Page 71 of Colton First Responder (Coltons of Mustang Valley)

Then they were planning on killing her, and maybe Grayson, too. She had to warn him somehow.

“The thing is,” Zane continued, “I want this to look like a suicide. After all, you did murder me and your lawyer. It’s only natural you’d feel some sense of guilt.” Another of those evil smiles.

That was enough. He wanted her to be afraid. And she was. But after everything she had gone through, she wasn’t simply going to submit to whatever he intended to do with her.

Thinking quickly, she said, “Oh, I do. I feel terribly guilty that I didn’t dump you sooner. And I’m sure you’re the one who killed your friend Ian.”

He didn’t deny it. “Could be,” he said, still smiling.

“But why did you do all this?” she couldn’t help asking. “Why pretend to be dead and frame me? Are you low on money and needing to hide? Or do you just hate me enough to want to ruin my life? Or—”

“All of the above,” he said with a laugh. “It was so nice to have you around as a scapegoat, dear wifey, though I’m sure I’ll be able to pop back eventually from where I recovered after you ‘killed’ me and bring my business back from its current mediocre status to its former huge success. I’ll just tell everyone you scared me enough when you tried to kill me that I pretended at first to be dead. When I survived, I couldn’t bring myself to return for a long while, so I hid in another town. But hell, you divorced me. That was the best reason for me to do all this. I’m in charge. I always was. And when you did something I didn’t choose so you could change my life, I had to do something to pay you back. And now, when you’re found dead, I’ll pretend to give a damn. Pretend.”

That was enough. Savannah a bit scared but even more determined, turned briefly and grabbed the chair, using it as a shield as she approached Zane.

Would she survive to see Grayson again? She had to.

Zane shot at her, but she darted sideways, still holding the chair. Zane went the same way, keeping his aim steady as she dashed to one side of the room.

She leaped forward and hit him with the chair, hoping she’d knock him out or at least distract him enough that she could run away.

That didn’t happen. Instead, Zane moved sideways again, not aiming at her for the moment as he regained his equilibrium—

That was when Savannah got the idea of how to stop him.

Not looking to her side, she nevertheless moved that way, dropping the chair and grabbing that tall, unstable bookcase she’d been examining before and yanking it sideways so it toppled. Onto Zane.

Knocking him to the floor. One of the large, thick wooden side panels hit him in the head, as books tumbled all around him.

Knocking him out.

Savannah grabbed his gun, smiled as evilly as she could at the unconscious body of the man she hated, snatched her phone from the chair that had been beside her—

And fled the bunker.

As soon as she got to the opening and figured she would have a good signal, she called Grayson.

He answered right away. “What’s up, Savannah? I haven’t gotten very far, and—”

“It’s Zane! He found me. I knocked him out and I’m running away, but he said someone is after you in your car, too. Watch out, Grayson. Please be careful.”

She didn’t hear another word from him.

But she did hear what sounded like a car crash.

“No!” she screamed and began running along the dirt road.

* * *

Damn. His head had hit the side window before the airbags deployed. And now it hurt like crazy.

But at least Grayson was still awake. And mad at himself. Never mind he was here in the middle of nowhere. He should have remained careful, watching around him.

Seeing that car that hit him before it could run him off the road.

And now?

Pain shot through his head. But he knew better than to move.

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