Page 27 of The Unknown Colton
“As he is hers,” Will said. “It’s so hard to see any of our kids hurting.”
“She’s tough,” Sasha repeated. “She’ll survive some heartache.”
“Do you think that’s all that was bothering her?” Will asked.
“You don’t?”
He shook his head. He knew their little girl well. “She got out of here fast, and closing the blinds…”
“You think she’s worried someone was watching her?” Sasha asked, her blue eyes widening with alarm.
His blood chilled at the thought that someone could be watching Lakin like someone had been watching Caroline all those years ago. Back thenthe authorities, and even their parents, hadn’t believed that Caroline’sfanwas actually dangerous.
Jason Stevens had proved how dangerous he was.
If someone was watching Lakin, hopefully they weren’t a killer.
CHAPTER 8
The minute Lakin stepped out of her parents’ house, she’d noticed the trucks speeding off down the road. They were both old, one more rusted than the other. The less rusted one showed traces of teal blue paint, and there was a shiny chrome toolbox in the bed of the truck.
“Troy…”
Was he the one who’d been watching her? But his gaze had never creeped her out; it had always warmed her with love and desire, somehow both reassuring and exciting. And he’d just returned to Shelby, so there was no way he was the one who’d been watching her over the past couple of weeks.
Had that been Jasper Whitlaw? Was that who Troy had sped after? Or was it someone else in the other vehicle?
Anxious to find out what was going on, she hopped into her SUV and headed after the two trucks.
She wasn’t brave enough to drive as fast as they were around those sharp curves. The road was too narrow the higher it wound up the mountain, leavingrock on one side and nothingness on the other. She didn’t bother trying to call or text Troy. She didn’t want to be distracted and she didn’t want to distract him from whatever he was doing.
A high-speed chase up a mountain? Who was he so intent on catching that he was risking his life? And this after he’d had such a close call falling off the oil rig. She shuddered as fear gripped her.
“Stop!” she called out, wishing he could hear her. They were going so fast, though, that she quickly lost sight of them. She slowed down, peering off the side and around the curves ahead.
A truck nearly sideswiped her as it raced past. It was so fast that she couldn’t see the driver nor the vehicle itself clearly. She jerked her wheel toward the right and nearly struck rock. When she pulled back to the left, she glanced in her rearview mirror. The truck gave a quick flash of brake lights as it slowed. But it didn’t stop and soon disappeared from view.
Where was Troy? Why was the one vehicle heading back down, but he wasn’t following it?
“Troy?” she called out as if he could hear her. But then she heard the sound of another motor. Smoke was billowing from an exhaust pipe sticking up from the side of the road. That and a rear bumper were all she could see. Troy’s truck.
She braked, engaged the hazard lights and jumped out and raced across the road. Her heart pounded with fear that she was too late.
And she’d been such a bitch to him.
Sure, he hadn’t called when he got hurt, but he’d been hurt. And scared. And sure, he hadn’t reached out to her, but it hadn’t been about her. Since he’d come home, she’d made it all about her. No wonder he hadn’t reached out when he was hurt; he hadn’t wanted to comfort her or focus on her. He’d wanted to focus on healing.
If he was hurt again, he might have undone all that healing. How hard it must be for him to have to live with the fear that paralysis could return if he wasn’t careful.
“Troy!” she yelled.
The rear tires of the truck spun, gravel flying as he tried to back up, but the truck didn’t move backward. Instead it slipped a few more inches forward, over the steep incline of rock and gravel that made up the side of the mountain.
“Troy! Get out!” she yelled over the roar of the engine he was gunning. The truck was going to go over the steep side with him in it. This would not be a fall that either his truck or he would survive. “Troy!”
He must have heard her or seen her in the side mirror because he rolled down his window. “Get out of here, Lakin! You’re going to get hurt.”
“No. You get out of there!” she shouted back. “Jump out before it goes over!”
