“I need to tell you something. It has to do with what we talked about last night."
Liam winced. “Kelsey, let’s not do this now. Just let me have tonight, and then you can say whatever you want to say tomorrow morning.”
“No, Liam, I need to-”
“Please, Kelsey. Just wait.” Liam grabbed my hand and squeezed. “Please.”
A thought occurred to me, and I kept his hand in mine. I intertwined our fingers and rested our hands in the middle of the seat. "Okay. I'll wait." I wasn't going to wait until tomorrow, of course. I would tell him tonight after the tree lighting- I couldn't ask for a more romantic setting for a declaration of love.
Liam parked in front of the cabin and, as always, walked around the front of the truck to open my door for me. I followed him up the walkway to the house, but I was in a playful mood. I spotted a prime patch of snow off to the side of the path. I bent down quickly, packed some snow into a ball, and threw it at Liam's back as he was unlocking the front door. It landed with a dull thud, falling to the ground and leaving a white bulls-eye on his coat where the snowball had scattered on impact.
Liam turned around slowly, his mouth in an O. "I give you a ride so you don't have to walk back in the cold, and this is how you repay me?" He started towards me. "You'd better run, girl, you're going to get it now."
I giggled, throwing another snowball into his shocked face. I shrieked as Liam rushed at me, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me down into the pile of snow. “No!” I laughed, trying to stop him from shoving a handful of snow down the front of my coat. He pinned me down, but I managed to flip us over so that I was on top.
I was still laughing when his expression turned serious. Liam grabbed me by the neck and pulled me down to his lips. I kissed him back fiercely, trying to convey all of my emotions in that one kiss. Liam's hands cradled my face, and I tugged him up to a sitting position. In an instant, he grabbed me by the waist and hauled me up in his arms. He carried me up the steps and kicked the front door open, then set me down on the back of the couch while he shut the door behind him.
Liam stepped between my open legs, and I grabbed him by the hips, smiling up at him, eager for makeup sex. He dropped a light kiss on my frozen nose, then stepped out of my reach, however. "I'm going to make some lunch for us."
I nodded, disappointed. Liam came back with sandwiches, and we sat together on the couch, not having sex. Instead, we watched chaste Christmas specials and idled the afternoon away. Before I knew it, it was four o'clock and time for us to go to the tree lighting.
“Ready to go, beautiful?” Liam said, standing up and extending his hand.
I nodded, placing my hand in his and letting him lead the way out to the truck. I couldn’t help but notice how right his hand felt in mine. This overwhelming obsession with Liam I was feeling was intoxicating.
The drive to the town square was intimate, as though I could see all the unspoken things swirling in the air between Liam and me, begging to be said aloud. I couldn't work up the courage, though, and the swirling thoughts remained silent. We arrived at the municipal parking lot and Liam turned to me, oblivious to my inner turmoil. "Let's go get merry."
I laughed and accepted his help out of the truck. We walked hand-in-hand to the refreshment station, where Liam bought us both spiked peppermint cocoas. We waved at Daisy and Dolores, who had brought Snowflake with her tonight. Snowflake was wearing a sparkly new collar and a tiny knit sweater and looked perfectly content in Dolores' arms. I pointed this out to Liam, who smiled and nodded in amusement.
I turned my attention to the dais in front of the giant fir tree around which we were arranged in a circle. The mayor had just arrived onstage amongst a small smattering of applause. "Welcome, ladies and gentlemen," she said into the microphone, "to the one hundred and thirtieth annual lighting of the Langdon Falls Christmas tree." She nodded and paused, waiting for the applause to die down. "The tradition of lighting the tree the day before Christmas Eve is a long and renowned one that goes all the way back to colonial times, when our German founders put up the very first Christmas tree in North America."
There was thunderous applause for this statement, which didn't sound right at all to me. I looked at Liam skeptically, and he shrugged as if to say who knows? I let this mistruth go and continued listening to the mayor's speech. There was considerably more applause when the mayor announced that the Langdon Falls High School Glee Club would be performing carols tonight immediately after her speech.
