But that hope was quickly extinguished when I heard two male voices, and realized they belonged to the guard who’d tricked me into coming to Willow Point, and a man who was supposed to be dead. How was this guy even alive? Who, if not Ron, had been shot at Fowler’s? Something was very, very off.
Though I could hear their hushed tones, I couldn’t make out what either Ron or Bradley was saying. Nor could I see them—they were somewhere in front of Helena.
Out of the blue, Helena asked, “How are you even here?” She was no longer panicked; she sounded resigned and, mostly, just defeated.
Ron chuckled. “In all your panic that night you and your idiot friends never thought to check over the body. It wasn’t me your bitch friend shot, it was my twin brother.”
“Twin brother?” Helena gasped, as I did too. “You never talked about having any family when you were married to my mom. You led us to believe they’d all passed away.”
“That’s what I wanted you to think,” Ron growled. “You didn’t need to know the truth. I never planned on sticking around long term. You and your mother were just my chance to lay low for a while in a nowhere town.”
“You bastard,” Helena cried. I felt her tense against me. “So you were hiding from the law?” Ron didn’t answer, but his silence gave us her answer.
Helena continued, “So, you had a record, family we never knew about…family as sick as you. Did you know your twisted brother raped my roommate?” Helena paused, but Ron said nothing. With a sob, she added, “Ami shot your brother because she was in shock, traumatized, but he deserved it. I only wish it had been you, like we thought. If I hadn’t been so upset, I might have noticed.”
I couldn’t believe she had said all those things to Ron, even though they were all true. I fully expected him to retaliate, but he remained unfazed.
“Russ had problems,” Ron calmly responded, as if that were explanation enough. “It all could have been avoided anyway, if only your too-curious friend had just stayed on campus. She wasn’t even supposed to know about me.”
“She was only trying to help,” Helena cried. “You kept harassing me…you broke into our room that day. Of course, she found out.”
Ron retorted, “I was tiring of you anyway, daughter.”
“Don’t call me that, you pig,” Helena cried.
Ron just laughed. “Your pretty little friend should never have followed us. I figured she was up to something, and that’s why, after my brother dropped me off in town, I followed her to where we’d been staying.” Fowler’s, I thought.
“You were the guy being dropped off in Bangor,” Helena stated numbly.
So Ron was the mystery guy, not a student after all. His twin brother, Russ, must have been the driver of the car, the one Ami had followed. She never realized it wasn’t Ron driving, probably because of the heavy rain that night.
None of us—besides Helena—really ever knew Ron anyway, we just saw him around town from time to time. I had to wonder if Ami even realized it was Russ, not Ron, who had raped her. Well, if Ron was terrorizing her now, she must have it figured out.
Helena and Ron were still talking, so I listened. Ron was explaining how he had followed Ami to Fowler’s and watched her as she spied on his brother. He saw her return to her car, but at some point Ami got back out. And that was when his brother, Russ, grabbed her.
“Russ must have seen her spying, too.” Ron laughed. “She sure got more than she bargained for.”
“Why didn’t you help, you sick fuck?” Helena yelled. “Why would you let him hurt her like that?”
“Help?” Ron scoffed. “Hell, I watched from outside the window, the curtains weren’t fully drawn.” Helena began to cry, and I felt her back tremble against mine. “Russ gave that bitch what she deserved, over and over,” Ron spat. “She should have minded her own business.”
“Well your brother ended up dead, so I hope you’re happy,” Helena cried defiantly.
It was then that I heard Ron approach Helena. She leaned back into me, trembling with terror. I was trembling, too. I craned my neck to try and see what was happening, but it was all in vain. Ron was beyond my peripheral vision. I tugged at the ropes, and though looser, they were still quite secure.
“I’ve waited a long time to pay you and your friends back,” Ron growled, his voice so near I knew he was kneeling in front of Helena. “Ami is already paying. I have her so drugged up I doubt she’ll last another week. And the plan tonight was to make your friend—what’s her name, Maddy?”—though I couldn’t see him, I felt his eyes bore into my back—“pay for Adam Ward’s part in all of this. I thought I’d gotten to him years ago, when I gave that knock-out girlfriend of his just enough information to trap him forever. She had him good, too. She was so obsessed with him she never would have let him go. But then the bitch went and disappeared the night before their wedding. Of all the dumb luck…”
Holy hell! Ron had given Chelsea the ammunition to blackmail Adam.
“You’re sick,” Helena spat.
“I never said I wasn’t,” Ron said proudly. “I had some special plans for you and your husband, too, down the road, but since you showed up here tonight, I think I’ll take care of my business with you right now. And I’ll even let your friend here watch, so she’ll know what she’s getting next.”
Nausea washed over me again, and I started to squirm. We had to get away from this lunatic. Helena, though, stilled my hand. I guessed maybe
