Breath of Scandal
couldn't locate it. It didn't matter. Nothing mattered. She would just as soon die as live.

    No, that wasn't entirely true. Because even more compelling than her will to survive was her determination to see that Hutch Jolly, Lamar Griffith, and Neal Patchett were punished for what they had done to her.

    With that thought burning like a torch in her soul, she struggled to stand up and made feeble attempts to pull her blouse together. The buttons had been ripped off. The best she could do was to refasten her bra. Her breasts were sore.

    The clouds overhead blotted out the moonlight. There was nothing to relieve the darkness. With her arms extended, she felt her way around the clearing like a blind person and only got her bearings when she stumbled over the deep tire tracks Neal's car had left in the muddy ground.

    Dropping to her hands and knees again, she crawled along the tracks, knowing that if she followed them, they would eventually lead her back to the highway. A nocturnal creature slithered out of the undergrowth and crossed her path. Snatching her hands back, she recoiled in fear and held her breath, listening. Several minutes ticked by. When she didn't hear anything except her own labored heartbeat, or sense any movement in the tall grass that lined the narrow road, she continued inching her way along the tread tracks, concentrating only on placing one palm on the cold, squishy ground, then the next. She dragged her knees behind her until they were as sore as the rest of her body. Rain trickled

    46

    Sandra _Bro"

    into her collar and down her back and plastered her hair to her scalp.

    Frequently she was tempted to give up. She wanted to lie down and die, for in a matter of hours, her life had turned ugly and bleak. She didn   ,t want to acknowledge what had happened to her or cope with the devastating after-effects.

    But if she gave up, her rapists might get off scot-free. So she kept going. Hand, knee, hand, knee, hand, knee . . .

    After what seemed like hours, she reached the ditch that ran alongside the highway. Crawling forward, she reached out to touch the pavement. With a hoarse, glad cry, she clambered forward and lay prostrate on the highway as though she wanted to embrace it, like a pilgrim who has finally reached a holy shrine. The road's surface was hard beneath her cheek, but she lay face down on it to rest.

    if she had made it this far, she could make it all the way back to town, to the hospital, to the sheriffs office. Thank God she had survived to report the crime. Hutch, Lamar, and Neal wouldn't be hard to locate. Depending on bow long it took her to get back to town, they would be locked behind bars within hours.

    Long before she was sufficiently rested and ready to stand up, she forced herself to her feet. Driven by the need to punish her violators, she staggered toward the center of the road. Following the broken white stripe would be less hazardous than groping her way along the uneven shoulder.

    As she moved forward, she tried to calculate how long it would take her to reach Palmetto. Or should she try to go only as far as the first house she came to? From there she could call for help.

    Her mother must be frantic with worry, Velta. wanted to know where Jade was every single minute of the day. Surely Donna Dee had alerted someone to her abduction-unless Donna Dee had been raped, too.

    "Oh, God, please no," she mumbled to herself.

    She hopefully imagined volunteers looking for them already, combing the county in their search. Perhaps by the

    Breath of Scandal

    47

    time she reached town, her three attackers would already be under arrest,

    The car was almost upon her before she realized it was there. She had been so lost in thought that the weak headlights hadn't alerted her to its approach.

    Neal! He had come back for her. He wasn't under arrest yet. He had returned to hurt her again, maybe kill her so she couldn't testify against him.

    Jade stumbled across the highway and

Similar Books

Hard Way

Katie Porter

Cain's Darkness

Jenika Snow

33-Pack CHEATING Megabundle

Nikita Storm, Bessie Hucow, Mystique Vixen

The Infiltrators

Donald Hamilton

The Blue Castle

Lucy Maud Montgomery

Necropolis

Santiago Gamboa

In the Zone

Sierra Cartwright