One By One by Freida McFadden(64)

Where’s that Swiss Army knife?

I see Noah’s right hand is in his pocket now. Lindsay hasn’t seemed to notice. Does he have the knife in there? If he has it, we’ve got a chance. If he doesn’t… well…

“So,” Lindsay says, “which one of you would like to go first?”

Oh God. Please let Noah have that knife...

I take a breath, stalling for time. “Lindsay, you’ve got to understand, what I did with Jack… It just happened. I didn’t mean for it to happen.”

“Right.” She snorts. “That’s the same thing my father said.”

“Your father was an asshole,” I say. She jerks her head back, but I push on. “I remember when he died, we stayed up all night talking about him. Do you remember that?”

Lindsay sneers. “It was a long time ago,”

“Well, I remember.” I look her in the eyes. “You told me about how badly he treated your mother. How he was never there for your family. That you always felt like you weren’t good enough for him.”

Lindsay lowers her gun a millimeter. “Yeah, well…”

“You and I…” I swallow hard. “We were always there for each other. Every time I needed you, you were there for me, Lindsay. I mean, you were my maid of honor. You’re my kids’ godmother. When I thought you were dead…”

She looks at me for a moment, her eyebrows knitting together. “When you thought I died and you wanted to stay behind, I almost couldn’t go through with it. I… I honestly didn’t think you would care enough.”

“What are you talking about? Of course I care!”

As the words are coming out of my mouth, I realize how much I mean them. When I thought Lindsay was dead, it was like my whole world was falling apart. Clearly, she has much deeper issues than I ever thought possible. I mean, I always knew she was a little crazy. But I never suspected she could be capable of this.

Part of me still doesn’t believe it.

“Lindsay,” I choke out. “We can figure this out. I’ll do whatever it takes to get you out of this.”

Of course, there isn’t really a way out of it. Three people are dead. But Lindsay’s face softens and she lowers her gun. I let out a breath. “I don’t want to kill you, Claire.” She shakes her head. “I really don’t. But you have to understand…” She lifts her eyes. “You know too much. I can’t trust you to keep my secrets.”

And then she starts to raise the gun again. Oh my God. This is really happening. In a second, I’m going to be joining Warner on the floor.

My eyes flutter shut, bracing myself. But a split second later, I hear Lindsay scream, and my eyes fly open. Noah is behind her, and his Swiss Army knife is sticking out of her right shoulder. The sleeve of her pink T-shirt quickly darkens with blood as the gun tumbles to the floor.

“Claire!” Noah snaps at me. “Get the gun! Now!”

I know what he’s telling me to do. I’ve got to pick up the gun. But I feel like I’m in a trance. I can’t move. “But…”

“Claire! Get! The! Gun!”

His shouts snap me out of my trance. I scramble for the gun on the floor, although I’ve never held a gun before and I’m not entirely sure how to. I’m only vaguely sure the barrel isn’t pointed in my direction.

Lindsay sinks to the ground as the crimson stain on her T-shirt continues to grow. I try to hold the gun steady, but my hands won’t stop shaking.

“Claire,” she croaks. “Put the gun down. I know you’re not going to shoot me.”

Noah glares at her. He’s got the Swiss Army knife in his right hand and it’s slick with her blood. “Claire might not.” He firmly pulls the gun from my hands, and I let him. “But I sure would.”

I look over at him. He’s got Lindsay’s gun and he’s pointing it at her. His hands are surprisingly steady, considering I’ve never seen him aim a gun before. I believe he would shoot her. He would do what he has to do to defend us both. After all, he promised me he would get us home.

“Are you okay with handling that?” I ask quietly.

Noah nods briskly. “I can handle it. Just get away from her.”

I feel sick as I look down at my former best friend, lying on the ground of the cabin. Her face is the color of a sheet. I don’t know if she’s going to make it through this. I’m not sure if I hope she does or doesn’t. She wipes her forehead and smears blood all over her hair

“I’m sorry, Claire,” she whispers.

Noah puts his hand on my shoulder. He gently turns me away from Lindsay so I don’t have to see the life drain out of her.





Epilogue


CLAIRE



Emma launches herself at me so rapidly, I nearly fall over. If I thought she was clinging hard to me before I left for the trip, it’s about a million times harder now. But this time, I’m clinging to her just as hard.

I look over to my right, and the usually reserved Aidan is clinging to Noah. Any second, we’re probably going to have to trade kids. Although I’d really like to hug both at once. I didn’t think I’d see either of them ever again.

When we were an hour away from the house, I called my sister to bring the kids by. Now she’s standing in the middle of our living room, looking a little misty-eyed herself. She knew the first night that something was wrong but nobody would start searching until the second day, when we missed our reservation.