Betrayal.

Ashton felt it in the pit of his stomach. He willingly let Mason cuff him and lead him in the doors, but it was Nicole that had brought him here. He understood her reasons, and yet he couldn't believe it. Was it only last night that he'd told her dad he didn't want to lose her? He couldn't get over it.

She was the one person in his life that made things feel right. She could calm him down and cheer him up. Not even Trisha could do that for him, not to the extent she did. She was almost like an extension of himself. Losing her was like losing a piece of himself – and she'd just left a gaping hole.

His father watched him watch her walk out. How could she have talked to Clive like that? She didn't understand that when he couldn't deliver what Clive wanted, Clive was going to go after her just so he could hold her over his head. Ashton's heart felt like she'd ripped it right out of his chest as he realized this.

Clive put his hands together and studied Ashton with a renewed interest. "Well, time to get down to business." He stood and paced. "Since we have a lack of interview rooms, we'll have to do this here."

"Fine. What do you want to know?"

He stopped pacing and faced Ashton. "First of all, I want to know what you know about hydrochloric acid."

"First of all, it's found in many common household cleaners. Second, it's not exactly toxic, at least not in the way poisons are. It's not a poison – it's a chemical. Third, there are several different ways it can harm someone: skin contact, ingestion, and inhalation. Skin contact would burn anywhere it touched." He watched his dad touch his forearm, a gesture he'd never noticed before. "Ingestion would burn the whole way down and can actually burn holes in the stomach. Inhalation can vary by amount. A little of it can cause bleeding in the lungs and other pulmonary problems, such as failure to breathe. More can result in holes being burned in the lungs, which would actually most likely result in death."

His father looked more nervous as he spoke. Ashton watched in fascination as his father winced when he moved his left arm. He kept his face from showing it, but he was pretty sure that Clive had burned himself. Somehow. Which meant that he'd had access to hydrochloric acid at some point, which meant he probably made the girl inhale it. Which made Ashton mad and disgusted. He forced himself to keep a neutral face when his dad looked at him.

He was so intent on his father, he barely noticed Mason leave. Jealousy squeezed his chest. He was probably going out to see Nicole, maybe congratulate her on getting him in this chair. Ashton couldn't stand it anymore. He wanted to just be locked up already, get it all over with.

Clive rubbed his face and turned back to his son. "Where is it?"

"Where's what?"

He back-handed Ashton. "Don't play coy with me!" he bellowed. "You know exactly what I'm talking about. The acid! Where is it?"

Ashton shook his head. "I don't have any. I don't even have any cleaners with that stuff!"

Another slap. "We both know you're lying. Just tell me and this will stop."

Ashton's face stung. He was pretty sure he had a red handprint on both sides. "I don't have any anywhere!"

Clive glared at him. After a moment his expression went blank and his voice was calm when he spoke, but his words were anything but. "Well, we'll just have to fix that, won't we?"

Chills went down Ashton's back and wouldn't go away, even as his dad yanked him to his feet by his arm. The pain in his shoulder shot down his arm, but Ashton didn't make a sound. He was cold by the time he was marched down a short hallway to a cell, the handcuffs removed, and locked inside. When he leaned against the wall and slid down to the sound of his dad's retreating footsteps that echoed in the empty cells, he pulled his knees to his chest and rested his forehead on them. He began shivering and couldn't stop.

---

Nicole didn't want to go home, but when Mason stopped the car, she knew she needed to get out. It wasn't the most appealing thing. Still, she forced herself to grip the handle. Mason stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. She looked at him.

"I'm sorry," he said in a low voice. His eyes shone. "I hated doing that to him too. If it's any kind of consolation, I think he'll be out tomorrow." He bit his lip. "I watched Ashton explain the results of messing with hydrochloric acid. Clive was acting like he was scared. I don't think he was worried about his son. He's favoring his left arm. I think he's thinking more about how he was burned and that's evidence against him."

Nicole nodded, letting this news sink in. "Do you think Clive has some sitting around his house?"

Mason shrugged. "I don't know. It seems likely he has it in some form. It's in lots of cleaners, so it's not far-fetched for him to have some sitting around." He paused. "But I don't know if it'll be there much longer. I know Clive. He'll toss it all and replace it. And when I say 'toss it,' I mean it will all end up in Ashton's house if there's none there."

