Page 134 of One Last Promise

She turned around. “You killed your daughter.”

He laughed. “She’s not my daughter. She wasnevermy daughter. I don’t know who your sister slept with, but she came to me knocked up.” Blood gushed from his nose,and he put a hand to it, then shook it away and smiled at her. “Tried to make me think the girl was mine. I’m not that stupid.”

Then he swore at her, a litany of vile words that knotted Tillie up and brought her back to a day when her only thought had been murder.

See, this was why she was unredeemable. Because on the inside, she didn’t have faith. She just had herself.

Remember your training.

The words shook through her.

Stay calm.

She ducked, rounded away, and his punch missed her.

Stay on your feet.

He dove for her, but she sent up a knee and pulled him down, and pain flared as it connected with his chin.

He pushed her, but she scrambled back.

Watch the body language.

He backed up, jarred, a bull, his neck thickening, his breaths hard. “I knew I’d find you. You can’t escape me.” He stepped back, and she glanced behind her. He was going to rush her, send her over too. “You belong to me.”

And right then she got it. This wasn’tjustabout Pearl or Hazel . . . maybe even her father. It was about her. And Rigger wanting control of it all. Her heart. Her thoughts. Hersoul.

“No, I don’t. I don’t belong to you.”

Know your escape routes.

“You do, Steelrose. You know you’ll never escape me.” He leaned toward her, his voice low.

She could go over the edge, but without seeing the bottom, she’d hurt herself landing.

She could go up, to the roof?—

Weapon. She needed a weapon. A side table sat beside a lounge chair, and she edged toward it, picking it up. “You’re the one who won’t escape me, Rigger. The police know about Matthew. They know you killed him.”

He slammed the lounger away, then grabbed the table legs and jerked.

She let it go. He fell off-balance, stepped back, and she leaped for the edge of the roof.

She pulled herself up, fighting, kicking, nearly there?—

Rigger grabbed her leg. “You—” And there went the words again. She kicked at him, he ducked and then jerked.

She slammed onto the deck, the force of it jarring every bone, and this time, taking her breath with it.

Rigger stood over her, blood dripping off his chin, his lip split, and reached for her.

She lay helpless, still gasping like a fish, and could do nothing but close her eyes.

Clearly, this was the end. And she was more hurt than she thought, because all she had was a voice deep inside.“‘She will call on me, and I will answer her. I will be with her in trouble. . . .’”

Her escape route.

Please—God! Please, rescue me?—!

---