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Declan walks inside, looks at me.
“How long ago did she leave?”
“Maybe an hour. Not long,” Alice says. “James wanted to come get you sooner, but I told him to wait until—”
“Go,” Declan says, cutting her off.
He picks up his keys from the table beside the door and tosses them at me.
I catch them, look at them stupidly.
What must she think?
“Go get her. The roads will be slick and she’s not used to driving here.”
I nod and as I walk out, I hear James softly cry.
“It’s not your fault, James,” Declan says.
No, not his fault. My fault.
“I’m sure Melissa will explain.”
Once outside, I get into Declan’s Range Rover and start it up. I switch on the tracker, glad I had the chip put on her bracelet when I’d had the clasp repaired. She’s got a head start, but I can make that up.
33
Melissa
My phone keeps losing reception and I’m lost. It doesn’t help that the rain’s picked up again and it’s cold enough that the roads are slippery.
It’s been ages since I’ve driven a stick shift and never with my left hand.
The gears scream as I shift to drive up the next hill, trying to load the map on my phone again, my attention split.
It happens so fast, the turn coming out of nowhere, the rain at its heaviest, the boulder on the side of the road. I look up and it’s too late, I know it even as my foot instinctively slams the brakes.
The tires screech, the car slips and swerves.
I scream, clutching the steering wheel, realizing I’d never put on my seatbelt as the SUV collides with the boulder, the sound of metal crushing and my own screaming all I hear as something pops and my forehead collides against the windshield, the pain sharp and instant just before I lose consciousness.
34
Hawk
The car’s stopped moving.
She’s not much farther, but I’m stuck, cursing as I wait for the shepherd to clear the herd of sheep across the road. It’s a fucking eternity before he does and gives me a friendly wave I’m unable to return.
I hit the gas, the Rover lurches forward and I take the turns faster than I should, but I don’t care. She’s still not moving and I have a bad feeling.
A car honks its horn as I narrowly miss sideswiping him when I take the turn off to where, according to the tracker, Melissa should be. As soon as I’m over the hill, I see it.
“Melissa!”
I stop the Rover, pull up the parking brake and leap from it. I don’t even close the door. Rain pelts me as I run to the smashed SUV, and I don’t see her. Not until I get to the driver’s side.
There’s blood on the cracked windshield and she’s slumped over the steering wheel, passed out.
“Melissa!” I call out, but she can’t hear me.
The door’s locked, they all are. I run back to the Rover and open the trunk. Inside, I find a toolbox—this Rover is so old I imagine Declan has to stop often to make repairs. From inside it, I take the biggest wrench I can find and when I’m back at the rental, I check on Melissa once more. She’s still out.
I walk to the back seat opposite where she is, raise the wrench over my head and smash the window in. It shatters on the first hit, but it takes another to clear the glass enough to unlock the door. I ignore the cutting shards as I reach around to unlock all the doors then run back to the driver’s side.
“Melissa?”
She groans and relief floods me as I gently draw her upright.
Blood streaks her forehead and she’s going to have a hell of a bump, but she looks at me, blinking, lifting her hand to touch her forehead. She looks at the blood on her fingers like she’s not quite registering what it is.
“Hawk?”
“Are you okay?” I ask her, looking her over.
She blinks. “What happened?”
“You crashed.” I pat her arms, her legs. I don’t think anything’s broken.
“My head,” she starts as I slide my arms underneath her and lift her out. “It hurts.”
“I’ll get you home. We’ll get a doctor out there.”
At that, she seems to remember what she was doing. Why she’d left.
“No,” she starts, trying to get free of me. “I need to go.”
“Where are you going to go?”
She looks up at me and I see into the cabin of the car at her tote on the floor of the passenger side. The papers there.
“Melissa?” I ask her.
But her eyes roll back and her head lolls into my chest as she passes out again.
35
Melissa
I’m lying on a bed when I open my eyes. I don’t know exactly where right away, though.
But then I see him.
Hawk.
He must have been standing nearby because he’s coming over now. His hair is disheveled, and he looks tired.
