Wicked Man (11 page)

can hack you too, motherfucker.”

He gave a slightly maniacal laugh.

****

through a wall of cows on some backwoods road. He tied to swim

through the feed and get back to where he’d last been, but he was re-

routed back to the same God damn fucking camera where cows were

the main attraction. He checked the IP address and discovered he was

lurking in Costa Rica.

Somehow … he’d been beaten.

Someone out there had beaten him at his own hacking game.

The thought was mind boggling, and had he’d been told that

some fucker out there could shut him down, he would’ve laughed his

buzz off. Instead, he sat in the run down shithole of a home base,

staring at a computer screen filled with fucking cows.

With a scream of impotent rage, he picked up his laptop and

threw it. It hit the wall with a heavy thud and the sound of glass

breaking as his screen cracked apart. Seeing the destruction of his

favorite laptop only pissed him off more, and he stood, pacing as his

anger grew with every step. This was Abbott’s fault. If she’d played

by the rules like she always had before he wouldn’t have lost his

laptop, but she’s found herself a bodyguard and now she was out of

his reach.

Or was she?

He knew where she’d gone because he was able to track her

and Chadwick Edwards as they headed toward Rider’s Pass. She

couldn’t stay there forever, could she? She’d have to leave at some

point.

Maybe … maybe he’d just go retrieve her instead of waiting.

He hadn’t done something like that before. Maybe it was time to end

things after all.

Abbott sat on Piper’s front porch shucking corn yet again and

smiling as she watched some of the kids play in the field. Mostly

younger, there was one teenager designated to watch them, although

from the looks of it the girl was more interested what was on her

phone.

This was life she’d always dreamed about. Stability. Peace.

The fact that this was a community with people around to help at the

drop of a hat was just an added bonus. Unfortunately, Abbott knew

this was the kind of life she may never have. Not with Billy always

hovering in the background ready to strike. She had no doubt that he

was behind the snake incident and the minute she left this protected

area, he could strike at any moment. What would he do next? Target

Wick? The Forgotten Rebels? It had always been in her mind but

now, it was a reality and she had to do what was necessary to protect

the club, not to mention, herself.

For one moment, she allowed the sadness and grief to fill her.

Coming home had been everything she’d ever dreamed about. Seeing

Wick again had healed a wound that had festered way too long. And

for one brief second, she had a glimpse of what life could be like.

Wick talked about forever but she was a little more practical. Billy

was the monster hiding in her closet, only appearing when everyone

was asleep. Tormenting her when no one could see. She never knew

when or where he’d strike.

“Kevin!” called one of the children, bringing her out of her

morose reflection.

Abbott looked at the kids, not seeing the babysitter around. A

handful of the younger kids were gathered at the edge of the cornfield.

“Kevin! Come out!”

Abbott placed the corncob she was holding on the ground and

stood. Looking at the rows of tall stalks, she couldn’t see any little

boy. She hurried from the porch over to where the kids stood.

“What happened?”

One little girl pointed. “Kevin went in there.”

Abbott’s heart sank. The corn was as tall as she was, there was

no way to see little Kevin at all.

“Okay,” she said. “One of you go get your mom or dad and

tell them about Kevin. I’m going to go in and look for him. All the

others stay here. Don’t wander off, got it? We don’t need to be

looking for you too.”

The kids nodded solemnly and one boy turned and ran off

toward a house. His own, Abbott assumed. She took a deep breath and

entered the neat rows of corn stalks, looking for a lost child. After

this, she didn’t think she could eat corn on the cob again.

As she moved deeper into the maze-like grid, she kept calling

Kevin’s name. Light struggled to get past the unfolded leaves, causing

the area near the ground to be cooler and denser to see through. A

rustle came from her left and she spun, straining to look through the

shadows.

“Kevin? Is that you?”

A cloth covered her mouth and nose, and just like that the

world faded from around her.

****

how much Abbott had gotten done, only she was gone. A half-

finished ear sat on the ground near the chair.

“Abbott?” she called out.

“She went in there,” a little girl called out.

Piper looked at the children and saw the girl pointed toward

the cornfield. Unease slithered through her belly.

“Why did she go in there?”

“We thought Kevin was in there.”

Piper saw Kevin playing in the dirt, covered head to toe.

Ignoring him, she hurried to where the little girl pointed.

“Abbott?” she yelled.

No response. The unease turned into dread and all her instincts

screamed at her that something was off. Maybe it was residual panic

left over from her own stalking days, but she couldn’t ignore the

warning bells going off in her brain. Spinning, she rushed past a

concerned parent as she hurried to the computer lab behind the

grandstand.

Ignoring everyone, she ran as fast as she could, through the

house and out the back, up to Mac’s house. She threw open the door

to see Kix, Slade, and her brother.

Kix surged to his feet. “What’s wrong, Piper?”

“Abbott’s missing,” she gasped, panting from her sprint.

****

Wick hadn’t even realized he had stood, or was falling, until

Slade caught him. “What? What do you mean missing?”

“She went into the cornfield,” she said. “I don’t feel right

about this, Kix. Something is off.”

“By your house?” Mac asked.

“Yes.”

“Hold on, I have a camera covering your property.”

Mac began punching his keyboard and several camera angles

changed. Wick realized he was looking at Kix and Piper’s house from

different angles. Then another monitor began to whip through stills

until it came to one focused on a dirt road. Wick had no idea where

that camera happened to be but he saw a car parked some distance

away. It was too tiny to see any detail or markings, but what he did

see made his blood freeze.

