Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 120186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 120186 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 601(@200wpm)___ 481(@250wpm)___ 401(@300wpm)
I can’t even pretend that upsets me. Maybe it would have been before I committed a murder I can’t remember. Right now, I need experience on my side. “Okay. I’ll trust you.”
“Keep doing that.”
I can’t help it. I need to know. “Did you go home too?”
“Yeah. Why’re you askin’?”
“Because…” I shudder, wrapping my arms around myself and turning my back on the window. “Someone followed me. They tried to run me off the road.”
“What?”
“I didn’t get a look at the kind of car, but it was big. Probably a truck or an SUV. The headlights were in my eyes the whole time.” After taking a shuddery breath, I add, “Twice, I almost lost control.”
“Jesus fuck, Allie!” His shout echoes in the background.
“I’m fine. The car is fine. I think they were just trying to scare me, but why?”
He goes quiet for a second, except for heavy breathing—like a bull getting ready to charge. I wouldn’t want to be the one in his way. “Why did you ask where I went? Did you think I was the one who did it?” There’s something dark and dangerous in the question. Something painfully familiar, too.
“Can you just give me a break?” I whisper. “It wouldn’t be the first crazy thing you’ve done to torment me, you know.”
“We’ll talk about that later.” There’s a growl in his voice that I recognize. “That was on the way home? How close to home?”
“A few miles.”
“All right. Maybe stay home tomorrow instead of seeing Sheriff Tanner if he tries to set something up. Call in if you have to. Don’t go in person yet. I don’t like the idea of you being out on your own.”
“What are you gonna do?” Because it’s obvious he’s planning to do something. Kade is not the type to wait and see. He’d rather tear things apart.
“Don’t worry about it. You stay home and act like you have no idea what’s going on with Jackson.”
He makes it sound so easy. I don’t even care. It’s so much of a relief to basically hand the whole situation over to him so he can deal with it. “Whatever you say.”
Only he would chuckle at a time like this. “I like the sound of that. Whatever I say.”
I find myself rolling my eyes, but I’m smiling when I get off the phone.
Until I remember how scary it was on the road, and my heart drops.
Someone could’ve killed me tonight.
Chapter 25
Kade
Motherfucker.
There I was, looking into Joseph Lowry, trying to get a sense of whether he’s on the Bishop level when it comes to how far he’s willing to go to settle a score. At least go back through my old research. His father was in oil down in Texas, and Joseph Lowry used his inheritance to buy up a bunch of land and thousands of head of cattle. A totally different beast. Ranching isn’t in his blood. Normally, we would ignore someone like him. A joke. Someone playing cowboy. But there’s no room for that, because he has money, and money means power and connections.
What will he do when his son doesn’t come home?
I need to know who I’m up against. Somewhere along the way, this became my problem. Allie’s problem. And who the hell am I without a fight on my hands?
Now, my internet research is over for the night. I have some real-world shit to take care of. I can barely see straight. I walk through the house and grab my coat from the closet by the door. It’s still damp from the snow I only just escaped. I was on my way to the kitchen to grab something to eat when Allie called. I can’t even choke down a bite now.
It had to be Lowry. There’s no fucking reason for anybody else to scare her like that. And it had to be a scare tactic. If they wanted to kill her, they would’ve done it. I doubt someone with Joseph Lowry’s money would hire amateurs.
So he does like to play dirty. He probably figures he can scare the shit out of a young girl, bully her, break her down. I have news for him: nobody breaks her down but me.
Once I’m outside, I climb into the truck and drive the route Allie would have taken to get home. I’m not sure why. It’s instinct, telling me this is my first step to understanding who I’m up against.
The snow has dropped off to nothing but a few random flurries, though it’s cold enough and the ground frozen enough for anything that fell earlier to stick. I drive carefully because I hit a few slick spots that make my tires slide.
What if she had hit one of them? What if she didn’t get lucky? I could’ve been home on the computer, looking up information while she was dead in a crumpled car. The idea and the bloody, grisly scene that comes with it make me sick. How can I leave her alone when wolves are everywhere, waiting to pounce?