Freak (37 page)

“I saved her because I wanted to,” Danny finally said. “And because I could. Now do you have the passports? We’re almost there.”

They were approaching the U.S.–Mexico border, having driven all night. Danny pulled into the far left lane, where her old friend Pedro was working. It had all been arranged.

Abby pulled out their passports, which Danny had bought for the low, low price of five grand apiece.

“By the way.” Abby sounded cross as she handed the passports, which were Canadian, not American, to Danny. “Clarissa Butterfield? What the hell kind of name is that? I sound like a fucking bimbo. I totally hate you. I hate you so much.” But she was smiling.

Danny chuckled. Her passport said Sarah Butterfield. They were going to pass themselves off as sisters. They were going to settle somewhere along the Pacific, and maybe run a restaurant or a small resort or something. Or maybe they’d keep driving, all the way down to South America. It really didn’t matter. They’d figure it all out when they got there. Hopefully the Spanish lessons would pay off.

As they pulled into the queue for the border crossing, Danny kept one hand on the steering wheel and leaned over for a kiss. Abby’s lips met hers hungrily, her sweet tongue flicking hers, sending a white-hot tingle through Danny’s body.

Almost a year of planning to get to this point. Everything she had done, from the internship with Jerry, to volunteering at the prison, to creating the FreeAbbyMaddox.com site to attract
just the right obsessed freak to help her, which turned out to be Jeremiah Blake . . . it had all come to fruition.

They were home free.

“También te amo, mi amor,”
Danny said, when they broke apart.
“Todo lo que hice, lo hice por tí.”

I love you, too, my darling. Everything I did, I did for you.

The prisons in this book are fictional, but if it wasn’t for a visit to the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Gig Harbor, Washington, I would have had to invent many of the descriptive details. Thanks so much to Superintendent Jane Parnell and Sergeant Bassetti for the interview and the tour. As an author, I took artistic liberties with what happens inside prison to make it work for my story, but readers should know that the WCCW is an impressive facility with a dedicated, hardworking staff.

I’m also grateful to S.P., an inmate currently serving out a life sentence at Folsom State Prison in California, for generously sharing so many details of his day-to-day life with me.

Gallery Books

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2012 by Jennifer Hillier

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Gallery Books hardcover edition August 2012

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Designed by Jill Putorti

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hillier, Jennifer.

Freak / by Jennifer Hillier.—1st Gallery Books hardcover ed.

p. cm.

Sequel to Creep.

1. Women college teachers—Fiction. 2. Murder—Investigation—Fiction. 3. Seattle (Wash.)—Fiction. 4. Psychological fiction. I. Title.

PS3608.I446F74 2012

813'.6—dc23

2012007089

ISBN 978-1-4516-6454-6

ISBN 978-1-4516-6456-0 (ebook)