Meet Me In The Dark: (A Dark Suspense) Read Online Free Page B

I’m standing about twenty yards off. “Hey,” she yells. “Did you see that?”
    I say nothing, simply reach into my pocket.
    “Can you help me?”
    I raise my gun and squeeze the trigger, hitting her square in the left shoulder.
    She flies backward into the snow, not even a scream.
    I walk towards her slowly, taking my time and looking around for any sign of headlights in the distance, but there are none. We are completely alone tonight.
    I stop a little way off and watch her body in the snow. Her arm jerks a few times, a dark patch appearing underneath her, and then I check my watch and wait three minutes before walking out to pick up my trophy.
    When I get to her blood-covered body her eyes are closed and her mouth is open. I grab the rope from my pocket and tie her legs first, then her hands. And then I hike her small body up over my shoulder and walk back to my truck bed. I open the tailgate, pull the lever that keeps the bed cover in place, and it rolls back to give me enough room to lay her down on top of the tarp. I wrap her limp body up, and then roll the cover back over the top of the bed and lock the tailgate closed.
    Done.
    Well—I laugh—she’s done. But I’m certainly not.
    The snow is coming down harder now, and I estimate that all evidence of my truck and footprints will be covered in about twenty minutes. Long before anyone at the resort realizes the bride-to-be is gone. Long before they realize they can’t drive down the mountain because of the fallen tree trunk. Long before they call—well, I laugh out loud at that thought.
    People I target don’t call the police.
    They call killers.
    Like me.
    I get back in the truck and put her in gear, upping the heater since it’s damn cold out. Poor Syd will be shaking pretty good when the tranquilizer wears off. But she’ll be shaking more from the fear than the cold by the time that happens.

Eight Years Ago
     
    “That feeling? When your mind is blank and your heart is empty. And then you have to pick up that gun and do your job. You mean that feeling? Yeah, I know it. It’s called giving up.”
    - Sydney
     
    “S ydney?”
    I lie there on the ground, listening to the retreating womp-womp-womp of the helicopter, willing this not to be my reality.
    A boot to the ribs tells me that’s pointless.
    I turn my head towards Garrett, pain radiating up through my chest, and find his face. He’s got his leg back, ready to deliver his foot to my body again, when he stops.
    I swallow and close my eyes.
    “Tell me he was lying.”
    “He—” My throat is dry and my words falter.
    Garrett kneels down and grabs me by my jacket, pulling me up and shaking me hard at the same time. “Tell me. He was lying.”
    “He was lying,” I whisper. And he was. “I never did anything. I have no idea who he is!”
    “You were leaving,” Garrett says. Usually Garrett is a raging asshole when I piss him off. But he’s so calm now. He’s so calm this scares me even more and my whole body starts shaking. “You were running away, weren’t you?”
    I swallow again and then before I know what’s happening, I piss myself. The heat leaks between my legs and I start to cry. I just close my eyes and start to cry.
    I don’t know how long I stay like that, but the next thing that happens scares me even more than the threat of his boot.
    Garrett picks me up and holds me in his arms. I never open my eyes, not even when he places me in the truck and drags the seatbelt across my chest, clicking it into the lock. He shuts the door and walks over to the driver’s side and gets in. Starts the truck. And we drive off.
    We drive for hours. The sun comes up behind us and we’re still driving. Going west.
    Hours later we pull off the main highway and take a dirt road. That’s when I speak. “You’re going to kill me.” It’s not a question.
    “I was,” Garrett says. “Before last night.”
    I can’t even muster up a sob.
    “But—” He stops. Just stops. Never starts up