Page 65

CHAPTER

SIXTY-FIVE

Maddie screamed as she watched Josh disappear.

Then, in an instant, Adrienne turned toward her, gun raised. The malice still remained in her eyes.

“Now to take care of you.” Adrienne reached into her pocket and pulled out something.

A needle.

No doubt full of drugs of some sort.

“You don’t want to do this.” Maddie took a step back, careful to head away from the cliff.

“But I do.” Adrienne smiled, her eyes gleaming with hatred. “Haven’t I made myself clear yet?”

“Adrienne . . . there are better ways.”

“Not everyone is a Goody Two-shoes like you are,” she said. “And look where it’s gotten you? Nowhere. You’re the laughingstock of everyone here. At first they thought you were a prude. Now they think you’re a killer.”

Maddie tried to glance over the cliff. She expected to hear Josh hitting the rocks below.

She hadn’t.

What if he had caught onto a branch or a ledge? What if there was still a chance he was alive?

Maddie stared at Adrienne’s gun. Then at the needle.

Could she take Adrienne?

She wanted to think that she could. But she wasn’t sure.

Maybe she should at least try. She couldn’t go down without a fight. If there were scratches or cuts or bruises on her body, then the police would probably ask more questions.

Adrienne would probably tell them that Maddie and Josh had gotten into a fight and that was what they were from.

Still, she had to do something.

She swung her leg out and kicked the gun.

Only it didn’t fall out of Adrienne’s hand. She held the weapon too tightly.

But the barrel did swing away from her.

When it did, Maddie lunged at her. Tackled her to the ground.

Adrienne was surprisingly strong. She flipped over until she was on top of Maddie.

The malice in her eyes turned into a fiery hatred. “You weren’t supposed to do that, nice little Maddie.”

Adrienne let out a guttural, primeval sound.

Then she raised her fist and jammed it in into Maddie’s jaw.

Pain ripped through her.

She closed her eyes, wanting to disappear from this moment.

But she couldn’t.

She had to fight until the end.

But Adrienne had her fully pinned down.

Somehow, the woman had managed to grab that syringe again.

Maddie tried to move. To get from beneath her before she could plunge that drug into her system and Maddie lost control of her thoughts and actions.

But she couldn’t move.

Something about the way Adrienne had her pinned rendered her immobile.

Even as much as she wiggled, it did no good.

Adrienne raised the syringe. “Say goodbye to life as you know it, princess.”

Then she swung the needle down, ready to plunge it into Maddie’s skin.