AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Her teeth started instantly chattering. She felt a headache building. From the accident? No! A vision. For the first time she welcomed it.
Please. Please, Jessie.
And suddenly there she was. Standing precariously on the headland. Alone.
Where was he?
Jessie mouthed the word to her. Two syllables. A warning.
Becca wanted to cry with frustration. “What is it?” she cried aloud.
“Justice,” Jessie answered.
Becca came back to the moment as if someone had turned a switch. She turned her face to the high heavens and shrieked, wanting answers, not riddles.
And Hudson?
She had to get help.
Struggling, she grabbed on to exposed tree roots to help her scale the embankment back to the road above. She was glad for her beach clothes, her sneakers and jeans and jacket, but she still scrambled for purchase against the slippery mud.
Gasping for breath, she finally reached the top, hauling herself up with shaking arms onto the asphalt. She stared down the highway from where they’d come. No sound of an approaching vehicle. She glanced toward the east. The road curved toward the right. Nothing approaching from there, either.
She wanted to lie down and rest her head on the wet road. She needed…rest.
But Hudson needed help.
With an effort, she staggered to her feet. You’re unhurt, she told herself. You’re okay.
She was only a couple of miles from her first accident. Where someone had run her off the road. Where she’d lost her baby. Again, she cradled her abdomen.
Which way to go to find cell service? Toward Portland, or toward the beach?
A toss-up.
Becca chose Portland. She stumbled east. A car would come by soon. A good Samaritan. Hudson was okay. He wasn’t in any immediate danger. He was okay. But tears formed in the corners of her eyes and she silently prayed for him as she trudged along the road.
She reached another curve of the road and trudged around it, looking through the rain ahead. Was that a car stopped on the road? To her shock, headlights suddenly blasted her in their bright glare. She saw the grill guard.
For the briefest of seconds Becca was paralyzed. Then she heard the door slam and a tall figure was backlit in the headlights. He held something in his hands. A knife.
She turned and fled like an Olympic runner, racing down the road away from him.
His footsteps slammed hard behind her.
Not toward Hudson, she thought. She had to lead him away. To the other side of the road.
She crossed the center line and zigzagged toward the opposite cliffside, sliding over the ledge on purpose, brushing a low Douglas fir branch, scratched by stickery limbs.
He was close. Breathing hard. He leapt down after her.
She was surprisingly coolheaded. She had to lead him away. Away. Away. From Hudson and Ringo. From her and her baby.
“Sister,” he called softly. “You cannot hide.”
Sister?
Becca stumbled, nearly fell.
