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Then I stride back so that I’m standing in front of her again. After loosening the strings on the bag, I yank it off her head.
She blinks against the bright headlights that are now shining directly in her eyes. In those blue-gray storm-swept eyes that I will never forget for as long as I live. It’s her. It is her.
Once her eyes have adjusted, she flicks her gaze around, taking in her surroundings. Dread washes over her features as she looks back at me again.
“Please,” she whispers.
“Six years ago,” I begin, my voice hard and merciless. “Why did you do it?”
She yanks helplessly against the handcuffs trapping her to the tree. “Why did I dowhat?”
“Where are the others?”
Confusion and desperation shine on her entire face as she stares back at me with big pleading eyes. “Whatothers? Please, Rico—”
“Why are you here now?”
“Because you’re an obsessive lunatic who can’t even see that he’s wrong!” she screams back at me with such force that a bird flaps away in panic a short distance from us. Then her mouth drops open, and alarm crackles over her features instead. “I’m sorry.” Desperation bleeds into her voice as she shakes her head. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. Please don’t hurt me.”
I want to scream in frustration. Because she’s so fucking convincing. This damn girl is making me question everything. My memory. My intelligence. My skills. Everything. She’s making me question everything and she’s driving me fucking crazy. BecauseI am right. I know it.
“Answer my questions,” I order. “Or I will leave you here.”
“I don’t—”
“Indefinitely.”
Her eyes go wide. Flicking a terrified glance at the forest around her, she licks her lips and then swallows. Visibly. When she speaks again, her voice is back to that soft pleading tone. “Please don’t.”
“Answer my questions. Why did you do it? Where are the others? And why are you here now?”
Tears well up in her eyes. “I don’t understand what that means. Please. I will answer whatever questions you want, but I don’t understand what you’re asking! So please, just tell me what you want me to say and I’ll say it.”
Again, that seed of doubt tries to sprout in my chest. I stomp it down, grinding it underneath my boot until it’s nothing but dust.
I let out a harsh laugh and flick a cold glance up and down her body. “Fine. Have fun out here. Imightcome back tomorrow night. If I do, you’d better have some answers for me then. Or we’ll do this the next night too. And then the next. And the next.”
Fear floods her features as she looks down at her bare legs and feet, and then out at the silent trees around her. Metallic rattling echoes into the forest as she yanks against her handcuffs again.
“No, wait!” she calls.
I just turn around and start walking back to my car.
“You can’t do this,” she yells after me. “Rico! Please. You can’t do this.”
I keep walking.
“Rico! Please. I’m begging you. Don’t leave me here.”
Opening the car door, I slide into the driver’s seat while Isabella continues begging me not to leave her. I just throw the door shut and make a sharp U-turn on the road. And then I drive away.
Ashortdistance.
Once I’m certain that Isabella has seen me drive away in the direction of Blackwater, I park the car on the side of the road and turn it off. Sneaking into the woods, I silently move through the trees until I’m back where I left Isabella. She’s still standing there, handcuffed to the tree, but she’s not shouting anymore.
Quietly lowering myself to the ground, I settle down to watch her.
And then I wait.
