Page 80 of Run for Her Life
“They wrap around them,” Rachel said, sliding her hand over her own wrist, “and squeeze until the person can’t tell if they’re being held… or strangled.” She turned the page, and Zoe noticed there was actually no writing. “There was a girl in the garden. She was quiet. Smart. Thought if she just stayed still, the viper wouldn’t notice her. But vipers always notice.”
Zoe looked down at her fingers, curled tight in the blanket. “Did the girl die?”
Rachel didn’t reply. Not right away. “No… but she came close. And when she got away, no one believed there had ever been a viper. They said the garden was beautiful. That she must’ve dreamed the rest.”
“That’s mean,” Zoe whispered.
“That’s the world, baby,” Rachel said, her lips a thin line. “It doesn’t matter how loud you scream if no one wants to hear.”
Outside, the wind pushed harder against the window. Somewhere down the hall, a floorboard creaked, slow and deliberate. Rachel strained to hear but Gina was still sleeping in her nursery down the hall.
“Sometimes,” Rachel said, her voice colder. “A viper follows you home. It hides in the walls. It waits. But it still hisses in the dark.”
Zoe didn’t want to ask, but she had to. “Mom… is the viper real?”
Rachel turned to her, and her hand found Zoe’s cheek. She brushed a lock of hair behind her ear. “Listen to me now, and don’t ever forget what I tell you. If anything ever happens to me—anything at all—you tell them it was an accident. That I slipped. That I drowned. That I didn’t mean it.”
This again. Zoe blinked fast. “Why?”
“Because they won’t believe you if you tell the truth. And worse, they’ll make sure the viper hears it and the viper might come after you too… Do you promise, Zoe?”
It was the same routine every night. Every night after telling her a story, Rachel would make her promise the same thing. Zoe didn’t like it. The first time she heard it, she’d burst into tears. But now the words were so engrained in her, the promise was a part of her blood.
“I promise.”
FIFTY
The water scalded Zoe’s skin, but she barely felt it. Not over the hum in her blood. That caffeine-buzzed, post-chaos electricity, still trapped in her limbs like a warning shot never fired. Her fingers twitched against the tiles, aching to do something, fix something, finish something.
It was the residual adrenaline still pounding from yesterday. Her phone had several messages from Simon wanting to talk about the shooting. He was delaying the inquiry until Amy had been found and she’d wrapped up this case.
An inquiry. Was she going to lie under oath about how she knew Viktor? Zoe hated lying. There was one lie she told the world and her sister—about Rachel. There was another lie about her dark thoughts and where she went to expel them. The lies kept piling up, making her queasy.
When she stepped out of the shower, she checked her phone. Gina had sent her a picture of her with the boys at the zoo.
Zoe gasped as she remembered Jeff’s last words. How the hell was she going to tell Gina anything about this? She knew nothing about this, had no idea who her father was. But how could she deny a dying man his last request?
She cleaned the fogged mirror and stared at her reflection. Viktor was dead—the man whose hands had taken her mother’s life. Surely now the hatred she carried around with her would finally disappear. TheEmilythat haunted her. But it wasn’t over.
Viktor was just the muscle. He worked for someone; he had been sent by that person. The man who’d ordered the hit. Had Viktor given him the key to the safety deposit box? She had to find out more about Viktor. It was the only way this would end.
It was a sulky morning, the light barely leaking through the clouds, when Zoe walked into the station.
“Have we heard anything from the nearby police stations?” Zoe asked. “Any sightings? Any tips?”
Lisa chewed on the end of a pen and shook her head. “Nada. Ethan is leading a search party in the woods near the gas station where Amy was taken from. But—” Thunder clapped and instantly the heavens opened.
Zoe felt a flicker of annoyance. “How do you guys get anything done around here with this weather?”
Lisa shrugged. “It’s all I’ve ever known.” She gestured at the sheets of paper cluttering her desk. “I’m just going through Amy’s cell phone records right now. Her last call was to work to let them know that she was running late.”
Zoe dropped her shoulders. Her nerves were vibrating, an electric, jittery buzz crawling under her skin. Like the world was refusing to match the speed of her mind and will. She tapped a pen incessantly against her thigh.
“I just called the SEC.” Aiden marched up to her.
“Huh?”
“About David’s fraud to manipulate the stock price.” He paused. “What’s going on with you? You hightailed it home yesterday.”
