The Beautiful and the Damned Read Online Free PDF Page A

keep the chances of running into the car owners again at a minimum.
    “I live two hours upstate. Just dropping my kids off at their mother’s house.”
    Cyn climbed into the driver’s seat and glanced over at the side of the road. The man’s
     breath was showing in frozen puffs of air. It would have to be a short ride tonight.
     Too cold to leave him out here for long.
    “Okay, here’s what you’re going to do,” she said. “Keep following this road, and I’ll
     be back to pick you up in twenty—no, forty minutes, tops.”
    He turned and started walking down the highway, and Cyn thought she just might be
     able to make it this time. As long as she drove fast enough, she might be able to
     chase away her demons for good.
    But it was only a couple of minutes later when sounds went dead, her sight grew dim,
     and her fingers clamped down onto the steering wheel.
    Even though she fought it, there was nothing she could do. He was taking control.
    Suddenly jerking back to awareness, Cyn found herself driving straight toward the
     edge of a cliff at sixty miles an hour.
    She slammed on her brakes, the car fishtailed, and she hooked the wheel sharply to
     the left. Trying not to panic, she rode it out, letting gravity dictate the direction.
     Tires skidded on the loose gravel, and her heart stopped as momentum carried her closer
     and closer to the edge. Finally, with just inches to spare, the car came to a screeching
     halt.
    Her fingers went numb. Where am I?
    She couldn’t remember anything. Couldn’t remember where the car had come from or why
     she’d been careening straight toward certain death.
    The door squeaked loudly as she opened it and got out. Leaning her forehead against
     the cold metal frame, Cyn inhaled slowly. God, I need a cigarette. Her hands suddenly started shaking, and she glanced down at them in surprise. A sob
     clawed its way out of her throat, and she shoved it back down. Don’t cry. Don’t start crying now.
    To distract herself, she stepped closer to the edge of the cliff. Stared down into
     the abyss below. It was so dark and so deep, it reminded her of the night sky when
     there weren’t any stars.
    They climbed up onto the bed of the pickup truck. The view was wide and clear, but
     there weren’t any stars. They were still too closeto the city. Hunter wrapped his arms around her and leaned in from behind. “I love
     coming out here like this.”
    Cyn grinned. “You know what they say. You can take the boy out of the country, but
     you can’t take the country out of the boy.”
    “Pennsylvania isn’t country.”
    “Since you grew up on a fifty-acre farm there, I’d say that’s country.”
    “Farmette,” Hunter corrected. “A hobby farm used on the weekends for overflow crops.”
    “Did it have a barn?” Cyn leaned in closer to him and felt his head bob up and down.
     “Did it have a tractor? A truck? A rooster? A cow?”
    He nodded his agreement again.
    “Then I rest my case. Barn, tractor, cow. F-A-R-M. You are country, country boy.”
    He lowered his head and spoke softly into her ear. Lips humming against her skin.
     “You know what they say about country boys, right?”
    “What?” Cyn whispered.
    “That we have tough hands . . . but soft hearts.”
    The laughter that suddenly erupted out of Cyn shook both of them. “Oh my God, that
     was the cheesiest line ever, Hunter.” She turned to face him. “Tough hands and soft hearts . . .” She shook her
     head and he laughed with her.
    But their laughter faded as he reached out. Cupping the back of her head, he gently
     pulled her closer. “Did it work?”
    “Yeah.” Cyn breathed the words across his lips before she closed the distance between
     them. “It worked.”
    Shaking the memory of Hunter off, Cyn stepped back from the edge of the cliff and
     returned to the car. Don’t think about him now. It’s easier not to remember.
    Turning the heater up to full blast, she held her cold fingers up to the