The Cheater (10 page)

Cold with panic, her heart thudding in her chest, she heard the grinding sound of metal against metal. Her car was being nudged to the right.

“No!” Carter shrieked.

The other car was scraping her left rear fender—pushing her off the road!

“No!”

The car eased off, then hit her again. Her car lurched to the right.

Glancing down, she could see the river just beyond the low guard rail and over the edge of the steep slope.

She pressed the accelerator to the floor, desperate to outrun the other car. But it kept up with her, pushing and pushing….

Who
is
it? Who is trying to kill me?

She raised her eyes to the mirror.

The white light nearly blinded her.

It's got to be Adam.

The steering wheel bounced under her hands. Her heart leaped to her throat.

The road curved to the left, the river out of view now. I'm safe, she thought. She jammed her foot on the accelerator and pulled ahead of the other car—just for a second.

It shifted to the right side of her car now. With a loud crash, it rammed into her.

“No!”

It was jolting her into the other lane. Into the oncoming traffic.

Carter gasped as she saw headlights ahead. Another car was roaring toward her.

The car behind her kept pushing, pushing, pushing her to the left, into the other lane.

“I-I'm losing control!”

The car began to slide.

Desperately she struggled to straighten the wheel.

Too late!

She screamed—closed her eyes—and waited for the crash.

W
ith a heart-stopping jolt, her body slammed forward against the seat belt, then bounced back into the seat.

It took Carter a second to realize that she had stopped her car. She dropped her head on the steering wheel and shut her eyes, panting, waiting for her heart to stop racing.

When she opened her eyes, she saw out the side window that the oncoming car had swerved and come to a stop on the far side of the road. The other car—the one chasing her—must have sped away.

She heard a car door slam. Then she heard footsteps crossing the road toward her.

She lifted her head.

It was a man—a good-looking man in his thirties. He tapped on her window. She rolled it down.

“Are you all right?” he asked, squinting down at her.

Carter nodded. “I-I'm very sorry,” she stammered. “The car behind me—it was driving too close.”

The man frowned. “You'd better report that to the police.”

“I will,” she lied.

“What about your car? Is it okay?”

“I think so,” Carter replied shakily. “Anyway, I think it will get me home. I live nearby.” Then she asked, “What about you? Were
you
hurt?”

“No, I'm fine. Why don't you try to start the car, see how it works.”

Carter nodded. She sat still for a minute, staring at the dashboard, still trying to catch her breath. Luckily for her, the car had ended up in a thick hedge beside the road and not wrapped around a tree or telephone pole.

She started up the car and slowly backed out of the bushes. “It seems fine,” she told the man. “Thanks for your help.”

He waved and went back to his car, shaking his head.

She drove home carefully, one eye on her rearview mirror, afraid that the other car would appear again. It didn't.

But when she pulled into her driveway, her headlights rolled over someone standing beside the garage, waiting for her.

Adam.

She parked the car and got out, slamming the door behind her.

“It
was
you!” she cried. She was furious. “I knew it! What were you trying to do, kill me?”

“Huh?” Adam acted confused. “I don't know what you're talking about. I don't want to kill you. No way.”

“Then why were you chasing me?” Carter screamed. “Why were you—”

“I've been here, waiting for you,” he interrupted. “I need more money.”

She glared at him angrily, her chest heaving.

Was he telling the truth? Was it someone else chasing her?

“I don't have any more money,” she said. “I just gave you a thousand dollars! That's all the money I had!”

“You can get more, Carter. Think about it. You've got lots of valuable things.”

He gestured toward her luxurious house. “That place must be full of stuff you could sell. I bet there are plenty of things you could take that your parents wouldn't even miss.”

“You're crazy!” Carter cried. “I can't steal from my parents.”

“Why not?” Adam said coolly, grabbing her arm. “You've cheated on a test. You lied to your father and your boyfriend. I think you can handle stealing.”

Her face burned. He let her arm drop.

“You've got until tomorrow night,” he told her. “Bring another thousand to my house. If you don't, your father will hear from me on Sunday morning.”

He walked down the dark driveway to his car, which was parked by the curb.

Carter stood on her front lawn, her head in her hands as he drove off.

It was hopeless. Adam just wouldn't go away. Her life was in his hands, and there was nothing she could do to stop him.

I could kill him. I could just kill him! she thought. She pictured herself grabbing Adam's pistol, shooting him. She saw him grabbing his chest. Then she pictured him falling in a puddle of blood.

“What am I
thinking
of!” she cried, horrified by her own fantasy.

But she knew there was no other way out.

