Page 50 of Wicked Ends (Hellions of Hade Harbor #4)

Arianna

I didn’t call Marcus again. I didn’t want to risk him getting caught up in all of this. Dale was dangerous. He had nothing to lose. He could hurt Marcus, or Kenna, or any other innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire, and then they’d have been hurt because of me. I couldn’t stand the thought.

Instead, I drove into town and parked outside the hardware shop and waited for it to open.

I must have fallen asleep at the wheel in the lot, because one second, I was looking out at the quiet street, watching the shops gently waking on a lazy Maine Sunday, and the next, there was someone rapping lightly on my window.

I shot upright and nearly screamed at the pain that slammed into me from my ribs.

Wade stood outside the car. I rolled down the window.

“Morning, Anna. This is a nice surprise. I didn’t think anyone waited at the hardware store on a Sunday except for people like me, the terminally single in their forties.”

“I need to grab a few things,” I managed to get out, a huge yawn cracking my jaw.

“Well, we’ve got half an hour. I’m buying you a cup of joe at the diner. No complaints.” Wade stepped back and waited.

I didn’t have the fight in me right now to refuse him. I had only enough fight in me to end things with Dale.

I got out, not wanting to cause a scene. It hurt so much I had to breathe through my mouth, as carefully as I could. My ribs were definitely broken. I knew the feeling well, but I’d survived worse.

I walked slowly to the diner, while Wade pretended not to notice that I was basically shuffling, and kept up a running one-sided conversation at my side.

Inside the Chickadee Diner, I sank gratefully into the overstuffed booth and collapsed against the back.

A waitress bustled to us immediately, and we ordered.

“You don’t want food?” Wade asked.

I shook my head. The pain had blunted my appetite. I was hoping I could keep coffee down.

Wade continued to talk about a lecture he’d attended recently in New York by a famous writer.

I pretended to listen. I couldn’t get Dale’s hateful face out of my head.

He wasn’t dead. I’d never been more disappointed to find out someone was alive.

At first, I’d been sure the police were about to descend on me from all sides, as I pumped gas or checked into a motel during my long slog across the country.

As soon as Claire and Lulu had walked away from me in a dusty bus station in the Midwest, destined to go our separate ways to make it harder to find us, I’d been able to breathe easier.

But still, there’d been nothing from California, no sign of life, or death… just nothing.

Why didn’t I go with them to Canada? Because I’d wanted them to have a fresh start. I was pretty sure they never wanted anything to do with me or my family ever again… and if Dale ever caught up with me, I wanted to be able to keep him from them.

I was a person who could never let things pass…

That was why I had pockets full of street trash.

I wanted to leave the world better than I found it, and I wanted to help people.

I loved Claire and Lulu, and after what they’d gone through with Dale, I’d wanted to save them.

I’d felt responsible for them, and now, I was the only thing standing between them and Dale.

It had to end here, in Hade Harbor, no matter what.

“Sorry, what?” I asked Wade, when I finally noticed that he’d gone quiet and was waiting for me to answer him.

“I asked you how you’re finding Hade Harbor so far? Small towns aren’t for everyone,” he said.

“I-I love it here,” I confessed quietly. It was true. “It feels like it could have been home.”

Wade considered my words, his head tipped slightly to the side. “The professor in me is dying to pick apart that phrasing. Are you leaving, Anna?”

I shrugged. “Who knows what will happen in the future? I never know where I’ll be.”

“I didn’t take you for the nomad type,” he observed.

“Isn’t this one too old for you, Professor?” a gravelly voice said from above us.

I jumped.

A couple stood beside us. He was huge and familiar—Beckett Anderson, the defenseman for the Hellions.

The girl was tiny in comparison, dark and stunning.

She slapped Beckett ineffectually on the arm, and he wrapped a hand possessively around her hip, pulling her against him.

Eve, I remembered her name was. Sister of Asher, another Ice God.

“Beck, behave.”

“I’m just saying. This one isn’t your usual style.” Beckett cocked his head at me. “Good morning, Professor Moore. I’ve been hearing great things about you.”

“About me?” I repeated. My brain felt like it was as bruised as my body.

Beckett nodded.

“From who?” I asked, before I could think through the wisdom of that question.

Beckett grinned broadly, leaving me no room to doubt that it was Marcus.

“Anyway,” the beautiful girl cut in and addressed Wade, “I think my friend on the ice dancing team was waiting for your call yesterday, Professor. She was really disappointed not to get it.”

Wade flushed and cleared his throat. “Well, my office hours are listed on the door, she can try then.”

“Ouch. Cold,” Beckett mocked and turned his eyes back to me. “Do you need a ride somewhere, Professor Moore? We can take you wherever you need to go.”

Yes, please help me.

The urge to utter that very plea was nearly so strong I couldn’t stop it. Take me to Marcus. How I wished I could say it… but the words wouldn’t come. These young people didn’t deserve to get dragged into my mess, and neither did Marcus. The only man in the whole world who had ever loved me.

“I’m good.” I managed a tight smile.

“Are you sure, because this isn’t a good look…” Beckett glanced between us. “I mean, people might misunderstand… if they are the hotheaded, jealous type, I mean.”

A surprising chuckle left me. Wow. Even now, when it felt like I was on the precipice of the end of my life as I knew it, the thought of Marcus could make me laugh.

“It’s fine. We’re just colleagues. Friends. Grabbing a coffee. Nothing more,” I said and smiled at Wade. “Right?”

Wade nodded. “Right, until I manage to convince her to give me a chance, that’s all we are.”

