Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 143842 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 719(@200wpm)___ 575(@250wpm)___ 479(@300wpm)
Though this time, it didn’t stay back and match my speed.
It increased, gaining on me so fast it made me dizzy.
I pushed my SUV harder, flying around the corners, heart hammering out of my chest as I drove as fast as I could.
I took a sharp curve.
And the car behind me?
It flew around me, taking it sharper and cutting me off.
A scream ripped out of me as I slammed on my brakes.
My SUV went into a skid, and my back tire hit the dirt shoulder of the road.
And I couldn’t control it.
Couldn’t stop my car from fishtailing one direction then the other.
Couldn’t stop its slide as it careened off the steep embankment on the side.
My eyes were frozen wide as fear tore through my spirit as my SUV flew through the underbrush.
Bouncing and jarring and out of control, heading directly for a giant tree.
I screamed when I slammed into it. Metal ground and glass shattered as the Durango twisted around the trunk.
Pain splintered up my left side.
The airbag deployed, and my skin felt as if it were being singed as I smashed against it.
An instant later, the bedlam quieted, just the hum of an engine fan melding with the ringing in my ears.
Disoriented, I fought for my senses, to ward off the shock that wanted to hold me hostage.
I fumbled to get my seatbelt undone, and I could barely get my hands to cooperate as I struggled to get the door wrenched open.
A daze clouded my mind as I staggered back up through the woods.
But it was horror that consumed when I made it out through the break in the trees.
Because Pruitt was glaring at me from across the distance.
And he wasn’t alone.
FORTY-EIGHT
CODY
I jarred awake to the pounding at the front door, confused as I blinked into the murky light that covered Hailey’s room. The covers were rumpled beside me, and I didn’t have time to grumble about the fact she wasn’t there to wake up in my arms before another round of battering railed at the door.
That was right about the time a call started buzzing from my phone where it rested on the nightstand.
Ezra.
Shit.
No doubt, I was about to get clobbered for not calling the dude yesterday to let him know what had gone down, and I wasn’t so sure that statement was in the metaphorical sense. He was bound to be pissed.
But the last thing I’d needed was my mother rushing down to that hospital terrified. Thinking she was going to lose another man in her life.
I needed to show up at her door, whole and alive, and tell her myself.
Blowing out a sigh, I scrubbed a hand over my head, trying not to wince at the blister of pain that throbbed from every inch of my bruised body. The good stuff they’d pumped me full of yesterday had long since vacated my system, and I would be a liar if I said I wasn’t hurting.
Instead of grumbling about it, I thanked fuck that I was still standing.
That these legs could carry me from Hailey’s bedroom and toward the front door that was getting battered again, the damn thing rattling on its hinges.
I was looking around, wondering where the fuck Hailey was if she wasn’t in bed, my chest stretching in a bid of worry when she wasn’t already there to answer the door.
“Hailey?” I called, figuring Ezra banging at the door had woken up the entire house, anyway.
Footsteps pounded, but it was Lolly who made it to the end of the hall at the same time as I was peering through the peephole to verify it was in fact Ezra.
“What’s going on?” Lolly muttered, her face still bleary from sleep.
“Don’t worry, Lolly, it’s just Ezra, one of my best friends. Pretty sure he caught wind of what happened yesterday afternoon.”
“Well, you’d better let him in before he busts that door down and wakes up the entire neighborhood.”
I undid the locks and Ezra barged in the second I turned the knob, the giant of a man storming into the house raring mad.
“What the fuck, Cody?” he demanded the second he saw me. In a flash, his attention had skated over my frame, categorizing my injuries.
One second later, he was crushing me in his arms in some kind of bear hug. “Fuck, are you okay?”
“Yeah, man, I’m okay.”
“Good, then I’m going to kick the crap out of you for not calling me,” he said as he stepped back, eyes scanning me again. “What the hell happened?”
“Was getting in my truck at the end of the day. I opened the door and everything went boom.”
Fury gritted Ezra’s teeth. “This Pruitt bastard?”
I pushed a shaky hand through my hair. “Likely.”
“Shit,” Ezra spat. “I’m going to get with the Sheriff of Hendrickson, and we are going to nail this fucker.”
“Yeah. We have to take this monster down. Before he gets to Hailey.”