Chapter 27

27

"Wait here," King said as he pushed the car door open. She'd backed into a parking spot beneath a tree and between two large trucks so that her vehicle wasn't easily seen from the rest of the parking lot.

"No way. I'm going with you," Sadie insisted. She wasn't going to sit back and wait to see what happened. Wasn't she the one who was carrying around a curse?

"Sadie…" He gave her a pained look. "I don't know what we're walking into up there. I just don't want to see you hurt again."

"I get that, but you have to understand that I don't want to see you hurt either," she said.

"But she won't hurt me. I'm her cash cow."

"Dammit," she muttered and closed the car door without getting out. "You're right. She won't hurt you as long as she thinks she can get something out of you. But me?—"

"She'll do anything she can think of to make sure she gets her way, which includes torturing you. I just can't let that happen," he said, shaking his head.

As much as she hated it, she understood his reasoning. Sadie nodded once and said, "I'll be here. Text me as soon as you can so I know what's happening."

King leaned across the console of her car, gave her a quick kiss, and said, "I will."

"Be safe!" she called after him and then watched as he walked up the stairs to the second floor of the motel and then down to Room 207. He knocked twice, and as he stood there waiting for the door to open, he started rocking back and forth from foot to foot.

The door finally opened, and King stepped inside.

Sadie waited for a good twenty minutes before she got out of the car and started to pace. Then suddenly, sirens filled the air as a line of three police cars sped into the parking lot. Sadie quickly got back into her car, not wanting to be a distraction for the sheriff's department.

Then she watched with rapt attention as they stormed Room 207. Her stomach churned as she worried about King, praying that he'd finally step out of the hotel room. But all she saw were the deputies milling around.

Desperate for some news, she grabbed her phone and started to text, only to be interrupted when her car door swung open. She jerked her head up and saw Cindy McGrath staring down at her.

"Cindy, where's?—"

A small prick hit her neck, and suddenly Sadie's vision started to blur. "What happened?" she forced out, but she was pretty certain she'd slurred her words. A moment later, her world turned black.

Sadie woke in a dark room, her head pounding. She blinked, trying to place her surroundings. Nothing was familiar, and the room smelled like moldy cheese. She groaned as she pushed herself up into a sitting position.

"Welcome back," a very unwelcome voice said from across the room.

"Where did I go?" Sadie asked, her voice so groggy she barely got the words out. She squinted, trying to take in the shabby decor. There was a fair amount of moonlight shining in the small window, illuminating the cabin's bare wood walls and rough floor. Where the hell had Cindy taken her? Deliverance county?

"Just a little nap. Nothing life-changing." Cindy stood and walked over to the small bed Sadie had been lying on. She handed Sadie a black burner phone and said, "Now, take this phone and call my son."

"Call him? Why? Are you going to let him pick me up?" Sadie asked, knowing there was no chance in hell. The events of the night were suddenly rushing back in her mind, and since Cindy had managed to somehow escape the sheriff, that meant King had been left behind. No doubt he was working with them now to find both Sadie and his mother.

"Eventually. If he gives me what I need, then yeah, he can have you back. If he doesn't, well, let's just say I'm sorry you ever got involved with my self-centered son. He never did care about anyone other than himself."

Sadie already knew that was bullshit. King loved her, and while he hadn't said it yet, she'd felt it. Knew all the way down to her toes that he cared not just for her, but for Briggs, too. It was Cindy who didn't care about anyone but herself.

"Call him," she ordered.

Sadie looked at the phone and then back at Cindy. "I don't know his number."

Cindy rolled her eyes and muttered something about lazy millennials. She punched the numbers into the phone and then handed it to Sadie.

King answered on the first ring. "Sadie? Is that you? Where are you?"

"Some cabin goddess only knows where," she said, glaring at Cindy. "With your mother."

He sucked in a sharp breath. "Has she hurt you?"

"Not after the tranquilizer she hit me with. But apparently if you don't do what she wants, she's going to take her ire out on me."

"Put her on the line," King ordered.

Sadie held the phone out to Cindy. "He wants to talk to you."

"I bet he does." But she shook her head and picked up a lead pipe. "Tell him to wire the money immediately, or I'll have no choice but to smash your fingers."

"You wouldn't dare!" Sadie said, recoiling away from the crazy person.

"Oh, I would. And I'm kind of looking forward to it. Nothing would hurt King more than crippling his new toy."

Sadie wanted to scratch her eyes out for acting as if King didn't care about her as well as threatening her hands. Sadie wouldn't be able to play the guitar for a long time if Cindy crushed her hands. Maybe never again if she was good enough at it.

"Sadie?" King called. "Any idea where the cabin is?"

"No. She has a metal pipe and is threatening to crush my fingers if you don't wire the money," Sadie said.

"Tell him to make it double. It's the fee for calling the sheriff," Cindy said.

"You're evil." Sadie glared at the woman, wondering why she'd bothered to ever have a child at all.

"Tell him."

Sadie let out a small growl but relayed the message. "She says make it double as a payback for involving the sheriff."

"She's delusional," King said softly. "But tell her I'll do it if she tells me where I can pick you up."

Sadie repeated King's demand to Cindy, who shook her head slowly. "We already tried that. I'm not falling for it again." She grabbed the phone. "Send the money and I'll let Sadie go. That's it." She shoved the phone back at Sadie.

Sadie stared at Cindy as she waited for King's response. "King? It's Sadie again. I think she's done with you."

