Chapter 5
Pain throbbed through Josie’s ankle. She lay still on the damp earth, rolling her lips between her teeth to stop herself from hurtling to her feet and making a run for it.
Someone was close. Warning percolated in her head.
One movement, one sound, could bring her attacker’s attention to the bottom of the ravine.
She wet her lips. Water seeped through her pants from the dead and damp foliage, making the sweat-wicking material she wore like a prickly second skin. Sucking a deep breath in through her nose did nothing to calm her frantic pulse.
If her attacker was close, they’d surely hear her heart about to beat from her chest. A crow cawed. The rush of wings flapping and leaves shuddering came next. No more snapping of twigs or heavy footprints against the crinkly leaves.
If they’d ventured in another direction, she just might be able to get help.
Rolling to her side, she pushed into a sitting position.
The forest spun, threatening to take her back down to its bed.
She blinked rapidly and brought her hand to her ankle.
It hurt, but there was no swelling or bone protrusion. Walkable.
She got to her feet and her ankle screamed.
Leaning forward so she could stay low and bear some of her weight on her hands, she bear-crawled to the top of the ravine.
If her phone had fallen down the incline she was screwed.
No way she could make it back down and sift through mud and debris to find it.
She reached the top and dropped to the ground.
Her chest pumped with every breath. Fear tightened the cords in her neck.
Focus, girl, and find your flipping phone.
Beep, beep
A text! The sound had come from nearby. She stayed on her hands and knees, shoving leaves aside as she searched. The metallic gold of her phone case caught her eye, and she swept the device into her hand.
Thank god. She shuffled so her back rested against a tree and she faced the ravine, hoping she was out of sight. Her fingers trembled as she tapped the screen. She wasn’t too far from the road. As soon as she’d arranged for someone to pick her up, she’d start walking the way she’d come.
She glanced at the text message—her mom.
Definitely not someone she could talk to right now.
Her mom would just freak out. Josie hit McKenna’s contact.
She lived closer than Dez, and Dez would be at her shop this early.
The phone rang in her ear several times and then McKenna’s voicemail rang out. Shoot.
“Hey, it’s me,” Josie said quietly. “I had an accident. I’m okay. But I’m near Voyer Lake in case . . . in case you don’t hear from me.” She hung up and dialed Dez next.
The line rang and rang. She disconnected before the voicemail message came on. She’d have to make it to the road and flag someone down.
Or she could call Quin.
Temptation gnawed at her. No. He might not have any intention of coming back, despite what his note had said.
If he’d skipped town again, she didn’t want him to think she was calling because she cared.
Keeping her phone in her hand, she huffed out a breath and stood.
Pain pulsed through her ankle. She needed to get her damn shoe off and elevate the thing with some ice, but that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
Holding on to the tree trunk, she balanced on her good foot and then hobbled from tree to tree. At this rate it’d take all day to get to the road. The wind rustled, and a chill touched the back of her neck where sweat had collected.
A rumble of thunder sounded in the distance.
Great.
Her phone rang in her hand. She jumped and winced at the sound then slapped the device to her chest. That was a surefire way to alert the attacker to her location if they hadn’t given up already. It was probably McKenna. Silencing the ringer, she looked at the screen.
Quin’s name lit the glass.
Her stomach folded into knots. She swallowed the thick saliva in her mouth. It’d been a long time since his name flashed on her phone. Eons. But she wasn’t in the position to think about that. Swiping the green icon, she pressed the device to her ear.
“Hello?” she said quietly.
“Hey, you still wanna do lunch? I was thinking I could pick up sushi. It’s going to rain and . . . you okay? You sound kind of winded.”
She stumbled as she reached the trail and grunted. “Uh. Not great,” she murmured softly. “Someone ran me off the road while I was running. I hurt my ankle.”
Quin cursed. “Where are you?”
She gave him the location.
“What do you mean near the ravine? Why are you so far from the road?”
She jerked her gaze around the wooded area. A cold sensation chomped on her tailbone. The attacker could be close, listening. Or she could be out of her mind with paranoia.
The memory of the truck trying to mow her down blipped in her mind’s eye. Nope, definitely not paranoid.
She sat on a fallen log, her breath coming out in sharp pants. The toll of fear, running for her life, and struggling with the injury was catching up to her. “I’ll tell you when you get here.”
“I’m close. Less than five minutes.”
Thank god.
“Hang tight, and—”
“Quin?” she squeaked.
“Yeah?” The timbre of his voice calmed her nerves.
“Stay on the phone with me, okay?”
A beat passed. “’Course.”
He asked her random questions, keeping her talking even though she gave only one-word answers. The wind picked up strength, making the trees sway and the leaves stir.
But it did nothing to dispel the sensation that she was being watched.
Not watched. Hunted.
* * *
Quin whipped the vehicle to the side of the road and kicked open his door.
