CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
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Brett had lost the feeling in most of her extremities as they continued to slog through the two feet of snow and ice. The nighttime temperatures were below freezing and no one in their right mind should be out here exposed to these elements without the proper clothing. Chad didn’t care, as it was obviously his intention to kill her and Simone, leaving their bodies out here to freeze.
It didn’t matter that she could no longer physically sense her hands and feet. Mentally and emotionally, she was too terrified to cry at the fact that her close friend of so many years was the one responsible for Heidi and Martin’s deaths.
How could this be? How could she have missed all the signs? When had he changed into the animal that was now pushing them deeper into the woods?
It was too difficult for her to wrap her mind around the fact that Chad had somehow become so morally corrupt and completely desperate, enough so that he would kill anyone let alone those he had considered friends for most of his life.
“Ch-Chad, you don’t w-want to do this.” Brett barely got those words out through her chattering teeth. Simone was still a couple of steps ahead of them, though there were some clouds moving in that blocked the moonlight and in turn blended the woman into the shadows. Would she make her move soon? She was a trained agent and no doubt had a plan to get them out of this dangerous situation. “Tell me why, and m-maybe we can find a way out of th-this.”
“Heidi…I don’t know what happened. She couldn’t keep her mouth shut. It’s all her fault. All of it. Damn it!”
Chad pushed Brett so hard in the back that not even her outstretched arms could prevent her from falling forward. She sunk into the cold snow, unable to turn her face away in time from smacking into the heavy white slush that was beginning to harden with the drop in temperature since the sun went down. She scrambled to her knees and turned around quickly in order to protect herself should Chad come at her with the knife.
“Tell me, Chad!” Brett almost fell back again as she tried to get to her feet. Anger bubbled up inside that someone she considered a friend could do something so horrific. She would give anything to be back inside the warmth of her house, but wrapped safely in Coen’s arms most of all. “We can still fix this. We can get you a good lawyer and—”
“Shut up! Just shut up! I can’t go to prison.”
Chad squinted as he tried to look behind her. Brett glanced over her shoulder, seeing nothing that could have garnered his attention. She needed to keep him on track so that Simone could take him by surprise.
Wait.
Where had Simone gone?
“Chad, t-tell me what happened. I need to understand.” Brett needed to distract him for the sake of her and Simone’s life. There had to be a way out of this. “I don’t u-understand.”
“Heidi and I had sex, Brett. Isn’t it obvious? We fucked everywhere we could think of, as often as we could. She just had this way about her that I couldn’t ignore.” Chad didn’t seem to be affected by the weather. As a matter of fact, there even appeared to be a sheen of sweat across his forehead every time the clouds would part and allow the moonlight to slip through, allowing her to see his features. “I was going to end it, but she was going to tell Louise unless I called off the wedding. She liked screwing around behind Louise’s back, because the woman was vengeful and mean. I wasn’t going to let her take my future from me, so I thought I could scare her into—”
“Scare her?” Brett couldn’t envision the terror Heidi had experienced when she realized Chad had been pushed to the edge of sanity. Was that even possible? Or had he always been unstable and they’d all dismissed it? “You murdered Heidi, Chad. Did you even think about your parents? Her parents? What about Louise? I don’t understand why you would kill Martin, too. You could have come forward if Heidi’s death was an accident—”
“Martin suspected that Heidi and I had been involved,” Chad yelled, almost as if he were a child trying to argue his way out of trouble. Once again, she was struck with a sense of disbelief that this was her friend from college. “The little toad followed her everywhere. He would have told his lawyer about the two of us fucking around. He would have shifted the suspicion on me, and I couldn’t have that happen. Who knows what they would have found out? Maybe Heidi told him what we were doing behind Louise’s back. After I discovered the real reason Flynn was here, I realized that I could throw off the investigation by using Shepherd Moss as a scapegoat. I still can when he stabs all of us. Only I will survive to tell our harrowing tale.”
Chad pressed the side of his hand against his forehead, the blade of the knife firmly in his grip. He’d whispered those last few words, causing Brett to hold her breath in absolute terror.
She wasn’t ready to die. She’d just found someone she didn’t want to live without.
“How d-did you know Coen was h-here looking for Moss?” Brett had to keep him talking to give Simone the ability to ambush him or Coen time to find her with reinforcements. “I n-never told anyone. I never said a word.”
“I was in your house, Brett.” Chad took a threatening step toward her. It was then she remembered the stool in the laundry room being out of place and the missing matches. It had been Chad all along. “I heard every word the two of you said about Shepherd Moss and your link to him through your friend. It was easy to make that connection afterward. I was with you when Shailyn Doyle’s testimony was aired on national television. Don’t you remember me sitting there next to you? It wasn’t hard to put two and two together. You never were as bright as you always thought you were.”
