Sweet Liar (Candy #2)(59)

My stomach wobbled. “I already told you I don’t know.”

Victor’s lips pressed into a tight line and Jonah moved in closer, hovering behind his father as Victor shook his head at me.

“You think this is a joke?”

Victor slammed his hand into the wall above my head, making me flinch. My heart hammered against my ribs and I heard Jonah’s voice, sounding agitated as he placed a hand on his father’s arm, trying to pull him away.

“Tell me,” Victor demanded.

I shook my head, unable to get any words past the tightness in my throat.

Victor’s dark eyes drilled into mine, and I could almost feel him deciding what to do next since intimidation wasn’t working. I expected him to yell louder, to threaten more. What I didn’t expect was his hand to snake out to wrap around my throat, for his long fingers to circle it and tighten as he pushed me up the wall, just like he’d done with my father.

I screamed, flailing as I clutched at his hand and tried to kick him. My scream abruptly ended when he squeezed harder, cutting off my air.

Frantic, I scanned the room for Jonah but I could only see Victor, his image swimming before me. My lungs struggled as I gasped in vain for breath, and I kept thinking that this wasn’t real. It couldn’t be happening. My last thought before my vision clouded was that Jonah was letting his father do this. He was somewhere in the room watching, doing nothing.

But he wasn’t just watching. He came at his father from behind, holding a large object in his hand. That object crashed down onto the back of Victor’s head.

I fell to the floor in a heap. Gasping for air, I sucked in a deep breath. Another crash nearby convinced me to push to my knees—I needed to move. A moment later Jonah came around the couch and pulled me up. The side of his head was covered in blood.

“We have to go,” he said, grasping my hand.

Mesmerized, I stared at the way the blood dripped over his scar. When I didn’t move, Jonah brushed past me and pulled open the closet to grab my coat. He shoved my arms into it as he urged me toward the door.

His eyes were panicked, continually glancing back at the living room. I followed his line of sight to find his father on the floor, lying in front of the fireplace, his head resting on the raised brick of the hearth.

Was he dead? My thoughts seemed jumbled, almost detached. If he was dead, we couldn’t stay here, and if he wasn’t dead, we couldn’t stay here either.

When Pumpkin came around the corner and looked at me, it felt like the floor tilted beneath my feet. He was real, which meant all of this was real. It wasn’t a nightmare, like I’d hoped, because my throat throbbed, air grating like sandpaper each time I breathed.

I broke out in a sweat as I pulled out of Jonah’s grip and picked up Pumpkin, who meowed at me. I couldn’t leave him here with Victor.

Saying nothing, Jonah pushed me ahead of him, and we both ran out the door and into the cold night. Jonah’s Jeep was parked in my driveway, and Victor’s SUV was on the street.

“You’re hurt. Let me drive,” I said.

“Just get in,” he said breathlessly, pulling the passenger door open and ushering me inside. Pumpkin was distressed, clawing at my shoulder, trying to climb up my body as I buckled myself in. He jumped in the backseat when Jonah slid inside.

My gaze was pinned on the front door. I expected Victor to appear as Jonah backed out of the driveway, but he didn’t. Soon we were speeding down the road away from my house.

***





Jonah had a death grip on the steering wheel, and his eyes kept flicking up to the rearview mirror.

“Where are we going?”

He glanced at me. “Somewhere he won’t find us, like Siberia or Mars.”

“I don’t think you can drive to Mars, or Siberia for that matter.”

“Then Vermont maybe, for now. A buddy of mine has a place up there.” He released the wheel to gingerly touch the injury on the side of his head.

“Are you okay? That looks pretty bad.”

“It’s fine,” he said absently.

It wasn’t fine, but we couldn’t risk stopping, “Then what?” I asked. “After Vermont.”

“I don’t know, Candy,” he answered impatiently.

He looked scared and lost, and I could tell his head hurt, even though he wouldn’t admit it. At that moment, I knew where we could go. “Take the next exit and head west.”

Jonah looked at me.

“Let’s go to Ryberg. There’s someone there you should meet.”

“Ryberg?”

I nodded.

“My father knows you used to live there. We should go somewhere you have no ties to.”

Jonah had just sacrificed everything for me. He went against his father and probably ruined his career. I’d wanted him to choose me, but I never thought about what it would cost him.

“We need to go to Ryberg. Your father doesn’t know about the place I want to take you to.”

He gave me a hesitant look.

“Trust me. Okay?”

I could see the hesitation on his face, but still, he took the exit.

“Turn your cell phone off,” he said. Then he handed me his. “Mine too and pull the batteries out just to be safe.”

“You think they’d try to track our phones?”