Page 1 of Toxic Truth

Chapter 1

Crazy Mountains, Montana

“Move, dammit!”Kenzie Caltrane pounded her steering wheel and rammed her foot against the gas pedal. “Go.”

Her back tires squealed in place, kicking up mud and digging her deeper.

Shit, shit, shit. This can’t be happening.

If the company goons caught up to her now…

Silencers on their guns would muffle any noise, tonight’s rain washing away her blood, the Crazy Mountains’ rural locale perfect for them to bury her where no one would look or find as much as a bone.

Her stomach cramped. Tears stung her eyes.

For fuck’s sake, she was a pharmaceutical engineer, not a CIA spy. She’d only wanted to stop a horrible outcome for—

Something flashed in her peripheral vision. Headlights? Noooo.

They couldn’t have gotten here this quickly. She’d turned off her damn lights and had driven close to blind for miles, which sent her veering into this depression.

Panicked, she popped her door and scrambled outside.

Wind battered her, rain speckled her glasses, and her loafers sank into the gooey earth. Stifling a frustrated cry, she backed away from her vehicle into the murky darkness, whatever she’d seen before gone.

Yet still out there. Danger pressing close. Worse, they could hear her damn motor.

Rather than running blindly into the trees, she climbed back into her car and shut it off.

Other than wind whipping around her vehicle and rain pinging on its roof, the silence out here was complete.

She fought for a full breath but couldn’t manage one.

Escaping to the middle of nowhere hadn’t been as smart as she’d thought.

What now, what now, what—

Something approached from the woods, the shape dim but huge.

A damn bear?

She’d read about hungry grizzlies breaking into vehicles for something to eat. Unwilling to be a sitting target should the thing attack, she bolted from the car and stumbled away. Mud sucked at her shoes, slowing her down. Fighting it, she slogged in the opposite direction for a tree to hide behind.

The thing lumbered toward her.

Her foot hit an obstruction. Oh. Pitched backward, she flailed her arms and fell against a trunk, a low-hanging branch snapping against her. Searing pain shot down her neck to her shoulder. Teeth clamped, she whimpered.

Loud breathing sounded. Not hers.

She froze.

A horse, rather than a bear, clopped forward until its rider reined it in. A dark slicker covered the man’s forehead, shadows obscuring his face.

Her pulse jumped. All night she’d dodged unknown vehicles, hoping none would catch up. To have her killer arrive this way didn’t make sense but wasn’t something she’d question.

She sidled around the tree.

He dismounted. His height next to the horse put him at six-three or more, his shoulders broad. He regarded her car off to the side.

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