Identity Crisis(114)

‘I can do it.’ Garrett made a sharp left off the muddy track and barreled into the woods, bouncing and jolting and dodging trees and roots as best he could.

‘The police are on their way,’ Wade yelled. ‘They’re not far behind, but they’ll have to take the main road.’

‘Just get me there, Wade.’ Garrett downshifted and tromped the gas. ‘Just get me there before the Mustang.’

She saw the stand of trees, and she nearly wept that they hadn’t been cut down as the natural landscape slowly lost the battle to the growing industrial site. They were exactly like she remembered them, if a bit more scraggly. It would be over soon. She could feel his gaze locked on her face, and she did her best to look terrified, stressed – not that hard to do under the circumstances. But hiding her rage was more difficult. She felt her bottom lip tremble and she fought back the tears. He didn’t know they were as much tears of rage as they were tears for what she was about to lose, as much as they were tears of fear. He didn’t know, and that was good.

‘There, there, sweetheart, don’t cry. It won’t do you any good. I’m not swayed by your tears or your pleading. There was a time I might have been, but don’t expect sympathy when you still stink of Garrett Thorne. Don’t expect leniency when you deserve everything I can dish out to you and then some.’

Let him lecture, she thought. Let him think what he wanted. She picked out the tree, the perfect tree, and stomped on the accelerator as hard as she could. She hoped it didn’t hurt too much. Then she focused everything in her on thoughts of Garrett in her arms.

‘What the –?’ Those were the last words Edge got out of his mouth before she stepped hard on the gas. She screamed her rage like a banshee as the Mustang ploughed into the tree, and the unbelted Edge went flying through the windshield. With the sickening crunch of metal, the Mustang’s front end crumpled into the tree and the engine spluttered and died. The hard jerk of the safety belt forced the breath from her lungs and felt like it would cut her in two. The world went out of focus and wavered, threatened to go dark, and then cleared. Along with the clearing of her vision came the full understanding that she wasn’t dead, that her timing had been even more perfect than she could have hoped. She couldn’t see how Edge could have possibly survived smashing his way through the windshield into the woods. Surely that alone must have broken his neck. She struggled to get out of the seat belt and out of the car, then slipped on the wet ground, and fell to her knees, squinting to see as the rain set in again. She had just managed to get her feet when a muddied Jeep roared out of the woods and screeched to a stop right in front of her.

For a second, she didn’t recognize the man who shoved his way out of the driver’s seat covered with almost as much mud as the Jeep was. But then he spoke. ‘Kendra! Dear God, Kendra, are you OK?’

She broke into a run toward Garrett, afraid to say his name, afraid to say anything for fear it was all just a dream.

She was never quite sure of what happened next. There were police cars coming up the road. She could hear the sirens like background noise as Garrett pulled her fiercely to him. ‘Jesus, woman, I love you. I can’t lose you. Don’t you know that? I love you! I love you, Kendra Davis. Do you hear me? I love you!’

She was just about to tell him she loved him too, just about to tell him she wanted to be with him more than anything when out of the corner of her eye she saw movement, movement that registered with a cold prickle up the back of her neck. There was a flash of silver through the air, then Garrett yelled like a wildcat and shoved her hard. She landed on the ground with a jolt and rolled, confused, stunned. It was then she saw Garrett lurching, falling to his knees, and there was blood. There was so much blood where the knife lodged in his side. And suddenly Edge stood over him, covered from head to toe in pine straw and mud.





Chapter Twenty-Eight

For Kendra, everything downshifted to slow motion. She knew only two things, that Garrett Thorne loved her, and that she would not let this monster take that away from her. Ever!

As Edge drew back to kick Garrett in the stomach, somehow Garrett caught Edge’s leg with an arm and unbalanced him. That was all it took. Kendra saw the world through a rage like nothing she’d ever experienced before.

Garrett pulled the knife out of his side with an angry snarl and struggled to pull himself to his feet and take advantage, but she was faster, and she wasn’t injured. She launched herself at Edge, screaming at the top of her lungs. ‘You sonovabitch! I’m not yours! I’ll never be yours!’