they were waiting for me to come back they wouldn’t let me leave again. Not a chance I was willing to take.

Concentrating as hard as I could, my mind went back to the text message that had blinked onto the screen of my phone. What had the numbers been? I remember it was a county road, because it had made me wonder how far out it would be. If I could only see those stupid numbers…

42 COUNTY ROAD 4

It popped into my brain, causing all the air I’d been holding in to come out in a huge
whoosh
. Relief washed over me as I raked my fingers through my hair and flipped the light back off.

Stretching my eyes, I turned Anna’s navigation system on and punched the address in. The machine came to life amid a song of beeps and crackles.

“YOU ARE ELEVEN MILES AWAY.” The metallic voice told me. A map popped up, showing a tiny dot where the car was, and a tiny dot that was the location of Zach’s hunting cabin. At least I was going in the right direction. From the looks of it I needed to go straight about eight more miles, then I would have to take a few turns, back into the woods. Which made sense. It was a hunting cabin after all. Still, the thought of going into the woods made me think of ghosts and untamed animals and things that went bump in the night. Anything scary I’d ever heard of.

The sounds of the tires against the pavement whispered eerily in my ears in the stillness. There were no other cars on the road. I was all alone.

At the point where I had to turn off from the main road, street lights faded away, and the only light was from my high beams, bouncing along over the rough dirt roads, leading me further and further into the woods. I wished Zach had taken Sadie to the all night diner or something, somewhere public and bright. But public would have been exactly the problem. He had said he thought I wouldn’t want anybody to see Sadie in the condition she was in, and he was right. It left a bitter taste in my mouth, again, to have to be thankful to Zach for something. Not to mention that tiny red light going off in my brain. But there was no time to pay attention to that. Not when my sister needed me.

“YOU HAVE REACHED YOUR DESTINATION. GOOD-BYE”.

The tiny voice signed off when I pulled up in front of a small log cabin. It didn’t look to be very big, but it was so dark outside it was hard to tell. A porch light glowed in front of the door, but it didn’t shine very bright, so it really wasn’t much help.

I reached for the keys to turn the car off, but thought better of it. If I left it running we could leave faster. Hopefully Zach wouldn’t be in a chit chatty type of mood. Bringing Caleb with me suddenly didn’t seem like such a bad idea, and I wished I’d woken him up. It was too late now.

There seemed to be only one light on in the cabin, from toward the back of the house. Maybe it was a bedroom. Imagining Sadie in a bedroom with Zach Cochran made my stomach turn. After climbing out of the SUV, I knocked the door shut with my elbow. Hurrying up to the front door, I silently cursed Sadie in my mind. She was so going to owe me after this. Like she would really care.

I knocked on the door, but was only met with silence.
I pounded my fist against the wood, anxious to get my sister and get the hell out of here.

“Zach! Can you hear me? I came to pick Sadie up.” I listened, but the only sounds came from an owl in the woods somewhere behind the cabin.

“Sadie? Are you in there?” There was a window to the right, but the dark curtains on the inside prevented me from seeing anything. I put my hand on the doorknob, which felt cool against my skin. When I turned it, the door opened easily. Okay. So maybe Zach had left it unlocked because he knew I was coming. I could see him doing that—too lazy to get up and open it for me. The differences between him and Caleb couldn’t be more jolting.

I took a step inside, keeping one hand on the door. “Zach?” I called, not as loudly. “Zach, it
’s Audrey. I came to get Sadie.”

Nothing. No voices, no sounds of somebody getting out of a chair to come greet me. I leaned forward. “Zach?”

If they were in a back bedroom they might not be able to hear me. My toes curled inward involuntarily, but I stepped deeper into the house, letting go of the door.

I jumped when it closed with a thud behind me. Whirling, I didn’t have time to see anything before my face slammed against the wall and darkness wrapped itself
around me, rocking me to sleep.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Shooting pains echoed throughout my body. My head, my back, my arms…they all felt as though I were being stabbed with the sharpest knives in the world, over and over again. The side of me wanting to go back to sleep, to escape whatever brutal aches these were, was overpowered by the side screaming at me to wake up, to move, to run.

I bolted upright, my eyes opening a tiny bit. Discovering that I couldn’t stretch them any further, I peeked out of the slits between my eyelids and cheeks.
They were almost swollen shut. Memories of my face banging into the wall floated through my mind. Somebody had wanted to knock me out, and had likely given me two black eyes in the process.

