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Relieved, Jenna nodded. “Yeah, you’ve been distant, almost like a stranger at times.”
“I’m sorry, Jenna.” Kane looked wounded. “My memories are all jumbled. The time since I arrived here is as if it happened five years ago and the car bombing feels like a couple of months ago. When I saw you in the gulley after the shooting, I didn’t recognize you, I didn’t know where I was and the last thing I remembered was seeing my wife die.”
Understanding flooded over her. No wonder he had been so distant. She reached across the table and squeezed his arm. “I’m so sorry, Dave. You did mention that at the time, but I thought you had all your memories back now.” She sighed. “So they are all there but not in chronological order? Oh, now I understand. Don’t stress about it, just take it one day at a time. I can wait, Dave. I did before and I can do it again.”
“This is why I need to move back into the cottage.” Kane stretched out his leg and rubbed his knee. “I need the normality, the old routine we had before to get my head straight.” He lifted his gaze to her. “I value our friendship, Jenna, and I want to be closer. If you get shipped out, I’ll go right to POTUS if necessary to be reassigned with you.”
Jenna chuckled. “Now that’s the kind of BFF I need. Can we take Wolfe and the girls with us? I’d like to keep the family together.”
“Me too.”
Twenty-Four
The temperature had dropped by the time he turned onto the highway. He’d driven slowly, intending to pull into a side road and wait for Ella Tate and her companion to drive by in his black truck. He’d planned to get up behind them and give them a blast of his horn. Seeing a sedan flying down the highway doing at least sixty was a surprise and more so when the driver lost control on the sweeping bend and slammed into the ditch alongside the road. He stopped and put on his flashers, then grabbed a flashlight. He made his way through the snowdrifts using the track the car had cut as it left the road. When he reached the steaming vehicle, the driver, a woman in her late forties, was gushing blood from a neck wound and would be dead soon but a young woman lay unconscious in the passenger seat, her head cradled in the airbag. Not able to believe his luck, he grinned into the darkness. “Well, some days are diamonds.”
His excitement had turned sour when he spotted headlight beams cutting through the darkness t
oward him. The vehicle slowed as if the occupants were examining him. The freezing cold cut into his cheeks as he picked his way back to his vehicle. The truck approached with caution and not wanting anyone to identify him, he wrapped a scarf around his face and pulled down his cowboy hat. He hoped the approaching vehicle would be carrying Ella Tate but if not, no one would recognize him. As the car slowed, he gave the driver a wave but stood his ground. A young man stepped out of the truck and headed in his direction.
“Are you Jim?”
A buzz of excitement shivered through him. Oh, this is gonna be so easy. “Yeah. I gather you’re Doug. Is Ella here?”
“She’s in my truck.” Doug glanced at the steaming car. “Any survivors?”
He touched the syringes in his pockets, left hand for Doug and right hand for Ella. “Yeah, one—the driver didn’t make it.” He shrugged. “No use trying to call for help out here. If you lend a hand to carry her, I’ll lay her on the back seat of my pickup and drive her straight to the ER. I would have lifted her myself but I was worried she might have a back injury. We’ll need to keep her as straight as possible and support her head.”
“Yeah, I’ll help.” Doug looked apprehensive. “She might sue us for moving her. You sure we shouldn’t drive up the road until we get some bars and call an ambulance?”
Smart guy but I’m smarter. “She’ll freeze to death before the paramedics arrive. Coming with me is the best chance she has right now, but I’ll need your help. You’ll need to hold her to protect her neck. Can you do that?”
“Okay.” Doug didn’t look totally convinced, but gave a curt nod. “Ella will follow us in my truck.”
With effort, they eased the young woman from the car, taking care to support her head. He made Doug hold the young woman’s shoulders and it was easy to convince him to slide into his back seat with the woman’s head on his lap. “There’s a blanket in her car. I’ll grab it and her purse. The hospital will need to know her identity.”
