He’d been wrestling with the idea of walking away even before he saw what she was. Afterward, none of his arguments for leaving held any weight at all.
He couldn’t turn his back on Leni now. Nothing would convince him that she and the boy would be safer somewhere else—anywhere else—than Parrish Falls. Obviously, persuading her toward that fact was going to be a challenge. Unfortunately for him, until he could bring the stubbornly loyal female around to his logic, Breed honor dictated he do whatever was in his power to ensure her protection.
Even if that was the last damn thing he wanted or needed in his life.
“Fuck.” The curse exploded out of him on a puff of steam as he pushed deeper into the uninhabited woods, his path following the general direction of the main road through Parrish Falls. The land was treacherous, dense forest and jagged ledges that grew steeper as he neared the cut of the river.
Knox didn’t slow for anything. He wasn’t only trying to burn off the heat of a bad impulse; he was on the hunt.
Vibrating under the rush of the cold air and snow swirling around him, he caught the distant rumble of the prey he was after. The sound of the pickup’s diesel engine carried on the night wind, the lone sign of life for several square miles in the midst of the howling storm.
Knox followed his ears, taking off in the direction of the engine’s monotonous growl.
He found Dwight Parrish on the two-lane, rambling away from town at a steady clip on the newly plowed stretch of road. Knox used his Breed agility to keep pace with the vehicle, observing from atop a long ridge that ran parallel with the road below.
The plow blade was up, no longer in use. High-beams sliced the darkness, swerving back and forth with the careless, weaving motion of the truck. Inside the cab, music blared. Evidently, Parrish was finished for the night and heading home.
Or so Leni’s tormentor might have thought.
Knox sped up on his jagged promontory over the road, a blur of motion that no human eye could track, especially not in the dark. He paused about a mile ahead of Parrish with plenty of time to look for the detour he was about to deliver.
And there it was. He smirked, eyeing the thick trunk of a fallen pine that leaned against its neighbor up ahead of him on the wooded ledge.
Knox waited until the pickup’s headlights approached below.
Then he hefted the heavy, snow-sodden obstacle and threw it down onto the road, blocking the truck’s path.
Parrish laid on the brakes so hard he nearly fishtailed right over the edge of the ravine on the other side of the narrow two-lane. Taillights flared bright red in the dark. Snow kicked up in an arcing fan behind the rear bumper while the protesting tires steamed and screeched as the truck stuttered to a halt on the ice.
Inside the closed cab, Parrish’s scream rose over the thumping bass of the sound system.
Now that he was stopped, he lifted his head to peer out the windshield at the large projectile that nearly totaled him. At the same instant, Knox leapt down to the road in front of the truck. He tried not to smile at the look of stupefied shock on the human’s bearded face.
Instead, he lowered his head in a charging stance and flashed the bastard his fangs.
Parrish’s eyes went wide at the threat. Panicked, he dropped the silver liquor flask he’d been holding in his right hand and scrambled to reach for the gearshift. “Holy shit!”
With few options for escape that didn’t involve taking out his front end trying to get past the tree trunk blocking the entire span of the road in front of him, or risking the steep drop into the ravine and riverbank on the other side, Parrish chose to reverse course. The truck lurched backward, gasoline and exhaust smoke acrid against the freshness of the blizzard.
But it was going nowhere fast.
Knox had already leapfrogged to the back of the truck. Boots planted firmly, he pushed against the rear bumper, forcing the wheels to spin and whine on the ice.
Parrish gave up, grinding the gears as he started to put the truck into drive again.
Knox didn’t allow him that chance to escape, either.
He flashed around to the driver’s side window and dropped his knuckles against the glass. Parrish jumped, swiveling a cornered look at him.
“How does it feel, asshole?” Using the power of his mind, Knox locked the truck’s doors and jammed the transmission into neutral.
“What the hell do you want from me?” Parrish yelled on the other side of the glass.
He was a big man, one not accustomed to being on the losing side of an argument. Beneath his fright, he was pissed off. The twist of his lips within the thick growth of his dark beard gave away his contempt. Although right now, it was fear that overrode everything else.
He dived to the other side of the cab as if he thought he could escape out the passenger door, but it was no use. The locks held firm under Knox’s will. So did the gearshift, which didn’t budge no matter how hard Parrish tried to yank it loose.
“Son of a bitch! What do you want?” Parrish barked from inside. He gestured aggressively, despite the look of worry in his glare. “You want to kill me, vampire? Just fucking do it!”
