Page 100 of Beckett
The tree line. It was my only option.
I sprinted toward the woods that bordered the back of Pawsitive Connections’ property, branches immediately catching at my clothes, scratching my face. Behind me, I could hear Jet howling—not dead, thank God, not dead—that distinctive German shepherd distress call that would carry for miles.
But miles might as well be continents. No one was coming.
“You can’t run forever, Audra.” Reggie’s voice drifted through the trees, terrifyingly calm despite everything. “You already know that.”
He was right. I’d proven it over fourteen months and three states. Every time I’d run, he’d found me. Every safe place had become a trap. Every kindness I’d accepted had been turned into a weapon against whoever offered it.
I stumbled over a root, catching myself against a pine tree, bark rough under my palms. The woods were thicker here, darker despite the mid-morning sun. I could hear him following, his footsteps steady, unhurried. He knew what I was only beginning to accept—there was nowhere left to go.
“Your boyfriend’s at the sheriff’s station with my decoy.” His voice seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. “Your friend is hopefully dead. No one even knows I’m here.”
I pushed deeper into the woods, branches tearing at my hair, my clothes. My chest burned with each breath. Behind me, his footsteps never faltered.
I tripped, going down hard, pine needles stabbing into my palms. When I scrambled to my feet and looked back, he was maybe twenty feet away, walking steadily through the underbrush. The knife in his hand caught a stray beam of sunlight, still wet with Jet’s blood.
“Eye for an eye,” he said, and there was something almost sad in his voice. “It was always going to end like this.”
I turned and kept running, but my legs were shaking now, muscles burning. The woods pressed in around me, darker with each step, the canopy blocking out more and more light. Behind me, I could hear him getting closer, his breathing steady where mine came in desperate gasps.
“No one’s coming to save you. You’ll die alone. They’ll probably never even find your body.”
He was right. In the distance, I could still hear Jet howling, growing weaker. But Beckett was at the station. The team thought the threat was contained. By the time anyone realized the truth, it would be over.
I’d run for fourteen months, and it had all led here. To these woods, this moment, this man with his knife and his empty eyes and his twisted sense of justice.
His footsteps were getting closer. My legs were failing. The woods were getting denser, darker, pressing in like the walls of a trap I’d been walking into since the day Todd died.
I could hear Reggie laughing softly behind me, and I knew with terrible certainty that I’d finally run out of places to go.
Chapter 33
Beckett
The speedometer hit ninety as I took the mountain curve too fast, tires screaming against asphalt. My phone sat in the cupholder, speaker crackling with dead air as Lark’s number rang straight to voice mail for the fifth time.
“Come on, come on.” I jabbed the end call button and immediately redialed the Pawsitive Connections’ landline. Ring. Ring. Ring. Nothing.
The SUV’s engine roared as I pushed it harder, taking roads designed for forty-five at twice that speed. Every second counted. Every second I’d wasted watching that decoy meant Reggie was closer to?—
No. I couldn’t think about what he might be doing. Had to focus on getting there.
My phone buzzed. Text from Coop.
Two minutes behind you.
Another from Hunter.
Aiden and I are five out.
I didn’t respond. Five minutes. In five minutes, how much damage could that fucker do?
I tried Lark one more time as Pawsitive Connections’ entrance came into view. The phone rang uselessly as I skidded into the driveway, gravel spraying in an arc behind me. I was out of the vehicle before it fully stopped, legs already running.
The silence hit me first.
No dogs barking their usual greeting. No sound of animals moving in their enclosures. Even the chickens were quiet. The kind of quiet that meant something had already happened, something that had sent every creature into hiding.
