“Keep going when you’re ready,” Jagger said, his hand still on mine.
“I didn’t know what to do. Slowing down or stopping seemed like a bad idea if someone had it out for me, so I just kept driving. But then they hit me again and it was… it was so hard, so loud.” I heard the shriek of metal on metal, felt the jolt of the Subaru as the SUV hit me the final time. “I couldn’t keep control of the car, couldn’t keep it on the road. I saw myself sliding toward the guardrail, felt the car hit it. And then it broke and…”
I was breathing heavy, sweat dripping down the back of my neck, running between my boobs in the sundress.
The panic attack was made worse by the fact that I couldn’t see. There was nothing to look at, nothing to focus on to ground myself in the here and now, just the endless tundra of blackness that was my world now.
Jagger squeezed my hand. “You’re okay. We’re here with you. You’re safe.”
“Do you— ” Hawk started.
“Nope,” Jagger barked. “Not yet.”
He placed a cold glass bottle in my hand and told me to take a drink.
I swallowed the cold lemonade with relief, then forced myself to keep breathing, to focus on the ground under my ass, the warm breeze touching my bare arms, the sound of kids on the playground and the river rushing downstream.
“Thank you,” I said, holding out the glass bottle, waiting for someone to take it like I waited for all kinds of things now.
“Do you want to stop?” Jagger asked, taking the bottle from my hand. “We can pick this up later. There’s no rush.”
“No, I’m okay.” I don’t know whether I was saying it for them or myself. “I’m okay.”
I wanted to get it out. To get it over with.
“Do you remember anything about the SUV?” Hawk asked. “Any little detail that might have made it stand out? The color ofthe license plate or the first three letters or even the model of the car?”
I thought back, forced myself to see the car behind me, beside me on the road.
But it was no use. There was nothing but the gleaming black paint and tinted windows, the roar of the SUV’s engine.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for, mouse,” Vigo said. “It’s that fucker who ran you off the road that’s going to be sorry.”
The vehemence in his voice made me believe it.
“And you’re sure you didn’t see the SUV before you made the turn?” Hawk asked.
“I’m sure. It doesn’t mean it wasn’t there, but I didn’t see it.”
They grew quiet again, obviously processing everything I’d told them.
“Thing is,” Jagger finally said, “there’s only one other way to get to Old Mountain Road.”
“And the Sunoco is on that road,” Hawk said.
And then, Vigo.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
18
JAGGER
There weretwo roads leading to Old Mountain road and the Sunoco was the only gas station for five miles in either direction.
Did the guy who’d run Cassie off the road stop for gas?