The Glee Club took the stage and launched into a rendition of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" that was actually very good. I found myself grinning at Liam and bopping along to carols as the spiked cocoa started to have its effect on me. Liam wrapped his arms around me, and I leaned back, delighting in the comfort of his large arms. Once the high schoolers had finished their fourth and final song- "Frosty the Snowman"- the mayor started the countdown to the big moment- the lighting of the tree- and everyone shouted along.
TEN. NINE. EIGHT. SEVEN. SIX. FIVE. FOUR. THREE. TWO. ONE.
The tree lit up like a beacon, and the crowd went wild. Liam and I clapped together, then turned and hugged the various people embracing us. We got lost in the excitement of the moment and the warmth of the Langdon Falls community.
Someone started singing “O Tannenbaum” loudly, and it didn’t take long for it to catch on with the whole crowd. Everyone applauded again loudly, then slowly began dispersing into the street. Everyone bid each other goodbye as they all went back to their respective homes, and Liam and I walked back to the truck together.
“Do you mind waiting just a minute for me?" I asked, stopping in front of the diner I'd eaten in earlier. "I drank a little too much cocoa, and I have to use the ladies' room."
“Okay, I’ll be waiting for you out here,” Liam said, pulling out his phone.
“Be back in a jiff," I said. I kissed him on the cheek, then hurried into the diner. The restaurant was empty- almost all the citizens of Langdon Falls had been at the tree lighting tonight- but it was still unlocked. I liked that about small towns- everyone trusted each other. I did my business in the bathroom, grinning like a fool the whole time while I anticipated going back to the cabin. I kept daydreaming about what Liam's face would look like when I told him that I loved him and that I wanted to try out being in a relationship with him. I hummed to myself and danced as I washed my hands and ran them under the dryer, my giddy mood affecting my whole body.
I pushed open the bathroom door, still humming, and there was a sudden sharp pain on the side of my skull. I looked down in confusion, thinking that I must’ve hit my head on the door somehow. My vision started to blur as something wet and sticky dripped down into my eyes. Confused, I reached up to touch it. Blood. How hard had I slammed my head into the door?
“Hello, Counselor Jones,” came a raspy voice from the shadows. “How nice to see you again at last.”
My head was starting to spin now, and the last thing I saw before I passed out was Jack Nelson’s grinning face.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
I woke up bound in the pitch dark again. Disoriented, I tried to find my bearings to no avail. I realized with surprise that I was blindfolded. That was new. I wasn’t in a chair, either, like I usually am in this scenario. My nightmares always start the same way, why is this time different?
The blindfold that obscured my vision was also incredibly itchy. I rubbed my face on my shoulder to alleviate the itch, and the blindfold slid up my face onto my forehead, solving that problem. I was surprised by how much light was in the room, most of it coming from behind the drapes and from the gap between the bathroom door and the floor. I surveyed my surroundings, and I came to the conclusion that I was in a hotel room. The dated decor and double beds gave it away, along with the heavy drapes that were drawn across the single window. Now I was really starting to get some clarity, and I had an awful thought- I’m not dreaming. This is real. Panic started to creep in, despite my efforts to stay calm. I’ve
had dreams about this ever since I’d heard the news about Jack escaping, but the nightmares couldn’t even come close to the terror of the real thing. I need to escape- it was a matter of life and death.
I managed to sit up on the bed and maneuver my hands under my legs and knees so that I could see the knot tying them together. Jack had used some sort of cloth for the knot. It wasn’t as tight as the ropes in my dreams normally were, and I freed my hands and made quick work of the cloth knotted around my ankles. I took one quick glance around the room, then ran for the bolted door next to the heavily draped window.
I got all the way to the door and was pulling back the chain at the top of the door when a pair of arms grabbed me around my middle, knocking the breath out of me. “Oh no, you don’t. You’re not getting away now. Not after all I’ve done to find you,” a familiar raspy voice snarled.
