Page 2 of Mountain Murder

“I wouldn’t scream if I were you,” the voice said.

She hadn’t imagined that.

Audrey leveraged her heels into the mattress, hiking the comforter higher up her body. “What are you doing in here? Who are you?”

The silhouette shifted closer. Closing the distance between them. Her mattress dipped with the addition of his weight. “You don’t recognize me, Audrey? And here I thought we’d been such good friends.”

Dryness threatened to drown her words in her throat. This wasn’t happening. She was still dreaming, but his weight against her leg felt all too real. “What do you want?”

“You thought you could run from me.” The distinct smell of pine infiltrated her senses from his clothes as he leaned into her. Familiar now that she’d spent the past couple of weeks in a luxury oversized cabin in the middle of the woods. “You don’t get to escape from this.”

“Escape.” Sleep refused to kick logic into gear, but she couldn’t deny this was happening. Not a dream. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I think you do, but that’s okay.” A glimmer of moonlight bounced off what looked to be a large, curved blade in his grip. A split second before he fisted his free hand into the collar of her sweatshirt and pulled her upright. “You’ll understand soon enough.”

Survival launched her knee into where she thought his kidney might be. The momentum shoved him over her shoulder and dislodged his hold on her shirt. A groan filled the room just before something heavy hit the hardwood floor. The knife?

Audrey bolted for the end of the bed. She wasn’t going to stick around to find out.

She ripped her door open, instantly assaulted by the dim lighting installed along the hallway. She beat her hand against the door across from hers. It wouldn’t open. “Help!”

Movement registered from behind.

Her flight instincts took control. She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think. She pumped her legs as hard as they allowed. She wasn’t an athlete. Adrenaline would have to be enough. Slamming into the wall at the end of the hallway, Audrey tried to work out exactly where she was. She’d memorized the layout of the ranch by walking its connected halls so many times, but fear had stolen any sense of control.

Low voices registered from behind, but she couldn’t focus on them right then. Moonlight cast through a set of glass doors, and every cell in her body focused on getting through them. Industrial carpet scraped against the bottoms of her bare feet as she shoved out into the night. The woods. She could lose him in the woods. She left the safety of the concrete path and slid beneath the heavy wood beams surrounding the property. Dense forest consumed her and cut off her sense of direction within seconds. Rocks and downed trees threatened to trip her up as she dared a glance back.

More shadows. More places to hide.

She couldn’t stop. Not until she put as much distance between her and whoever’d broken into her room as possible.

Her toe caught on something soft. She vaulted forward, hands out to catch herself. Gravel and sharp rock cut into the palms of her hands and one side of her face. Air escaped from her chest, creating a vacuum in her lungs. The pain ricocheted through the rest of her body as she rolled onto her back.

“I warned you not to scream, Audrey.” The voice bled through the trees off to her left. Or had it been the right? “Warned her, too.”

Her? Her lungs released their suffocating hold. Oxygen charged down her throat and chased back the numbness in her toes and fingers. She clawed her nails into the dirt to get to her feet, but whatever she’d landed on shifted under her weight.

It rolled out from under her on the slight incline.

Realization struck harder than the ground, meeting the side of her face. Not an it. A who. Audrey couldn’t make out the person’s features under the canopy of crowded trees, but it didn’t matter. Nausea churned in her gut, and she fell back away from the body.

And got a clear view of the woman’s face. “Inez?”

“Did you really think you could hide from me?” A snap of a twig or a branch—much closer than it should’ve been—reached her ears. “I told you before. You and I aren’t finished. No matter where you go, I will always find you.”

“What do you want from me?” The words scraped up the back of her throat. She shoved backward on her hands and feet, like a crab, but her back met something solid. Unmovable. The boulder bit into her shoulder blade.

“Everything.” Strong hands encircled around her waist and hauled her off her feet.

“No!” She stretched as long as she could to get back on the ground, but it was no use. He was so much bigger than her. Stronger. She clamped both hands against his forearm pinned across her chest. In vain.

Her attacker stepped back, taking her with him toward the trees.

Where he would leave her body to be found.

She wasn’t going to let that happen. Audrey hauled both feet off the ground. She used every ounce of strength she had left to thrust both legs down with as much force as possible. The effect overextended her attacker’s hold, and they hit the ground as one. Hard enough to take him by surprise.

She struggled to her feet and ran without looking back.

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