"That's convenient, because I'm done with her as well." There was a pause and then King said, "Tell her the money will be there in ten minutes."

The moment Sadie informed Cindy of King's decision, she plucked the phone from Sadie and said, "Not a minute later. I'll send coordinates for your precious piece of ass once I'm well away from Keating Hollow."

"Don't call her that," Sadie heard King yell at his mother.

Cindy snorted her derision and ended the call. Then she smashed the burner phone and tossed it into a corner. She sat down in her chair and ignored Sadie.

"Why do you hate your son?" Sadie blurted.

Cindy blinked. "What makes you think I hate him?"

Sadie's entire body was burning with rage. "Do you need a list?"

"Just because I'm pressuring him for money doesn't mean I hate him. I love my son. But he needs to do more for his mother. He's always been a stuck-up kid, but he's a million times worse now that he's had a taste of fame."

Jealousy and resentment hit Sadie hard as Cindy rose from her chair and grabbed a small tablet from her bag. She sneered at Sadie. "Stop reading my emotions."

"I can't help it," Sadie said.

"You little liar!" Cindy grabbed her pipe and swung it at Sadie, aiming not for her hands, but her head.

Sadie rolled off the bed, her heart hammering uncontrollably as she dodged Cindy's attack. Fear had taken over, and Sadie was in full-on flight mode, only there was nowhere to go. She was pressed up against the rough wall, watching as Cindy stalked toward her, the pipe still in her right hand.

"Why are you so bitter?" Sadie shouted at her. Instantly, Sadie's arm started to tingle, and magic seeped from Sadie into Cindy, compelling her to speak her truth.

Cindy stopped and stared at Sadie for a long moment and then blurted, "You would be too if your mother locked you in the basement for most of your childhood."

Sadie let out a loud gasp. She hadn't been expecting that.

"Compared to her, I'm mother of the goddammed universe. I never did anything like that to my son even when King was assaulting my thoughts and memories. Do you have any idea what it's like to have someone pull the threads of the memories from the worst days of your life? That's why he had to go. It was either let him drive me certifiably insane or cut him off. I did what I had to do."

There were no words to describe the horror that Sadie felt for the younger version of Cindy and what she must have gone through. But Sadie would argue that the woman hadn't made it out of that in one piece. She was batshit insane, and any mother who put her own child out on the street for something he couldn't control was in serious need of therapy.

"Don't judge me, you little bitch," Cindy sneered. "Not all of us grow up in Mayberry with perfect little lives where nothing bad ever happens to them until the evil wicked witch comes to town."

Sadie didn't bother to correct her. She owed Cindy no details about her life. Instead she asked, "Where are we?"

"The woods," Cindy said as she tapped on her tablet.

"Which woods and how far from civilization?"

"None of your damned business." Cindy touched the screen on her tablet and then let out a whoop of joy. Her fingers flew over the touchscreen as she muttered to herself about multiple transfers. Then she looked up and scowled at Sadie. "Too bad. I was looking forward to breaking those fingers." She tilted her head and said, "Maybe I'll do it anyway as a reminder."

"Try it and die," Sadie hissed.

Cindy pushed her tablet into a backpack, grabbed the pipe, and walked out of the room without another word.

Sadie raced after her, took a few seconds to realize that she had absolutely no idea where she was, and then startled when she heard the roar of an ATV come to life. She knew she should let the woman drive off into the darkness. That it meant she'd no longer have to deal with her threats, but she also didn't want her getting away with all of King's money. If she wasn't stopped now, this would keep happening to King over and over and over again. Sadie had to do something.

But what?

"We can help," a very familiar and very welcome voice said. Sadie's eyes instantly filled with tears as she recognized her mother's voice.

Sadie turned to see her mother floating next to her, with her grandmother on the other side. They were both grinning at her.

"You're so brave, honey pie," Sadie's grandmother said.

"Mom? Grandma? What are you… how did you… Why are you here?"

"You summoned us," her mother said kindly. "Now let us do what we came here to do."

Sadie wasn't sure what she meant, but in the next moment, both her grandmother and mother were standing in front of the side by side. They materialized as fully fleshed humans, causing Cindy to shriek as she swerved to keep from hitting them.

The ATV wobbled as Cindy yanked on the steering wheel, over-corrected, and ended up plowing right into a redwood.

Sadie took off at a sprint, only stopping when she got to the ATV. Cindy was trapped under it, struggling to get out of the seat. Sadie just stared down at her and shook her head. "It sucks to be the incompetent bad guy." Then she gave Cindy the widest grin and said, "Well done."

"Get this off me!" Cindy demanded.

"No way in hell," Sadie said and then patted her pockets, looking for her phone in vain. Cindy must have confiscated it when they got to the cabin. She looked at her two mother figures and asked, "Do you know where my phone is?"

Her grandmother pointed to Cindy. "In her front pocket."

"That figures." After some wrestling with her prisoner, Sadie managed to get her phone and got King on the line. "I still don't know where I am, but your mother is neutralized for now."

"What? How?" King asked, sounding shocked.

"It's a long story, but my mom and grandmother did it. True heroes. What about you? What happened when you went into that hotel room?"

He let out a growl of frustration. "My mother got me with some sleeping potion, and when I woke up, both of you were gone but the sheriff was there. I had no idea what was happening."

"She got me with the same potion," Sadie said. "If I turn on the tracking feature on my phone, can you find me?"

"I will find you," King promised. "Always."

"That's exactly what I needed to hear."