Jack Nelson. The man who’d featured prominently in my nightmares for the past month. The whole reason I had to go into hiding. He was here in real life. He’d found me. I tried not to go into full-on panic mode, but it was hard not to when Jack picked me up and threw me down on the bed. He laid on top of me, pinning me down while he secured my wrists to the lamps that were built into the wall on either side of the bed. He reached down and shoved the discarded cloth into my mouth. Tears streamed from my eyes and my nose started running. I had to will myself to calm down so I didn’t suffocate. Deep breaths, deep breaths, Kelsey. You’re going to get out of this jam.
Jack sat back at the edge of the bed and gave me a long, hard look. He liked what he saw, apparently, because he smiled and adjusted his cuffs. He was dressed up in a suit and tie as if this were a special occasion. Maybe for him it was. According to the evidence from the trial that I hadn’t believed, he always dressed to the nines before he slashed his victims’ throats.
“I bet you thought you could hide from me, Kelsey. Did you think you could walk away and forget about the life you ruined in that trial?” Jack asked me, eyes narrowed. “Well, I’m too smart for you. You could never hide from me, not really. Nothing could keep me in that prison. Not handcuffs, not guards, not even concrete walls. Jack Nelson can’t be caged.”
I’d forgotten how much Jack liked to talk. He’d always been like that, even before I knew he was evil. His ego was astronomical, which meant that it could be stroked. I needed to play along and make him think I was on his side if I were going to get out of here alive.
“Howdidshueshape?” My question was muffled by the cloth Jack had shoved into my mouth. He reached forward to pull it roughly out of my mouth.
“What was that?” he asked.
“How did you escape?” I asked, desperate to keep him talking while I waited for Liam to come and take him down.
“All I had to do was get a guard under my spell. Oh, he was a handsome boy. Young guy named Leroy. It was almost too easy- he was so eager to please me. All I had to do was whisper a sweet word to him here and there and let him pleasure me, and he would’ve followed me to the ends of the earth. It really is a shame I had to kill him.” Jack pouted with mock sadness. “But loose ends and all that.”
Jack seemed pretty pleased with himself, and I did my best to seem impressed by his seduction and murder of an innocent prison guard so that he didn’t gag me again. Jack seemed satisfied with my act, and he continued on. “After I got out, I had to lay low. I couldn’t come straight for you or every fed in Virginia would’ve been on me in an instant. So I bode my time, kept my eye out for any news about your whereabouts. Imagine my surprise when I had the good luck of happening upon a news article about Agnes Day and her husband enjoying a quaint Winter Ball in Small Town USA. Imagine my even bigger surprise when Agnes Day was a dead ringer for Kelsey Jones. I knew I’d hit the jackpot- they hadn’t hidden you very well, had they, Kels, if you were going to be appearing in small town gazettes? How was it, by the way? Nothing like the sophistication you’re used to in law firms in Virginia, I would imagine.” Jack winked at me and I grimaced, trying to make it appear like a smile. “Again, I waited. I tipped off the cops that I’d been in the Bahamas. I even bought a plane ticket to really sell the ruse. So when everyone was looking for me down south, I went north to find you.” Jack smiled smugly.
“You really had it all figured out,” I said. “One thing I can’t figure out, though. Why do you want me so badly? I tried to keep you out of prison, remember?”
“You broke a promise to me, Kelsey, and I take promises very seriously. A person is nothing without their word but a sack of blood and flesh. Maybe you broke your promise to me on purpose, hm? Did you not like what I am? Were you in on it the entire time, conspiring with the judge and the jury to send me away?” Jack’s eyes glinted terrifyingly as his manner shifted dramatically. He leaned forward to tighten the bindings on my wrists and ankles. I had thought the calm demeanor was frightening, but this was way worse.“You should know there’s nothing I like more than exacting revenge, counselor. Oh, I’m going to enjoy this.”
“Jack, you’ve got to listen to me. I’m on your side. I worked very hard to keep you out of prison because I believed you were innocent. I believed every word you said to me when we were preparing for trial.” I was such a fool. “Jack, if you’re so proud of the ‘work’ you do, why did you lie to me? Why didn’t you just tell me you did it from the get-go?”
“Oh please. Don’t play coy with me, Kelsey. Don’t pretend you didn’t know what I was all along, that a little part of you didn’t love it.” Jack ran his finger along my calf and I shuddered.
