Page 168

Jodie planted both hands under her and pushed. The ground tipped sharply to one side and the nausea threatened to take her down.

Nope.

She dropped back to the grass and stayed there until the spinning eased. Goblin paced around her, pressed against her shoulder, then circled back and shoved his nose into her neck.

She reached out to pet the dog. “I know. Give me a second.”

Her head throbbed with every heartbeat. She touched the side of it and hissed. When she pulled her fingers away, they were coated in blood. The sight made her lightheaded.

Okay.

She’d been hit. The memory opened a door.

The pen.

The trough.

That number on the panel.

Her radio in her hand.

An arm around her.

Don’t.

Jodie closed her eyes.

She’d bitten him like a dog. He’d shoved her away. She’d turned⁠—

A face flashed through her memory. The shock of recognizing him had hit almost before the blow did.

Her eyes snapped open. For one long second, she forgot about the pain and the smoke. She forgot everything except his face.

Harold attacked me.

The realization punched through her brain fog hard enough that Jodie tried to sit up too quickly again. The world rolled and she caught herself on one hand, breathing through the nausea until the ground stopped moving beneath her.

Why?

Something to do with the bait trap?

I took pictures.

Jodie tried to remember what had happened to her phone. She reached for her back pocket and came up empty. She tried the other one, found nothing, then ran her hand across the dirt beside her in case the phone had fallen there.

Nothing.

“No.” She twisted around, searching the grass. The movement sent another nauseating bolt of pain through her head, but she ignored it. Her radio had fallen when he grabbed her. She remembered hearing it hit the ground. If she could find it, she could call for help.

It wasn’t there. It was gone, too.

Harold took them and abandoned me.

Just like Dale.

Fucking bastards.

Jodie forced herself upright far enough to look toward Willow’s truck. It sat where she’d left it beside the two-track a few yards away, close enough that under any other circumstances she could have reached it in less than a minute.