Page 69 of The Devil's Pair

“I don’t know,” she repeated. “Michael drove us away from a cabin in the mountains, and then we pulled off some road into a rest stop.”

“Why’d he take you off the road, babe?” Dux asked.

She rubbed her eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted at the thought of having to explain all of this. “Because I pretended the babies were coming so I could run him over.”

There was a long silence at that, then Wolf said, “Didyou run him over?”

“Yes. He’s – he’s trapped under the truck now, and I’m afraid to open the door and step out to look around. What if – what if he grabs me?”

“Can you open a window and listen for him breathin’?” Wolf asked.

“Oh.” Briley felt so stupid thatthishadn’t occurred to her. “Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.”

“Go on, then,” Drake said. “Listen hard and tell us what you hear.”

She lowered the window a few inches, her heart in her throat the whole time. She was imagining a hand reaching through the crack and grabbing her around the neck, smashing her face against the glass – but there was no movement from below at all. There was also no sound.

No breathing.

She waited a few more seconds, then waited a minute, the phone pressed to her ear. Finally, she said, “I don’t hear anything. I think – if he’s not dead, he’s definitely close.”

“Good. Now listen to me.”

She responded to the authority in Wolf’s voice without any thought. “OK.”

“You need to get to the road and look for some kind of buildin’, or sign, or landmark. Anythin’ at all, alright? Can you do that? Can you walk?”

“I think so.”

“Good girl. You open the door nice and slow, and you keep talkin’ to us.”

“OK.”

“Go on, now, babe.” Dux’s voice. “You tell us every single thing that you’re doing, and what you see.”

Since she had the feeling that she’d hit Michael when he was closer to the left side of the hood, she slid back across the seat to the passenger side. Gingerly, listening with every fibre of her being, she opened the door. Waited. Waited. Waited.

Nothing.

Carefully, she lowered herself to the ground, holding onto the inside strap for balance. Then as fast as she could manage it, she scooted away from the truck, then backed away a few more feet, her eyes nailed on the undercarriage.

“Briley?” said Dux. “You still there?”

“Yeah. I’m out, and I don’t see any movement under the truck.”

“Good. Now, get to the road. Tell us if you see anything.”

Still not wanting to turn her back on the vehicle for even one second, she did a weird kind of crab-like side-step thing, swivelling her head between the truck and the road, back and forth, again and again. It made her feel slightly dizzy, but she couldn’t seem to stop doing it.

“Darlin’,” Drake said, sounding worried. “Talk to us.”

“I’m at the side of the road.” Keeping her body half-turned to face the truck, she glanced around, then looked behind her. Something caught her eye now, and her heart stopped in her chest. “I see – a sign. It looks like an ad of some kind.”

“Describe it.”

“It says…” The street lights were really dim around this spot, and she squinted hard enough to feel the beginning of a headache behind her straining eyes. “It says ‘Open Skies Ranch and Hotel, three miles’. And there’s an arrow pointing to the right.”

“Holy shit,” Wolf said. “I knowexactlywhere you are,exactlywhich rest stop.”

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