The Best of Me - Nicholas Sparks [108]
Dawson accelerated and the stranger veered, changing direction. No longer running away from the road, he began to run parallel to it, and Dawson followed suit. They were heading toward Oriental, toward the blocky squat building at the head of the curve.
The curve…
Dawson wasn’t gaining, but the dark-haired man wasn’t pulling farther ahead, either. He’d stopped changing directions, and for the first time Dawson had the sense that the man had some distinct purpose in mind as he led him forward. There was something disconcerting about that, but lost in the chase, Dawson had no time to consider it.
Ted’s boot pressed down hard on the side of Alan’s face. Alan felt his ears being crushed from both directions and could feel the heel of the boot cutting painfully into his jaw. The gun pointed at his head appeared huge, crowding everything else from his vision, and his bowels suddenly went watery. I’m going to die, he suddenly thought.
“I know you seen this,” Ted said wiggling the gun but still keeping it aimed. “If I let you up, you ain’t gonna try to run, are you?”
Alan tried to swallow, but his throat wasn’t working. “No,” he croaked out.
Ted shifted even more weight onto the boot. The pain was intense and Alan screamed. Both his ears were on fire and felt like they’d been flattened into paper-thin disks. Squinting up at Ted as he babbled for mercy, he noted that Ted’s other arm was in some sort of cast and that his face was black and purple. Dimly, Alan found himself wondering what had happened to him.
Ted stepped back. “Get up,” he said.
Alan struggled to untangle his leg from the chair and slowly got up, almost buckling as a sharp bolt shot through his knee. The open doorway was only a few feet away.
“Don’t even think it,” Ted snarled. He motioned to the bar. “Git.”
Alan limped back toward the bar. Abee was still at the office door, cursing and hurling himself at it. Finally, Abee turned toward them.
Abee cocked his head to one side, staring, looking deranged. Alan’s bowels went watery again.
“I’ve got your boyfriend out here!” he shouted.
“He’s not my boyfriend!” Candy screamed back, but the sound was muffled. “I’m calling the police!”
By then, Abee was already walking toward him, around the bar. Ted kept the gun trained on Alan.
“You think the two of you could just run off?” Abee demanded.
Alan opened his mouth to answer, but terror robbed him of his voice.
Abee bent over, grabbing one of the fallen pool cues. Alan watched as Abee adjusted his grip on the cue, like a batter getting ready to walk to home plate, crazy and out of control.
Oh, God, please, no…
“You think I wouldn’t find out? That I didn’t know what you were planning? I saw the two of you on Friday night!”
Just a few steps away, Alan stood riveted, unable to move while Abee cocked back the pool cue. Ted took a half step backward.
Oh, God…
Alan choked out a response: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Did she leave her car at your place?” Abee demanded. “Is that where it is?”
“What—I—”
Abee stepped toward him, swinging the cue, before Alan had the chance to finish. The cue smashed into his skull, making the world erupt in blinding starbursts before going black again.
Alan hit the floor as Abee swung the pool cue again, then again. Alan tried weakly to cover himself, hearing the sickening sound of his arm breaking. When the cue snapped in half, Abee swung his steel-toed boot hard into his face. Ted started kicking him in the kidneys, yielding bursts of white-hot agony.
As Alan began to scream, the beating began in earnest.
Running through the meadow grass, they were now closing in on the squat, ugly building. Dawson could see a few cars and trucks out front, and for the first time he noted a faint red glow above the entrance. Slowly, they’d begun to angle in that direction.
As the dark-haired stranger glided effortlessly ahead of him, Dawson felt a nagging sense of recognition. The relaxed position of the shoulders, the steady rhythm of his arms, the high-stepping cadence