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He was at her front door, and he was going to kill her.
Ava had ignored his demands. Waited too long. She had to act fast. Move. Quickly.
Run!
Her foster care days taught her how to bolt at a moment’s notice, and she could disappear in a flash.
She grabbed her backpack and raced to the back of her house. Down the stairs. Into the old-fashioned root cellar. Up the concrete steps. She flung open the doors to her backyard and dashed into the darkness.
She glanced around the yard. Into the inky night. Moon behind clouds. Drizzle spitting.
Good for cover. Not so good for the risk of falling.
Now where?
Her car? No! She couldn’t risk approaching the garage and revving her engine. Alerting her would-be killer.
She would have to hoof it. Simple as that.Yeah, right, simple.
Heart galloping, palms sweating, she charged over her yard, spongy from months of Oregon spring rain.
She reached the fence where pickets had recently fallen, revealing her neighbor’s yard. Swing set. Slide. She slipped past their patio door. Light glowed from the dining table where the family of three was gathered for dinner. Heads bowed in prayer, they didn’t notice her.
Perfect. She wouldn’t have to get them involved and potentially put them in danger, too.
Thank You!
She slipped along the far side of the fence to the squeaking of Timmy’s guinea pigs. Thank goodness he hadn’t wanted his parents to get him a dog, or it would reveal her location.
She reached the street. Kept going. Pummeling her sneakers over the sidewalk. She risked a glance back at her house. At the car out front. Black. Sports car. Dented and rusty.
Yeah, it was Layne Boyle’s vehicle all right, but no sign of Layne. At six foot tall, the thirty-something buff guy with blond hair and striking blue eyes would be impossible to miss.
She kicked it into gear. Rounded a corner. Then another. And another, then ducked into bushes near the neighborhood playground.
She gulped the humid air, sucking it in as if it were from an oxygen tank she would use for one of her patients.Patients.Not anymore. Her nursing career was over. Layne would see to that, and the police would be after her. Bringing her up on murder charges.
Her! Murder charges. How had her life come to that?
She didn’t kill Layne’s mother, Holly Boyle, last month. The police had no reason to suspect foul play, but Layne told them she had changed her will at the last minute and could’ve made the killer mad. The police agreed to look into it, but they did nothing, claiming high caseloads, and with the autopsy not showing any sign of foul play, they blew him off.
So he decided to investigate on his own and located circumstantial evidence that made Ava look guilty. He’d threatened to kill her unless she turned herself in within three days. She couldn’t do that when she wasn’t guilty—wouldn’t—and she’d made plans to flee. To move to a secluded Oregon town. To learn to live off-grid. Alone.
But he’d come hunting her before the time was up.
She couldn’t change that, but would still go through with her plans. Head to Shadow Lake Survival’s compound and complete the deep immersion course to learn necessary skills needed to live off-grid in the small cabin her cousin had left to her.
Become Kari Curtis. She’d paid big bucks for a fake ID. She liked that name and started using it right away. Gone was Ava Weston, her real identity. She’d bought a car with cash from a private individual and filled it with personal possessions, including her bassoon, which she still played in a local community orchestra. Then she’d parked the second car in a storage facility, paying cash again.
So yeah, if she could get to a bus, she could get to her future. Run from Layne. From the law. Live a life of solitude. Not what she wanted. She’d always imagined a life with a husband and family. That was out of the question now. A lonely life in a cabin was better than a life behind bars.
She peeked out of the shrubs. Down the treelined street. Past the cars parked in front of houses with lights glowing, alluring warmth and safety. Misleading, and she couldn’t let down her guard. Her house was emitting the same vibe, and there was no safety inside. Not with someone wanting to kill her.
She spotted nothing unusual.
Move. Now!
