Chapter 16
Road Rage
Tara
Light reflected off the surface of the bay, washing out the road as it curved along the water’s edge. Behind me, the town was a distant blur, steel roofs glinting faintly.
I exhaled, forcing my grip on the steering wheel to soften.
There was an untouched cup of Stop N’ Shop coffee in the cup holder beside me. The stale scent of hazelnut and bitterness swirled in the heat circulating through the cab of the car.
My arms felt weak. My energy gone. The thought of lifting that cup to my lips was too much.
A nagging sensation pressed at the back of my mind—like I’d forgotten something. I went over a mental checklist.
Suitcase? Check.
Purse? Check.
Louis Vuitton shoes? Check.
Whatever I left behind wasn’t tangible.
Maybe it was me. The version of me at the start of this month.
The version of me before—
I yanked my thoughts away from that direction so forcefully that I jerked the wheel. Straightening quickly, I glanced in my rearview mirror to see if anyone was startled by my distracted driving.
A black SUV followed in my lane, keeping a steady distance. Far enough back that I couldn’t make out the features of the driver, only the outline of his face. There was a passenger in the front, his head turned so the reflection of the sun on the windshield blocked him out entirely.
Ahead of us, a bridge stretched long over the bay. A prickle of nerves crawled up the back of my neck as my tires hit the edge of the bridge.
The town wasn’t an island. There were other routes. I remembered seeing them when my GPS failed to catch a signal and I was stuck scrolling over screenshots of the map.
My eyes kept traveling back to the rearview mirror. The SUV was closer, still in my lane.
My palms were sweaty on the wheel, and I was going five miles under the speed limit. They’d pass me soon enough.
I would be alone again.
Finally, the end of the bridge was in sight. There was nothing on the other side but a network of empty, abandoned buildings.
I took one damp hand off the wheel, rubbing it on my jeans. I picked up the cup of coffee and forced down a shallow sip.
The SUV was closer still, riding the bumper of my car. If I slammed on my brakes, he would hit me.
I could see him through the windshield now. Thick hands gripping the wheel. His face hard and expressionless as he accelerated. The sun caught his eyes through the glass, giving them an unusual yellow glow.
An image of Jay on that last night flashed through my mind. Twisted and monstrous, his eyes catching a silver beam of moonlight and turning it an odd shade of amber.
Jay’s eyes were brown.
And this man’s probably were too, if the sun wasn’t blasting him in the face.
I tapped my foot onto the accelerator a little harder, pushing my car to the speed limit. Typical Texas road rager.
I didn’t have to look in the mirror again to know he was keeping pace with me. The engine of the SUV roared loudly over the hum of my Prius.
Anxiety clenched my stomach. I took one hand off the wheel to grab for my phone.
The corner of it slipped from my fingers as my car jolted forward. I went to pump the brakes—then realized what was happening and slammed the other pedal.
I grabbed for my phone again only to realize it had fallen on the floor of the passenger side.
This time my head crashed forward as the bumpers collided, pulling at my neck and startling a scream from me.
My speedometer was pushing eighty, my foot cramping as I pushed the pedal as far down as it went.
We cleared the bridge, the shoulder narrowing as the road came even with the shallow edge of the bay. The SUV rammed my car again.
I was moving too fast, losing control of all that momentum and spinning out. I couldn’t tell which direction I was going, couldn’t see anything but a blur of light and color.
The car tilted, then came to a jarring halt. This time my head hit the steering wheel, and for a brief moment my body was numb, frozen in a state of shock.
The tide rushed in my ears. Stars sparkled across my eyes.
I felt a trickle of water at my ankles. Blinking, I stared down at the puddle around my feet, trying to make sense of it.
Did my coffee spill?
All at once, sensation returned to me. Pain stabbed at my temple. My neck was tight and throbbing. Prickles moved down my arm to my fingertips.
That was when I realized where the water was coming from.
My car was sliding slowly off the shoulder of the road and into the bay. The water wasn’t deep enough for the car to sink completely, but I was still trapped inside a heavy piece of metal during high tide.
The next few seconds were a blur of breathless panic. I wasn’t sure how I got the window down, only that I was treading water, sinking into thick, murky sand.
I was barely on solid ground when I saw them. The SUV was parked haphazardly on the side of the road, both doors open. Two men were walking toward me—slow. Unhurried.
My head hurt. Cold burned in my lungs. Dizziness blurred the edges of my vision.
I ran anyway.
The bigger one was watching me, eyes still eerily bright, even turned away from the sun.
I remembered the man at the boat launch.
It wasn’t the same man, but they felt the same. Those eyes. The angles of their face.
The same shadows that carved Jay’s face when he was in a mood.
I didn’t know that man, but I’d seen that face before.
I ran like I’d never run before, a concrete world spinning past me as I disappeared between the buildings. There was a steel door secured shut on the nearest building. I tugged at it frantically, biting back a sound when it wouldn’t budge.
There was another door a few hundred feet up.
Locked.
By the third door, I gave up, running further into the graveyard of buildings and hoping I could outpace them. The road was empty now, no traffic coming either direction, but maybe if I waited a car would come.
Footsteps scuffed behind me. Male voices echoed between buildings. Adrenaline pumped through me so fast I couldn’t think straight.
I reached into my pocket, realizing too late that my phone was somewhere in my car.
“He told us not to hurt her,” I heard one man tell the other, far too close to where I stood.
I rushed around the corner of the nearest building, pressing my back to the cool concrete and holding my breath.
“She was getting away,” another voice answered gruffly.
“You could have killed her!”
Flesh hit flesh. The shadow of a man curved around the corner where I hid, bending in the fading light as he stumbled.
“You need to learn your place, boy.” The words were guttural. Dark. “You’re the bottom of the food chain in this pack. And I’m getting hungry.”
The second man took a step back, close enough that if he turned his head even a fraction, he would see me.
My lungs were on fire. I needed to breathe. To run.
But I didn’t dare move, afraid even the slightest shift of my sneaker would alert them to my presence.
Beside me, the second man shifted his weight, his nostrils flaring. He was muscular and tall, but his height had the gangly quality of a teenager. From here, I could see a constellation of freckles across his face, partially obscured by the grey-green of a fading bruise.
Blood trickled from his lip and he twisted to wipe it with the back of his hand. For a heartbeat our eyes locked.
I froze there, unblinking.
The kid lifted his other hand, pointing in the opposite direction of me. “She’s over there!”
Their heavy footsteps faded and I gasped for air, pressing a hand over my mouth to muffle the sound. As soon as they were out of my immediate line of sight I was running, zig-zagging, losing my sense of direction.
Finally, I found the border of the property, where a rusted chain link fence was lying flat on the ground.
The road was right there.
I didn’t make it that far. Long shadows stretched across the concrete to my left. I ducked behind another building, watching as the kid fell in step with a hulking man.
“I’m tired of this shit!” he snarled, eyes brighter than the setting sun. “Come out, or I’ll drag you out by your hair.”
The air changed as he neared, like another storm was bearing down on me. Electricity crackled off him, a dangerous energy I didn’t understand.
I knew this feeling. I’d felt it with Jay and—
With Isaac.
I couldn’t make sense of it. Couldn’t think as the man in front of me swelled and stretched, his skin darkening with patches of black hair—no, fur.
Suddenly, there was a monster standing in his place. The type of thing you only saw in a horror movie.
A werewolf.
The tips of his ears came above the doorway of the nearest building. His body was double the width of a regular man. He lifted his snout high, scenting the air.
Then those eyes, yellow and hungry, fell on me.
He’s going to catch you.