Excerpt:
She didn’t want to believe that Sam was a killer, but she was terrified that
he might be. If he was, then she didn’t know him at all. If he was, she
could place him at the scenes of the crimes. If Sam caught up with her, her
indecision and fear would give her away. Her loneliness had blinded her from
following her usual precautions. You don’t pick up strangers on the road,
give them a job, and trust them unless you’re real sure they’re safe. Now
she realized she should
have called
those references of his. Maybe she would have learned something important.
Too late now.
She didn’t want to be his next victim not only because she had her own life
to worry about, but as a
single
parent, she had her daughter’s.
She
dashed through the parking lot, hiding behind the vehicles until she made it
to her truck. She fished the
keys from
her pocket with trembling fingers, unlocked the
door, and
climbed into the cab, keeping low so as not to be
seen. She
was glad she’d left her purse in the truck and
had never
taken her coat off in the restaurant, or she
would have
had to go back to the table for them.
Fighting tears, she started Baby Blue’s engine, let it warm up too
short a time, clicked on the seatbelt, and began
shifting gears. She made her way to the highway as
icy slivers
of rain pummeled the outside of the rig. She didn’t
switch on her lights until she hit the road.
The
night with its treacherous darkness and the mountains
with their narrow and winding curves lay ahead of
her. After driving all day she was exhausted, and if she’d
get caught she’d have a fine to pay. She should pull
off the road somewhere and sleep. But she had a
deadline to meet, a truck she couldn’t afford to lose, a daughter
depending on her, and a heartache she was running away
from. She couldn’t stop now.
****
Sam
stood outside the Diamond’s doorway, framed in light,
watching Loretta go with troubled eyes. A pale
Freightliner pulled out behind her and trailedher into the
mountains.
“Oh,
Loretta, you’re the one in danger out there alone…not
me,” he whispered to himself. “Somehow I’m going to
find you. I’m going to help you even if you don’t want me to,
and if I have to fight someone to protect you, I will.”
These
days when Sam made a promise, he kept it. No one he cared
about would ever die because of him again. He’d
promised himself that, and he’d die keeping that promise.
So why
had he pulled his knife like that and hurt that guy in
front of all those people? That’d been so foolish and unlike him. What had he been trying to prove? That
he wasn’t the coward he’d once been.
All
he’d done was scare Loretta away, and now he had to find
a way to go after her…and save her.
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