Wondering if Sadie’s question—whatever it was going to be—would antagonize her, I jumped in quickly. “Did a friend take you in and keep you safe?”
“A friend?” she snorted. “I didn’t have any friends. I was called a freak, a ‘Jesus fucker’—”
“I don’t think that’s politically correct,” Sadie mumbled.
Fortunately, she’d said it quietly enough for the woman not to hear her.
“They threw stuff at me, no one wanted to eat lunch with me. I was treated like a freak.”
Shooting Sadie a warning look before she could say anything, I moved my arm to get her attention. “But people like you now, right? I mean, you’re beautiful, and I’m sure you have a lot of friends…” I trailed off, and if I could’ve hit myself, I would have done it hard.
Really, Ariana, that was the best you could come out with?
She wasn’t impressed with it either, because her hand whipped out, and the butt of the gun in it landed hard on my cheekbone. “Don’t try and soothe me, you condescending bitch. What happened then and what’s happening now are because of other people. I’ve been a victim my whole life because of all of you.”
“Uh, I just moved here. I’m not sure I’ve—” This time, the woman hit hard enough with the gun to knock Sadie out.
“I’d like you to meet a friend of mine,” the woman said with an evil smile. “This is Doctor Steve Moodie. Steve, come out and greet my friends, will you.”
A slightly rotund man with about five clumps of hair brushed from one ear over to the other appeared behind her. He was sweating and looked like a bad guy’s assistant in a horror movie. I don’t know exactly what it was about him that made me think that, but I swear to God I could see him sharpening knives and handing them out to a psycho.
“Hello, Ariana. It’s nice to meet you.”
I had no idea what to say back to that. We’d been run over by them, kidnapped, strung up in a rotting house, pistol whipped, and now he was being polite? Totally a psycho’s creepy sidekick.
“Ariana knows our Parker,” the woman purred as she straightened up and stalked over to where he was standing.
Welp, guess that solved the question on who she was interested in when she visited the bar. This was Chantal, Parker’s stepmom, and pedophile bitch from hell. If I hadn’t been tied up, I’d have kicked her in the vagina and punched her in the face.
It took everything I had not to look surprised, but I managed just to give the man a tight smile.
That was until he revealed how he knew Parker.
“I don’t get what women see in him. He was only supposed to be a bargaining tool when you got married. Then you became obsessed with him, and now she’s the same.”
This was the man she’d been involved with that Parker had found out about. That also meant he was the therapist who’d lied. The impulse to hit or throw something at them was insane, but my hands were tied and, even if they weren’t, the only thing available to throw was Sadie. This meant that the only thing I could do was use ugly words, but losing my shit wasn’t going to help us, and it might end up with us getting badly hurt.
I had to bite down so hard on my lip not to scream out at them both that I tasted blood. In front of me were two of the most disgusting human beings I’d ever had the misfortune of hearing about, and now meeting, obviously.
“Darling, don’t get so upset. I’m with you, aren’t I?” she purred, and it took everything I had not to gag when she stroked his chest like she was petting a freaking dog.
“Only because of what he did. If he hadn’t stopped you and then moved away, you’d still be trying.”
I so wanted not to say it, but it just poured out. “She’s been following him since he left for college. She even waited outside the hospital in Piersville for him and then kept coming into the bar I work in to see him and ask questions.”
Chantal spun in a move that I swear I’ve only seen in horror movies and glared at me. “Shut your fucking mouth.”
Using her focus on me to his benefit, the man pulled a gun out of the back of his waistband that was about three times the size of the small one she was holding. “Hmm, I’m finding this all very convenient for you, darling. Remind me what my role was meant to be tonight?”
Looking from his face to the gun, totally unphased by it, she smiled sweetly at him. How she could flip emotions and facial expressions from one extreme to the other so quickly was unnerving. Then again, so were two people waving guns around after you’d just been hit by their vehicle, kidnapped, and strung up in a fucking building.