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“Andrew took me.” Emily’s eyes struggled open. “Not Sebastian. He …” she broke off, wheezing.
“It’s all right.” He pressed the towel harder to her side, but he suspected Emily had already lost too much blood to survive. “Help is coming, you just have to hold on a little longer.”
Emily gave a slight shake of her head. “It’s already too late. Sebastian tried to stop … already too late … Aggie ran … but she was …”
“She was what?” Nick demanded more sharply than he’d intended.
“Her screams …”
Aggie’s screams rang through his head as vividly as if he’d been here when they echoed for real through the cabin. A rage so powerful he could literally feel it wash over him took hold of him, and with it a serene calm. He would kill Andrew. He didn’t doubt it. He had already lost his job, he was already facing possible prison time, he had already lost Aggie, there was nothing else left to lose. Andrew would die, but first he would suffer.
Emily moaned and closed her eyes. “I'm ready to go,” she whispered to no one in particular. Then she gasped, shuddered, and took her final breath.
“Should we do CPR?” Miller crouched beside him.
“She’s lost too much blood, there’d be nothing left to circulate around her body, she's gone.” Still Nick had to force his fingers to uncurl and release the towel. His hands were covered in blood, and he walked slowly to the kitchen sink and rinsed them off. Then he went to the table and picked up the red heart shaped sticky note. On it was a list of pros and cons, obviously written by Aggie about him.
There were at least a dozen cons on her list and only one pro
I love him.
That was it.
The only thing she thought was a positive about their relationship and yet it was a big one. His heart felt like it was seizing in his chest. He’d messed up so badly. Nick was about to tell Miller that he was going to look for Aggie and Andrew when Sebastian groaned and jerked, attempting to stand.
“Aggie? Aggie!”
Dropping down beside Sebastian, he unlocked the handcuffs and helped the man turn over. Sebastian’s pallor was deathly, his eyes unfocused, blood soaked his shirt from a wound to his stomach. Nick doubted the man could last until the ambulance arrived. Miller retrieved another towel and held it to the gushing wound. They both knew it was pointless, but they couldn’t just let Aggie’s father die without doing everything in their power to try to save him.
“Where’s Aggie?” Nick asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Is she hurt?” His eyes found the large pool of blood that stained the hall carpet. So much blood. In his gut, Nick knew it was Aggie’s. He was afraid she was already dead. There seemed to be more blood on the floor than a person could lose and still survive.
“Yes.”
“Do you know how badly?”
Sebastian shook his head. “I didn’t kill them. I didn’t kill anyone.”
“I know.”
“It was Andrew.” Even dulled with pain and impending death his eyes registered shock.
“Do you know where he is?”
“He went after Aggie. He hurt her. She thought it was me,” Sebastian rambled.
“I’ll find her, I’ll make sure Andrew doesn’t hurt her again,” he assured the man.
Nick was just standing up when Sebastian clutched his hand. “Look after her.” He gurgled one last breath and went still.
Aggie’s father’s words reverberated inside him. Look after Aggie. He had to find her before Andrew did. Nothing else mattered to him. So long as he knew that Aggie was safe, he could live with anything.
Ignoring Miller’s calls for him to wait for back-up, Nick went running out into the night.
Look after Aggie.
