Page 249 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
She knew.
She panicked and turned around, and he followed her all the way back to her house before he rode away.
The heavy roar of the engine had cleaved through her like a threat of what would befall her if she did what she so desperately wanted to do.
What shehadto do.
But she remained a coward. Hiding behind closed doors. Too spineless and selfish to stand for what was right.
But she couldn’t go on like this.
She couldn’t pack her bags and return to New York and pretend like this never happened.
She couldn’t carry this guilt.
It was just before nine in the morning on the day she was supposed to leave that she finally forced herself out the door. Early enough that Justin would likely still be asleep. She took her father’s car, one Justin had never seen or ridden in before, praying if he was watching, he wouldn’t recognize it.
Her hands clattered against the steering wheel, and she was barely able to keep hold of the leather as she slowly wound through her family’s neighborhood, taking the two turns required to get her out onto the main road.
Nausea churned in her guts as she searched, terrified that Justin was going to pop out of nowhere.
Her pulse boomed then thundered when a blue car suddenly pulled out behind her.
It was right there, following her, one turn and then another.
A breath of relief curled from her lungs when she finally was able to make out that it was a young woman in the driver’s seat.
Probably close to her age.
“Get it together, Piper. You can do this. Youhaveto do this. It’s your duty,” she muttered below her breath.
An obligation.
Her soul’s charge.
It didn’t matter what happened to her. What consequences she faced. She couldn’t allow Justin to get away with this.
Sucking in a cleansing breath, she pulled out onto the main road. Every molecule in her body trembled as she drove toward the police station that was five miles away.
Fear gripped her in its steely fist. Her pulse careening as she carefully drove down the street.
The light ahead turned red. Agitation blistered through her as she slowed to a stop.
She glanced in her rearview mirror again and noticed the blue car was still there.
Sitting at the stoplight two cars behind her.
Foreboding slogged through her consciousness.
Her chest felt like it was being slowly pulled apart, the pressure increasing on her ribs with each passing second.
“You can do this. You’re just being paranoid,” she urged herself.
Still, she turned on her blinker and shifted into the left turn lane, needing the reassurance that she was making it up.
Her spirit tumbled when the blue car slowly did the same.
Sweat gathered at her nape and slipped down her spine. Panic surged through her as she made the next right and the blue car did the same.
