Page 74 of Runaway
“I'm worried about you, my girl.”
“No need!” I forced a bright tone. “I'm quite happy and safe, grandma. But thank you. How is the Bunco club?”
We moved onto safer topics while Atticus roamed the reeds along the lake edge at my back, caught a scent, and nosed his way into the trees. Grandma didn't recover her usual vivacity. I could feel the burden in her responses.
Silently, I cursed Joshua over and over again in my head. How dare he?
Howdarehe?
For the first time, I wanted to get my hands on his neck and have my own revenge. He'd intentionally frightened me both at work and here. He'dstalkedme. Made my work life miserable, my home life frightening, and tried to get me to commit fraud. Now he wanted to clutch at whatever happiness I'd created without him.
My fingers were tight on the phone. My heart raced in my chest. We spoke for longer than usual as I tried to change topics and get the relief back in grandma's voice. By the end of our conversation, she sounded more reassured, but wary.
“You're really okay?” she asked.
“Really okay,” I murmured. Heat warmed my cheeks. “I love Mark, grandma. Really love him, like Mom and Dad loved each other.”
The truth thickened my throat, but not with fear this time. Mark had brought life back to my world. Light. Intensity. He splashed a palette of colors into a gray storybook. This was real life.
Thiswas love.
The sound of a little yelp from Atticus drew me back to the present. I glanced behind me to see a quiet, tree-lined bank but nothing more. He often nosed himself into a bone he couldn't reach or something sharp.
“Well, I better get going,” I said as I tried to find Atty's dark coat amongst the shadows of the trees. The sound of Mark talking to Benjamin in the distance gave me a modicum of comfort, even though the quiet had becomeoddlyquiet. Still, I couldn't wait for the day when all of this wasn't necessary. When I could just live and breathe and run without fear.
“Okay, Stella Marie.” Grandma sighed. “Well, send me a picture of this hunky Mark, please? And I'll let you know if I hear anything else from this Jonathon character.”
“Yes, of course.”
“Love you.”
“Love you too, grandma.”
Once the call ended, I pushed the phone back into my pocket. The cold seemed to drive into my bones as snow thickened in the air, falling in fat flakes that obscured the other side of the lake. A warm fire would feel most welcome right now. I couldn't wait to get back inside.
But first, I had to find Atticus again.
“She was a lovely woman, you know,” drawled a quiet voice just behind me.
My spine froze into icicles as I slowly spun around. Joshua stood a few feet away, hands in his pockets. A little wind stirred the golden hair on top of his head.
The past few weeks hadn't been kind to him. Stress had ravaged his face into gaunt lines and sallow skin. With no news from the company and no friends I could really poach updates from, I had no visibility into what had happened to him. Did the CEO find out about the federal investigation and fire him?
Had Joshua realized what I'd done and run away before things got ugly?
His brow furrowed into the same dark intensity that captured my attention at the grocery store. For some undeniable reason, I had the feeling that he expected me to pay for his sins, and I couldn't fathom why.
“You've been a most inconvenient woman for some time now,” he murmured. “I think it's time to stop playing chase.”
Too startled to respond, I could only stare as he closed the distance between us with a single step. He leaned forward, eyes alight with something sinister when he whispered. “So good to see you again, my love.”
Just as I gathered a scream, he grabbed my throat and shoved me down. My legs gave way under his bent knees as he pushed me into the lake. Cold water washed over my skin and through my hair. My chest bucked. My scalp prickled with the pain of such cold water sloshing all the way over my head. The freezing lake encompassed me with a belly-jerking shock.
I surfaced with a desperate gasp.
Then all went black.
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