Page 130 of Deeper Than the Dead

Maybe he’d left the door open to avoid having to get up and answer.

Yeah, right. She had a bad feeling about this. What the hell? No turning back now. She pulled her phone from her back pocket and held it tight. Then she braced for trouble, pushed the door open wider, and stepped inside. “Preston?”

The house was quiet. Way too quiet for comfort.

She took another step. Then another. “Preston? I’m here.”

The whisper of a rubber sole against hardwood sounded a split second before a sudden impact from behind flung her forward ... pain shattered her skull.

The phone flew out of her hand.

The cool hardwood floor slapped her in the face.

Then everything went black.

Vera tried to open her eyes.

Agony exploded in her brain.

Had she been in another accident? The memory of the big black SUV barreling down on her made her flinch.

Her eyes fluttered open.

Not in her SUV.

She looked around as best she could without moving her aching head. Dark. She tried to reach out but couldn’t move her hands. Tied behind her.

Her head throbbed worse than after the accident ... her eyes squeezed shut against the pain. There was something in her mouth ... like a ball of cotton or cloth.

A gag.

Shit.

Vera pushed away the panic that attempted to rise and focused harder on the situation. Moving. She was moving. She was in a near-fetal position with her hands behind her back. She attempted to stretch one leg out, barely moved a few inches before she hit something. Small space. Cramped.

A big bounce rocked her forward, then back. Pain sheared through her skull. Light gleamed in the darkness.

Car. She was in a trunk. The brake lights had lit up for a moment. But they were moving again now. The car must have slowed after the bump and then turned.

She listened for any sound ... a voice, a radio. But there was nothing but the growl of the engine.

The forward movement slowed.

She smelled smoke ... no, cigarettes, and something else ... stale beer maybe.

The car stopped, and she rocked again. More of that pain pierced her, and the urge to vomit rushed into her throat. She struggled to swallow it back.

A car door slammed with a whine. Then another softer thud close by but not from this car.

Two cars with doors closing ... two people.

Her heart started to pound. She rubbed her bound hands over her hips. Her phone wasn’t in her back pocket.

Damn. They’d taken it.

“What do we do now?”

The voice made her jump. Female. Vera listened intently. Her head was really messed up, but the woman sounded as if she were right outside the trunk. Too muffled for her to determine if this was someone familiar or a stranger.

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