to rot. And now you’re going to join her.”
Terrified as I was, I managed to choke out, “You won’t get away with it twice.”
“Oh, but I will,” she said coolly. “Everyone will assume you shot Jimmy, as they do already. And then, when you just disappear, it will look like poor Ward went off the deep end for the second time.”
She laughed evilly, and I gasped, “No!”
Jennifer was going to frame Adam. All the years Adam had spent being the prime suspect in Chelsea’s disappearance, even still was, it was easy to imagine the police would put him through the same kind of hell once I went missing.
“Come on, Fitch,” Jennifer said, pulling me with the arm still wrenched around my neck. “It’s time to take a walk up to the caves and finally put an end to this.”
In a last-ditch effort to stall her, I asked, “What about Ami?”
Jennifer paused and looked down at Ami’s still form. She’d been out for a while so I tried to play on Jennifer’s sympathy. “She should see a doctor,” I uttered in little more than a whisper, since Jennifer’s grip was so damn tight. “She should have woken up by now.”
“She’ll be fine,” Jennifer said. “In fact, this will work out even better. Now, when she shows back up at home, she can claim she hit her head and had amnesia for a few days. Nobody will question it, since they all know she’s a little whacked.”
Jennifer started pulling me toward the door, but I struggled. “Quit it, or I swear, I’ll knock you out before we get to the caves,” she warned.
I was torn on whether to take my chances and continue to struggle, or see if I could get away from her once we left the lighthouse. In any case I knew that if Jennifer succeeded in dragging me up to those caves, I’d be done for.
But I didn’t have to think about it for long, because, out of the darkness, a familiar voice broke through the noise of our scuffle. “Let her go, Jennifer.”
Adam!
I’d never been so happy, and so terrified, all at the same time. I tried like hell to break free but quieted when Jennifer reclaimed her grip, and the gun was once again pressed to my temple. And then I froze completely when I caught sight of Adam in the doorway, his own .38 pointed at Jennifer. But I knew he couldn’t shoot her. It was too risky. If he missed, he might hit me. Even if he did succeed in targeting Jennifer, her gun could still discharge, shooting me. And she must have been thinking the same thing.
“You wouldn’t dare,” Jennifer chided. “If you shoot me, my gun goes off and BAM! Your little girlfriend’s brains are all over the ground.”
Adam winced at Jennifer’s vivid words, but he took a step closer, his gun steady, his eyes never leaving her. “Hold it right there, Ward,” Jennifer warned. “Or I will shoot her, I swear. Don’t test me.”
Adam slowly began to circle the lighthouse interior, his movements shadowing Jennifer’s. Jennifer and I were edged closer to the door. I was sure if she got us out that door, Adam would be on her heels. She wouldn’t get far. She was going to have to rethink her original plan. If she did shoot me, Adam would surely kill her. She had to know that.
“Give it up,” Adam said, echoing this very thing. “Let her go.”
Adam took a slow step to his left, and his foot made contact with Ami’s arm, peeking out from under the stairway. He glanced down ever so quickly, and Jennifer tensed. But Adam was faster, and his gun swiveled back to Jennifer instantly. “What the fuck is she doing here?” Adam growled, referring to Ami.
Jennifer began to chuckle. “You really never knew, did you?”
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
From his expression it was evident Adam had no clue why Ami was lying unconscious on the floor of the lighthouse. As far as he knew, she was just a harmless, unstable girl who worked for him and had recently gone missing. Hell, he liked her so much that he’d even ensured the missing person’s report had gone out early.
Yeah, Adam had not known this tidbit, and in a way I was glad. He hadn’t deceived me, and it proved he’d given Ami the benefit of the doubt, even with her mental problems. But now he was about to find out the truth.
“J.T. wasn’t