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I look over my shoulder.

For one beautiful second, there's nothing.

Then Mercer steps around the curve.

I stop.

Blood covers one side of his face. His shirt is torn. One arm hangs at an odd angle at his side. And even from here, I can see the scratches running down his forearm.

He stares at me.

Neither of us moves.

Then his face changes.

He's pissed. Really fucking pissed.

I stare at him.

“Well.” My voice sounds small in the empty road.

I take one slow step backward.

“Shit.”

50

CALLIE

Mercer takes a step toward me.

I take another one back.

My eyes flick to the road. Then the trees. Then back to him.

He's bigger than me. Faster than me when I'm not trying to walk off whatever the hell he used to knock me out. Plus the car accident that beat me up even more. Probably faster than me now, too.

Running straight down the road would be stupid.

Naturally, that's what he expects me to do.

“Callie.”

I blink.

He knows my name.

I don't like that. At all.

“I'm going to need you to stop saying my name like we're friends.”

“Come back to the vehicle.”

I glance past him at the SUV wrapped around a tree.

“I don't think it's going anywhere.”

His jaw tightens. “You caused that.”