“You’re not going to make it back to your car. Not that it would matter if you did. Allison made it, but we got her anyway. Should have seen her all laid out there on the seat, bleeding like a stuck pig. Made a fucking mess. Barrydidn’t do such a good job cleaning that up.” His nose wrinkled. “He always was a little stupid. That’s his momma’s fault.”
Something inside me fractured, a soundless break that hurt worse than any blow. Allison’s face flashed in my mind, the photos we’d studied, the hospital records, the fragments of a life that ended because of men like this. Overlaid with it was my sister’s. Was this how it felt for her? Lying in the dirt? Beaten and alone?
“She’s buried where you’ll never find her,” he said spitefully. Dale Galloway was just like his son, pasty and heavy, and the thought of them paying Allison Finch for sex turned my stomach. She’d just wanted a better life for herself. His eyes narrowed at me. “Watched the life leave her eyes. Just like I’m going to do with you.”
“You’re a pig,” I ground out. The effort felt like needles. “You and your kid are both pigs.”
His hand closed around my throat. “Try to say that again,” he ground out. You’d have thought that I was the one hurting him with the way his eyes bulged and his face reddened. “You’re going to regret coming here. It was all handled.”
The pressure was immediate and crushing. Panic surged as my lungs burned, and my vision tunneled. Clawing at his wrist, my nails scraped his skin, but there was no doubt that he was stronger than I was. His forearm waslike iron as he leaned his weight into it, pushing down on me like a fucking elephant.
“You brought this on yourself,” he said, voice eerily calm. “No one will find you out here—just another accident. I’m going to leave you for the animals. I’m not as dumb as you think. There are cougars around here, did you know that?” The words were gleeful, and the image sickening at the thought of it. I wasn’t sure if he was right, but just thinking about Kipp believing that I’d crashed and then died out here, mauled by wild animals, made me thrash against Galloway’s hands.
With the last of my strength, I drove my thumb into his eye. He made a screeching sound, releasing me as he reeled back, hand flying to his face. Taking in a ragged breath, my chest spasmed as I rolled away, coughing and choking. Every movement felt like knives, but I forced myself to stand, staggering blindly toward the trees.
Rushing after me, he caught me by the back of my jacket and threw me hard against a tree trunk. My shoulder exploded with pain, a scream tearing out of me before I could stop it. He followed, fists raining down, each blow duller now, distant, like I was underwater.
A rushing sound filled my head, and my hearing seemed to dull, even as, somewhere far away, I thought I heard shouting. Over me, Dale froze.
“What the hell,” he muttered, panic edging into his tone as his head pivoted on his big neck like an owl’s. We werea mess now, both of us. His eye swollen and red, and his hands nauseatingly tinged pink with what must be my blood, but my eyes closed again.
The shouting grew louder, closer, boots crashing through brush, voices calling my name. Kipp’s voice cut through the haze, raw and desperate.
“You fucked up everything,” Dale growled down close enough to me that his breath was harsh in my face and his belly pressed against me.
This time, the blow made the world tilt violently as darkness rushed in.
CHAPTER 42
Kipp
When Lila and then Sage messaged me that Hattie hadn’t made it to their meeting in town, I wasn’t too worried at first. Instead, I just texted her to check in. We’d had a heavy conversation the night before, but she’d been fine that morning. She might have gotten caught up in some work with her team online.
Still, as another hour ticked by, there was a relentless pounding in my head that made me turn towards home. It seemed inconceivable that she would have missed an appointment with Lila and Sage. Maybe she’d had an accident.
It was the thought of her hurt that had been on my mind as my truck was turning towards home. Redialing her phone and getting no answer made me even more anxious. I’d even dropped a message a few minutes before I’d left the preserve with Rhodes to see if someone could ping a location on her phone.
This was the first time I regretted living so far out. My trip to the wildlife preserve had taken another twenty minutes, and now I still had the climb to the cabin. Solitude typically calmed me, but right now that distance had me cursing eighteen ways to Sunday.
Rhodes’ call rang through my stereo system. Hitting connect, I asked anxiously, “Is she at the cabins?”
“No man,” he said tightly, “I found her. I’m sending you her location. Looks like her car went off the road.” My stomach pitched. “I’ve already called Wade. He’s going to call out emergency services. You just need to get there.”
“Thanks, man. I owe you.”
“No sweat. I’ll check in with Wade later.”
The line disconnected, and I pulled up the location pin. It was showing the road down from the cabin into Wildwood Meadows, but inconceivably, a good thousand yards from the road. Was it in her pocket? Was she lost? Did it fly out of the vehicle? Taking a breath, I tried to settle myself. Those weren’t questions I could answer. All I could do was get there and go from that point. My nerves jangled inside me as my speed picked up.
It would have been almost easy to miss, except for the old truck parked off to the side of the road, and I say that generously. There wasn’t much room for passing or for people to park there. If someone broke down, then a tow was needed immediately because you’d be blocking the whole road.
It wasn’t until I eased up behind the truck that I saw the skid marks and the broken branches. Chills ran down my spine as my eyes moved between them and the truck. Red and blue lights pierced through the trees behind me, which I was sure belonged to the police led by my brother, but I wasn’t going to wait. The truck was sending alarm bells crashing through me, but urgency sped me on as I sprang from the truck, telling Fish to stay.
Her small SUV had rolled down the slope, crashing into the trees and smashing against the trunks. From the top of the embankment, I could see it resting at the bottom with shattered glass scattered and sparkling across the bark and pine needles.
Shuffling down the slope, I angled my boots to the side in the soft dirt, every bad thought running through my head as I took in the mess of her car. The wreck had been bad. No way was she uninjured, and there was blood on the frame. Not a lot, but there was definitely some. The biggest concern was the other set of footprints, the soft dirt, and the dragging marks.
Keeping my weapon up, I started to jog after the tracks until I heard grunts and what sounded like scuffling. I was unprepared when a male voice shouted out. “You fucked up everything!”
