Under the Magnolia (9 page)

He'd pulled out another cigarette,
but tucked it behind his ear without lighting it. He seemed a little
nervous, but Stu
always
seemed a little nervous to her. "You sure you don't mind giving
me a lift?"

"No, ma'am. I don't mind at
all." He fiddled with the radio, turning it down before giving
her a bright, brittle smile. "Where do you live?"

"Outside of town, just past the
Miller farm." Her bag went into the back of the truck before she
climbed in and closed the door. "You know how to get there?"

"I'll find it." Stu
cleared his throat and turned the starter on the truck. He had to try
it several times before it cranked, but it finally rumbled noisily to
life. "Better buckle up, Miss Gardner."

She did so, feeling an odd chill as
she glanced at Stu again. There was something off about his
expression, something more than the usual resigned weariness she saw
in him every afternoon when he came to school. She tugged on the belt
a little to make sure it was tight before glancing at him. "Is
everything all right, Stu? Did your trailer come through the storm in
one piece?"

He didn't meet her gaze as he turned
onto the street and headed for the edge of town. "Everything's
just fine, Miss Gardner. Nothing wrong at all."

Even if she hadn't known him for a
decade or more, it would have been easy to tell he was lying. They
passed the cheerful sign welcoming them to Carter's Bay, and still he
said nothing, just stared ahead with his jaw slightly clenched and
his fingers wrapped tightly around the steering wheel.

Finally Addie reached out to lay a
hand on his arm, meaning to ask again if everything was all right.
She didn't get a chance. The minute her fingers touched his skin
power roared up inside her as if it had been waiting—

The vision slammed into her, and the
fear that flooded her body was so strong she let out a startled yelp.
She was soaked to the skin, shivering and sore from bracing herself
against the painful jostling of a moving vehicle over an uneven road.
She tried to move but couldn't; her wrists and ankles were bound
together with rough rope that had already cut into her skin.

She couldn't see anything around
her, and it took a moment to realize she was covered by something.
Maybe a tarp.
As soon as the thought formed, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop,
throwing her to the side slightly. She narrowly managed to avoid
smacking her head against the bed of the truck as the engine cut out.

Fear grew as a door opened and shut,
and she heard footsteps approaching, crunching loudly on gravel. A
hand yanked back the edge of the tarp, and she saw Stu's cold, tired
face. He stared down at her with empty brown eyes and spoke around
the cigarette hanging from his lips. "Sorry, Miss Gardner. It's
nothing personal. You were always nice to me."

Addie opened her mouth to reply—

—
and the vision faded, leaving
her weak and breathless, slumped against the seat of Stu's truck.

He took one look at her pale face
and trembling lips and grumbled, "Well,
shit
."
Then his fist shot out at her, and the world went black.

Wes was whistling when he pulled up
to Addie's small, neatly kept house. He'd always liked the rather
pale shade of robin's egg blue, and he noted with some amusement that
she'd painted the front door a bright, cheery yellow.

All day, he'd looked forward to
seeing Addie again. It hadn't taken the other officers long to suss
out the reason for his cheer, and he'd taken a fair amount of
good-natured ribbing all afternoon.

He'd met the other officers at the
community center during a break in cleanup efforts, and Chris had
shaken his head as he'd poured coffee. "I knew she'd snaffle you
up, Wes, just as soon as you got your head out of your ass."

There hadn't been much to say to
that, so Wes had given him the middle finger and kept searching the
tables of food for pecan pies. "I thought for sure that Granny
would have baked."

"She did," Jack laughed.
"We already ate 'em all. But don't fret. She's going to be your
actual granny pretty soon, and you can have all the pecan praline
pies you want then, I bet."

Howie had just shaken his head
mournfully. "Y'all better get with the marrying before the end
of next year, or I'll owe Bea a whole new kitchen."

Wes shut off his Explorer with a
grin and grabbed the bottle of merlot from the seat beside him. If
the whole town had been talking about them already, he figured maybe
they'd gotten something right.

The house was dark as he approached,
but fully half of the households in town were still without power. He
knocked and waited then knocked and waited some more.

She wasn't home.

Wes hesitated for only a moment
before returning to his truck for a crowbar and flashlight.
She'll
understand,
he told
himself as he pried the boards away from the window on her door.
It
isn't overreacting if you have a date and she isn't answering the
door.

He'd just managed to get the last
board free and was about to break the window to let himself inside
when his cell phone rang. He didn't bother to look at the display as
he slapped it to his ear. "Hello?"

"Wes?" It was his mama's
voice, and she sounded a little put out. "You haven't come
across Stu Carlin today, have you?"

