something unfamiliar.
A woman lying in the road.
“Bennett!” Emilia screamed.
He swerved.
His tires rolled over something and exploded. The truck spun out of control, the wet road as slick as an ice rink. The bridge loomed large in his windshield, and then glass shattered. Pain ricocheted through him, arcing up his leg. Bennett had a momentary vision of the puff of his airbag before his face slammed into it.
Emilia groaned. Cold air and icy rain soaked her clothes. Her entire body hurt.
She opened her eyes and blinked. The front end of Bennett’s truck had broken through the bridge’s guardrail. The creek below rushed and trembled, encouraged by the raging thunderstorm.
Emilia’s deflated airbag rose up to block her view. She shoved it away. “Bennett?”
Silence. She turned her head, wincing at the excruciating pain.
Bennett was facedown in the airbag. His hair was soaked from the rain. The water dripped down his face and into the collar of his shirt. Blood, from a wound she couldn’t see, mingled with the rain.
“Bennett.” Tears pricked her eyes as she fumbled for his neck to feel for a pulse. His skin was ice cold.
She couldn’t find a heartbeat. No, God, no.
“Bennett!”
He groaned and shifted.
Emilia’s heart stuttered and then took off. “Bennett, wake up.”
The sound of her voice must have jolted him into awareness. He sat up, his face turning toward her. Pain rippled across his features. “Emilia, are you okay?”
“I’m okay. But you’re hurt.” She searched with her hands for her cell phone among the glass shards and broken plastic. It’d been in the cup holder, but it was gone. “Where are you hurt, Bennett?”
She had to keep him talking. He could go into shock.
“My left leg is the worst of it. It’s trapped under the steering wheel.” He shifted and then winced. “I can’t get out.”
She glanced behind her at the road. Through the pouring rain, the woman on the road was barely visible.
“Can you reach your cell phone to call for help?” Emilia removed her gun from the holster at her back and checked the magazine. “Tell dispatch about our situation. The deputies need to be warned.”
Bennett grabbed her hand. “It’s a trap.”
“I know, but the woman is still out there. I can’t leave her.” Emilia leaned over and pressed a kiss to his mouth. Quick and hurried, but it warmed her straight through. “I love you, Bennett Knox.”
Emilia didn’t give him a chance to say anything. She was on the verge of tears as it was, her emotions running high along with her adrenaline. Shoving the truck door open, Emilia scrambled out. Glass littered the pavement and rain pelted her.
She took two seconds to sweep the area. The thunderstorm made visibility poor. Trees waved in the strong wind. If the killer was wearing black, he could easily pop out from the shadows.
Emilia sucked in a breath and half ran, half loped to the woman lying on the road. Pain shot through her head and her muscles protested each movement. She kept her gun tightly gripped in her hand.
Jackie. The woman had been shot. She was holding her hands over her abdomen.
“I’m here.” Emilia ripped off her jacket and lowered herself next to Jackie’s side. She pressed the fabric to the wound. “You’re going to be okay.”
Jackie pulled on Emilia’s hands. Her mouth moved, but no words came out.
“Who did this to you?” Emilia leaned down until she was close to Jackie’s lips.
Jackie’s eyes were wide with fear. “R-r-run.”
White-hot pain jolted through Emilia and her muscles clenched as electricity from a stun gun raced through her body. It stopped as suddenly as it started. She tumbled to the ground. Her gun fell from her numb fingers. From a distance, someone was screaming her name.
Bennett. Bennett was yelling her name.
A man dressed in black appeared like an apparition from the woods. He jolted Emilia again. Pain exploded in her body. When the shock stopped, she was as weak as a newborn kitten.
Somewhere in Emilia’s mind, she realized his stun gun could be operated from far. The nodes must be in her back, but she couldn’t reach them or pull together the power to control her muscles.
Within half a heartbeat, her hands were secure with zip ties. Feet too. The attacker hauled her over his shoulder and jogged over the bridge to a truck. Black. So dark they hadn’t seen it in the rain, waiting and watching.
The killer dumped Emilia in the back seat of the extended cab, jolted her again with the stun gun for good measure,