Page 73 of Threat of Danger
Wood chipper.
She’d been right all these years. The man who’d kidnapped her and Derek hadn’t drowned in the river. He’d lived to kidnap and kill another day. And he’d just done it again.
He wouldn’t stop, not unless somebody stopped him.
What if he had already picked out his next victim?
Jess’s cell phone rang in her pocket and made her jump. Kaylee’s smiling face filled the display.
“Just wanted to say that Abuelito is doing well,” she reported when Jess picked up. “And he’s cheating at poker.”
Kaylee, Jess mouthed to Zelda. Then,Everything’s OK.And, after a minute or two, she handed over the call. Zelda wanted a full accounting of everything that had happened since they’d left the hospital.
Jess caught Derek’s gaze.
He watched her, his expression somber, and Jess’s thoughts snapped right back to the news he’d brought.Hannah Wilson.Jess knew, better than anyone, what Hannah must have gone through before her death.
Freezing cold.
Agonizing pain.
Endless days in a hopeless pit of hell.
Disbelief.
Panic.
Wishing for death.
“Hey.” Derek was at her side, holding her elbow, his voice warm with concern. “Why don’t you sit down?” He steered her to the kitchen table and pushed her on a chair.
“I’m fine.”
“All the blood rushed out of your face.”
She drew a long, steadying breath, and nodded.
“I want to come back and sleep on the couch again,” he said after a long moment.
Her gaze flew to him. “Until when?”
“I don’t know.”
“No.”
“Jess—”
But she held up a hand. “I don’t need a crutch. And I don’t need your protection. I needed your friendship.”
Instead, he’d betrayed her.
He watched her in silence for a couple of seconds, his jaw working as if he was getting ready for an argument, but then he turned on his heel and strode away. He called a goodbye to Zelda without even looking over his shoulder. The front door closed behind him with a decisive click.
Good, Jess thought. She did not need Derek Daley.
Chapter Seventeen
Saturday
