Page 61 of One Last Chance

Ashley’s eyebrows rose. “Oh.” She took another hit off her vape. “He had a gun too. Shoved me into the back of the van and tied me up. But I got free.” She raised her chin. “I caused the accident.”

“You saved your life,” Flynn said. “That was brave. And smart.”

That earned her a half smile.

“Do you remember what he looked like?”

“It was dark. He wasn’t big—maybe”——” she glanced at Axel—“shorter than you. But he took me by surprise. And he smelled bad, like he’d been living out of his car. Or an old motel. Anyway, I didn’t get a good look at him. Dark hair, maybe. Or not. Sorry.”

“You said he followed you out of a bar? What bar?”

“The Tenderfoot. Off Highway 3. But now that I think about it, maybe he wasn’t in the bar,, because he got out of his van as I walked by. Maybe he was just waiting for someone to come out . . .” Her hand shook a little, and she inhaled again on the vape.

Flynn took a step toward her, paused, then touched her arm. “You’re safe now. He’s not here. You lived.”

Ashley looked up at her, nodded.

“You want to talk to us about that bruise?”

Ashley’s mouth pinched and she shook her head. “I need to get back inside.”

Flynn glanced at Axel. He had taken a deep breath, glanced into the house, what looked like worry on his face.

She slid her hand into his, tightened her grip, but spoke to Ashley. “Listen. You ever need help of any kind, you call Air One Rescue, okay?”

Ashley wrapped an arm around herself, swallowed. Nodded.

Then she turned and went into the house. Shut the door.

Axel just stood there. “I really want to go in there.”

“I know. You can’t. C’mon.”

He stayed a moment longer, however, then surrendered to the tug on his hand and followed her down the stairs.

The cat jumped onto a nearby lawn chair and hissed at him.

He held the car door open for Flynn as she climbed in. “That was unhelpful.”

“Actually, it was super helpful.”

He gave her a look, then closed the door and came around to the driver’s side. Got in. “How so?”

She glanced over to the mobile home and saw the curtain fall as they pulled away.

A lump formed in her chest.

“You all right?”

She sighed. “Yeah. She just reminded me a little of . . . well, Kennedy.”

“Your sister? How? I thought she was your twin?—”

“She is. But . . .” She looked at him. “I mentioned that I found a dead body near my alleyway as a kid, right?”

“Yeah. It led you into being a cop.”

“It led my sister into darkness. She kept having nightmares. She started drinking and then got into drugs and . . . I spent a lot of time in high school and even college tracking her down in the middle of the night, holding back her hair as she detoxed in my dorm room. We finally got her into a drug rehab place, and she turned it around. Mostly.”

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