Bracing herself, she opened the driver’s window and released her seatbelt. Then, climbing up the seats like a ladder, she peeked her head out the window. From here, she could see that the ditch formed a lip before plunging to the valley below. She should be able to climb out without fear of upsetting the car’s balance and sending it tumbling. She was about to try when she caught a flash of white on the ridge above.
The van sat parked on the spot where she’d flown off the road.
Watching.
And then it turned around and started back to the intersection… that led to the road… that led to her.
Diana heaved herself out the window and onto the side of the car. She spun around, draped her legs over the edge, and then dropped down to the shoulder of the road, before she let herself take another look around.
This area was open. A steep slope up to the left. A plunge downward into an open hayfield to the right. Nowhere to go except to follow the road. Nowhere to hide. And no—
A siren screamed in the distance, the shriek bouncing off the bluffs. Diana picked up her pace.
Please let that be the help the dispatcher promised.
Please let them reach her before the Copycat Killer did.
Bobby
The red and blue lights of two squads, an ambulance, and a hook-and-ladder pulsed off brick and construction dirt. Police radios squawked over the din of voices. The afternoon sun shone too bright in Bobby’s eyes.
It would be enough to give him a headache, if he didn’t already have a doozy.
The crash had happened almost an hour ago and he still hadn’t located Diana, and not only did no one seem to know what happened to her, an overly aggressive EMT was trying to corral Bobby into an ambulance alongside Val and take him to the hospital.
Something about his second concussion in less than a year.
Perreth’s car pulled to the curb out front.
Eager to take out his frustration on someone, Bobby met him as he climbed from the driver’s seat. “Where the hell were you?”
“What do you mean where was I? Doing my job.”
“I needed you here.”
“What you need isn’t my job.”
“Is protecting Diana?”
Perreth narrowed his eyes. “I could do a hell of a lot better job than you are.”
“No, you couldn’t. Because you weren’t here. And no one seems to know…” The world started spinning around him, the flashing lights of the ambulance throbbing behind his eyes.
“She’s in Lake Loyal at the PD.”
“How do you know that?”
“I listen. She crashed your car though.”
“Is she okay?”
“She’s fine. No thanks to you.”
Bobby wanted to race to the PD to make sure. He wanted to punch Perreth in the face. He wanted to do a lot of things.
But instead, he passed out and took a header into the dirt.
Diana
Diana followed a nurse between the white curtains dividing a cluster of the emergency room’s examination cubicles. The nurse paused at the last cubicle and pulled the curtain aside. “You got a visitor. Doctor should be back soon.”
Bobby smiled at Diana from the hospital bed, a bandage wrapping his head. “Hi.”
Diana let out a long breath and offered a shaky smile. “Hi.”
“You’ve been busy.”
She flinched a little. “You heard about the car?”
“I heard they’re looking to cast you in the next Fast and Furious movie.”
“Very funny.”
“The construction workers were impressed with how fast you backed out of there.” Bobby sat up and swung his legs over the edge.
“You lie down until the doctor gets here or she’s likely to check you into a room,” the nurse scolded, then she turned and bustled back down the hall.
“Not if she can’t catch me. And now that my getaway driver is here…”
Diana couldn’t help but laugh. “You’d better do what she says.”
Bobby scowled, but he leaned back against the pillow. He held up a hand and gingerly touched his wrapped forehead. Red and purple bruising eked out around the bandage’s edge.
She stepped closer to the bed. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been hit by a truck.”
Diana hated how pale he looked. How weak. She couldn’t stand the idea of him being injured.
He could be dead.
The thought lodged in her chest. From the time she was eighteen, Bobby had always been there. And as adamant as she was about taking care of herself, living her own life, the thought of him not in the world, somewhere, was worse than dying herself.
“So you actually do listen to me sometimes, huh?”
“What?”
“Taking the car. Getting the hell out of there.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“How did you manage to lose him?”
She told him about her escape.
He told her about passing out.
“At least Perreth was there.”
Bobby grunted. “Yeah. What a hero.”
“Come on…”
“He should have been there earlier. If he’d been where he was supposed to be, Val would have been in the car with you. None of this would have happened.”
“You’d still be hurt.”
“Yeah, but so would Perreth.” Bobby grinned.
“Why do you hate him so much?”
“I don’t hate him.”
“Could have fooled me. You’ve never told me what happened between you two.”
“We just didn’t get along.”
“It’s more than that.”
“Back then it was exactly that. But I guess lately… I guess I don’t… I don’t like the way he looks at you, okay? Like he’s undressing you with his eyes.”
Diana fought the urge to squirm. She wouldn’t be surprised if Bobby had read the police report of what had happened last fall when Bryce, Val, and Perreth had found her naked and terrified in the woods. But seeing that Perreth was the only officer there, it would have been written by him. And Diana doubted he’d included any details that might not reflect well on his professionalism.
Like when he’d stared at her naked body.
Like when he’d touched her.
That had been as far as he’d gone, and Diana had been so grateful to be alive and safe that she hadn’t said anything. But Perreth had changed toward her after that and Bobby had picked it up as sharply as Diana had. He just didn’t know the source.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said.
“Uh… what?”
“First Louis and now Perreth? I’m turning into a jealous ex.”
Diana managed a laugh, but she didn’t feel it. Bobby wasn’t wrong. Not about Louis’s crush, Perreth’s smug smiles, or even his own possessiveness. Sometimes she felt as if most of the men she knew believed she was a blank wall on which they could project anything they wanted.
And the worst of all of them was her biological father.
“I’m sorry,” Bobby said. “I can’t help falling into bad habits sometimes. Working on it.”
She gave him a smile, genuine this time.
“Have you seen Val?”
Diana managed to nod. “Fractured arm. I think she might have left already.”
“Then why the hell am I still here?” He made a forward motion, as if about to get up and walk out.
Diana pressed her palm against his chest, pushing him back to the bed. “You have a concussion. That’s why.”
“I’ll survive. It isn’t like I’ve never had a concussion before.”