Dressed in black, Lucas Zane—a small, wiry guy with a ski mask covering his face—was using his special crowbar to force open the door of the guest bathroom. As she watched, she heard the crack of wood that signaled the latch was splintering.
But she was in time! Ron was clearly locked inside, and that meant she had a chance to save him.
"Stop that!" May yelled as she raced toward him. "Police! Get away from that door! Hands in the air! Now!"
The killer turned toward her, and she saw him hesitate. It looked as if he was weighing up his options. He seemed surprisingly calm, and there was a weird coolness to his demeanor.
Then, instead of doing what she'd ordered, Zane dropped the tool and ducked away. He wrenched the front door open and vanished through the gap before May was close enough to take aim.
She swore, holstering her gun and rushing out after him. He was fleeing, and she had no illusions that he was running for his life. Which way had he gone? Hesitating on the well-groomed lawn, she looked around. To the roads, to the woods.
There he was. She caught sight of the dark figure, fleeing along the side road toward the woods. He was hoping to lose her there, to take cover in the darkness of the trees. But she wasn't going to let that happen. No way was she going to allow this cowardly killer to escape.
May rushed after him, her shoes skidding on mud and leaves as she headed into the cool, damp environment of the woods.
She had a chance to get him now, but although he wasn’t a strong, tall man, he was a surprisingly fast runner, and she knew it would take everything she had to catch up to him. She flew along, her legs powering her forward.
Now, in the trees, it was harder to see him. She couldn't go by sight alone. She also had to go by sound and by following his prints.
Listening carefully over the sound of her own harsh breathing, May followed his trail, deeper and deeper into the woods. Water and mud splashed up her legs. She pushed on, ducking down low, moving stealthily, looking for a hint of movement ahead of her.
From time to time, she glimpsed Zane, zigzagging through the trees. She could hear him churning through the undergrowth and leaf litter, and his feet pounding against the damp forest floor. But this was a thick, overgrown place, and the weather didn’t help. When gusts occurred, the wind muffled his noises, and she was running blind again.
She had to catch him. She had to!
May didn't let up on her pursuit, moving forward as fast as she could, looking out for those subtle signs and sounds, homing in on them with all the speed she had. This was not the time to give up hope, because she knew for certain that he was ahead of her and fleeing. She had to focus on that flight. Let the rest of the forest go. She had to shut out everything else and focus.
There! She was closer now, and the wind had changed direction, allowing her to hear him rushing ahead of her, fast and low, crouching behind the trees to confuse her eye. Ahead, she caught a glimpse of movement as he raced past a tree trunk, then ducked behind another. Did he look like he was limping? May thought so. He must have twisted his ankle because now he looked seriously lame.
Now feeling encouraged that she might catch him, May pushed herself even harder, although her legs were starting to tire from tackling this tough, uneven terrain. If he’d injured himself, this was her chance.
She was gaining ground, and she was going to catch him! May pushed herself harder still, almost sprinting now as she raced after him, ducking and darting between the trees. He was slowing now, he was flagging, and in just a few more yards, May thought, she'd have caught up enough to grab him—or if she had to, she could then use her gun to force him to stop.
She had options, and she would use whatever it took to bring him in. The one thing she was not going to do was let him escape.
He’d rounded this tree ahead of her, and now, she could not be more than ten yards behind him.
May powered around the thick, sturdy maple tree—and there he was. But to her shock, he wasn't running anymore. He was standing, concealed by the tree, shockingly close to her as if he'd sneaked back toward her under their cover. Intent was in every line of his body.
Zane was aiming his hand at her, and in it was that small canister that she knew spelled trouble. Immediately, May twisted away, horrified by how she'd been lured into this trap. That was what he'd done. The slowing down, the pretending to tire, had all been a clever act designed to draw her in, fast. Like an injured animal luring a predator, he’d outsmarted her, and now it was too late.
In a hissing cloud, the pepper spray enveloped her.
She was caught in a blinding, burning world of pain.
And, as she coughed for her life, trying desperately to breathe, blinded by a torrent of tears, she felt her own gun being yanked from her hand.
CHAPTER THIRTY ONE
Tears streamed from May's eyes. The agony of the pepper spray was all-consuming. The worst had happened. Lucas Zane had lured her in, pretending to be tiring and weakening. Then, in the cover of the trees, he'd struck.
He had her gun, and that was going to be fatal, fast. Getting her gun back, immediately, was now a matter of pure survival.
Blindly, as she felt the gun being tugged away, she lunged in that direction. She managed to grab hold of his arm. Fighting through the pain, May hung on as hard as she could, twisting it with all her strength. No way was she going to give her weapon up without a fight. Her fingers dug into his arm, and she felt the biceps flexing, straining under the pressure. She dreaded, at any moment, she might feel the deep, stinging pain of the knife.
But perhaps, in this headlong flight, he hadn't drawn it out of wherever he was keeping it. It must be stashed away in his jacket somewhere.
She heard him grunting and gasping, over the pounding of her own heart and her own painful breaths. This was agony. Her face was on fire, and she was completely blinded.