Nicole groaned. She had left Ashton in the hands of a killer. What had she done? She leaned forward and held her head in her hands. While she silently cried, Mason reached over and rubbed her back. She sat up and opened the door, needing to be away from Mason. "Thanks for the ride," she muttered as she got out, slamming the door behind her. She walked to the cabin entrance, went in, and waited for the car to leave. A few minutes later, it did.

She ran to her bedroom and changed out of her shorts into jeans and put her hiking boots on. Sure no one else was home, she grabbed a ponytail holder and left. As she ran, she pulled her hair back. Soon she arrived at Ashton's house. She didn't expect to find him there, and she didn't. The door was locked. She ran around to the back. Also locked. She didn't know where he could have hidden the spare key, or if he even had one.

Her gaze went to the windows. She walked around to the one for his bedroom. It was high, but she'd be able to reach the sill easily. She jumped, but her hand fell an inch short. Tried again. Still too short. She looked around her spot. Thick limbs were in a stack to one side, evidently cleared away from the house.

Hurrying, she grabbed a few and precariously set them under the window. She stepped up on them and jumped again. Her fingers latched onto the wood. She pressed her feet against the side of the house to take some weight off her arms. It didn't work – her arms were already tired. She vowed that when it was all over she'd work out more.

She managed to haul herself up high enough to rest an elbow on the sill so she could use her other to try to raise the glass. Thankfully, it was open. She opened it enough so she could fit through it. With a great effort, she slid the top half of her body through. She kicked, hoping to unbalance herself and fall into the house. All she managed to do was get a sore midsection. She was pretty sure she was going to have a big bruise. She stopped kicking and tried to think. Her bottom half was still hanging outside, she was too tired to pull herself inside. Still, that was the only option.

With a sigh, she shook out her arms and tried to pull again. Inch by inch, she managed to slide in. She got about six inches and fell into the house – on her face. She rolled over and sat up, rubbing her nose. As if she wasn't sore enough. Now she was going to look like she'd been punched in the nose. Great.

She lay back and rested for a moment. If she'd known how to pick a lock, she wouldn't have been so tired. She also vowed that when she left she'd begin to learn how to pick locks.

After a few minutes she got to her feet and began to slowly go through Ashton's things. It felt wrong to be doing this, but she had to both know if there was really anything he'd hidden here, and get the evidence out of the house. Or what Clive could twist into evidence.

In the bottom drawer of his dresser she found an old laptop. She frowned. He'd told her he didn't have a laptop. She got out the charging cable and sat them together on the bed. She went through the closet and found nothing. She went into the kitchen. The cabinets, she found, held a small set of dishes and a few cleaners. She studied the labels. No hydrochloric acid in any of them. She let out a breath. Nothing. She was relieved. He wouldn't find it in here. She replaced them and took a picture on her cell phone.

She went through the drawers and found an assortment of silverware and a couple of pots. One was a junk drawer, but it only held new pencils and pens, a mostly unused notebook, tape, envelopes, and one with Nicole's name on it. She picked it up and took the notebook, depositing them by the computer. When she left to go back into the living room, she heard something outside. She froze.

A twig snapped. Two sets of footsteps. Right out the back door.

She stuffed the envelope and notebook into her jeans, picked up the cable and computer, and listened. A pair of footsteps was walking by the window. Stopped. Messed with the branches.

"Hey, Gary," someone said right outside the window. "I think that chick's been here."

"What chick?" came a second voice.

"You know, that chick that's been hanging around with Mason and the sheriff."

The other man came over. "I think you're right. Wonder if she's still here?"

Nicole hugged the computer closer. "Only one way to find out." They split up – she heard one go to the front door and one go to the back.

She chewed on her lip. She couldn't jump with a computer. She had to find another way out. But she had no other way. She bit her tongue to keep from moaning. Her gaze darted around the room. He had a heavy vase with dying flowers up on the top of his dresser. She took it in one hand, dumped the water and flowers out the window, and waited at the door of the bedroom where she couldn't be seen. Both of the doors opened at about the same time. She held her breath. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad if she did jump. The officers would reach her at about the same time, and she couldn't take two of them.

The floorboards creaked as they were getting closer. She couldn't duck into the bathroom – there was nothing in there that could hide her. To her, that left one option. She stood behind the door and waited. The officers opened the door and one stepped inside. That meant the other would be in her way. Almost as if on cue, the second one walked inside. "Check the bathroom," one said. The other nodded and went that way. Taking a deep breath, she crept around the door. The second was poking around the closet.

