Page 58

The Night of the Abduction

N icole followed Casey as he drove from the beach parking lot.

An odd thrill filled her chest from what she’d just witnessed.

She knew Megan McDonald, at this moment, was terrified.

And it served her right. Everything in her life had been handed to her.

There had never been anything to challenge her or derail the perfect cadence of her life from grade-school star to high school princess and soon to college genius and medical-school scholar and eventually a physician who saved the world.

No one should get everything they want in life.

So badly Nicole longed to be in Casey’s car, listening to Megan cry and plead.

But they both agreed it was too risky. Surely, Megan would identify Nicole, even with the burlap over her head.

Should Nicole talk or laugh, as she was certain to do, the ruse would be over.

It was a better option to follow Casey to the old brewhouse where the club’s meetings had taken place.

There, Nicole could watch from afar and muffle her laughs as Casey dumped her in the shed and slid the heavy latch down across the door.

The same shed the club had used for Nicole’s initiation weeks before.

When they finally let Megan go, it would take the princess an hour to find her way out of the Cove, and though Nicole would never have the satisfaction of telling Megan she had been the one who organized the prank, she would certainly enjoy the aftermath. Matt could comfort her all the way to Duke.

“Where the hell are you going?” Nicole said to herself when Casey turned left at Junction Avenue and headed to the other end of West Bay. The old Coleman’s Brewery building was in the other direction.

She picked up her phone and called him. He didn’t answer.