started walking. She still didn’t know where she was going, but had a vague sense the direction was still carrying her away from the clearing from which she’d fled. A vague sense wasn’t much to go on, but it was better than nothing at all.
She walked maybe fifteen more minutes before the thickness of the forest began to recede. The trees were less densely bunched. The undergrowth wasn’t so profuse, and there were almost no bushes. A few minutes laterher breath caught in her throat as she glimpsed the dark outline of a smallish structure visible through the line of trees just ahead of her. She walked ten more yards and stood behind a tall tree at the edge of another clearing, this one a good bit larger than the one where she’d meant to execute Hoke. A decrepit shack sat in the approximate center of the clearing. She had come upon the cabin from the side, but from this vantage point she could see a lone man sitting in a wicker chair on the cabin’s sagging porch. A pickup truck that looked like it could be from the 1950s was parked in front of the cabin. Though the truck was ancient, it didn’t quite have the look of a long-unused relic.
Please let it run.
There was no one else in the clearing. No one visible, at least. Could be there was someone in the shack. A woman preparing an evening dinner, maybe. Or there could be someone sitting in another chair on the opposite side of the long porch. But these considerations couldn’t deter Jessica.
This was her chance.
And maybe the only one she would get.
She unslung the rifle and slid a finger through the trigger guard. Staying behind the line of trees, she moved twenty yards to her right until the man disappeared from sight. She didn’t want him to see her until she was right on top of him. Until the barrel of the rifle was in his fucking face.
He would have no choice but to turn over the keys to the truck. There would then be the matter of whether to kill him or subdue him until she was gone, but she wouldn’t think about that until the time came.
She took a deep breath.
Gripped the rifle a little tighter.
And stepped into the clearing.
C HAPTER T EN
Megan Phillips emerged from the line of trees, skipped over the shallow ditch, and stood with her hands on her hips in the middle of the two-lane road.
She thought, What now?
For the next several moments, the raw, blinding terror that had driven her into the woods went dormant as she considered her next move. She was even able to set aside her desperate concern for Pete during this brief time. These feelings hadn’t deserted her. Not at all. They were just…on hold. It was sort of blissful, in a strange, bittersweet way. It was a fragile feeling, one she knew would shatter with the merest wrong nudge, but she meant to savor it while she was able.
She stared at the locked-up general store on the other side of the street. Maybe she should break a window, get inside the store. There would be a phone somewhere in there, surely, and she could use it to dial the local sheriff’s office or 911. Would they have the 911 system in this ultra-rural shithole? She’d always taken the system’s seemingly ubiquitous nature for granted. But she’d never lived in an area where the general population density wasn’t in the millions. And most of the places she’d visited on vacation were much more developed than this…town? Did it even qualify as a town? She wasn’t sure. A glance in either direction showed only more woods and winding stretches of gray asphalt. The general storewas the only building in sight. Say she did manage to get inside the store and find a phone—how long would it take the local authorities to drag their asses out here? The return of one or more of the men who’d taken Pete ahead of the arrival of the law was certainly well within the realm of possibility.
And what then?
They’d grab her, too.
And that would be that, the end for her and Pete. They’d be raped and murdered. Then tossed
She walked maybe fifteen more minutes before the thickness of the forest began to recede. The trees were less densely bunched. The undergrowth wasn’t so profuse, and there were almost no bushes. A few minutes laterher breath caught in her throat as she glimpsed the dark outline of a smallish structure visible through the line of trees just ahead of her. She walked ten more yards and stood behind a tall tree at the edge of another clearing, this one a good bit larger than the one where she’d meant to execute Hoke. A decrepit shack sat in the approximate center of the clearing. She had come upon the cabin from the side, but from this vantage point she could see a lone man sitting in a wicker chair on the cabin’s sagging porch. A pickup truck that looked like it could be from the 1950s was parked in front of the cabin. Though the truck was ancient, it didn’t quite have the look of a long-unused relic.
Please let it run.
There was no one else in the clearing. No one visible, at least. Could be there was someone in the shack. A woman preparing an evening dinner, maybe. Or there could be someone sitting in another chair on the opposite side of the long porch. But these considerations couldn’t deter Jessica.
This was her chance.
And maybe the only one she would get.
She unslung the rifle and slid a finger through the trigger guard. Staying behind the line of trees, she moved twenty yards to her right until the man disappeared from sight. She didn’t want him to see her until she was right on top of him. Until the barrel of the rifle was in his fucking face.
He would have no choice but to turn over the keys to the truck. There would then be the matter of whether to kill him or subdue him until she was gone, but she wouldn’t think about that until the time came.
She took a deep breath.
Gripped the rifle a little tighter.
And stepped into the clearing.
C HAPTER T EN
Megan Phillips emerged from the line of trees, skipped over the shallow ditch, and stood with her hands on her hips in the middle of the two-lane road.
She thought, What now?
For the next several moments, the raw, blinding terror that had driven her into the woods went dormant as she considered her next move. She was even able to set aside her desperate concern for Pete during this brief time. These feelings hadn’t deserted her. Not at all. They were just…on hold. It was sort of blissful, in a strange, bittersweet way. It was a fragile feeling, one she knew would shatter with the merest wrong nudge, but she meant to savor it while she was able.
She stared at the locked-up general store on the other side of the street. Maybe she should break a window, get inside the store. There would be a phone somewhere in there, surely, and she could use it to dial the local sheriff’s office or 911. Would they have the 911 system in this ultra-rural shithole? She’d always taken the system’s seemingly ubiquitous nature for granted. But she’d never lived in an area where the general population density wasn’t in the millions. And most of the places she’d visited on vacation were much more developed than this…town? Did it even qualify as a town? She wasn’t sure. A glance in either direction showed only more woods and winding stretches of gray asphalt. The general storewas the only building in sight. Say she did manage to get inside the store and find a phone—how long would it take the local authorities to drag their asses out here? The return of one or more of the men who’d taken Pete ahead of the arrival of the law was certainly well within the realm of possibility.
And what then?
They’d grab her, too.
And that would be that, the end for her and Pete. They’d be raped and murdered. Then tossed
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