I was on a bed. There were no pillows, no blankets. It was just a bare dingy mattress, must lingering over it, burning my eyes and my nostrils. I looked to the right, then the left. Zach sat in front of me in a woven chair, rocking back and forth, making an awful creaking sound every time he moved. At the sight of him my senses went into overdrive, warning signals blaring in my ears. Zach had to be the one who knocked me into the wall.

“Where is my sister?” I asked through clenched teeth. If he had hurt Sadie, so help me God…

Zach shrugged as
he stood, clad in jeans and a white t-shirt, the material stretched so tight over his torso it looked as if it would rip at any moment.

“I don’t know.”

“What do you mean you don’t know? You called me. You said you had her here.”

I found the floor and
tried to stand, but the room was spinning and I fell right back onto the mattress.

“Haven’t seen her.” Zach shrugged again.

Confusion turned into disbelief then into outrage as the magnitude of his words hit me. Sadie had never been here. He’d used her to trick me. It felt like the blood drained from my body, and every inch of me was covered in a cold sweat.
Stupid!
I cursed myself. I should have known better. Wanting to save Sadie had blinded me, had caused me to ignore every one of my other senses.

“B-but how did you know? How did you know to tell me you’d found her messed up? How would you know I would believe that?” I tripped over the questions as they rolled off my tongue. It was impossible for him to know that. He would have to have heard us at the movie theater. He could have been in the crowd and seen us, but surely I would have noticed him.

“It wasn’t too hard to do. I’ve been following you for weeks, Audrey. I knew what would get you here.”

My mouth dropped open.

I knew Zach had been watching me, ever since the fish had turned up dead. But I’d disillusioned myself into thinking that had been an isolated incident, and that he was just being a dumb guy and trying to get back at Caleb. Hearing him admit to stalking me for all of this time made me feel like I was going to throw up.

A
fusion of hate and nausea swept over me as I looked at his face, which I had once thought to be rugged and handsome. Now he only looked like a psychopath.

“Yep. I’ve seen it all, Audrey. I’ve seen you fighting with your little whore of a sister. I’ve seen you being a little whore yourself with your new boyfriend. Kissing by the pond. Isn’t that just so sweet.”

He spoke in a drawl, an impression of Caleb’s southern twang. I clenched my fists by my side at the sound of it. My chest heaved up and down, and I tried to control my breathing.

“Yo
u killed the fish, didn’t you? And it was you who tried to run us off the road that night!”

“Of course I did.”

“How dare you!” I sprung off the bed, ignoring the dizziness and the sick feeling in my stomach. Charging at Zach, I flailed my hands around in the air, aiming at everything but hitting nothing. His strong arms wrapped around my waist and pinned my own arms to my sides.

“Now, now, Audrey. You don’t think you’ll really be able to hurt me, do you?” He grunted and laughed at the same time. It was pointless to try and get away from him, but I was going to try until I couldn’t move anymore.

My face felt flushed, and sweat dripped from my hairline while I fought him, fueled by the anger that he’d tricked me into coming here.

“Why?” I finally asked him when I became too tired to try any more.

Zach tossed me back onto the bed like I was a rag doll. “Because you weren’t supposed to be with him. You were supposed to be with me. Just because you had to change schools and you got to live with some snobby new family, you brushed me off, like I wasn’t good enough for you anymore. Well, let me tell you. I am.”

His words made no sense. I thought he wasn’t good enough for me? Me, who had never been in a position to think I was better than anybody? He was out of his damn mind.
             

“You act like we were a couple or something. We weren’t. We never even went on the one date we were going to have.” I spat the words out at him, though I didn’t think any of them would sink into this little delusion he’d cooked up in his head.

New energy found its way to me and I sat, trying to figure out a way to make a break for the door. There had to be some way to distract him, the flipping lunatic.

“You’re wrong, Audrey. We were meant to be together.”

He was crazier than I thought. I stared at his dark, wild eyes, his sallow cheeks. “Have you been smoking something?” I asked as I shoved myself off the bed. “Get over yourself, Zach. I’m going home.”

I tried to push past him, but he grabbed my wrist.

“Do you really think you’re going anywhere?” Zach picked me up and threw me back on the bed, this time straddling me. “I don’t think so. You’re going to stay right here with me, Audrey, whether you like it or not. And your little Mama’s boy isn’t going to save you.”

No matter how hard I fought, how many times I bit him, kicked him, tried to pull at his hair, Zach still had strength I didn’t have. I flailed around, but he got ahold of my arms and legs and threw me against the headboard. And then for the second time that night, everything went black.