Chapter 87

87

Abby just clung to the door as Will drove like a maniac over the roads that had once led to home. She used to love it when they’d turn on to Old Beise Road—because it always led to home.

Never again would she remember Old Beise Road fondly. Never.

And it was all Will’s fault.

She told him that. Told him how he had ruined everything.

“Shut up, Abby! Shut up! It wasn’t me. Dad is the one who helped Morris Preston. Not me. Dad and Mr. Rutherford. Toby and Hayden and me—we just drove the trucks because there was good money in it. Because Dad told us to.”

Will sounded almost like he meant it. And he was loud, afraid. Like she hadn’t seen him be since their mom had been sick.

“What are we supposed to do?” Abby asked, almost in a whisper. She always had a plan, always knew what she needed to do. For herself. For her dad. And even for Will. But not now. “We seriously can’t just run away forever. And what about Hayden’s dad?”

Mr. Rutherford was practically passed out in the back seat. Next to their dad, who just kept telling Will to go. To just keep going. To run.

No matter what.

Hayden had stayed behind. To get something. Something that he said would be worth lots of money if they had to run away. Hayden had told her he would take care of Abby too. He’d promised. She’d believed him.

She’d been so stupid.

But she could smell smoke now. And when she looked back, she could almost see fire making the sky behind them glow.

What if they had set her old house on fire? Her family home?

She hadn’t realized how much that old home had mattered until this very moment. Abby just couldn’t stop crying.

She was never going to see it again. She was never going to get to be in the movies. She was never going to get to be in Masterson again. Never going to see Braelyn or even Caitlyn again. “What about Braelyn? I can’t just leave her. She’s my best friend.”

“Would you rather those assholes after Bruce fucking Tyler kill me or Dad? Huh? Trade us for stupid Braelyn?”

Will had never really talked to her like this.

And he sounded so afraid. Like he really meant it. “Just who are these people, Will? Who?”

“They are out of Texas. Where that Brandt Barratt guy is from.”

Abby knew the story. Everyone knew how a bunch of thugs had taken Brandt Barratt’s family hostage or something. They’d nearly died. And people had ties to Finley Creek. Brandt Barratt had been the one to kill Ashton. This had something to do with that. Will was involved. How could he have been so stupid?

“So Kurt and Ashton and Toby and Hayden were in on what happened to Brandt Barratt’s family? Those two women who were at the inn last month?”

Will nodded. “But I wasn’t. I wasn’t. I didn’t hurt anybody like that. I just drove the trucks. And sold some stuff for them, Ab. Just for money. I didn’t hurt anybody. I wasn’t even in Texas then. And the only one who knows I was there that day with Barratt and that Meyra was Dylan. She passed me on the road. But she hasn’t said anything yet.”

Abby was quiet as he drove. Then she looked out the front window. At the dark shadows building right in front of them.

Abby screamed.

Will slammed on the brakes.

Braelyn’s car skidded off the road into the ditch.

Abby just closed her eyes and prayed.

When she opened her eyes again, her brother was just gone .

And there were men surrounding the car.

Tylers every single one.

One pulled her free—Derrick. He pulled her free while some of the others got her father and Old Mr. Rutherford out.

They sat her on the ground and wrapped a blanket around her shoulders. Abby just stayed right where she was and cried.

Every plan she had ever made was ruined.

And her brother was just gone.

What was Abby going to do now?