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Chapter 23
Rafe glanced over his shoulder at Hayward, who still had the rifle pointed at his back. Not for the first time, he cursed himself for coming here alone. Hayward wouldn’t have been stupid enough to do something with a witness there.
But Rafe had been stupid. Stupid enough to meet with the man who had attempted to get his wife to have an affair. He should have not gone anywhere at all. Rafe was still upset over the fact Hayward thought it was acceptable.
Then again, he had killed before, and he had hired someone to kill as well. There was probably nothing out of bounds now. This was just getting arrogant now.
Manning was the only one who knew where he was going. Unless he had told someone else. It would get back to Victoria and Charlie. His friend would be coming for him. But how long would that take? Would Rafe be able to distract Hayward long enough to be rescued? He doubted it.
He was going to have to get out of this himself.
Rafe pretended to stumble, staggering enough that he collapsed onto his hands and knees. Hayward snorted.
“If you’re going to delay the inevitable, you can forget it. Only one of us is coming out of these woods alive.” There were footsteps, and then Rafe was being nudged sharply in the back with the rifle barrel. “Get up and get moving.”
Rafe did move, but not in the way Hayward wanted. He rose up and rammed his elbow back, hitting Hayward right in the groin. Hayward screamed and fell back, landing hard in the undergrowth as he clutched at himself. Rafe didn’t wait around. He got to his feet and began to run back the way they had come.
A moment later, something hissed past his ear and hit a tree, spraying bark on him. Reacting, Rafe darted off to his right and weaved through the trees, his heart feeling like it was going to explode. He was trying really hard not to panic. Someone had a gun, and it wasn’t him.
In all his time tracking animals, Rafe had never had someone tracking him. Now he understood how the bison felt having him after them.
After what felt like forever, Rafe realised that he was going deeper into the woods. And his surroundings were beginning to look familiar.Wait, was this it?
Then he entered a clearing, and it all came back to him. This was where Richard had been killed. Even now, Rafe could see his body on the ground, blood everywhere. His head began spinning. Why had he run here? He needed to get out of here before Hayward found him.
Something grazed his cheek as he turned his head, and it caused Rafe to stumble as the bang reached his ears. Putting a hand to his face, his fingers came away wet with blood. Turning, he saw Hayward enter the clearing, the rifle pointed at his head.
“I was going to lead you to the most dense part of the woods and leave your body there, but this is fitting.”
“You think killing me this way is going to work? People are going to know that I was murdered.”
“Unless they think it’s the same person who shot Lieutenant Millinchip. People will speculate that you were the real target, and whoever it was is a bad shot, so they tried again.”
Rafe’s cheek was beginning to burn. That really hurt. He kept his focus on Hayward. There had to be a way out of this.
“We already know that Isaac Asante was the shooter. And you were the one who hired him.”
“He can’t put a name to me. And the only people who know about Asante are you, me, and your friend Mayfield.”
“He’s with the magistrate right now. Nobody’s going to believe this was a separate incident.”
Hayward snorted.
“I doubt it. We would have heard about it by now.”
The part about Asante being with the magistrate was true, but Rafe and Mayfield had asked for discretion. They hadn’t wanted whoever hired Asante to be tipped off.
He could feel his panic building, and Rafe fought it back. He would be able to get out of this, but it was going to take a lot. Hayward wasn’t just going to let him go. Not now.
“Why would you kill Richard? He was your family. I thought you loved him.”
“Loved him?” Hayward barked out a laugh. “You must be joking. I hated him.”
“What? But you were always in our company. We allowed you to come along because Richard said it was for the best.”
“I didn’t want to be around either of you immature brats. But Richard was the next heir, and I needed to be in his good graces.” Hayward scowled. “Having to be nice to him because of what he was going to get made me nauseous.”
Rafe stared.