T
he next morning Judge and Mrs. Phillips drove to a cousin's wedding in Waynes-bridge.

“We won't be back until late,” Mrs. Phillips told Carter. “I'm sure you can find something for supper in the freezer. If you need us, we'll be at the Chateau. I left the number by the phone.”

“Okay, Mother.”

Carter waved to her parents and was grateful she hadn't been invited to the wedding. She needed the day to figure out what she was going to do about Adam. It would be much easier without her parents around asking questions.

At eleven o'clock the doorbell rang. Carter went to answer it. She was surprised to find Dan standing on her doorstep. His expression was grave.

“Hi, Carter,” he said. “Can I come in and talk to you for a minute?”

She stepped aside to let him in. “What is it?” she asked. “Is something wrong?”

“I'm not sure,” he replied. “That's what I'm here to find out.”

Carter gestured to her father's study and said, “Let's go in here to talk.”

Carter stood leaning against her father's massive desk. Dan sat in one of the leather armchairs opposite her.

“I wanted to say something to you last night,” he began. “But I didn't have the nerve.”

“What is it?” Carter asked.

“Well,” he said, “I've been talking to Jill.” These words made Carter's stomach lurch. What had Jill told him?

“She's been worried about you, you know,” Dan told Carter. “So have I. I could tell she knew something about what's been going on with you, about why you've been acting weird. So I decided to talk to her. I saw her at the club this morning.”

Carter's face twitched nervously. “And—?”

“She told me some weird things. She told me how you said you cut your hand on a razor, but afterward, there was no cut. No bandage, no scar.”

Carter glanced down at her hand. The bloody heart. She'd nearly forgotten about that.

“And she told me about your date with Adam and Ray—”

“Oh, my gosh!” Carter moaned. Dan's come to break up with me, she thought miserably. He's found out about Adam.

But Dan didn't look angry. He stood up now and put his hand on Carter's arm.

“Carter, I think I know what's going on. I didn't say anything to Jill about it, just in case I'm wrong—”

No, Carter thought. There's no way he could ever guess. How could he?

“You got Adam to take your math test for you, didn't you?” Dan said quietly. “And now he's blackmailing you.”

He
had
guessed. Somehow, Dan had figured it all out. He knows me too well, Carter thought.

She had dreaded this moment. But now that it was here, Carter felt relieved.

At last! Someone she trusted knew the truth. She was so desperate to have her life return to normal.

Carter let her head fall on his chest. Then she broke down and told him the story.

Dan stroked her hair gently while she poured out the details. When she was finished, she looked up at him with tears in her eyes. “You must think I'm a terrible person,” she said. “You must hate me.”

But his eyes were tender.

“No, Carter,” he said. “Of course I don't hate you. You made a mistake—that's all.”

He stepped away from her now, and his expression hardened. He paced the room and said, “But I don't believe that creep Adam. Look what he's done to you. You're acting like you're about to have a nervous breakdown!”

All this time Carter had never thought about it
that way. Sure, Adam had done terrible things to her, but deep down she felt she deserved them.

“Listen, Carter,” Dan said. “You've got to stop giving Adam money.”

“I can't!” Carter heard her voice rising in panic. “I can't stop.”

“You've got to do something, Carter. You can't let this go on.”

“I won't let it go on,” Carter said. “I'll find a way to stop him.”

“How, Carter? What can you possibly do?”

“I don't know,” she said. “But I can't stop giving him money. He's ruthless. If he doesn't get what he wants, who knows what he'll do!”

“Look, Carter,” said Dan. “As long as you keep giving, he'll keep asking for more. It's got to end somewhere.”

“I know, but what can I do? I can't stand it anymore, Dan. I can't stand him, and I can't stand what he's doing to me. He's taken over my life and he won't go away!”

She walked around her father's desk and pulled open a drawer. She slipped something out of the drawer. It was heavy and black. She hefted it in her hand.

A gun.

“If I had the guts,” Carter said, “I'd kill him.”

Dan raised his hands as if to shield himself.

“Carter, what are you doing? Put it down! Carter! Carter—”

C
arter lowered the pistol, her angry fantasies lingering in her mind.

“Carter, what are you doing?” Dan's face became pale. “Where did you get that gun?”

“It's Daddy's,” said Carter. “I found it here one day when he was out. He doesn't know I've seen it.”

“Put it away,” Dan snapped. He grabbed the gun from her and dropped it into the desk drawer. “That's not the way to handle a problem. It'll only make things worse.”

Carter was shaking. “I just don't know what to do, Dan,” she said. “I'm trapped. Totally trapped.”