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The man smiled and shook his head. “Oh, hell. Hold up. Noah took your Gram to her doctor today, didn’t he? Shit. I totally forgot.”
“Yeah. They won’t be back until early evening, depending.”
“I bet you’re a little nervous.” He approached me, his face full of compassion. “It must be hard to think your grandmother might be crippled for life.”
I narrowed my eyes at his wording. I hadn’t expected the cruel stab. It seemed out of character.
When Jay stopped in front of me, his demeanor changed. Any kindness in his eyes disappeared as if a light switch had been thrown, and his features muted to blank. Tiny hairs on the back of my neck prickled and I took an instinctive step back. Something was wrong.
He countered with a step forward, and smiled. “Everything okay, Klahanie?”
“Um, yeah. I just need to get going.” My heart elevated from calm sea, to thrashing like an animal in a trap. I didn’t understand what was happening, but I trusted my gut. “You know how it is. Work at the farm is never ending.”
“Yeah. I can see that.” Jay turned his body as if to walk the way he’d come, but jerked back, his hand raising. I had a second to note he grasped something within his fist, when he hit me across the temple. Shock and surprise stole any vocal reaction, and I fell hard. Bleary, I watched him approach again, and tried to push myself back and away. Unfazed, he leaned down, grabbed a fistful of my hair to pull me up, and struck me again. This time I blacked out.
****
When I opened my eyes, my vision remained blurry for way too long until I managed to blink them clear. My head thudded in pain, but I attempted to ignore it, intent on figuring my way out of whatever I’d landed in.
I tried to focus on my surroundings.
I’d been dropped on the floor in an old kitchen, dirty linoleum beneath me, water-stained ceiling above. Some kind of stench wafted around me, reminiscent of mildew and death. Peeling fruit-covered wallpaper draped the perimeter of the room, leaving huge rectangular gaps where appliances once stood. A counter stretched the length of one wall, ending at a battered aluminum door that looked like something stolen from a trailer. I had no idea where the hell I was, but I fixated on the exit.
“Yup, there’s the door. You just need to get by me.” Jay stepped from the alcove separating the kitchen from what I presumed was the living area, his face stretching thin between blank and amiable.
Terror and confusion shredded my insides, but I swallowed and cleared my throat. “Where am I?”
“Oh, not far from your honey’s house. Not far at all.”
The cabin just beyond Noah’s place?
“I… don’t under—why are you doing this?” My words, inside and out, felt and sounded fragmented.
“You wouldn’t. Of course, you wouldn’t understand.” He stepped close and crouched down next to me. “Now, you’re going to want to scream. I know there aren’t any people living on this end of the island, well, aside from your boyfriend, but you need to control yourself. You need to keep it down. If some visiting hiker comes to investigate, they’ll die. It’s that simple.”
I stared at him, shaking my head in jerks.
“I’m going to help, though. This time only.” He grabbed me. One hand clamped down on my mouth, while the other wielded something shiny. A second later, searing pain zapped my right thigh and I stared, incredulous, at the knife buried to the hilt. I didn’t even try to scream, but I bucked upward, the pain reaching a crescendo as my shocked nerves reacted. Jay held tight until I slumped.
“Good girl. Not a peep. I’m impressed.”
My head tilted against the floor, gaze on the knife sticking out of my leg. I reached for it.
“I wouldn’t do that, if I were you.”
I shifted a tiny bit to look up at my false-friend. I didn’t say anything, but my question must have been obvious.
“I hit the artery. I always do. If you yank that blade, you’ll bleed out in minutes. Think of it as a plug, or cork.” He sighed, eyes slipping to the side in thought. “Most take my word for it. Some didn’t, and they died quickly, but badly. I made sure of it.”
I expected to bubble up to the top from a vicious nightmare, but the pain and terror were too bright, too …real. Denial had evaporated in the face of concrete evidence and thought. I was going to die today.
Chapter Forty-One
Jay stood and stared down at me.
“You know something? I’m not sure if you’ll believe it, but I didn’t really want it to be you. At least, not at first. But when I snagged you in my trap last month, I realized it wasn’t an accident. It was fate. You were a gift, a challenge. Could I hunt within my own? I wasn’t sure. People like me don’t usually shit where we eat. It’s dangerous. But since I’m home now, and I don’t plan on going anywhere, I figured this situation would eventually come up.” He smiled, but the lack of pretense gave him a hungry, feral look. “I expect my time might be coming to an end, but I’m going to see how far I can push, watch the repercussions, observe the fear when folks realize there’s a predator on the island. Eventually, they’ll know it’s one of their own, but until then.” He shrugged.
“You’ve got a wife and a kid…”