Cold tendrils of dread began to
weave their way through his gut as he peered in through the window in
the door. "No, I haven't run across him today," he answered
absently. "Why?"

"He promised he'd be in by noon
today," she replied, still sounding annoyed. "We had a lot
of work to do to get things cleaned up, and no one's seen him since
before the storm. We even sent someone out to check his trailer to
make sure he was okay."

"Was Addie there, by any
chance?"

"No, can't say I've seen her. I
figured she'd be resting."

Wes didn't bother to break the
window, just reached for the gun in his ankle holster then cracked
open the door with a well-placed kick."I'm a little busy right
now, Mama. Can I call you back?"

"Wesley Lee Saxon, what was
that noise? Is Adelaide in trouble?"

"And what do you know about
that?" The front room was deserted, and Wes quickly checked the
kitchen and den.

"I heard you two had a date,
that's all." She sounded mildly defensive, which meant she'd
been gossiping about it all day.

He withdrew to the porch once more.
"I've got to go. Can you go get Mrs. Gardner and take her home
with you tonight?"

There was a short pause before his
mother sighed. "I'll go and get her, but you'd better call me
back soon. You know how mad she'll be."

"I will. I promise. Now go."
He closed the phone and slid it back into his pocket then raised his
flashlight as he reentered the house.

Every entrance still boarded and
locked, but the house had been left in a state of readiness for the
coming storm, with no evidence that Addie had ever arrived that
morning.

Even if she planned to go to her
grandmother's or to the school, Wes knew that Addie would never have
waited to check her house and belongings for damage. She'd want fresh
clothes, and to check the weather reports, and—

His heart pounded as he phoned the
station. He needed to stay calm, and he needed help.

Addie woke slowly, aware of nothing
at first but the fact that she was cold and sore. The rumble of an
engine under her forced her eyes open, and she found herself bouncing
around in the back of a truck, bound and gagged, a tarp over her
head.

Why is this so familiar?

She felt groggy for a moment, and
she struggled to figure out why she had a vague sense of déjà
vu. This was certainly not a situation she'd found herself in before.

The ropes around her wrists chafed
as she tugged at them, and the pain brought back the memories. She'd
gotten in Stu's truck, touched his arm, and then—

The vision.

Which meant she was in the back of
Stu's truck. What he planned to do with her was terrifyingly open for
interpretation, and Addie found herself praying it had something to
do with her psychic ability. She
hoped
she was on her way to be sold to the highest bidder, maybe a crime
lord who would pump her full of drugs and leave her in a locked room
under constant surveillance. The idea scared the hell out of her, but
it was better than some of the alternatives.

Shit, shit,
shit
.

He'd bound her wrists and ankles
together but he hadn't had time to secure her carefully. There was
enough give in the ropes around her wrists that she thought she might
be able to wrench herself free. According to her vision she might not
have
time, though. The truck would stop soon, and Stu would walk around to
apologize to her, as if an apology would make up for this.

Addie forced herself to breath
carefully, fighting against panic as she carefully twisted the ropes
binding her wrists around to where her fingers could reach the knot.
She considered the vision as she did so, struggling to understand why
it had come to her so late, why it had left her with so little
warning. It wasn't as if she could
change
it now. If she hadn't gotten dizzy in the aftermath, she doubted Stu
would have found it so easy to subdue her, so in a very real way the
vision had
caused
her current predicament.

Great. Just had the best sex of
my life and I get
kidnapped
.
She hid a wince as the
rope dug into her wrists, rubbing against already sore skin. She had
no idea how long she'd been unconscious, but it had been long enough
for her limbs to bruise and stiffen from being tossed around in the
back of the truck.

The truck started to slow, and Addie
panicked. She dug a fingernail into one of the knots and tried to
work it loose. Belatedly she realized she should have started with
her ankles. At least having her legs free might have given her
some
options. She inched her legs up toward her chest and brought her
hands down until—

Yes!
Her fingers found one knot and she struggled to tug at it without
moving the tarp too much. The last thing she needed was for Stu to
notice that she was awake and squirming around. She had no intention
of facing him until she had managed to at least work her legs free.
And then I will kick your
ass
,
you obnoxious—

The brakes on the truck slammed on
so suddenly that she slid back, knocking her head into the cab of the
truck. She groaned and tried to brace herself against the throbbing
pain in her skull as the truck stopped. She'd managed to loosen the
knot, but not untie it completely, and she was running out of time.

The sound of the truck door slamming
shut made her heart rate kick up a notch, and she fought against a
moment of sheer panic. Faint, crunching footsteps echoed the ones
from her vision, and she looked up into Stu's face, cigarette hanging
loosely from his mouth, as he pulled back the tarp.