Tire tracks ate up the gravel on the shoulder at the edge of the pavement, confirming the spot Josie had described.
Fuck him sideways. The skid marks ran a good fifteen feet.
“I’m here,” he said into the phone, still pressed to his ear.
He’d managed to escape from Frasier’s house undetected. He’d hid in the bedroom closet while Frasier ran in with his shoes on, snagged his laptop from the bed, and left. Had he been caught, he probably would have killed the sonofabitch, which wouldn’t have done him, Josie, or Liam any justice.
Now, Frasier entered his mind once again. He’d been out of the house while Josie had been attacked. It wasn’t inconceivable that he’d spotted her running and taken action. He balled his free hand into a fist and stomped over the ditch and into the woods.
He and Liam had hiked near Voyer Lake often, so the area wasn’t unfamiliar. If he wasn’t mistaken, the ravine started about a hundred feet from the road.
“Call out to me,” he said, his tone terse.
A sharp whistle sounded straight ahead and in the speaker of his phone. He picked up his pace. Movement up ahead caught his eye. Josie stood from a fallen log and lifted her hand in the air. She lowered her phone and he disconnected, dropping the device into his pocket.
He approached, brushing away tree branches and the mosquitos that had come out like vampires now that the sun was buried in clouds and raindrops fell outside the forest.
Strands fell from Josie’s ponytail, making her hair fluff out around her face in cute curls. Her cheeks were stained pink and a path of dirt dotted her forehead and ran all the way down to her toes.
She took a step forward and her mouth twisted in pain. He caught her elbow, relieving the pressure on her foot. “What the hell happened?”
“I fell down the ravine.”
He nodded at her foot. “Is it sprained?”
“It’s not serious. Just needs some ice.”
He bent down and caught her knees, but her hand clapped his shoulder. “No. I can walk—I just need assistance.”
He snorted. “It’s raining. A storm’s rolling in. Sorry, darlin’, but I’m not shuffling through the forest to get eaten by mosquitos so you can save a shred of pride.”
She lifted her chin and harumphed. “Well, you’re not carrying me for heaven’s sake.”
“Watch me.” He swept her into his arms, cradling her to his chest.
A scowl pierced her brow, and the dirt across it only accentuated how royally pissed off she was. “You can thank me later when you’re able to walk,” he said.
She exhaled through her nose, and her weight relaxed in his arms. Her hand fell to press against his chest, scorching his skin through his long-sleeved shirt.
Rain filtered through the treetops, dampening his shoulders and face.
If he was getting this wet in the forest, it was probably pouring now.
A million questions sizzled in his mind—like, who the fuck had run her off the road?
But he pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth.
He didn’t have a free hand to fight, so they were both vulnerable.
He carried her down the trail to the wall of shrubs and trees at the edge of the road.
Pulling her closer to his body so branches didn’t scratch her face, he shouldered his way through the pokey twigs.
He jumped over the ditch and a sluice of rain poured down on his head.
Josie tucked her face into his neck as he ran to the passenger’s side of his vehicle.
He pulled open the door and fit her into the seat.
Then he jogged around and climbed into the driver’s side.
Josie cranked the heat. The clank of her teeth smacking together echoed in the car. He reached into the back and grabbed a sweater. “Here.”
She fit her arms and head through then clicked her seatbelt into place. “Thanks.”
Crossing his own seatbelt over his chest, he sent her a steadying look. “You going to tell me what happened now?”
“Someone—”
“I know that much. Who? And how did you get so far from the road?”
She settled back and he turned on the seat warmers. After checking his rearview mirror, he made a U-turn and headed back down the mountain.
“I don’t know who. It was a blue Dodge truck. I was running and heard it approach, but it didn’t pass me. I waved it around and that’s when it charged at me.”
The air in Quin’s lungs turned stagnant. He opened and closed his fists around the steering wheel, keeping his gaze on the winding road. Punching something wouldn’t help the situation, but he sure as shit wanted to knock out the bastard who could have seriously injured—or killed—Josie.
“I ran into the forest. The driver tried so hard to run me over, I thought for sure they’d come to finish the job. That’s when I fell down the ravine.”
Anger bubbled inside him. “You should have called me.”
“I called McKenna and Dez, but they didn’t answer.”
“You were just going to walk in the rain with a psychopath in the area trying to kill you?”
“No,” she hissed, her tone defensive. “I was going to get to the road and flag someone down.”
“You mean the asshole in the blue Dodge? Odds are that’s the only person you’d find up here right now.”
She shifted in the seat. “I don’t know what you want me to say. You try thinking clearly in that situation, while injured.”
He relaxed his shoulders. Fuck, he was acting like an asshole. “I’m sorry, okay? Just mad that you could have been killed. I’m glad I called you when I did.”
The cutting truth was that she would have risked her life rather than call him. And that hurt like a fucking bitch.