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CHAPTER18
FIONA
Fiona caught the keys and opened the door, wondering if she could get it closed between them. The muzzle of the gun poked her between the shoulder blades.
“Don’t even think about it. And don’t try anything funny when you’re driving.”
“Where am I going?”
“Head north out of town.”
Not knowing what else to do, Fiona drove out of Angel’s Rise heading north. Dread grew and roiled in her gut. She was pretty damn sure they were headed for the falls.
“Go up to the upper parking area and park at the far end.”
“Why, Diane? I don’t understand.”
“You don’t need to understand. Just do what I tell you.”
Once she’d parked the car, Fiona shoved the keys in her pocket, hoping to delay any escape Diane was planning.
“Hand ‘em over,” ordered Diane. “I’m going to need those.”
“Do you really just expect me to hike somewhere so you can kill me?”
“I figure you don’t have much of a choice. But you’re such a freaking optimist, I’ll bet you’re trying to plan some kind of escape or hope that Slade Rafferty will save you. For the record, I had the same hopes and dreams. I even managed to be waiting to get into school in Coronado so I could be waiting for him when he and his unit returned.”
“I thought you went to Columbia.”
“Only after Slade made it clear that while he wouldn’t mind fucking me, he had no interest in, as he put it, ‘settling down with a girl from Angel’s Rise.’ Keep moving,” Diane said, shoving Fiona ahead. Fiona stumbled. “God, you’re such a klutz. You know, I was so sure my destiny was to be Mrs. Rafferty and lord it over this town…”
“But Slade didn’t want the family business or its fortune…”
“Yeah, but by the time I realized even a degree from Columbia wouldn’t impress him, his kid sister got knocked up and she married the guy. Then there’s his gay brother. So, I got stuck here. Move it.”
Fiona continued to climb up the slippery slope and sliding rock. Her pretty boots that she’d bought on a girl’s weekend in Portland with Jessica, Christie, and Lori were not the ideal footwear to hike up the side of a cliff. But had she been wearing proper shoes, she might have made better time, and she didn’t want that. Fiona was intentionally dragging her feet, trying to stall and maybe, just maybe, talk her way out of whatever it was Diane had planned.
“I can’t believe you want to hurt me…”
Diane gave a snort of derision. “Why not? When did you ever do one thing for me?”
“What did I ever do to hurt you?” she challenged. “We played volleyball together and tennis.”
“So what? I was the captain of both those teams, and you were the person in charge of making sure we had towels. You were nothing to me. And then when you hit it relatively big as an author before you blew it on your ex, you wouldn’t even let me do an exclusive that I might have been able to use to get me out of here. Why did you stay with that jerk? God, he had a pencil-sized dick and not a clue as to how to please a woman.”
Fiona kept thinking she ought to react or at least to feel something, but she didn’t. It wasn’t just the cheating that had made her file for divorce. It was all the years she told herself she was happy and that he was a good husband. She wondered if she’d ever been happy. The day of her wedding, she’d driven herself to the little chapel. Fiona could remember as if it were yesterday that little voice whispering in her ear,‘Don’t do it.’ She should have listened.
“I’ll have to agree with you there. He wasn’t much in the romance department.”
Diane shook her head. “Do you think I care? I only did it so you could find out. You didn’t even bother to find out it was me.”
“Honestly, who he cheated with wasn’t as important as the fact that he cheated.”
Diane rolled her eyes and motioned Fiona forward with the gun. “God; you are such a goodie two shoes. If I’d known it didn’t matter, I’d have hired a hooker, taken pictures, and sent them to you.”
Fiona stopped and turned to confront Diane. “What the hell did I ever do to you? You’re right. You were the untouchable, perfect blonde bitch goddess from hell. You, and your goon squad, also known as our cheerleaders, took every opportunity to bully and harass me. All I ever wanted was to be like you.”
“That was never going to happen, and you couldn’t take a hint. Even when we were awful to you, you just slunk away and never said anything to anybody, except Daniel.”
