Harlequin Love Inspired Suspense March 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Dana Mentink (novels to improve english txt) 📗

“You know her, don’t you?” He was deciding on his next question when Kenny put his head down and barreled toward him like a freight train. He wheeled back, sliding on the uneven surface, and went down on one knee. It was the opening Kenny needed to slam him backward. Beckett’s shoulders hit the rail fence. Wood fractured under his weight, and he tumbled through, cartwheeling down the slope until he landed at the bottom on hard-packed ground.

He was up again in a moment, hands fisted, ready for Kenny’s next assault. Pain throbbed in his ribs, and he felt dizzy, but he shook the feelings off. “Come on down here, Kenny,” he shouted. “We can go another round. As many as you want.”

But Kenny didn’t follow, staring down at Beckett. Was he pulling a gun? There was no place for Beckett to go. A gun would mean game over for him…but not for Laney. He tensed as Kenny cocked his head as if he was waiting.

Something was wrong. There was a detail he’d overlooked. What was it? What message had Kenny gotten on his phone? “What are you waiting for?” he hollered. “Don’t want to get your clothes dirty?”

A scream cut the darkness. Beckett’s soul split in two as he realized it was Laney.

Kenny laughed, tipped his face up to the sky and chortled.

Beckett finally understood his own stupidity.

While he had been trying to buy time, so had his opponent.

Kenny had not come alone.

CHAPTER TEN

Laney’s scream echoed across the flat ground, shrill and sharp. The hulking shadow some fifty yards behind her seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, materialized from the sand itself.

It was not Beckett; the silhouette was too short, too wide. She did not think it was Kenny either, from how Beckett had described him. There was no shouted offer of help, no attempt at introductions from the stranger, just the relentless, steady progress of the heavy booted feet. No engine noise indicated he’d emerged from a car, and the long, lonely road wasn’t the place people went for walks. Miles from anywhere, or anything, it was completely deserted.

Beckett had told her one time that dogs could ascertain the sum of a person’s character after one brief encounter. She didn’t need more than a glance now to know that this man meant to harm her. Whoever it was, his intent was clear. Catch her. To kill her? Her stomach coiled tight.

Frantically, she scanned ahead. Nothing but a solitary two-lane road. On one side the shoulder flattened out into the endless expanse of dry earth without so much as a bush or a tree for concealment. On the other, more flat acres that eventually rose up to meet the rippling foothills that would be burnished gold in the daylight. At the moment they were inky outlines against a darker sky.

She fought her rising panic. There had to be an escape, but where should she run? She’d been paralleling the road, dialing the phone as she went, but her fingers shook too badly and she had not yet been able to complete the call. Should she stop now and try again? But what about the man? Compromising, she texted Jude and Willow as she kept moving.

Kenny at borax works with Beckett. Went for help. Heading east. Somebody following me. Scared.

Jude would be able to figure out her general location, but what about Beckett? Had he been able to overcome Kenny? To escape?

Kenny’s probably armed. He’ll kill you.

…it’s going to be the hardest thing he ever does in his entire miserable life.

What if Kenny had already succeeded? And then he’d sent his compatriot to finish his terrible mission. The thought lodged in her throat, constricting her windpipe.

Fear began to work its poison, paralyzing her limbs and nibbling away at her reason. Her body was depleted, exhausted, muscles too tired even to keep up a brisk walking pace, but still she forced herself to hurry on along the road. Something warm oozed into the back of her sock, blood from her heel scraping against her shoe.

Ahead stretched the obsidian sky, washed with stars. No sign of Willow’s vehicle or any of the National Park Service personnel who had nightly patrols. Not even a single tourist in search of the ultimate stargazing.

The man crunched along behind her, shoulders erect, unhurried, yet closing the distance between them anyway. Still no sign of any approaching cars.

Figure it out, she commanded herself. Should she make for the foothills, where she might find a place to hide? But they were so distant, and her speed had dropped to little more than a fast hobble. There would be no outrunning her pursuer. Option B? Fight.

Laney was not particularly athletic, nor competitive. Her foster parents had suggested she join the high school basketball team, but while her skills were decent, she had never acquired the thirst for winning like the other girls. Could she actually defend herself physically? A day ago she wouldn’t have thought so, but now it was the only way to save her baby’s life.

What weapon could she possibly find to aid her on this desolate patch of desert? She patted her pockets with clammy palms. There was nothing in there but a cell phone, and the lighter she always carried and…bug spray. She recalled the directions saying something about avoiding the eye area. Her fingers closed around the slender cylinder.

Was it even good anymore? Had it expired?

But she’d have to let him get close enough, and if it failed…

She swallowed hard. Again she scanned for another idea, any other possible way to escape, evade or at least delay. There was not one ray of hope in the yawning emptiness all around her. Hardly able to draw breath, she took the spray from her pocket and eased the cap off. One try, one chance to save herself and her baby.

Since her speed was already ebbing away, it was a small adjustment to slow a bit more. Now she could