Page 50 of The Chase
It went unsaid that she was not alone. Someone was driving her. And if it was someone who cared about Greer—that little dot would be heading toward her family. To the people who loved her.
“Addy is near the bottom of the county,” Kurt told them. He’d called the sheriff. Clay had told him to stop where they were and wait for help. Well, Kurt wasn’t going to do that. Not with Greer out there needing him now.
“They are moving fast,” Guthrie said. “I don’t know if we can catch up.”
No matter what, they were getting to Greer. Somehow.
“That woman is my world. Go faster. She needs me now.”
“I’m going to try.” Gene had a look in his eyes Kurt would never forget.
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It wasthe sound of his curses that had her feeling hope—and the memories came rushing back. Greer’s head hurt. She thought maybe she’d passed out, for a little bit. Maybe the tape was cutting off her oxygen, too.
Panic, nausea…she wanted to vomit.
He was just telling her things, rambling things. About Kurt’s brother. About his time in prison. He was complaining about her family, about what they had, and how people owed him something for his crappy life.
He’d grown up in foster care. But so had so many other people—Kurt, Ayla and Aubrey, Brenton Ryce. They had turned intogoodpeople. She wanted to tell him that. To tell him to stop making excuses for choosing tohurtinnocent people.
Her baby was all she could think about. Her baby, her family…Kurt and his precious baby girls. She wanted to hold those little girls again. To braid Bristol’s hair like she’d braided it at the barbecue. Bristol wanted hair like Mari Lynn’s. Bronte…Bronte barely had any hair at all now. Just a baby—a sweet baby.
Greer’s baby—if he killed her, her baby died with her.
The baby she and Kurt had made together.
She wanted Kurt to get to see their baby, to hold their baby. She wanted him to have a chance at the family he had never had. And she wanted to see her parents holding her baby. She wanted her baby to have a chance tolive.
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
Until he jerked the truck to a stop and climbed out.
Then he was lifting her out.
And they were at the reservoir—maybe ten miles from her house.
Where the creek that bisected her family’s lands flowed into the reservoir.
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At first,he was just going to drop her in the water and let her sink. Girl’s hands were bound. He would have done the feet better, but he’d ran out of fucking tape. She’d not be able to swim to shore. He just had to find a way to get her into deep enough water. Then again, maybe not. Dwayne never really had learned how to swim enough.
He’d probably just cover her nose with his hand and snuff the life right out of her. Not like she could fight back. And he wanted it to be more original.
He’d heard about what had happened at that church with one of her brothers. Said the one woman involved with her brother had nearly been drowned before she’d escaped. He’d heard another Hiller’s girlfriend had nearly been beaten to death at the hospital, too. A Hiller girl had been stabbed with scissors. That oldest girl had gotten into some sort of tussle at the courthouse, too. That bastard Grady—he’d nearly been sliced to ribbons, too. By a woman. What a fucking pansy for that.
Dwayne wanted an ending to their precious baby Greer that was original.
He’d just suffocate her. Watch the life slip out of her eyes and he’d laugh in her fucking face as he did it. Maybe…he’d drag it out. Make her think he was going to kill her, and then bring her back at the last moment. Just play with her. For as long as he could.
He wasn’t fooling himself. The girl would be missed soon, he suspected.
Someone would put it together that he had her, too.
Considering theirhistory.
But he didn’t really care one bit.
