destination is in five hundred yards, on the right.”
Zoe squinted ahead. A long hedge, nine feet tall, blocked her view until she was almost upon it—a driveway looming up out of nowhere on the road, as she slowed down to a stop and turned her head to look toward the gap.
Zoe instinctively reached out and turned off the headlights, plunging the way ahead into darkness. Her eyes were fixed on what she had seen, what had made her react so quickly: another vehicle.
It was a truck, backing out of the driveway and onto the road. Zoe strained her eyes forward while simultaneously trying to make herself as small as possible. There was a man behind the wheel; it made her breath catch as she took him in. From what little she could see of him, he looked the right weight, around one hundred fifty pounds. The kind of figure she had expected, with arms thick enough to hold another human down in water until they stopped struggling.
He was dressed all in black, looking around himself with caution. He glanced over at the car, but his gaze didn’t linger for longer than a millisecond; to him, Zoe’s car must have looked like it was simply parked, no one inside. Zoe breathed a gasp of relief for the darkness. He had looked right in her direction and not seen a thing.
Her engine was still running, and Zoe left the headlights off, ignoring the repeated warnings flashing up on her dashboard. He was dressed for the kill—the kind of uniform that would make it difficult to spot and identify him if there were any witnesses around. Without any real proof, Zoe still felt sure that he was going to his next victim. He must have taken the time to decide on who, and where, and how. He was ready. Zoe wasn’t going to let him slip out of her sight.
She eased forward, slow and cautious at first, but picking up speed as he did. With her lights off, if she just stayed a good distance behind, she could keep an eye on his glow and follow him without being spotted. She just had to play it cool—which wasn’t easy, with her heart hammering at a hundred miles an hour in her chest and her breath going ragged. She had him in her sights—a killer who had targeted women, just like herself, and dispatched all of them with what seemed like easy physical prowess so far.
Ford was pushing on, taking turns here and there, sticking to quiet streets here on the outskirts of the town that were not well-lit with streetlights. Even so, every time she passed under the glow of one of them, Zoe held her breath, backing off as far as she dared so that he would not see her in that circle of light.
It was sheer luck that they had been issued a dark green car by the rental agency. They had not requested or specified anything particular, but now it was making all the difference. Zoe needed stealth on her side, and for now, she had it. She put her foot on the accelerator to catch up after one streetlight, only to have to slow down again as another approached. Ford took a corner up ahead, and Zoe fixed her eyes on it, zooming ahead through the light and then taking the turn behind him.
And slowing to a stop, because he was no longer there.
Zoe cursed loudly. The road carried on ahead, but there were also further turns on both sides of it, two on the left and three on the right. Which one had he taken? She crept forward, staring down each turn for the glow of headlights, but she reached the final option without seeing a thing.
Zoe let the car idle for a moment, slamming her hands on the steering wheel in frustration, narrowly avoiding blaring the horn. She’d lost him. How had she allowed herself to lose him?
Zoe gripped her head in her hands for a moment, trying to think, trying not to let utter rage at this new loss overwhelm her. She had to stay focused. There was hardly any time to lose—he was pulling away from her second by second, getting more and more impossible to trace.
There was no need for caution now—only speed. Zoe switched her headlights back on and swung the car around. She would take each of the side roads in turn, following them as far as she dared before concluding that