For God’s sake, no more self-pity. She had come to help Eve and Catherine, and she didn’t matter right now.
She took a ragged breath, and the pain was gradually fading. It would be back but maybe a little less in intensity.
“I’m trying, Trevor,” she whispered. “I know you want me to go on. It’s just hard sometimes. I can’t find anything here for me any longer. It’s all empty. I want to be with you. God, I want to be with you.”
But she couldn’t be with him, she had to stay alive and care for the other people she loved. “Okay, I’m over it for now.” She turned on the radio and ratcheted up the volume. “How about some classic Beatles?”
It was starting to rain, and she turned on the windshield wipers.
Ten more minutes, and she’d be home with Eve and Joe.
Screeching brakes!
Startled, she glanced in the rearview mirror.
A black-and-white police car was careening over the six lanes of the freeway, the front left tire completely blown. It finally collided with a gray Lexus sedan.
Should she stop and go back and try to help?
There were several cars behind her already stopping and a pileup was just waiting to happen. The best thing to do was to probably call 911 and report the accident.
She hoped everyone was okay. What had that police car hit that would have blown his tire like that? Joe would probably call and find out what happened and the condition of the drivers in those cars when she told him about it. She picked up her phone and began to dial 911.
Definitely not a good sign for a homecoming.
VIRGINIA
He was still following her, Kelly thought.
She hadn’t lost him when she had made the circle turn at the dam and started heading back to the campus. She could still hear his footsteps in the brush behind her. She glanced over her shoulder, but he was still too far behind her for her to catch a glimpse.
If she could have seen him anyway. It was fully dark now, and she would only have been able to detect shadows.
Shadows. The whole world seemed to be full of shadows.
And why was he just keeping pace with her? Had she been right about the possibility that he was just trying to freak her out? Well, he was doing it. The darkness, the sound of him, the sheer fear of the unknown. She unconsciously moved faster.
Don’t run.
That might trigger him to escalate his pace. Don’t provoke any change in the pursuit. The closer she got to the university, the safer she would be.
Her hand tightened on the Mace spray.
Listen.
He either wasn’t woods savvy, or he wanted her to hear him. She hoped it was the former. She had a certain amount of control as long as she could hear and judge his movements.
It was when she could no longer hear him …
Don’t worry about that now.
Move. Walk.
Listen.
* * *
“He’s losing the blood from his shoes the farther he walks,” Sam said. “I’ve only managed to pick up a trace in the last several yards.” He shined his flashlight on the trail ahead. “Soon we won’t be able to pick it up at all. We’ll have to make a decision whether to—”
“We’re almost at the dam,” Catherine said curtly. “We’ll have to go with the assumption that he’s following Kelly and just follow the trail. It was what we thought anyway.” But she had hoped that they would be able to zero in on Weber’s killer long before this. It wasn’t going to happen. She broke into a trot. “Forget about the blood. Just watch out for ambush and hurry like hell.”
* * *
Kelly suddenly couldn’t breathe.
Her heart was beating so hard it was painful.
She could still hear him, but something had changed. He was no longer directly behind her on the trail. He was somewhere to the left, in the thick brush and trees.
And he was moving faster.
She broke into a run.
For God’s sake, don’t fall.
The beam of her flashlight lit the trail in front of her.
Ruts. Twisted tree roots. Branches.
She dodged and darted.
Faster.
He was coming faster.
She tore off her backpack and let it drop to the trail as she ran.
He must be only yards away.
No, she could hear him breathe.
Only feet away.
A crash of rotted limbs and brush.
Keep control. Don’t let him take her down.
She whirled and raised the Mace.
A blur of a long face, short brown hair, blue jacket.
And a long, curved knife in his hand!
She pressed down on the nozzle and shot him directly in the face with the Mace.
He screamed.
“Whore. I’ll kill—”
Then he was blundering blindly forward, almost on top of her.
She dodged the knife he was swinging wildly.
She sprayed him again.
But the tip of his knife sliced the flesh of her upper arm.
Pain.
His weight was heavy as he brought her down, straddling her.
Spray him again.
Spray him again.
She struggled to get her hand with the Mace from beneath his body.
So heavy …
She lifted her knee and caught him in the groin.
He grunted, cursing, but he was half off her, and she could at least move her arm.
But his knife was coming down—
“Roll to the side. Now!”
What?
It wasn’t the same voice as the one that had been cursing her.
But she realized the weight was almost completely off her now. She instinctively moved, rolled, as she had been ordered.
And saw the leather garrote that was wound around the throat of the man who had attacked her. His hand was struggling, tearing desperately at the garrote. His other hand trying to pull a gun out of his jacket pocket.
And she saw another man in a black leather jacket who was standing behind him and twisting the garrote.
As she watched, the next instant, the garrote did its work.
Her attacker’s neck snapped.
The man who had killed him turned toward her.
She instinctively, frantically, lifted her Mace.
“No!” he said. He held out his hands, palms up. “I’m not going to hurt you, Kelly.”
“I don’t know that.” She scrambled backward. “I don’t know who you are. I don’t know anything. Stay away from me.”
“Just put down that Mace and we’ll be fine,” he said quietly. “I have no intention of letting you spray that stuff in my face. But I don’t want to do anything that would alarm you. Catherine wouldn’t like it.” He grimaced. “And we’re already at odds at the moment.”
She went still. “Catherine?”
“Catherine Ling. She’s on her way to you right now. I just came in by the road north of the dam and got here first.”
“You could be lying. How do I know who you—”
“Of course you don’t know who I am.” He inclined his head. “I’m Richard Cameron. Perhaps your friend Luke might have mentioned me?”
“Cameron?” She repeated. “Luke did tell me about you after he and Catherine came back from Tibet. He thinks you’re cool.” She moistened her lips. “But he’s a lot like Catherine. He believes that if you have good reason, it’s okay to—” She looked at the body slumped over on the trail, and finished—“do that.”
“I had a very good reason tonight.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Her grip tightened on the Mace. “But I don’t know that for sure. What Luke believes might not be what I believe.”
“True. But the fact that I saved your life should have some weight. Give me that Mace, Kelly. Don’t make me take it.”
“I think I’ll just hold on to it for a while until I—”
He moved.
Lightning fast.
She had never seen anyone move that fast.
Two paces forward.
His foot struck the Mace and sent it spinning toward the side of the trail.
She lunged toward it.
But he was behind her, his arm holding her still. Strong. Dear God, he was strong. She couldn’t move, and her helplessness was filling her with panic.