Page 35 of Peril in Piney Woods

The images that had filled Griff’s head when Ernie told him he suspected Meg was this Angel, this assassin, flooded his brain now.

Before he realized he’d stepped from the tree line, he was moving toward her.

“Get. Up.”

Meg stepped back as the other woman struggled to rise. Blood had spread from her right shoulder toward her chest. She craddled her right arm which hung against her side.

“Don’t come any closer, Griff.”

He stalled. Needed a moment to find his voice. “What the hell is going on, Meg? Who are these people?”

“Who sent you?” Meg demanded of the woman who’d called herself Darlene.

Darlene, or whoever the hell she was, grinned. “Who do you think sent me?”

Meg aimed her weapon at Darlene’s face. “Answer the question.”

“Your old friend. He wasn’t happy to find out you were still alive, so he sent us to rectify the situation.” She turned up her left hand. “You understand. He can’t have you continuing to breathe under the circumstances.”

“That’s too bad for you,” Meg said.

Griff moved a step closer. “What’re you going to do?”

Meg suddenly reached back with her left hand and whipped the weapon from her waistband and pointed it at Griff. “I said don’t come any closer.”

He froze. Something like fire rushed through him—a weird combination of anger and disappointment.

Darlene laughed. “You going to shoot him too? I’m guessing your Goody Two-shoes friend here has no clue who you are.” She looked past Meg and directly at Griff. “You don’t know a killer when you meet one?”

“Shut up,” Meg growled as she lowered the weapon she had aimed at Griff. “Turn around,” she said to Darlene.

The burn of anger roared hotter through Griff, overriding the other emotions. He might not have seen past whatever facade Meg had built, but he wasn’t a fool. She was not a bad person, no matter what his eyes were telling him right now.

Was that his heart talking or his brain? If it was the former, he could be in trouble here.

Darlene reluctantly turned around. Meg shoved the extra weapon back into her waistband and approached the other woman. She checked her waistband, ran a hand down and then up her legs from the tops of her shoes to her pockets. Then she checked her pockets. She removed something.

Griff peered harder to try and see what Meg had taken from the woman’s pocket, but he couldn’t make it out.

Meg glanced back at him. “I need your help.”

Her words hit him square in the chest. “What?”

She hitched her head for him to come there. “I need your help,” she repeated.

He made his way to where the two stood, stepping over a fallen tree.

Meg handed the object toward him. “When I get her to my truck, use this to secure her left hand to the steering wheel.”

Zip tie. The object was a nylon zip tie. He took it from her and nodded.

“Start walking.” Meg nudged Darlene.

They walked through the woods back to the two trucks abandoned on his driveway. His gut clenched at the sight of Ted whatever-his-name-was still lying face up on the ground, a hole in his forehead.

“You killed him.”

His own words startled him as if his brain hadn’t realized his mouth was speaking.

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