“Well?” I ask him again, not meaning to sound hard but now I’m more worried than he is. I need to find her.
“I don’t know, I don’t know!” he shouts back at me, “I called the sheriff and he laughed at me, told me to wait until morning when she comes home, cold, hungry, and asking for gas money.”
I growl with disapproval.
“Where would she go?” I ask him again, standing up and looming over him, feeling like I could squeeze the answer out of him if I have to wait another second.
He takes a sharp breath in and his eyes light up for a moment.
“No,” he concludes. “She wouldn’t have, she couldn’t… It’s miles into the woods. Her car wouldn’t be able to get up there,” he adds with some conviction.
“Where?” I growl again, wanting to reach for his throat.
“Uh, the cabin in the woods we used to go to when she was a kid. Before her mother…” he falls awfully quiet awfully quickly.
“We haven’t been there in fifteen years, I doubt she’d even-”
I grab him by the arm, yanking him to his feet. “Where?” I snarl at him, watching him gulp before he mumbles something about showing me the way.
I dress quickly but sensibly, grateful I packed jeans and boots as well as a waterproof coat for my trip to Woods End.
Bob Newland’s already looking like he’s suffering from exposing himself to the elements. I grab a couple of blankets from the closet and some more towels for him, informing him we’ll take my car.
“I have a flashlight,” he offers, and I wait impatiently for him to grab whatever gear he wants to take from his car before we head off, the rain really coming down now.
“It never gets like this, not this time of year,” he mumbles as he sniffs to himself, giving me short and silent directions as we go, which roads to take that lead us out of town and past the woods, up into the hills beyond.
“I’m sorry for snapping at you,” he finally says. “I know you couldn’t possibly have designs on Krystal. It’s a stupid thing to say. I just thought… Well, with you running for Mayor and all I guess I felt threatened on both fronts. Like I said, stupid, huh?” he asks, his teeth starting to chatter as I flick the heating on for his benefit.
I don’t say a word, just follow his directions until I feel the car sliding on the mud-soaked track that leads up to the old cabin in the woods.
Hoping, praying this isn’t really where Krystal’s been driving but knowing deep in my heart that she has.
That she’s in trouble and she needs me.
Hang on baby, I’m coming.
Chapter Nineteen
Krystal
The rain gets heavier and the thunder closer.
Parked on the shoulder of the road just outside of the town limits, I have some choices to make.
I’m so tired though, mentally and emotionally. It’s an effort to keep my eyes open with them stinging from my tears.
Groaning to myself, I remember my unstable finances too. I have the emergency credit card, but that’ll only last so long.
I haven’t thought any of this through at all.
I should just turn around, go back to James, apologize, and hope he can help me.
But there’s a stubborn streak in me I probably get from my dad. Even when I’m wrong or know I’m overreacting I still have to be right.
And who are they anyway? Dad telling me how to live my life and James acting like he can just have anything he wants at any cost.
A loud crash of thunder overhead makes me jump, shattering my nerves and making it a lot harder to stay mad at the only people who can help me.
I’ll show them though. I’ll show both of ‘em.
Let’s see how they get on without Krystal Newland for a while, a few days at least.
Let’s see dad win his election, James having his own way all the time…
Maybe they can come running to me for a change.
I decide to make for the only secret place I know that even dad wouldn’t think of look for me if it’s still there.
A cabin in the woods we own, we used to go there every summer when my mom was around. Since she left it’s been boarded up.
It’s either that or spending the night shivering in my car with no heating and a roof that I’ve just discovered leaks.
“Cabin in the woods it is,” I tell myself aloud, jumping again as the storm outside agrees with me, sending another crash of thunder with sheets of lightning that light up the whole sky.
I can make out the hills for a second, so I know I’m heading in the right direction at least.
I’m low on gas and the higher I get into the hills, the slippery road gives way to a skidding mudslide where the track should be.