Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
She pulled out onto the road, training her eyes on the taillights of the Land Rover ahead of her. She struggled to remain calm. Cam was still within sight. Irrational as it was, she felt that as long as she kept him within sight, she could protect him. She could at least be there if a cop stopped him. She rubbed her stomach and pressed the accelerator as much as she dared, needing to get a little closer.
“Hold on, little one.”
The rain came down harder now, faster than her decrepit wipers could keep pace. She squinted through the sheets of rain pummeling her windshield before finally turning her bright lights on. She grabbed her phone, glancing down to select Cam’s contact. The phone rang several times before finally rolling into voice mail.
She tossed her phone back into her purse, setting a grate over the fear and panic that burned in her belly and throat.
“Cameron Mitchell, when this is all over, I’m gonna kill you.”
Cam veered sharply to the left, avoiding something in the road. Kerris pulled her steering wheel to avoid it, too, but she immediately felt her tires spinning free of the road; she could feel the unresponsive steering wheel sliding through her hands as she spun once and then again and then again and then again. There was no last thought when she cannoned toward the tree with its menacing limbs. All thoughts were drowned out by the scream that erupted from her throat, filling the car before it dissolved into the deathly silence that remained.
Chapter Four
Kerris is in the hospital!”
Meredith rubbed her eyes, struggling to drag herself from the warmth of her down comforter and a deep sleep.
“Cam?” She ran her hands through her tuft of spiky hair, her voice sleep-slurred. “Is that you?”
“Yes. Yes.” His words popped out between panicked breaths. “Did you hear me? Kerris is in the hospital. It’s all my fault, Mer. Oh, God!”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Meredith sat up, reaching beside the bed to snap on the lamp. “What are you saying?”
“She’s in the hospital. Rivermont General.”
“What happened?” Fear squeezed the muscles of her throat, barely letting the words out.
“She was…she was coming after me.” Cam’s voice broke over the last word.
“I don’t understand.” Meredith frowned and threw the covers back. She rushed toward her closet, grabbing the first pair of jeans she reached, pulling them on under her nightshirt and not even bothering with a bra.
“We had a—” Cam stopped, pausing to draw a shallow, anxious breath. “We had a fight, and I had been drinking. I drove out, and she came after me.”
Meredith paused in pulling on her Uggs, longing to dive through the phone and squish the life from Cam.
“You sorry piece of shit.” Meredith snatched up her bag and keys, bolting from the apartment.
“I know.” Cam groaned, his voice holding all the torture she hoped he was feeling. “I know. Just…just come.”
“Oh, don’t you worry.” She slammed her car door, looking over her shoulder to zip out of the parking lot. “I’m on my way.”
Twenty minutes later, she almost felt sorry that she had been so hard on Cam when she saw him slumped in the plastic chair, head flopping into his hands, anguish in every line of his body.
“Cam.” She tapped him on the shoulder. “Talk to me.”
He raised his head, eyes already red-rimmed and swollen from tears.
“She…she…it’s bad.”
“Where is she?” Meredith hoped she sounded more confident than she felt. She’d never seen Cam like this. Even when Kristeene Bennett died, his eyes hadn’t held this kind of despondency.
“She’s in surgery.” He ran a trembling hand through his tumble of dark hair.
“Surgery?” Meredith gulped, afraid to ask the question. “And the baby?”
“They’re doing an emergency C-section now.” Defeat weighted his shoulders. “Our chances aren’t very good.”
“Not very good? For Kerris? For the baby?”
“For either of them.” He dropped his head back into his hands. “Oh, God, Meredith. What if they don’t make it?”
Meredith’s heart pounded in her chest so hard it hurt, like she couldn’t draw breath fast or deep enough. This was when Kerris’s mother should have been here to pray and believe with a mother’s defiant faith. But Kerris didn’t have that, and Meredith felt her absence.
“Cam, have you called Mama Jess?”
“No.” Cam sniffed, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. “I didn’t…I don’t have her number.”
Meredith pulled her phone from her purse and searched her contacts. “Dammit.”
“What?” Cam raised his head again to peer at her through the hair drooping in his eyes.
“I don’t have her number either.” She sucked her teeth in frustration. “How is that even possible?”
“You think it’ll be in Kerris’s phone?”
“I’m sure it would be.” She clicked through her contacts once more, even though she knew it was pointless.
“I have her purse.” Cam reached behind the chair to pass the bag Meredith recognized immediately as Kerris’s. “The cops gave it to me.”