Holy shit, it worked!
Tossing the discarded rope to the side, she yanked the extinguisher free and spun on her heels to make a run for it. When she did, Ellie came face-to-chest with the last person she ever expected to see.
“Neil?” She froze in place. “What are you…you know what? It doesn’t even matter. Listen, some jerk abducted me from the garage by the bridal shop, and he brought me here, and I’m pretty sure he shot one of my friends, and…” Her voice trailed off when she caught the expression on his pretty boy face.
The man was smiling. Not a “Hey, El. Good to see you” kind of smile. No, this one was cold. Calculated. And it chilled her to her bones.
“D-did you hear what I said?” she asked, still trying to make sense of the bizarre encounter. “A man kidnapped me, and he shot Nat, and”—her gaze lifted to the wide-open space behind him. “I don’t know who he his, or when he’s coming back, so we really need to—”
“I know who he is.” Neil took a step forward, forcing her to take an equally large step back. “I also know where he is.”
“Y-you do?” She glanced around again. “Well, good. That’s great, actually. He must’ve taken my phone, because it’s not in my pocket, but if you could use yours to call the police, then—”
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen.” He was still staring down at her with that eerie, soulless smile. “You see, the man who took you worked for me.”
He what?
“For you?” Ellie blinked. “You mean, like…at the D.A.’s office?”
“No, sweetheart. I mean, I hired him.” He took another step.
She moved opposite him again, hoping to keep from invading her personal space. This was wrong. Everything about this was wrong.
It’s him. Neil. He’s the one.
Everything within her fought the horrifying notion. But with his very next words, a man she’d gone out with on numerous occasions in the past…a man she’d allowed into herbed…vanquished any and all doubts that he was the one who’d been terrorizing her this entire time.
“You shouldn’t have shut me out, El.” Neil shook his head with a tsk. “We had a good thing going, Eloise. We had fun together…we have a lot in common. I fell in love with you the first night we were together. I didn’t tell you that, of course. Didn’t want to scare you away before you got the chance to get toknow me. But I did.” He nodded. “I still do. That’s why it hurt so bad to see you with him.”
“H-him?” she played dumb.
“Lucky.” The name came out as a curse. “What a ridiculous name for a grown man. If you can even call him that.”
“You know Lucky?” How the hell could he possibly know him?
“I know enough. I saw you dancing with him the other night. For Christ’s sake, Eloise. The man acted like a juvenile.” His dark blond brows fell inward. “What could you possibly see in him?”
She blinked, still struggling to process what was really happening. “I-I…Lucky and I are friend, Neil. That’s all.”
“Don’t lie to me!”
The back of his hand struck her cheek so hard that Ellie nearly tumbled off the covered dock and into the water. She cried out, her palm immediately going to the tender area—the same part of her face that had already been struck before.
That’s definitely going to leave a mark.
“I saw you with him. The way you two moved together like you were fucking right there on the dance floor. And what about today, huh? You told me you were seeing someone, remember? That it was, what word did you use…monogamous?”
Well yeah, now she remembered that conversation.
Fuck, fuck fuckityfuck.
“You’re right,” she decided to play into his ego. “I-I did lie today. I told you I was seeing someone, but I’m not. Lucky and I are just friends. He only took me dancing to help get my mind off of everything that had happened.”
“And what about us? What’s the truth there?”
The truth is, you’re a freaking psychopath.
“The truth is, wedidhave a good thing, Neil,” Ellie lied through her terrified teeth.