“Tell me this isn’t about Vince Whitaker,” Dale says. “I can understand you being upset about giving up the brat, but Whitaker is trash.”
“It’s not about him. Or anyone. It was wrong, Dale—you understand that…”
“What I understand is that I saw Whitaker here tonight.” He twists around, points to the back of the building.
Katie doesn’t understand. She hasn’t seen Vince tonight. And if he’s been at the store, how does Dale know that? And how long has he been out here? Just waiting for her to empty the bins. How does he even know it’s her job to empty the return bins? Unless he’s been out here before. Watching.
“I didn’t see Vince tonight. And, anyway, I told you, we’re just friends.”
“Pfft.”
“I need to get back inside. I’m working.”
“You’ll be eighteen soon, and we can find a way … People will understand, if we give it time, we can—”
“I don’t love you. And I need you to leave me alone.” There, she said it. She looks around. They’re shielded by the large bin. When she’d told him about the pregnancy, he’d hit her, harder than ever before. She’s worried he might lash out now.
He grabs her arm. Pulls her close. His face dark with rage.
“Everything okay?” the voice says behind her. She turns her head. Stevie. Thank God for Stevie.
Dale drops her arm. Pastes on a fake smile. He’s so good at that.
“Everything’s fine,” Katie says, her tone forced.
“Oh, okay,” Stevie says. “Ah, a customer said someone was fighting or something over here and—”
“No, we’re fine,” Katie says. “I’ll be right in.”
Stevie looks torn. “You sure?” He pushes his shoulders back on his thin frame. He looks diminutive next to Dale’s broad-shouldered stance.
“Really.”
He reluctantly heads back to the store.
“I need to get back,” she says.
“I need you, Katie.”
“I’m sorry.”
Fury fills his face again. “If you think I’m just going to—”
A voice from behind cuts him off. Candy and Mandy have charged outside.
“What are you going to do, Dale?” Candy emphasizes his first name, like it’s forbidden. He’s a teacher, after all.
Dale turns white.
“Yeah,” Mandy chimes in, nodding, like: You’d better back the fuck off. It’s clear what they mean. They know everything and can ruin him.
Candy says, “So you’d best leave her the fuck alone.”
Steadman glowers at her. Then: “Or what?” His face is nearly trembling.
“Or your world will be tipped upside down.”
And with that, Candy laces her arm through Katie’s left arm, Mandy through Katie’s right, and they march her back inside the Blockbuster.
CHAPTER 71
KELLER
Keller’s hand is shaking, her breathing is labored and loud. She edges forward slowly in the darkness, her gun outstretched. The pain from the arrow shoots down her left side, and up into her skull, where it explodes in bursts. Wincing, she manages to pull her phone from her pocket, and clicks on the flashlight.
She has a jolt of terror when she sees him. Steadman is several feet away, as still as a stone. Waiting for her. He’s holding something. It looks like a spear. His arm is cocked. She staggers to the right as he releases the weapon, whatever it is. It glides swiftly by, slamming into the wall with a sickening thud.
Before she has time to react, something hard batters down on her arm, her gun discharges, then her head is pounded into the wall. She’s disoriented, on the floor. She sees nothing, she feels around for the gun.
That’s when she feels the body. It’s stiff. She wipes her eyes, tries to adjust to the dark, but it’s hopeless. Still, she feels the skinny tie, the buttons from the suit jacket.
Atticus.
Only terror overcomes the wave of heartbreak.
A sliver of light comes from her phone, which was knocked to the floor.
She’s on her side, shirt drenched in blood from the arrow. She’s going into shock. The twins seem unusually still.
She should’ve waited for backup. I’m sorry, she tells her twins. Move, please move, she tells them.
She feels nothing.
She can only listen now, pray for the sound of sirens.
Then she feels it. The familiar kick under her ribs. A tiny foot. Feet.
They’re telling her not to give up.
She calls out. “Dale Steadman, it’s over. They know about you and Katie McKenzie, about you and Hannah Sawyer.”