Page 57 of Just Now

“You ready?” she breathed to Vera.

The woman was slim, with porcelain skin and long, blond hair. Her high-cheekboned face looked haunted in the dim light, but now that she’d recovered from her shock, there was fire in her eyes.

“Hell, yes,” she whispered. “Let’s go.”

Cami slammed the door. Turned the key in the ignition. Started it up. It was important to do all these things as fast as possible, because they were noisy and the minute he heard, he would react.

Central locking. She punched the button. She didn’t want him wrenching open the driver’s door. The back door of the van was still open but that was okay. You couldn’t access the front cab from there.

“Are we going to go now?” Vera asked. “We need to get out of here, hon. You’ve done great, but now let’s get away!”

“Not yet,” Cami said. She so badly wanted to speed off, but she kept seeing Connor’s face in her mind, and Ethan’s face, too. She knew what they would have done. And she needed to do it, too. Or at any rate, she had to try.

“Why not yet?” Vera sounded incredulous.

“One last thing to do here,” she said.

And then she pressed the accelerator, hearing his cry of rage and seeing the flashlight veer in their direction.

The plan was almost complete. They could floor it now and be safe. Nobody would ever blame them for escaping. She’d saved the victim, saved a life, but Cami had another solution in mind.

She didn’t floor it. Instead, she swerved along the road, veering in a zigzag path at almost a walking speed, letting the car coast onto the grass and then back onto the blacktop and then over the middle line, and then back again. She wanted it to look like the driver was badly injured, or paralyzed by terror, or didn’t know how to drive.

She hoped that the signs of a weakened prey would draw the predator in. And now, she had to be ready. What would he try?

She glanced in the wing mirror, saw the flashlight bobbing and bouncing, heard his frantic footsteps. He was giving chase, following the car, ready to wrench open the door and drag them out, desperate to get them, to complete his deadly mission no matter what it took.

Cami knew this would be tough, and it wasn’t something she’d done before. But it was the only way.

She watched, her hand tensed on the gear lever, her foot ready.

And when the flashlight was bobbing, big and bright in her side mirror, she floored it, swerving into him as fast and hard as she could.

She gritted her teeth as she waited for the impact.

It was nothing more than a bump, but it was enough.

Her steering hadn’t been great, her coordination less so, but it had done the job. The back bumper of the car clipped him, hitting his leg, and he sprawled to the ground, clutching it, groaning.

“It was a trap,” she whispered. “And you walked right in.”

Then she grabbed her phone, turned it on, and dialed Connor’s number.

CHAPTER THIRTY

“This is his lair?”

With foot covers and head covers in place, Cami stared, horrified, at the underground room in the small deserted farmhouse where they had immediately driven after the killer had been arrested.

His name was Emmett Miller, and his recorded address was in the system. Miller lived in the family home that had been on the record for generations. But he’d never live there again. Cami’s well-timed swerve had broken his leg, and now he was in the hospital, under a heavy police guard. DNA samples had already been taken.

She’d been updated on this while driving to his house, in the car with Connor, relieved to be in the passenger seat again. She’d sat in apologetic silence as he’d given her a heartfelt telling off for disobeying his orders. Then he’d thanked her for her bravery and for taking down the killer.

One of the police officers had returned the red Honda—undamaged—to the diner and back to its rightful owner. Connor had promised Cami that he’d send the receptionist flowers and chocolates to thank her for her kindness and trust.

The local police had taken Vera to the police station to interview her, and would then be escorting her to a friend’s house for the night, from where she’d go home tomorrow.

Cami felt relieved beyond measure that neither Vera nor she had ended up in this underground prison, on a small farm miles from anywhere, with walls so thick and dense they muffled all sound.

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