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I yanked on the steering wheel again, but his grip was too tight. Now we were going ninety down the icy road, and if I didn’t back off, we would both be killed when we slammed head first into a tree.
His blue eyes were malicious, unflinching with a lack of fear. Death didn’t scare him. He’d rather make sure the crash killed both of us than risk my getting away. “Let go or we both die.”
A guarantee of death would defeat the purpose of this. So I let go and returned to my seat.
He lifted his foot off the gas.
He slowed us down before we came to a bend in the road. He turned into the curve and kept the van from spinning out of control. Then, like nothing happened at all, we cruised down the path with the piles of snow on either side.
I pressed my forehead against the window and sighed. “Fuck.”
“I admire your bravery. But I don’t admire your stupidity.”
I kept my gaze out the window. “Let me go, and I promise I won’t say anything to my family. We’ll pretend it never happened. You don’t want to be in this situation. If they figure out it was you who killed me, they’ll never stop until you and your whole family are dead.”
“Well, they already killed my family, so that’s one less thing on the list…”
I turned my head back to him. “What?”
He stared straight ahead. “And I don’t care if they come after me. It’ll give me an opportunity to kill the rest. So, no, letting you go isn’t an option. I want them to know I killed you. I want them to suffer. Letting you go would rob me of my vengeance. Trust me, I’m going to kill you. I just have to make it good.”
“But you came across me by accident.”
“Was it on accident?” he said quietly.
My skin pebbled with bumps. “What did my family do to you? They’re peaceful people. You must be confused.”
“No.” He slowed down when he reached a turn in the road. He went right and headed down the weathered path. “I’m definitely not confused.” The tires crunched over the snow as we approached the beach at the lake. The water wasn’t frozen, but at this time of year, the peaks around it were covered with snow. Tourists flocked here every summer, but in the winter, it was abandoned.
There would be no one for miles. My screams wouldn’t make a difference. “What about the man in the back? Was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time?”
“I wouldn’t worry about him. You’re still alive, so I would worry about yourself right now.” He killed the engine then hopped out of the van.
My breathing increased, and I started to panic. I could usually keep my cool even in the worst circumstances, but now that there was no hope, I really felt like my death was imminent. My parents loved me so much, and they would never get over my death. My brother would be devastated too, along with the rest of my family. I didn’t want them to suffer. Even if he drowned me in the ice-cold lake, I wouldn’t suffer as much as they would.
Think, Vanessa.
He opened the backdoor to the van and dragged out the body of his first victim.
I turned in my seat to look at him. “What are you doing?”
“Throwing him in the lake.” He dragged the body over the ground then across the snow toward the water. The keys to the van were in his pocket, so I couldn’t take off. My father never taught me how to hot-wire a car, but I yanked open the compartment underneath the steering wheel and tried. There were lots of wires, and I couldn’t figure out what to cut and what not to cut. I ripped them all out just to be spiteful. After he killed me, I hoped his engine wouldn’t start. Maybe he would freeze to death out here.
Served him right.
When I leaned over, I noticed a small piece of metal under his seat. I glanced out the window to see him dragging the body to the end of the pier. He was almost to the end where he would push the corpse into the lake.
I turned back and grabbed the metal.
It was a gun.
A fucking gun.
Yes.
I sat upright and checked the barrel.
One bullet.
I couldn’t miss.
The man kicked the corpse into the water then turned around. He walked back toward me.
Now that I had some hope in my veins, my hands wouldn’t stop shaking. This moment was about life or death. If I didn’t aim perfectly and hit him right in the heart or the skull, I would blow my only chance.
I wasn’t going to miss.
I waited until he was close to the van before I opened the door and got out. I kept the gun hidden at my side so he wouldn’t notice it right away.
