Chapter Eight
Blake pressed the brakes enough to drop their speed to keep them from wrecking as soon as the tires hit the grass shoulder. Every part of her was clenched, her knuckles white on the steering wheel. Her back so straight it wasn’t even touching the seat.
She didn’t have time to look back at Clem, but the silence in the car was astonishing. She had listened to Blake.
Blake hoped her promise to the girl that they would be okay would hold true.
The only break in focus from the field lasted long enough to see if the car followed them off the road.
Once she confirmed it did, Blake became single-minded.
They weren’t going to crash.
That meant handling the field first.
The old Becker Farm had the most acreage in Seven Roads.
The back end was part of that land but was notorious for never being used for anything practical.
Mostly because Abe Becker didn’t like being so close to a well-traveled road.
Still, Abe was a proud man and kept every bit of his land maintained, especially the parts that were visible to the public.
Blake could have kissed the man for his decision.
The field was flat enough and freshly mowed, as Liam had said. Blake’s car hit the grass without any dips or rises taking out her tires or crunching her bumper. That didn’t mean the car was handling the change in terrain all that well.
The speedometer was at forty miles per hour when they went in, and she had to drop even farther the deeper they went.
Everything rattled.
Clem’s quiet lasted a few yards in and then she was crying again.
The car chasing them followed but had to drop their speed just as fast. It made Blake’s stomach drop. She’d been hoping that whatever the driver had wanted from them wouldn’t continue with the added trouble.
She was wrong.
“Did you make it?” Liam’s voice could barely be heard over the sound of the field beating against the car that dared run through it.
“Yeah,” Blake yelled out. “They did too.” She looked down at the speedometer again. “I’m slowing but we’re going to hit the tree line sooner rather than later. Where are—”
The call dropped. Blake heard the familiar beep sound play through the car’s speaker. The spotty service that Seven Roads’s more rural areas usually sported had finally claimed their call.
It couldn’t have happened at a worse time.
“We’re—we’re okay,” Blake yelled back to Clem, trying to be as soothing as possible. The truth was they sounded like they were in a tin can during a tornado. The darkness around them made it even more terrifying. As an adult it wound Blake’s nerves tight.
But now wasn’t the time to worry about their feelings.
The tree line that ended the field was near the edge of the bouncing headlight beams.
There was no way she could keep driving once she got there.
She was going to have to turn and hope the car didn’t—
The headlights behind them shifted. Blake watched in the rearview as the car behind them seemingly lost control. It took a hard right.
She didn’t waste the breakaway.
Blake turned left with every intention of driving along the tree line before going back to the main road. But a horrifying sound followed by an awful shuddering changed that plan quick.
“Hold on, Clem!”
The front right tire didn’t just blow. It exploded.
Blake felt it through the floorboard.
It was the nail in the coffin of her plan to flee.
She let off the gas pedal and held on to the steering wheel for dear life.
The next moment felt like it stretched hours when really it must have been only a few seconds. The car wobbled violently until coming to a stop a few feet from massive oak trees.
Blake whipped her head around to look out of the back windshield.
The pursuing car must have also been disabled. It was stopped a few yards diagonal to them. Without waiting to see what the driver did next, Blake made a split-second decision.
She tore her seat belt off and threw open her door. She repeated the sequence in reverse as she hurried to get Clem out of her car seat. The girl didn’t fight her, but her sobbing pushed against Blake’s chest when she had her out and against her.
“Wrap your legs around me,” she told the girl firmly. “We’re going to run now.”
No sooner than she said it did Clem follow the directive. Her little arms wound around Blake’s neck just as her legs fastened around Blake’s waist. The added weight would make her slow, but Blake could at least gain enough distance to maybe turn the tables and ambush whoever followed.
If they followed. Maybe wrecking was enough to deter the driver?
A new terrifying sound broke through the night.
A car door opened.
Then another.
Blake didn’t mean to—she couldn’t afford the time—but she turned around.
Sure enough, two people had exited the car that had been chasing them.
Two men.
And one was holding something in his hand.
Clem’s sobs racked Blake’s body.
There was nothing between them and the men if they decided to run and attack them—if they decided to shoot.