He used the time to retrieve the syringe from his pocket. Gathered the purses and cellphones from the vehicle and returned to the car. Anticipation shook his hands as he opened the door closest to Doug and handed him the blanket. “I’ll go and tell Ella to follow us.”
“Sure, the keys are in the car.” Doug smiled. “Be careful; she has a loaded shotgun with her.”
The moment Doug turned to cover the young woman with the blanket, he plunged the needle into his jugular, followed by a second into his thigh. Doug went out in seconds without a murmur. One down. After shutting the door, he slipped and slid his way along the ice-covered blacktop to Doug’s truck. He paused at the back of the truck in the darkness to make sure the scarf covered his face then slipped the syringe out of his pocket and uncapped it. He moved slowly around the truck then shone the flashlight through the window. There she was, not holding a shotgun but just staring at him with a half-smile on her lips. There is one idiot born every minute. “Hey there, Ella. Remember me?”
Twenty-Five
Wednesday
So cold. Ella fumbled for the blanket covering her and pulled it up to her ears. Her neck ached and a strange numbness gripped her legs. Her teeth chattered like castanets, sounding horribly loud in the complete silence. Heavens above, the cold had seeped into her bones. She blinked, staring at the brilliant white wall in front of her. Startled, she gazed around her. She was inside a car and the white wall was a windshield covered with snow. How the hell did I get here?
Condensation dripped down the windows and she lifted her gloved hand to wipe it away, then thought better of it and searched around the car. She found a hamburger wrapper and used it to wipe a hole in the mist. Outside, the snow-dusted highway stretched in both directions. She searched her memory, remembering speaking to Doug about searching for Sky. They had climbed into his truck with a shotgun and headed out of town. Then what happened?
She searched the cabin. The shotgun lay across the back seat just as she remembered. Two empty to-go cups sat in the console along with a variety of candy. Perhaps she had fallen asleep and Doug had decided to search alone. What the hell was the time? She was desperate for a pee. From the daylight, she figured it must be way past nine. She eased open the door and winced as a blast of arctic air hit her face. If she came here with Doug, he must be close by. Her numb legs hit the blacktop and she turned and gaped in horror at the wrecked sedan a few yards away. Have we been in a wreck?
Sickened, she edged forward, not believing her eyes. The door to the wrecked sedan hung open and the interior light showed a woman with long hair covered in blood hanging half out of the smashed windshield. An ugly gash across her throat left her in no doubt that the poor woman was dead. Ella gaped in disbelief. The woman’s blood had frozen as it dripped off the hood and hung in grotesque red popsicles. She bit back a rush of nausea and waded through the thick snow to the vehicle. She had to look inside in case someone else was inside injured.
Shivering with cold and fear, she reached the wreck and steeled herself, then peered inside. Apart from the driver, the car was empty. She kept her eyes averted from the woman’s horrific injuries and, gripping the side of the vehicle, eased her way around the car, searching the immediate area for any survivors. She turned to examine Doug’s truck. It appeared to be undamaged. Perhaps he’d come across the car wreck and stopped to lend assistance, but if so where had he gone? She scanned the frozen tundra.
“Doug, are you out here?” Her voice seemed dampened by the snow. The eerie quiet closed in around her. She called many times but no reply came and a trickle of fear raised the hairs on the back of her neck. Alone in the middle of nowhere and her friend was missing. Not again. This can’t happen twice in one week.
Slipping and sliding perilously along the edge of the ditch, she reached Doug’s SUV. Snow dusted the black truck and by the thick coating of frost crazing the paintwork, they must have been here all night. If she couldn’t find Doug, she would drive into town and get help. She had the GPS to get her back to Black Rock Falls. She wrenched open the door and her gaze fixed on the ignition. She let out a sob of desperation. No keys. A chill shivered through her to the bone. What had happened to Doug? Why would he leave her and his truck on the side of the road? Nothing made sense. He had to be close by somewhere. Maybe he had wandered off into the bushes. She leaned against the truck and cupped her mouth. “Doug, Doug, answer me. Stop messing around.”
