Page 49 of The Chase
An animal. He was no better than an animal.
His fist came out. He struck her in the face.
Then…she just fell down. She couldn’t move. Her head…
Had he hit her with the pipe? She thought he’d tried, but she’d turned.
It still hurt.
And then he had her off her feet. The back door of his truck was open.
He was lifting her in. She tried to fight. But he’d hit her so hard. Where she’d been hurt in the accident before. And ithurt.So much.
He grunted. “Damn, you’re a lot heavier than you were before. Full-sized woman now. I’m going to enjoy this.”
“You’ll go back to prison.”
“Think I give a shit about that? Better than being out here in this hellhole town in some ways. I have something to finish with you now.”
He had her in the truck. He had her hands taped with duct tape before she could fight him off. Her mouth. And then…
He just drove away.
Like he had with her once before.
41
Bitch had gottena lot stronger in fifteen years. Of course, he was forty himself now. Not quite as strong as he used to be, no matter how much he thought otherwise. Dwayne had bulked up a bit in prison—he’d not been a super big guy at first. He’d always been on the shorter side. Bitch might even be an inch or two taller. But he’d developed some muscle. And learned to fight for his survival.
Prison would do that to a man, no denying that.
She’d got him with the claws a few times.
He didn’t know what he was going to do with her now. He really hadn’t thought about that, not this far. Just dreamed of what he’d do when he was alone with a woman who looked like her. He’d grabbed a feel when he’d been getting her in the truck. He just hadn’t been able to take the kind of time he’d wanted, since they’d been there right by the damned road. It wasn’t likely someone would come by out there, but who the hell knew? A lot could have changed in fifteen years, after all.
She’d stolen fifteen years of his life, this girl. Someone had to pay for that. And Kev—Kev was dead because of her. If Kev’sbrother didn’t want to avenge that, well, Dwayne would. He owed Kev that much.
Kev has begged him not to do it, to aim at that truck that day. But Dwayne had done it anyway. He should have listened.
He looked in the rearview mirror he’d super-glued on a hundred times now. The girl was crying, fighting the tape.
He had a pregnant woman taped up in the back of his truck. No matter what happened now—he had made his choice.
Hell, maybe he really was chasing death now.
Dwayne hit the gas. Fastest way to get where he was going, after all.
He turned.
Headed the back way toward the reservoir, the girl’s purse and phone on the seat beside him.
His last ride had begun.
42
The doton her brother’s phone had started moving. Had turned. He’d told Gene to take the farm road up ahead. They were almost there when they saw Greer’s little blue SUV teetering off the side of the road. It wasn’t a deep ditch, but Kurt’s heart stopped almost instantly imagining what might have happened.
“Keep going. She’s not here,” Guthrie said. “She’s headed toward the reservoir."
