Clenching the wheel in a death grip, he sped back the way he’d come. Interspersed with the curses were prayers that he wouldn’t be too late.
***
Olivia stared in frozen horror at the woman who had just cut off their only means of communication, because she and Max had come to the house on short notice and hadn’t bothered to contact the phone company about reinstating the hardwired service. They hadn’t seen the need for it, and it probably would have taken days to get it hooked up, anyway.
“We have to get away,” she said to Claire, glancing out the window toward the car she’d left in the parking area out front.
Claire shook her head. “No. It’s too dangerous. He said to stay here.”
Bad news, Olivia thought. The guy who’d sent her former classmate rushing over here wanted the two of them in the house together.
She grabbed the other woman’s hand. “Come on.”
“No. Don’t you understand? You’re going to get us both killed.”
Claire jerked away and lashed out again, landing a blow on Olivia’s cheek that stunned her. She tried to speak, but the only sound that came out of her mouth was a muffled gasp.
Oh Lord, she had to get away from Claire. But then what? What if the guy who had been stalking her was outside right now?
Olivia contemplated her chances of getting away from the house. It would all depend on if he was already here or if he was still on the road. But maybe her best chance was to leave. And abandon Claire?
She didn’t want to do it, but the other woman had proved she wasn’t capable of rational thought. In fact, from the way she was behaving, she was almost as much a threat as whoever was stalking her.
Olivia backed away, but before she could get out of the room, Claire grabbed her arm.
“You have to stay here. With me. It’s the only thing that’s important.”
“Okay, but we can’t stay in the house.”
“We have to stay together.”
“Then come on.”
“No. He wants to talk to both of us.”
“That’s what he said?”
“Yes.”
“You believe him—after all the nasty things he’s done?”
“He said he’d stop.”
She wanted to scream, “Are you crazy?” But she already knew the answer. This woman had passed beyond sanity.
Claire gave her a pleading look. “Just listen to what he has to say.”
Olivia hadn’t heard a car pull up outside or any indication that trouble had arrived. But just as Claire finished speaking, one of the windows shattered as a missile came sailing into the house. It hit the floor and began spewing smoke into the room.
Chapter 16
As the smoke filled the living room, both women began to cough. Wide-eyed, Olivia backed away from the thing.
“Come on,” she tried to shout to Claire, but her voice came out as a hoarse croak, and the other woman didn’t move, only stared at the billowing smoke in confusion.
Olivia crawled to her and grabbed her arm. “We have to get out of the house.”
Claire only shook her off and started coughing as she crawled away.
“Claire, no. Stay with me. He told you to stay with me, remember?”
At least that halted the other woman’s progress. “That’s right,” she agreed.
“We should go in the other room,” Olivia choked out, thinking that if they got through the dining room into the kitchen, she could pull Claire out the back door. But then what? They’d be out in the open. Maybe that was what the man out there wanted, after all.
Another missile crashed through a second window, landing on the carpet and spewing more smoke. Tears ran down Olivia’s cheeks from the acrid smell, and she could barely see the other woman.
Claire had been crawling toward Olivia. Now she stopped in her tracks.
“Claire, you came to…me for help,” Olivia tried, her eyes stinging and her lungs burning. “Let me help you. We’re under…attack,” she managed to say between coughing fits. “We have to get out of here.”
Claire made a muffled sound as the door crashed open.
Olivia prayed that it was Max coming back. But when he didn’t call her name, she decided it wasn’t him. It must be the guy who had thrown the smoke bombs, coming in to put the finishing touches on his plan. But she wasn’t going to let him kill her without fighting back.
Max had made sure she was armed and knew how to use a gun. There was one upstairs in her bedroom and another down here in the drawer of an end table. Knowing she had to get to it before the guy found her, she abandoned Claire and began crawling along the floor until she reached the front of the sofa. Trying not to cough and give away her location, she kept moving. It seemed to take forever to travel a few feet, but finally she reached the end table and eased the drawer open, rising up enough to fumble inside and wrap her fingers around the butt of the automatic Max had left there. She hadn’t thought she was going to need it, but now she was damn glad that it was in her hand. Whoever had come in was probably thinking that she was going to roll over the way Claire had, but he had another thing coming.