Blake’s mind tried to come up with solutions. What-ifs in which she kept Clem out of harm’s way, but everything seemed to stall.
For the first time in her life, Blake felt immeasurable fear.
Her grip on Clem tightened.
It was why she didn’t register the new set of headlights right away.
By the time she understood what she was seeing, the truck shuttered to a violent stop right between the cars. It effectively cut off Blake’s view from the men.
It didn’t keep her from seeing the new driver.
Or hearing him.
“Hands up or I’m shooting!”
Liam’s voice was the loudest thing she had ever heard. It echoed through the field and bounced back from the trees behind her.
His passenger-side window must have been open. His arm was raised and, she assumed, a gun in his hand aimed at the men. He didn’t break his focus even as he got out. Instead, he kept his arm straight and trained on the men over the hood of the truck, adjusting as he went around it.
“Do it now!” he roared.
It was enough to get Blake moving again. She ran around her car to put another barricade between Clem and the men just in case they decided to resist.
A siren started blaring in the distance.
Another long second stretched by.
Whether it was because of backup coming or Liam’s command, the men must have decided that resisting wasn’t a good idea.
Blake could hear Liam going through the normal directions for apprehending suspects. His tone notably less aggressive as he did so.
Relief poured through Blake at the change.
She rubbed at Clem’s back and spoke softly into the girl’s hair as she hugged her tight.
“We’re okay now,” she said. “The sheriff is here.”
THE MCCOY COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT showed up in fine force.
Price came in first, followed by Deputy Mel Gavin, who had been nearby with his cruiser when Price had rallied the troops, and then in third had been Darius Williams, the ace—and only—detective in Seven Roads.
However, he was the first person to identify the two men Liam had on the ground after their arrival.
Now, nearly two hours later and currently standing opposite Liam in a hallway at the sheriff’s department, Detective Williams went into more depth about who they were.
“Chase and Ray McClennan are the youngest two of the McClennan families still living in town. They’re cousins.
Cousins who, up until now, haven’t taken a step out of line in regards to the law.
No criminal history. No nasty rumors. Just two good, average young twentysomethings who’ve been around town since they were born. ”
Liam cussed as big as an elephant. He would have curbed the urge if Blake and Clem were in the room with him, but both were sitting in his office a few doors down, Price with them, until Liam finished up. Until he was in the same space again, he let his anger flare.
“They chased down a woman and her child at night in the middle of nowhere. While one of them was holding.” Liam shook his head. “They could be heaven-picked saints before this, and it wouldn’t change how much I want to wring their necks. They didn’t give you any idea why they went after Blake?”
Darius shook his head now.
“Ray just repeated what he’d already told you when you were handcuffing him in the field,” he said. “‘We got the wrong car. We thought it was our friend’s and wanted to mess around.’”
Liam snorted at the direct quote. The older one, who he’d find out later was Ray, had been the one to spout that nonsense.
“Do you believe that?” he asked Darius.
The detective didn’t nod but also didn’t shake his head.
“Considering I couldn’t get them to tell me what friend they thought it was, I’m thinking they aren’t being truthful about it.
I can’t say for sure yet since I didn’t get much else from them before they were hollering for a lawyer.
” He flipped his wrist over to see the face of his watch.
“It’s too late to talk to them tonight. I’ll have to wait until the morning. You want to be in there with me?”
Liam wanted nothing more than to get the truth from the cousins. He gave the detective a reserved “Yes” but could still feel himself boiling.
From the time their phone call had cut out to seeing both cars stopped in the field, Liam had felt utterly helpless. When he’d gotten close enough to see that the men were outside of the car staring at Blake? He’d felt worry replace it.
When he’d seen the gun that Ray had been holding? Anger had come into play.
When he’d heard that baby girl crying for all she was worth after they had secured Ray and Chase in handcuffs? Liam had seen absolute red.
He wanted the cousins to explain themselves.
If they were lying, he wanted to know why.
And he wanted to know the absolute truth so he could make sure it would never happen again.
“I’ll be back first thing in the morning,” Liam added before they parted ways. “Don’t start without me.”
Darius said he wouldn’t and left.