Page 31 of Peril in Piney Woods

She closed her eyes and fought a losing battle for about five seconds, then she gave up. Snatching up her cell, she clicked the icon for her voicemail and listened.

“Hey, Meg, I know you’re probably headed back this way by now. I just wanted to remind you to grab some bread on your way. We used the last two slices at breakfast this morning. We need bread for lunch. See you soon.”

Worry drew her face into a frown. He’d made biscuits for breakfast, not toast. The idea that his voice had sounded a little odd and that he’d emphasized the word two nudged her hard.

He was trying to tell her something.

She swore. Had someone already made it to Piney Woods and determined her most recent location to be at Griff’s house?

Shoving the gear shift into drive, she spun out of the gas station parking lot. Once she was on the road headed back up the mountain, she called Jodie at the shop.

“Pampered Paws.”

“Jodie, it’s Meg.”

“Hey, your old friend Darlene was here looking for you. She said the two of you went to school together.”

Meg’s heart stuttered to a near stop.

“I was a little hesitant to tell her anything—you know you can never be too careful these days—but she showed me a pic of you two back in high school. Loved the wild hair!”

“Wow,” Meg choked out. “I haven’t seen her in years.” Her heart now thundered at breakneck speed. “Did she say where she’s staying?”

“No but she left here headed to Griff’s place to catch up with you. She couldn’t believe you were living in such a small town. She said you’d always been a big-city girl.”

Meg forced out a laugh. “Yeah. Darlene knows me well.”

The sound of the bell over the shop’s front entrance jangled.

“Oh,” Jodie said. “Gotta go. Mr. Jolly is here to drop off Princess.”

“’Kay. Thanks.”

Meg ended the call and jammed the accelerator to the floor. She had to get to Griff. If she was lucky, it wouldn’t be too late.

Sundown Road

12:10 p.m.

GRIFF DESPERATELY HOPED Meg had gotten the message he’d attempted to pass along. There were two people here looking for her. He watched the man pace back and forth at the windows framing the front of the living room. The woman, Darlene O’Neal, sat on the sofa smiling at him. She’d claimed to be an old friend of Meg’s. The man was her husband, Ted, she explained. Except Ted didn’t seem the least bit friendly, much less warm toward her. He’d flashed a fake smile at Griff when he’d been introduced, and then he’d taken up watch at the front windows.

Darlene, on the other hand, had settled on the sofa and proceeded to ask Griff a thousand questions about Meg. He’d answered as vaguely as possible. He nodded and smiled now and then as Darlene waxed on about all the good times she and Meg had shared back in high school.

Griff wasn’t buying any of it.

First, the jeans and plaid shirt the man—Ted—wore were obviously new. He wore his shirt unbuttoned, tail hanging out with a T-shirt beneath. The slight bulge Griff had noticed at the small of his back wasn’t likely a cell phone.

The woman wore khaki colored slacks and a loose tee that sported one of Chattanooga’s aquarium logos. She hadn’t turned her back to him, so Griff hadn’t spotted a similar bulge, but he suspected she was carrying a weapon as well. There was just something about the two that made him worry about their intentions.

“Where is your vacation taking you next?” Griff asked when the woman paused in her lengthy monologue about Meg. The man had said they were on a cross-country vacation. They’d both taken leaves of absences from their stressful jobs and were seeing the sights wherever the road took them.

Darlene smiled. Ted glanced over.

Not a question either had expected.

“Gatlinburg,” she said. “We can’t wait to do a little mountain hiking.”

Griff hummed a note of question. “I would’ve thought you’d be dying to visit Nashville first. Everyone seems to love that scene.”

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