Her body turned stiff.
“You’re awake,” he said, his tone triumphant.
Using all her strength she braced her feet on the edge of the van door, raised her hands in the air, and brought the sharp end of the screwdriver down into his neck.
His head jerked back and he gasped.His body fell into the van door then sunk to the ground.The moon caught his tousled blond hair.Shock made his face paler than the white van.
Cody.
Questions burned through her mind, but not as fast as realization.He’d tried to kill her.
Wild, angry eyes found hers.In one movement, he jerked his hand up and ripped the handle of the screwdriver from his collarbone.“You fucking bitch.”
Josie backed away, terror nearly paralyzing her muscles.He locked his gaze on hers, his irises almost black in the night.She turned and ran.
Her bare feet pounded against the wet, puddly gravel.Rain came down in a steady pour, soaking her clothes and chilling her to the bone.She scanned the property as she sprinted.
They were at the lumberyard.
The place Liam had died.
“You think you can run from me?”Cody’s voice carried over the wind.
She threw a glance over her shoulder as he stalked behind her, his movements determined.Her arms were still bound in front of her chest.If she fell, she’d be a sitting duck.
Trees surrounded the perimeter of the property.She had to get to the woods.Wet strands of hair plastered themselves against her face, blocking her vision.She shook them away as her feet skittered over the grass.
“You can run, but you can’t hide!I have cameras everywhere, Josie.”
Her breath squeezed its way through her windpipe.Each inhale more painful than the last.He was probably right.Of course he’d have cameras around his property.He’d lied when he said he didn’t have footage of Liam’s death.Or maybe he’d ensured there was no evidence.Nothing to tie him to the accident.
Fury collided with grief inside her.She’d kill him for what he’d done.But if she didn’t get her hands free, she didn’t stand a chance.
Crack!
The blast of a bullet echoed over the forest.She ducked and covered her head as she dove for cover in the trees.Birds scattered away from their homes.
Oh, god.He’d gun her down.She’d never escape.
I have to try.For Liam.
She ran over tree roots.Branches beat her face.But she didn’t stop moving.
CHAPTER 14
Quin’s phone rangover the car’s speakers, splitting his aching head.It’d better be the sheriff.He glanced at the screen as his car bumped over the uneven ground of the field that connected to Josie’s backyard.Right where he’d had Frasier and right where he’d found the tire tracks.
An unfamiliar phone number lit the screen.
“Hello?”
“Quin.It’s Dez.I’d really like to know what the hell you’re doing here, but where’s Josie?She’s not answering her phone and the sheriff station sent patrol cars there.”
“How’d you—?”
“Please.I know everything that happens in this town, and Mary, my cousin, is the dispatcher you spoke to and who gave me your phone number.”
Duh.He should have known word would spread fast.His headlights beamed over the ground, lighting the skid marks.He turned in the direction they headed, west from Josie’s property.Anxiety fired up and down his nerve endings.He didn’t want to rehash everything that had happened.Didn’t have the fucking time when right now he had to focus on locating Josie.But he couldn’t leave Dez in the dark either.
