of the woods, but I had another hundred yards of driveway to go yet where the terrain wasn’t so rocky. I gulped air, my lungs raw with oxygen. Faster. Go. GO! Keep running. Behind me, I heard the roar of an engine. Car tires spinning on the gravel. I let out a yelp of fear and pushed one leg forward, pain searing at my knee, my feet now numb with smashes and cuts as the blood and rain washed over my right leg.
Keep going. Faster. Faster.
I still had a chance.
Or so I thought. With the sound of a car behind me—Dan? Kate?—I veered off the driveway and took a shortcut up through the woods to Highway One, so I wouldn’t get mowed down. The driver, my pursuer, was closing in on me fast. I was off the track but now faced an even steeper climb, a sheer face of slippery mud and rocks interspersed with pines. I heard the car screech to a halt, the door slam, and I knew Kate or Dan would be upon me any second, their hiking skills a hundredfold better than mine.
Turning my head for a split second, I saw Kate, her great hiking boots trampling through the undergrowth, her dark shine of a bob swinging, her mouth set in a hard, determined line. I groaned in terror, weighing up my options and quickly doubled back to the driveway again.
“Why are you resisting?” she yelled at me through the rain. “Come back to the house, we haven’t done anything.”
Kate continued yelling after me, nearer now, closing in on me fast. I scrambled like a hunted animal towards the brow of the hill. I clawed myself up, up, my hands breaking my fall as I stumbled along. I felt the forged will slip down my legs, out through my pajamas, but I didn’t have a spare second to save it. My palms were bleeding. Turning a corner now, I briefly lost Kate and could see Highway One up ahead like an oasis in a desert. So close yet so far, Kate’s thud of boots a hair’s breadth behind me. Beanie darted ahead, and I had a new worry now, that he would charge in front of a vehicle and get run over. But I didn’t hear any cars or trucks. What if there’d been another landslide between here and Carmel? The road would be completely closed off.
I’d be done for.
Up, up. Please. Faster. Please.
But as I reached the top, Dan’s big black pickup came thundering down the driveway. How did I miss that? Had it doubled back on itself? Dan was the driver? My bedraggled rain-swept hair was flying in my mouth, rainwater blocking my view. I screamed at the top of my lungs, the fear of being sandwiched to death by these two ruthless triplets. Kate was still running just behind me. I could hear her measured breaths.
I lost my footing and collapsed on myself, a useless spent heap of a victim crumpled on the driveway. “Leave me alone!” I gave out a cry somewhere between a shriek and a gasp.
My last pathetic beg for help.
Forty-Four
“Get in the car!” a voice ordered.
“No,” I panted, focusing my gaze on my bleeding feet, my limbs a rag doll’s. “No!”
“Can you get up?” The car door opened, two trousered legs planted themselves on the ground.
But they didn’t belong to Dan. Or Kate.
My eyes took in a pair of red Gucci flats. I looked up. “Pippa?”
“What the hell’s going on? I thought you were away, darling, in England. The triplets told me they were housesitting and you’d gone to visit your parents. But then I got this frantic call from Jen, begging me to come and get you. I came as soon as I could. But a tree was down, blocking the road.” Pippa leaned over and helped me to my feet, but my knees buckled again, and I tumbled back down in a lump.
“I was never in England. They locked me up. Kate and Dan want to kill me,” I rasped, my throat so sore I could hardly get the words out.
“What do you mean?” Pippa’s voice was gentle.
I looked around me, but Kate was nowhere to be seen. Beanie continued barking.
“Let’s get you in the car, darling,” Pippa said. “I’m taking you home with me. Good Lord, look at your legs, you’re bleeding. In your pajamas, no shoes? What happened?” She hoisted me up, and I collapsed on her strong shoulders, my gratitude flashing white stars at