Page 80 of Brutal Ice

“Baby.” His grip was almost bruising. “Get the fuck out of here. I’ll go after him.”

Go after him?

She peered over her shoulder even as she heard the thud of footsteps. Her attacker was fleeing. Rushing toward the back of the station. The taser hadn’t kept him down for long.

“I’ll end him,” Royal swore. “Leave. I’ll finish this. You don’t need to see what I do.”

He let her go. Bounded after those fleeing footsteps.

Violet knew she should get to the Lincoln. She should get inside. Lock the doors.

Only she didn’t do that. Her feet stumbled as she went back to the side of the sedan. She picked up her discarded phone. Turned on the light once more.

Her fingers shook. Her whole body shook. But she went back to the trunk. It was open that scary inch. She reached out and pushed it higher. Her light shone inside.

A sob broke from her.

Simone.

Her friend was in the trunk. A dark wig covered her hair. Her hands were bound with gray duct tape. Her ankles secured with the same thick tape. Tape that had been used to subdue Violet, too, just weeks ago.

Same trunk. Same tape.

But…

Simone’s eyes were closed. And her clothes and body were covered in red. Blood.

“Simone?” Violet whispered.

So much blood. Too much.

Her left hand went for Simone’s throat. She searched desperately for a pulse. The scent of blood clogged her nostrils. How many times had Simone been stabbed? How much pain had she endured?

A flutter moved beneath Violet’s fingers. The smallest beat of a pulse. Her imagination? Reality?

Be real. Be. Real. Violet dialed nine-one-one.

Chapter Sixteen

Fury pounded through Royal’s veins. The sonofabitch had been too close to Violet. With a fucking knife. Royal had fired his gun, and he thought he’d hit the bastard. But the wily prick had dropped to the floor.

The SOB could have killed Violet.

The thought had fury flaring even hotter within Royal. I did this. I brought her here. So cocky and arrogant. So sure I could take him out.

But the arrogance had died when the jerk had charged at Violet. Terror had clawed through him, and all Royal had wanted to do was get to her.

Cuts and slices littered his arms. Blood dripped down his hands because he’d clawed his way through the glass. He would have clawed his way through hell if it meant getting to her.

Violet was behind him. I left her. Left. Her.

And a huge part of him just wanted to whirl around and rush back to her. But the attacker had fled. He could not get away again. If he got away again, he’d come for Violet once more.

She couldn’t be in danger again. The nightmare had to stop for her. Royal didn’t want Violet afraid for the rest of her life. Always looking over her shoulder.

The thudding footsteps had gone to the right, and he swerved to the right, too. Royal saw that the bottom part of the wall had been torn apart just enough that a person could slide through to exit. Nostrils flaring, he twisted and contorted and got his ass through that opening. When he broke into the night, he stilled a moment as he tried to figure out where the attacker had gone. If the jerk had circled the building in order to go back for Violet…

But, no. Footsteps. Straight ahead. Coming from an old, dead farm field. Royal raced forward. A quick turn and he shoved his way through the dry-as-dust corn stalks that were in his way. Overgrown. Twisting. Pale in the moonlight. The dry stalks were everywhere, but those steps… they were?—

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