He grinned like he was playing along with some joke, but it only made Beckett’s dark eyes glint. He leaned a hand on the table and stared down at Wade.

“She said you’re just colleagues. That means you’re just colleagues. Got it?”

“Beckett.” Eve tugged at her boyfriend’s arm.

It should have been immovable, given how big he was, but he softened at her touch and let her pull him away.

“What? That fucker’s on thin ice.” Beckett shot Wade another dark glare.

“Have a nice breakfast!” Eve called back as she pushed her boyfriend out of the diner.

Wade chuckled awkwardly in the ensuing silence. “Well, that was odd, but then those Hellions are a little odd.”

“Are they?” I said, barely listening. I caught sight of the clock over the counter and registered the time. The hardware store was open.

I took a few gulps of lukewarm coffee and stood, surprising Wade.

“I’ve got to go,” I said, throwing a few dollars onto the table.

Wade made to rise. “But the food hasn’t come yet,” he pointed out.

“I’m not eating, remember? But you enjoy,” I said quickly and made for the door.

I had a fratricide to plan.

As I had little to no experience with planning on hurting someone, my trip to the hardware store was chaotic and random.

Duct tape and rope, a large tarp, and cleaning fluids.

I was worried how suspicious the shopping list was, but the bored teen at the counter barely blinked and started scrolling through their phone before I’d even finished checking out.

I stuffed my things into a bag and made for the car.

The next stop was the bus station. There had been more than one gun in the bag I’d stolen from The Clutch.

Marcus had taken one, but there should still be another one in there.

There hadn’t been any bullets that I’d seen, but still, it would be good to threaten Dale with.

I could convince him to go with me somewhere…

like the edge of a cliff. The cliff edge above the house that I’d dreamed of renting returned to me.

It was a perfect drop from there to the jagged rocks thirty yards below.

At the bus station, I took the duffel bag out of the locker and into the ladies’ bathroom. Inside a tiny, cramped stall, I opened the bag and searched for the gun. Stacks of hundreds stared up at me.

Money.

Here was all the money that Dale was looking for. I could just give him this, and all my problems would disappear.

No, not all. I’d have stolen from Marcus, the only man to ever care about me. I wouldn’t do that. I wasn’t going to be another person in Marcus’ life who had used him for their own selfish needs. I refused to be.

I took the gun and slipped it into my bag and then returned the duffel to the locker, paying for another few weeks. I needed to get it back to Marcus, but I couldn’t risk taking it to him just now, not with Dale around. It was safest locked up.

After the bus station, I headed back to the motel.

Earl waved at me through the window as I drove by and I waved back.

The dark green pines kissed the blue sky in the distance, framing the motel roof in a picturesque scene.

I got out of the car and breathed in the pine- and salt-scented air.

Tears sprang up behind my lids, and I barely got inside before breaking down.

God, I was going to miss it here. I was going to miss HHU and having a job I loved. I was going to miss the noisy staff room and the hilarious trio of Sally, Bill, and Wade. I was going to miss Kenna so much, and I already knew how worried she’d be about me if I disappeared.

I was going to miss the forests and the jagged rocky coast. I was going to miss the Hellions games and sitting in the rink and watching the goalie on the ice…

I was going to miss him. Marcus. The man I loved. Despite my best efforts, despite it being forbidden, I’d fallen in love for the very first time.

I’d nearly had a life, and it was being ripped away by the man who had already taken so much from me.

And I was done.

I set up a chair behind the door, despite it being locked, and angled it so that it would take effort to dislodge.

I wanted Dale to have to lean into the door to open it.

Maybe that way, if I was waiting behind the door, I could kick the chair out and he’d be off-balance when the door opened.

I planned to hit him with the heavy lamp by the window and then tie him up when he was unconscious.

Then I could use the gun to threaten him… Then?

I didn’t know. I was terrible at this, and none of the odds were in my favor.

If only I could get some bullets without attracting too much attention, but Hade Harbor was a tiny town, and people talked.

Besides, I couldn’t risk having a weapon that could be turned against me.

Dale was a lot more proficient with firearms than I was.

Then I sat and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

A car door slamming outside jolted me awake.

It took a second to remember where I was.

It was the room I’d grown used to at the Night Owl, just from a different angle.

I was sitting on the floor behind the door, the gun loosely gripped in my hand.

My whole body ached, the pain hitting me as soon as I opened my eyes.

It was light outside, that kind of gray light of very early morning.

I grabbed my phone and checked the time.

Four a.m. I’d fallen asleep, and Dale hadn’t come. He hadn’t shown up. I pushed myself to my feet, dizzy for a second from the pain.

Where is he?

I searched my room for any sign that he’d been there when I was asleep, but there was nothing.

Sinking down onto the bed, I checked my phone again.

He hadn’t shown after all those threats?

That wasn’t like Dale at all. He must have been held up; there was no other reason he wouldn’t have come for his money.

Had he been hurt? Gotten in an accident?

No, probably not. I wasn’t that lucky. Maybe he’d decided to go straight to Claire and Lulu, a thought that made me sick to even consider.

Why would he do that when he was threatening me for the money?

It wasn’t in his character to leave money behind, and he’d been confident he could force me to come up with it from somewhere.

He’d be back, I decided. He’d be back, and I’d be ready.

I hid the gun in a bag in the bathroom and then collapsed on my bed. It was Monday. I had classes to get to and a life to pretend to live while I waited… for the end. If I could have a few more days of this perfect, normal life, then I wasn’t going to waste them.