Page 196 of You Betrayed Me (The Cahills 3)

The car ahead of her stopped, brake lights flashing.

Immediately, Rebecca cut her lights and shut down her engine.

She was still tucked into the trees, hidden, she hoped, by the forest, but ahead of her, the lane opened to a clearing on a rise, where, through the falling snow

, she saw that the other car had stopped in front of a frickin’ tiny house.

Here?

In the middle of nowhere?

One of James’s?

She licked her lips. Considered getting out of the Ford. But the car ahead was still idling, the headlights still casting twin beams across the side of the house.

Rebecca could barely breathe. She couldn’t see through the windows of the hatchback, but she thought the driver was still inside. And in the dark little house?

Megan?

Oh. God.

Is this where she’d been taken?

If only! Please let her be alive!

She reached for her phone—

Her driver’s door opened suddenly, a gust of cold wind rushing into the interior, the dome light blinking on.

She gasped. What the—?

“Get out!” a woman’s voice snarled.

Rebecca’s stomach dropped.

She looked up to see Sophia standing in the opening, with a gun aimed straight at Rebecca’s head. “Get out. Now!”

Rebecca started to reach for her phone.

“Don’t even think about it,” Sophia warned, and in her eyes, there was a gleam as evil as the creases in Satan’s heart. “Don’t you think it’s time you met Sister?”

“She’s here? Megan?” Rebecca couldn’t believe it. Had Megan been up here all the time? That didn’t seem right. But why else would Sophia be coming here? No, no . . . this had to be a trap. But if Megan were alive. If she were—

“I said, ‘Get out’!”

In a split second, she thought she might have a chance if she was out of the car. And get how far on foot?

The keys were still in the ignition—

As if she realized Rebecca’s intention, Sophia took a step back. “Fine. Your choice.” She fired.

Hot pain seared Rebecca’s shoulder. She fell backward, then was yanked viciously, Sophia’s thumb digging into the wound made by the bullet. Rebecca cried out as she tumbled out of the car, falling deep into the snow. “Get up!” Sophia yelled at her. “Get up!”

Rebecca tried to get her feet under her, stumbled for a second.

“I said—”

Rebecca charged!

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