Chad had been the one to hear the stories of her childhood and the fond memories she’d had of Shailyn. He’d been there for her as she watched the news anchor describe the torture her friend had suffered, unable to believe something so appalling could happen to someone she cared about.
Shailyn had survived, though.
Brett could, too.
There was still so much for her to do here in this life she’d been blessed with, and she refused to sit back and let Chad take it all from her. She had once cared for him very much, but he wasn’t the same man she’d met back in their first English class together at college.
The man standing in front of her was a…monster. He was a twisted murderer. Isn’t that how Coen described Moss?
“It’s o-over, Chad.” Brett took another tentative step backward, hoping to have a chance to run. She never once took her gaze from the gun in his hand. “No one is going to b-believe that Shepherd Moss got past all those officers in front of my house and took me without anyone noticing. Simone will tell them the truth.”
Brett shouldn’t have mentioned the agent by name. She winced the moment she realized her mistake, but it was too late. Chad began searching frantically in his bid to locate Simone, stepping even closer and pointing the knife her way.
“Where did she go? You tricked me! You bitch!”
Brett took advantage the second Chad looked to the right of them once more. She spun around as fast as she could and ran for everything she was worth, despite the fact that she was running away from the house. The clouds shifted and covered the moon once more, making it difficult for her to see in the dark. She didn’t stop. She ran headlong into the forest draped in white for the coming Christmas season. Moonlight finally began to emerge, but she couldn’t block her face fast enough as she sprinted.
A branch caught her across the cheek.
The sharp sting of pain brought her up short, and she used the thick bark of a tree to hide behind while she caught her breath. She pressed her numb fingers against the side of her face and came away with a dark stain that had to be blood.
Crack.
A gunshot rang out.
Chad must be desperate, because even Coen would have heard the discharge of Simone’s weapon. Brett immediately went still until she was able to slowly lean closer to the tree behind her, straining to hear any sounds that would indicate Chad was near.
Silence reigned.
Brett bit her lip to keep her teeth from chattering. Someone would have noticed all three of them missing, even without the gunshot. Chad had turned the flames on underneath the tea kettle. Her mom or dad would have alerted Coen or the sheriff, and Louise would have come looking for Chad. Had Louise known all along? Was that why she’d been so upset lately? Had she suspected Chad of being the one responsible? Why had she lied about being with him when she wasn’t?
Too many questions still remained, and she certainly wouldn’t figure them out by staying in one spot and freezing to death. She needed to get back to the house. She wasn’t going to last much longer out here without the proper layers of clothing to protect herself.
Brett had no choice but to reach Coen and let him know that Simone was somewhere out here in these woods…out in the cold being hunted by someone who had lost his grip on reality.
The only choice available to her right now was to leave her hiding spot and loop around back toward the house. Unfortunately, the clouds shifted once more and revealed a large shadow approaching…too large to be Simone.
Brett quickly scanned the area in front of her, but saw no way out that would offer cover as she ran. She was going to have to take a stand and fight. How could she win against an armed man with both a firearm and a knife?
Something dark caught her eye that was located to the left of her. It was a rather thick stick that she could use to defend herself if she could only reach it. She quietly bent at the knees, wincing at the stiffness in her joints. It was so cold. What if she didn’t have the strength to fight him off?
The large shadow moved even closer, allowing her to clearly see the shape of Chad’s outstretched hand and the weapon he had clutched in his grip as he probed forward. She had no choice but to quickly wrap her stiff fingers around the large branch, ever so slowly bringing it beside her kneeling form so she could grasp it with both hands.
Chad finally emerged to the right of her, scanning the vast forest in front of him for any hint of a shadow, movement, or sound. He hadn’t bothered to look on the ground, where she was currently folded up low against the tree and preparing herself for what could very well be her last breath.
She never had a chance to tell Coen that she’d wanted more than one day with him. She hadn’t expressed her desire to see where their relationship could take them if he would just give them a chance, or her longing to visit his home in Florida. He loved the sunshine, but did he like spending all his days at the beach? It was such an odd thing to think about, but a vision of him pulling her into the surf wouldn’t stop running through her mind. They were meant to experience that moment.
Brett gathered every bit of strength she had and swung the heavy branch for all she was worth in a chopping motion. The sickening thud of the wood hitting Chad’s knees echoed throughout the forest. He collapsed backward as his own forward momentum carried the top half of his body in the direction he had been moving when his knees were taken out from under him. The pistol discharged harmlessly into the ground in front of him as he went down. He landed on his face, but she didn’t give him a chance to stand up.
She brought the thick branch up through the air and swung it down with all her might on the back of his neck. Chad had landed face first in the snow, his arms flying out in front of his body. Where had the firearm and knife gone to? She didn’t waste time searching for either.
Brett threw the branch on his prone body and started running in the direction of safety…in the direction of Coen.