Almost Dead (Lizzy Gardner #5)(89)

The nameless man hesitated.

“I’ll be fine,” Lizzy told him.

He turned and followed the same trail back.

The sound of birds surprised her for some reason. Lizzy inhaled a breath of fresh pine air and continued on toward the cabin. She made her way to the door and was about to knock three times as instructed, but then she heard wood scratching against wood. The door had hardly opened before he had her arm and yanked her inside, tossing her across the room so violently there was nothing to do but roll with it until she crashed into the wall, her head and the back of her neck striking hard enough to leave her momentarily dazed.

And then she saw Shelby—sitting on the edge of the narrow bed against the far wall, her eyes wide and scared. The girl had been beaten down and bruised, hardly looked like Shelby at all. Her hands were behind her back. She was gagged; her ankles had been bound with duct tape.

Lizzy pushed herself to her feet.

Before she could go to Shelby, Frank Lyle stepped between them with his gun trained on her. “Stay right where you are.”

She did as he said.

“Take off your clothes.”

She hesitated.

“Now!”

She took off the hooded sweatshirt Jessica had handed her in the car on the way there and laid it on the floor.

“Kick it over here!”

Her eyes never left Shelby’s as she did as he asked. She wanted Shelby to know that everything was going to be OK. They both needed to stay calm. Needed to keep clear heads.

“Everything!”

She took off her shoes and then her socks. She purposely slowed down the process in order to give herself time to take in her surroundings. Her breathing calmed. She looked at the bed, took a closer look at Shelby’s ankles. Her feet weren’t secured to the bed, which meant Shelby could use her legs if she needed to.

Lizzy slipped off her pants, slowly, then kicked them over with everything else she’d removed so far.

Her T-shirt came off next.

She was down to her bra and underwear. She wrapped her arms around her waist, stood there barefoot and half-naked, shivering and praying he wouldn’t make her remove anything else.

He checked the pockets of her pants and then kicked the pile of clothes to the side.

Lizzy continued to keep eye contact with Shelby, trying to convey that they were not going to give up easily.

She thought Shelby understood. She looked frightened but determined, too. Shelby hadn’t given up the fight yet. Lizzy could see it in the rigid set of her jaw.

Frank Lyle stepped close to the bed and brushed his hand over Shelby’s leg as if he wanted to let Lizzy know he could touch her where and whenever he wanted and there was nothing she could do about it. His fingers continued up and over Shelby’s stomach.

Shelby closed her eyes for just a second, then found Lizzy’s gaze again.

“So, what do you want?” Lizzy asked him.

“It’s not obvious?”

“No.”

“I know how you hate to watch others suffer,” he said, “so I thought I would bring you here so you could watch me kill the bitch.” He moved the gun to Shelby’s head.

Shelby cried out through the gag.

Lizzy started forward, and he let her come, swinging the gun toward her and raising it until he pressed the muzzle against Lizzy’s forehead. “Move another inch and I’ll kill you first and then take care of her.”

“You’re not going to get out of here alive,” Lizzy told him.

“Step back,” he said.

Lizzy did as he said.

He laughed. “You’re not as smart as I thought you were. Why couldn’t any of those guys take you down?”

“Do you mean Spiderman?”

His eyes were bugged out and bloodshot. His smile was crooked. “You don’t get it, do you?”

“Why don’t you fill me in?”

“You’re only here because I wanted you here. I bet every news van in the country is out there right now, everyone wanting a piece of the action, a piece of me!”

He hooked an arm around Shelby’s neck and pulled her so close her face was pressed against his body.

Shelby’s eyes were open. Her breathing had slowed. She was focused again. She didn’t struggle to get away, just locked her eyes on Lizzy’s. She was ready for whatever was about to happen.

“I wanted you here because I wanted to show the world that I’m the guy.” He let go of Shelby and slapped the palm of his hand against his chest.

Lizzy’s heart was racing, beating hard against her ribs.

“I’m it! I’m the guy everyone is talking about—the one who finally took Lizzy Gardner down. And guess what?”

Lizzy pretended to shiver from the cold, willing him to believe she posed no threat to him.

“After the two of you are dead,” he went on, his gun flailing as he talked, “after I’ve had my fun, I’ll walk out of here, head held high. And yeah,” he said with a laugh, “I might spend ten or twenty years behind bars—better yet, the rest of my life! And then everything will be how it should have been all those years ago, before you came into the picture and ruined everything. People will know my name again. There will be interviews and whole books written about me—Frank Lyle, the predator who did things his way. My face will be on every news station across America.”