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“We got a problem.” He glances at the other man.
And I’ve got a bigger one. He’s been made. He won’t be taking the cash and fleeing out the back door when I can give the cops his name.
“Yeah, we do,” the guy at the safe says. “This ain’ half so much as ya said.”
The younger guy rolls his eyes at his companion, and I know it’s my chance, my only one. They’re focused on each other. My fist closes around the pot handle behind my back. I’ve been meaning to throw the rusty old thing away. For once, procrastination may pay.
“Not that, you idiot. She—” He flicks his gun my way, and I strike.
He roars as the rusty pot crashes into his wrist. The gun goes off—a sound louder than a cannon. I scream. They might too. It’s hard to tell over the painful ringing in my ears, but that doesn’t matter.
I bolt through the door, bounce off the wall, and sprint for the exit.
A strange truck is parked next to my Mazda. I race for her.
Yells reach me over the buzzing in my ears.
Shit. No keys. Adrenaline zips through my veins as my gaze darts around in the dark.Have to run.
The forest stretches out behind Jolene’s, and I sprint for it. The back door crashes open. I zag right just past the dumpster, letting it be a last barricade between the men and me.
Another shot rings into the night. Sweet baby Jesus!
My heart skips a beat as I hunch in on myself, but the pain doesn’t come. My boots kick up gravel until I reach the leaf-strewn forest floor. Tree limbs catch at my face and arms. My boots slip and my ankle twists painfully, but I keep going. Another shot strikes a tree, showering me with bits of bark.
Tears blur my vision, not that I can see a darn thing in the dark.
The heavy crunch of leaves and shouts chase me. Each breath burns my lungs. My ankle screams with each step, but I can’t stop. They can’t catch me. I can’t die this way. Gran needs me.
Please, sweet Jesus, save me, take me away from here.
Rain pelts my face out of nowhere, one stinging drop after another.
Of course I’d die like a wet rat in the woods. It’s pouring like someone broke a dam in heaven, even though it was dry as a bone moments ago.
I look back over one shoulder, but I can’t see anything. I don’t hear them anymore either, nothing but the rain beating in time with my thundering heart.
My boot slips. A scream breaks from my throat as I hurtle toward the ground. The impact knocks the air from my lungs. My teeth bang together. Something hard smashes into my arm as I roll down a slope.
Everything hurts. Everything is wet. Sobs rack my body. Tears mingle with the rain.
I try to push to my feet, but a bolt of white-hot pain sears my ankle, and I drop back into a wet heap on the forest floor. It’s probably broken. I can’t get up. Can’t run. I—
“Evelyn.”
My breath hitches, and I go utterly still.
A shadowed form steps between two trees. My heart lurches up my throat. They’ve found me. I close my eyes and give one last, silent prayer for mercy.
The rain stops. The scent of pine swarms my senses.
“Eve—”
My eyes snap open, and I forget to breathe. A man—he has to be male—looms just in front of me. Bright blue eyes seem to glow in the night. Distantly, part of me screams at the oddity. He shelters me from the rain with something dark I can’t see.
I can’t look away from his gaze. It’s searing, searching, as if it can see into my very soul.
“You’re here.” His words are an awed, breathless whisper. Still, they hold all the intensity of an impassioned sermon. Whiskey over silk. Fire and ice.