“I didn’t,” I protested. I was struggling not to gag as Jack continued to stroke me.
“Liar,” he spat out. “You reveled in it, knowing all the naughty things I’d done to those filthy bitches. I played innocent for the public, and you can’t tell me you didn’t love how we were deceiving those idiots together. See, there’s a darkness in me that calls to you. I can see your own darkness as well- it’s why I chose you. Someone who fights tirelessly to keep men like me on the streets.”
He was deranged. “You’re wrong, Jack, I’m nothing like you. I fought to keep innocent men out of prison. Not monsters like you. There is no darkness in me, that’s your delusion talking.” I knew as soon as I said it that I shouldn’t have, but he’d struck a nerve in me. There was no darkness in me, no kindred spirit with this serial murderer.
“You do, Kelsey Jones. Even if you can’t see it, I see the real you.”
“You’re a fucking psychopath, Jack. Don’t you dare compare me to yourself.” Jack’s eyes widened, then just as quickly narrowed in rage. He didn’t like hearing the truth.
Crack. Jack slapped me across the face with an open palm. “Bitch. Do you think you’re better than me?”
I recoiled, not able to touch my stinging face. I gathered all my courage. “Actually, I do. You’re a pathetic excuse for a man who takes pleasure in others’ pain. I hope you enjoyed your little stint of freedom, because you’re going away for a long time when you get caught. As soon as Liam gets here, you’re going straight back to prison, and I don’t think you’ll be able to talk your way out of super max this time.”
Jack produced a large knife, and I tried not to stare at the light glinting off of it. He ran it across my belly, the sharp metal scraping against my skin as Jack stared, transfixed. I stared as well, dreading whatever plans he had for that knife.
“Liam?” Jack snorted. “The bodyguard waiting for you outside the diner? Oh, I don’t think he’ll be coming for you anytime soon.” He had a nasty smile on his face, and he swirled the knife in a circle. He increased his pressure, breaking skin and drawing blood.
I ignored the stinging from the cuts as dread pooled in my stomach. “Why?”
“I killed him, counselor. Now we don’t have to worry about being interrupted.” His grin grew larger until he was smiling ear to ear. He pushed the blade further in, and I cried out.
I felt nauseated. It was as if I’d been punched in the gut. I struggled to breathe, the p
ressure in my head increasing. Liam was dead? Liam had been killed because of me. He had died not knowing how much I loved him, because Jack Nelson was targeting me. A low moan escaped from my throat and turned into a sob.
“No need for hysterics. You can save those for later, when I’m really giving you a reason to cry.” Jack’s leering face was spinning out of view, all I could feel was that cold blade on my body, and all went black.
***
I woke up still tied to the bed with a pounding headache. Jack was in the corner, typing away on a laptop. “What are you doing?” I tried to ask, but nothing came out. My throat was too raw and dry. I swallowed, trying to moisten my throat a bit. “What are you doing?” I said more strongly.
“Buying us tickets,” Jack said without looking up. “Stop talking so much.”
“Tickets?” I asked stupidly. “Tickets to what?”
“More like tickets to where,” Jack corrected me. “We’re going to Nepal.”
“Nepal?” I was starting to freak out now. “What’s in Nepal?”
“More like what’s not in Nepal- an extradition treaty with the United States. Once we’re there, we’ll never be bothered again.” Jack’s smirk was sinister.
“Why don’t you just kill me?” I moaned. I meant it, too. I would prefer death over whatever slow torture he planned for me in Nepal.
“Oh, counselor, I have far larger plans for you than death. I know how you love pretending to be married to men who aren’t your husband, so I got us some fake passports. We’ll be traveling as Ethel and Frank Rosenbaum, a husband and wife on a grand tour around the world. Once we’re settled down in Nepal, you’re going to help me cure their women of wickedness. It’ll be much easier to find women if I use a woman to get them, I think,” Jack said contemplatively.
Horror set in. Jack wanted me to be part of his murder plan? I really would prefer death over this. “You’ll never get away with this, Jack, because I won’t go along with your plan. How do you even plan to get me past airport security without me telling everyone I see what you’re doing?”
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