Page 128 of Tormented
Evan jerks his head back, narrowing his gaze as he looks me over. “Do I know you?”
“Know many people who wish you were dead?” I sass, despite the fact my voice shakes.
He runs his spine-tingling gaze the length of me once more, and then drags a hand over his chin. “Well, you didn’t turn out much like your momma, did you?”
My mind is a jumble of a thousand thoughts and memories, swirling and ricocheting off one another as I scramble to grasp hold of what to do next.
“Who’s this?” Evan jerks his chin toward Sawyer. “You still too fucking scared of me to come on your own?”
I glance over at Sawyer and see him literally bite his lip to save from saying anything. The murder in his eyes reveals the discord is personal, but either Evan is too stupid, or too proud to notice.
“You sorry-looking assholes coming in, or you going to stand on my doorstep like a couple of retards all night?” Evan turns from the door, his baggy T-shirt billowing around his scrawny frame as he moves.
Sawyer’s hand goes to the butt of his gun as we follow over the threshold of the mobile home, and step into the most contradictory room.
Evan stands to the side in the small kitchenette, a fresh beer in his hands. He cracks the top off and jerks his head toward the back half of the home. “You caught me right as I was going down for a siesta.”
I let my gaze roam over the floral pattern on the settee, across the neatly stacked TV trays, and along the crude shelves that house model cars and trucks. It looks as though a retired couple live here, not a sick fucking individual with a history that’s brought two jaded victims to his door.
I want to rush him and slam his skull against the wall until it cracks, yet at the same time I want to hide behind the nearest chair and vomit with fear. I’m stronger than I was physically the last time I saw this asshole, but mentally, I’m seven years old again.
“Take it easy in the rain,” Mum gently requests from the front seat of the car.
I look away as Evan shoots her his warning stare, the one he gives her before he hurts her. “I know how to drive, bitch, so shut your fucking mouth.”
The wheels squeal as we slide a little around a bend in the road. It never feels like this when Momma drives.
“What did she say to you?” Momma asks, so quiet I can hardly hear her.
“That’s none of your business.”
My head hits the door as Evan curses, wrestling the steering wheel. Momma gasps, and I cuddle Flopsy tighter.
Evan drives faster.
The rain is so hard I can hear it as it hits the roof of the car, a rat-tat-tat like fireworks sizzling on the Fourth of July.
“You’re not even worried,” I whisper, angered that Evan casually strides around the place like we’re annoying salespeople he’ll find a way to dispatch with soon enough.
“Should I be?”
If it were Sawyer delivering this fate, then I’d say yes, but am I strong enough to make him suffer? Or will I fold and run faster than that coward Cash?
“Are you even interested in why we’re here?”
“Oh, Abbey,” he groans, getting comfortable in one of the single armchairs. “Only one reason why you’d bring that beefcake over there with you, right?”
I blink.
“How’s he going to do it?” Evan takes a pull of his beer, turning the bottle on his knee before he continues. “Shooting me seems so quick and easy, and I’m guessing you’re a little jaded about how things went down between us, so that won’t be your style.”
“A little?” I scoff, cheek twitching. “Fucking jaded would be a walk in the park compared to how you bloody left me!”
“I left you?” he asks with one eyebrow raised. “Excuse me? Last I remember, you left me.” He leans forward, veins in his neck thick with his anger.
“You think I would have stayed?” My voice remains low and eerily calm.
“You were seven, Abbey. Fucking ballsy of a seven-year-old to run off into the unknown.”