Page 151 of The Morning After (Savannah 2)

He wanted pity? Was he kidding?

“Did you enjoy the tape of your friend?” he asked and Nikki’s skin turned to ice. “Did you hear her? How she begged.”

Nikki wanted to scream at him, but held her tongue. That’s what he wanted.

“They all did.” He waited. “You awake?” He pounded again, the sound echoing through the coffin and cutting into her brain. “Hey, Nikki!”

Tune him out. Don’t let him get to you! She stretched until her muscles and tendons screamed. Her fingers touched something cold and hard. The tiny pistol! Tears filled her eyes. Now, if she could just get it into her hand!

“Oh, fuck it.”

The coffin began to move again.

This time it was descending into a pit Nikki could only imagine in her worst nightmare.

Reed pushed the El Dorado to the limit. Seventy miles an hour, eighty…ninety. His radio crackled and he figured he could be at the cemetery in less than fifteen minutes.

Would it be enough time?

God, he hoped so.

The thought of Nikki trapped in a casket and buried alive sent a chill as cold as all death down his spine. He stepped on it and the night flew by, the beams of his headlights cutting through the curtain of rain and bouncing on the slick pavement.

O

nly a maniac would drive like this on such a bleak night.

Sirens wailing, blue and red lights flashing, a cop car caught up with him and passed him on the fly.

Morrisette was at the wheel.

“Go get him, Sylvie,” Reed ground out. “I’m right behind you.”

Within minutes he saw the turnoff to Adams Cemetery and he braced himself. What were the chances that she was still alive?

The gun slipped away as the coffin swayed and swung, ever slowly making its descent into the grave.

No! Oh, no! Not buried alive!

Frantic, gasping for breath, her fingers scrabbling, searching, glancing off the butt of the gun, Nikki tried to think of another way to free herself.

There was none.

This was it.

If she could only reach the pistol before six feet of sodden earth covered her. Come on, come on, Nikki, don’t give up. Grab it, grab it now!

Her middle finger felt cold steel, then her index finger. Straining, concentrating, she slowly eased the small caliber weapon from its sheath.

Now—if only it was loaded.

Dirt rained onto the top of the coffin.

Give me strength. Please, God…

She dragged in a breath that only made her head swim. Blackness closed in. Oh, no…she couldn’t lose it now. If she blacked out, she’d never awaken. She’d be doomed.

More pebbles and clods clattered above her.

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