The doorknob turned.Rough fists banged against the wood.“Open the fucking door!”
She squeezed her eyes shut and clutched the axe.Her pulse screamed in her eardrums.Quin’s voice boomed from the phone’s speaker, his words directed at Cody and not penetrating her consciousness.
Sweat glued the wayward strands of her hair to the side of her face.She didn’t dare dash them aside.Indecision roared inside her as she held onto the weapon.She’d never hurt anyone in her life, would she be able to hit Cody with a damn axe?
Cody banged on the door again.The wooden chair jumped.Any second, he’d come barreling through.
Crack!
The chair skidded away from the door as the wood burst open.Josie let out a scream and swung the axe.
Cody hissed in pain, but his forceful hands captured the length of the axe.“You fucking bitch!”Shoving the weapon, he barreled her backward.She fell, her hip slamming onto the hardwood floor.
Cody loomed over her, his eyes dark in the shadows, his body heaving with rage, the axe hanging from his hand.He held his other arm at an awkward angle—she’d hurt him.If he was wounded, she might be able to escape.
He took a step toward her and the hope vanished.
“You,” he spat.
“Cody!”Quin’s voice roared from the desk.“If you fucking touch her, I swear to god, I’ll gut you.”
Cody laughed derisively.
“Why, Cody?”Josie said, her voice brittle.“What did Liam ever do to you?”
Cody’s eyes turned cold.He lifted the axe.“You guys can’t really be that stupid.Liam was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not keeping his nose clean.”He swung the end of the axe toward the phone on the desk.“It’s Quin you can thank for Liam’s death.And for getting you killed.”
“Me?”Quin’s voice pitched.“How the fuck are you putting this on me?”
“You wanted a buyout!”Cody yelled.His veins pumped against his temple as he stared at the desk.
“Yeah, bro.Because I invested two hundred grand of my inheritance in the start-up and didn’t want to stick around here forever.It was—”
“Enough!”Cody stalked toward the desk and yanked the cord from the jack before throwing the phone at the wall.He turned toward her, his chest heaving.Cody stomped forward, grabbed her bicep, and hauled her to her feet, holding the head of the axe close to her face.“It’s over now, Josie.”
The zingy taste of terror filled her mouth.
I’m going to die.
CHAPTER 15
Quin stood onthe gas pedal as his vehicle bounced over the gravel road.The turn was close.Christ, it’d been years since he approached the logging office from the back roads.He kept his gaze out for the break in the trees that would lead to another road.
Had he missed it?
Sweat poured over his brow almost as fast as the rivulets on the windshield.He didn’t dare waste a second to crack a window.He swiped his hand over his forehead.Dangling leaves morphed together, making every tree look like a replica of the one before.Like the suffocating sensation he’d had the last time he was in a corn maze.
Goddammit to hell and back.He’d been driving too long.He must have passed—
He spotted a space between the trees and skidded to a stop.Bits of gravel spilled off to the left, like a beacon calling him to follow.
Halle-fucking-lujah.
He turned sharply.Branches swiped his vehicle, one nearly ripping off his antennae.He didn’t slow.If his memory was accurate, he was less than five minutes away.Way less since he was flying like a bat out of hell.
He’d kill Cody.
He’d tear off his fucking limbs.Make him swallow a bullet.No, that was too kind of an ending.Cody had said it was Quin’s fault Liam was dead.Bile burned his esophagus.If Cody filled Josie’s head with lies and then killed her...