She quietly went out the door and was almost out when the one looking through the closet turned and saw her. He shouted for her to stop, but she ran as fast as she could to the back door. She made it to the screen and as she was pushing it open a bullet hit the wood of the frame, inches from her head. It made her run faster out into the woods. She left the officers behind, one yelling at the other about shooting in the house.

Once she was sure she was out of sight and in the clear, she slowed to a walk and tried to get a sense of where she was. Soon she saw a nearly invisible trail that cut through the woods. She followed it and within a couple of minutes came out near the edge of town. She followed the tree line to the beach and then crossed the beach to the cottage. Being in the open for so long and in sight of so many people was a little nerve-racking when she thought about how they were all witnesses to her stealing Ashton's stuff.

She reached the house and slipped inside. Once the door was locked, she sank down to the floor. That was way too close. If they'd caught her, she would have been arrested and then she wouldn't be able to help Ashton in any kind of way. Everything would be up to Mason, and she knew he wouldn't be able to do what she could. He wouldn't really know what to do.

After her breathing evened out and her legs stopped feeling like jelly, she got up and went to the bedroom she shared. She sat the computer on the bed and hit the power button. The sticker said it was new for Windows Vista. She made a face. She hated that one. Still, she knew how it worked well enough to use it. While it loaded, she took out the envelope and notebook. She took out the letter and noticed it wasn't finished. Still, to her it was beautiful.

Nicole -

I haven't been able to get a few things out of my mind, like when you came by after the news report and without realizing it you cheered me up. I had gone down into depression, but you pulled me up and out. No one has ever done so much for me so fast. My friend, Trisha, has always been able to bring a smile to my face, but it didn't last. You, though, are like a perfect drug that induces the kind of happiness nothing else has ever been able to bring to me in that state. It still hasn't gone away.

There's so much to tell you about me, and so much for me to learn about you, but what I know is more than enough for me to feel so deeply about you that, for maybe the first time in my life, I can honestly say I love you. As my friend. As my family. As my girlfriend. I've been thinking about a future without you, and I have to say, it's not right. Without you, I might end up with a different girl, but she'd never be as right for me as you are.

That was where it ended. She'd never read anything as beautiful to her. After rereading it she noticed something. The second paragraph sounded like he had been giving a lot of thought to something. Her breath caught when she thought back to something she overheard her dad say to her mom last night. He said he wasn't sure he wanted to give his daughter away just yet.

If she still had tears, she was sure she would have cried. Especially since she was sure he'd change his mind after that day.

To take her mind off of this, she turned her attention to the computer screen in front of her. The password was taped to the lid, so she was able to get right in. One file was on the desktop. It was a text file. She opened it and scrolled through. Observations about the police locally and something about each person on the squad, along with meticulous notes on crimes and petty offenses and who committed them, along with notes on how the police went about them and who was arrested or what happened to them.

She covered her mouth as she scrolled even farther down and saw records of payments from Clive to various other people. If this was true . . .

Her heart raced and pounded so loudly in her ears she nearly missed hearing the front door rattling. In a panic, she closed the laptop and stuffed it in her duffle bag in the closet. She sucked in a breath when she saw the notebook and envelope and letter. She hurriedly stuffed the letter in her bra as she slid the rest under the bed. Just in time. Hailey appeared in the doorway as she stood up.

Hailey appeared annoyed, but when she saw Nicole, she looked worried. "You look awful. Are you okay?"

Nicole sighed and sank onto the bed. "They have Ashton, and it's my fault." Her lip trembled but the tears didn't come.

Hailey sighed but sat next to her, anyway. "I'm sorry that you care for him, but what can I say? What can I do? I won't go get him. He's where he should be."

Nicole was tired of this. She stood up, glaring at Hailey. "You need to trust me, Hail. I know him far better than you do. You need to stop listening to gossip and believing it. Rumors – all of it. I know what they all say, and I know people who've known him his whole life. He comes from a bad family, but he's not the kind of person to do any of this. He's sensitive, and kind, and decent, and everything none of your boyfriends can ever dream of being because they're all jerks, every last one. You're just jealous I found the guy I want to spend the rest of my life with and that wants to spend his with me. Get over it!" She stormed from the room.

She needed to get out. The house was suddenly too small. She couldn't take it one moment longer. More than anything, she didn't like the sudden feeling that welled up. She also didn't like that she spoke to Hailey like that, or the face she made at Nicole's words, but she felt she had no choice.

Was this what it felt like to be backed into a corner?