A man had emerged from the cornfield, and over his shoulder

was a body.

Abbott.

“No,” Wick whispered achingly.

“Holy shit,” Kix muttered. “He was on our fucking property!”

The man put Abbott in the car, walked around to the driver’s

side, and then the car drove forward. Right past the camera. Mac

halted the image and enhanced the front bumper to get the license

plate number.

“She has the cell phone you gave her,” Wick said. “Ping it.

Find her.”

Mac rolled over to another keyboard but nothing happened.

He executed the command again, but still, nothing.

“She must be out of range,” Mac said.

“Range?” he asked.

Mac nodded. “I can turn on the locator chip within a five mile

radius. He’s already past that.”

Wick felt crushed, like he’d been flung into the ocean ready to

swim, only to be dashed apart on the rocks below.

“Do you think he took her back to Stevens?” Kix asked him,

but his brain was still struggling with the knowledge that Abbott was

gone.

No, not gone.

Taken.

“Wick!” Kix shouted and shoved his shoulder.

Wick blinked and focused on him. “Uh … yeah. It would

make sense. I mean, we’re all from there.”

Kix nodded. “Then that’s where we’ll head. Mac, you’re

coming with us. If you can turn on that fucking phone within five

miles we’ll have that bastard.”

It was a plan and right then Wick really needed the

levelheadedness Kix brought to the table, because he couldn’t fucking

think. He could barely breathe. If anything happened to her … he

couldn’t even contemplate the rest of that thought.

Flashes cascaded through her brain. Lights. A sense of

moving. Something was wrong, deadly wrong, but her head hurt too

much to think about it. It was easier to keep her eyes closed and drift

along in the darkness because she was fairly certain that whatever it

was that felt off was something she didn’t want to face.

She drifted back into the warm embrace of nothingness. Every

once in a while, she brushed along the edges of wakefulness, only to

drift back to sleep. It was hard to escape the confines of oblivion.

Abbott came slowly back to awareness. The back of her head

hurt and when she tried moving her arm to touch the sore spot, she

realized her hands were constricted. Opening her eyes, she saw she

lay on a bed, in a shabby room where paint peeled from the walls and

a faint trace of decay lingered in the air.

As she glanced down at herself, relief hit her that she was still

dressed. Her clothes hadn’t been touched or removed. Her wrists were

zip tied together and as she tried moving them, the plastic dug into her

skin. Her legs were unbound, so she cautiously sat up, wincing as the

pain in her head blazed like white fire. Gritting her teeth against the

pain, she instead concentrated on where the hell she was and how the

hell to get free. Because it was a predicament she’d been in before,

she didn’t panic.

She knew who held her. She’d recognize Billy’s handiwork

anywhere.

The tears she’d once had for being at the mercy of a madman

didn’t come. Yes, she was scared, but she was more pissed than

anything. He’d stolen eleven years of her life. He was trying to take

away her future.

Love for Chadwick welled up in her heart. In her soul. It

obliterated any remaining guilt and fear still lurking in her mind. She

knew, without a doubt, Wick wouldn’t rest until he’d found her. Save

her. But this time, she was just as determined to prove that she wasn’t

the weak-willed girl anymore that she once was.

Standing up, nausea temporarily gripped her and she bent over

to retch any remaining food left in her stomach. Vaguely she knew

that vomiting after a head trauma wasn’t a good sign, but she’d be

damned if she stayed in the room like a helpless lamb to slaughter.

She wiped her mouth against her hand to get rid of the lingering

drool, and then took a few deep breaths. It helped. First things first,

she had to find something to cut the binding around her wrists.

No doubt Billy was nearby, resting on his laurels that he’d

captured her. She’d always cowered from him before, so he probably

doubted she’d give him too much fuss. Slowly turning the bedroom

knob, she eased the door open, wincing a little as it squeaked. She

peeked out, making sure the coast was clear before stepping into the

hallway.

The rest of the house was just as down-trodden as the bedroom

she’d been in. Carpet worn through in places. The outline of pictures

that used to be there stained the walls. Dust sat thick on the

baseboards. Everything had a stale, unused quality about it. She

walked slowly toward the front of the house, carefully placing her

footfalls and testing for any creaking boards before applying all of her

weight. A staircase curved up on the right, and there was something

vaguely familiar about the interior. A memory tickled the back of her

mind.

As she came to the first doorway, she glanced in. A bathroom

that had seen better days. Ignoring it, she continued on until she came

to a large archway that led into another room. The living room

perhaps. At the chipped edge of the wall, she cautiously peered inside

and saw Billy standing there, staring at her. Cold hatred poured from

his face.

“You should’ve stayed in the bedroom,” he snapped.

With her heart racing in fear, she faced him fully. “Why,

Billy? Why do you chase after me? Why do you continually try to

find me when all I want to do is live my life?”

He pointed at her. “You know why. I was going to give you

the world, and you fucking stabbed me in the back.”

“A decade, Billy! It was over ten
years
ago. Ordinary men

don’t stalk a girl to death! The choices I made were mine alone. I

don’t
love you. I
don’t
want you. Why can’t you let me go?”

He marched up to her, eyeing his prey, and she backed up

until she hit the wall with her shoulders. She stared up at him in

horror as he glared down.

“Because my son or daughter would be ten years old, Abbott,”

he said in a deceptively soft voice. Standing this close to her,

however, she could see the fury boiling in his eyes. “You gifted me

with your innocence and I took you with me out of this shithole town.

You belonged to me. Our
child
belonged to me. And with one