His features blur into an angry scowl. “Whose fault is that? I hope that Lassiter dies. He tried to keep us apart. He deserves todie. You can’t block fate and as soon as I saw your golden hair I knew why I was up here.” His fingers caress my wild hair and I slap weakly at his hands.
“Leave me alone.”
“I can’t do that. I kept him from taking off with you and doing, well, unholy things to you. But you’re still confused. He’s got you under some kind of spell so that you don’t understand how bad he is. He’s evil.”
Glaring at him, I shrink back towards Lassiter. “That’s surely the pot calling the kettle black. He’s not evil, you are.”
“I guess we’ll agree to disagree on that. But I made sure that you’re free of him. And I’m gonna keep you away from him. You’re confused now but you’ll realize soon that we’re meant to be together and you’ll marry me.”
“I’d sooner die.”
His face freezes and the cold fury in his blue eyes chills me to the bone. “That could be arranged. Now come here. Unless you want me to kill Lassiter right now.”
I glance behind me, hoping and praying that he’s awake. That he can stop this. But he’s still out cold. Pale and still.
Fear trickles along my nerves as I look back at pure evil standing there grinning at me. The redheaded man grins and holds out his hand.
“Let’s go, darling. I need to get you somewhere safe.”
With one last glance at Lassiter, I slowly inch my way across the seat and hold my hand out, shuddering when he touches me. Ripples of distaste turn my stomach and my head swims.
But I don’t have any time to think about it when he yanks me out of the seat. Yelping as pain rips through me in a torrent. I give in to the darkness washing over me.
SIXTEEN
LASSITER
“Hey,buddy! Wake up! Come on, Lassiter, wake the hell up!”
Groaning, I move slowly, easing my eyes open and fighting to focus through the fog and haze around me.
As soon as I can see straight, I whip my head around. “Where the hell is my Firefly?”
“Huh?” Jude studies me, his eyes searching. “Did you hit your head? Well, I guess you did. You’ve got blood on your forehead.”
Gritting my teeth, I inch up and glare at him, pointing at the open door across from me. “Verity. Where is she? Some asshole hit us and that’s the last thing I remember. But she was sitting right beside me when the car hit me.”
“There’s no car here. I can see where it hit you. But I don’t see anything else. And Verity isn’t here.”
“I can see that,” I grit out between my clenched teeth, pulling myself out of the car and limping around the front of it. I reach the other door and glare at the empty seat. “She was sitting right here. What the hell happened?”
Reaching up, my fingers touch a lump and I wince.
“We need to get you to the hospital. Come on.”
“I’m not going any fucking place until I find out where my Firefly is.”
Stalking back around the car, I check the tracks and groan. The car was here and then it took off down the road. My brow creases and I glare into the distance like I’m gonna see it right there.
“He took off. Why the hell did he take off?” Glancing around on the road, I grimace when I see broken taillights from where the idiot slammed into the side of the car. “How the hell could he try and pass us and miss and hit us? That doesn’t make any sense.”
Jude sighs. “There’s no hesitation. No braking. It almost looks like he did it on purpose.”
I reach down and find a piece of twisted metal under my back tire. When I turn it over, I grin angrily. “He lost something.”
Jude grins when he sees the license plate. “I’ll call the Sheriff’s office and have them trace it.”
He stalks back to his car and I grimace when I see a phone lying on the front seat where Verity was sitting. Reaching in, I grab it and that’s when I realize that it was recording. The video feed was on. I turn it off and my muddled head finally clicks into motion.