He closed in on her.His bushy, graying eyebrows came down low over his eyes.“You came to my town with your witchery and spells.You took my patients.”
She exhaled in disbelief.“I helped people get off medications.I helped your patients not rely on drugs anymore.You joked about it, for god’s sake.Why on earth would—”
“Enough!”he bellowed.“People need drugs.Reliable, tested drugs.Not whatever shit you’re cooking up in the kitchen.You came here to ruin me and my practise.To humiliate me and modern medicine.”
She tented her hands over her mouth and stared at him.Slowly, the rumors she’d heard about Dr.Lots surfaced in her mind.
Dr.Lots is getting old and senile.
He prescribed me the wrong meds.
She had to reason with him.It was possible he wasn’t thinking clearly.Maybe he’d missed a medication...
“Dr.Lots.I don’t think this is you.Is everything okay?We’ve been trapped inside for almost two full days.I know that can be—”
Smack
The side of the gun bounced off her cheekbone.Pain ricocheted through her skull.She dropped to the edge of the firepit and sucked in one breath after another.Her heart raced against her breastbone.He was going to kill her.There was no way Jaxon could get to Dr.Lots’s property in time on foot.With no access to a vehicle, no access to a phone...she was all she had.If she didn’t do something she’d end up at the bottom of a ravine, food for the mountain lions.
She vibrated with the need to leap to her feet.To attack.But frostbite was setting in.All the feeling had left her toes.She dropped her hand to rest beside her thigh, anchoring herself to the firepit so she didn’t fall into the snow crowded around her calves.
She locked eyes with Dr.Lots.The mouth of the gun moved between them.Despite the fear filling her chest, she didn’t give voice to the pleading words that wanted to pour from her lips.He wouldn’t listen.He hadn’t come this far to hear her beg.In his mind, she was the enemy and he wanted her gone.Her fingers brushed one of the stones that lined the firepit.She circled her palm around the smooth edges.
“Don’t worry.When your boyfriend shows up, I’ll be sure he joins you.”
Anger exploded in bright bursts in front of her eyes.She closed her hand around the stone and lunged forward.Using all her strength, she slammed the rock against his face.His head snapped to the side, and he staggered.The gun fell as his body landed in the snow.She dropped to her knees and dove for the weapon.
The roar of a four-wheeler split through the night.
Dr.Lots wrestled the weapon from her hands.His arm circled her throat just as headlights blinded her.
She blinked rapidly, unable to focus.A tall, dark form jumped from the machine and stalked toward them.The light caught snowshoes, jeans, a familiar waffle-knit shirt peeking out from the flaps of a flannel coat...
Relief washed through her.
“Jaxon,” she said on a shaky breath.He was here.He’d found her.
“Let her go.”The barrel of a shotgun bore down on them.
Dr.Lots cackled.Critters skittered from the trees.“Go on and shoot.You’ll hit her and save me the trouble.”
“I got cell phone reception on the way here, Doc.Sheriff will be here any minute.”
McKenna searched Jaxon’s face in the moonlight that beamed through the clouds.Tight lines surrounded his mouth.His eyebrows were screwed together.The white knuckles on his hands trembled.
He’s lying.
Twenty feet separated them.Jaxon could be a good shot or a really shitty one and now wasn’t the time she wanted to find out, but there weren’t many other options.Near her temple, there was a sharp click of metal on metal.
“Say goodbye,” Dr.Lots whispered in her ear.
***
Adrenaline hammered againsthis eardrums.Jaxon’s breath lay stagnant in his lungs, aching to be expelled.The doctor was wild-eyed; his lip twitched and his gaze jumped from one end of the yard to the other.This was more than just angst over what he’d done.Something wasn’t right, and Jaxon would bet his left shoe the man needed medical attention.
His instincts told him to shoot.Any shot was better than watching McKenna get her head blown off.He brought his finger to the trigger.
He couldn’t risk it.The asshat was right.If he fired, there was a huge chance he’d hit McKenna instead—or both of them at least.
