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His dark eyes drilled into her, and he cocked the gun. “I wouldn’t push it. Drive straight. I’ll tell you where to turn.”
Heaving panicked breath, she looked around and was terrified to see Derek’s Ferrari waiting ahead on the side of the road. When she passed, he smoothly pulled behind her car.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked, and damn her voice for sounding so scared!
“Money.”
“Whatever he’s paying you, I can pay you more. I have twenty-thousand dollars in my savings. I can give it all to you. I can drive to the bank right now and withdraw it. You can have it, and I’ll never talk about this to anyone.”
“That would be a good offer if he wasn’t paying me three times that. See that sign up ahead?”
“Y-yes.”
“Turn left at it.”
She didn’t understand. It was a small neighborhood, and he had her circle the streets a few times before she pulled back out onto the main, where Derek’s car was waiting across the road. He slid in behind her again, and they headed out.
“Why did I have to do that?” she asked.
“You fucked a shifter.”
Her mind was racing. She should keep him talking! “So?”
“So, they are good trackers. I’m from these parts. Been living in the shadows of Damon’s Mountains all my life. I know how they work. Even if your little fuck-buddy found the restaurant and tracked the fumes, he will be stuck in that neighborhood for an hour. The scent will go cold on him. I’ll take care of him later, after I’m paid. Mr. Forester said he would double my fee after I’m done with your shifter.”
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Think!
She glanced at her purse. Her Taser and her cell phone were in there.
The man leaned through the gap between the seats and grabbed her purse, rifled through it, and held up her phone. “This what you wanted? Roll down the window.”
“Please. I haven’t done anything to you. Please just let me go.”
“Roll down the window!”
She squeaked in fear and hit the window button for the back, but just by inches.
“Lower!” he yelled, ramming the barrel of the gun harder against her temple.
With a yelp, she rolled it down farther, and he chucked her phone out the window. It clattered onto a gravel turnoff.
The hopelessness that followed that moment was overwhelming. There was an awful empty feeling that consumed her as she gripped the steering wheel and coasted on the empty road. It was just after seven in the morning and there weren’t many cars on the road.
He told her to take a right on a road that looked like nothing more than a washed-out, one-lane mud pit. Her car barely made it through the muck before she hit higher, more solid ground. Higher and higher they climbed until a small house came into view.
“Home sweet home,” the man murmured. “Park the car and get out.”
She cast a quick glance back to her purse in the back seat. The Taser was in there, if only she could get to it in time.
She unbuckled and bunched her muscles as the man got out of the car, but as she twisted around to grab her purse, the driver’s side door opened and she was yanked out. She screamed at the pain in her arm, but Derek clapped his hand over her mouth. “Come on now, Hallie. That is beneath you.”
She fought like some wild animal, but he reared back and hit her so hard, she fell to the ground on her hands and knees. The high-pitched ringing in her ears and the pain in her cheek made the edges of her vision blurry.
Derek grabbed the back of her hair and yanked her backward until she was looking up at the sky. He was saying something in her ear, but she couldn’t understand his words.
Above her, in the sky, there was a falcon like the one in her tattoo. In flight, not perched. On a journey. This was a sign, right? This was God telling her to take heart? Or to disappear strong?
Tears stung her eyes.
