Page 33 of Phantom
Parked across the street. Engine off. Windows tinted. I can't see inside, but I don't need to.
Iknowthat vehicle the way you know a sound from a nightmare—not the details, just the shape of it, the dread it carries.
My hands stop on the car door.
It might not be her.
It's been twenty-one years.
People buy white Escalades.
It's Texas. Half the women in this county probably drive white SUVs.
But my body doesn't care about probability.
My body is eighteen years old and standing on a porch in bare feet, and a woman with blonde hair and blue eyes is telling me what happens to problems in this town.
I get in my car and lock the doors.
The Escalade doesn't move.
I pull out of the parking lot and find another motel, checking the rearview mirror every thirty seconds for the entire drive.
She doesn't follow.
But she was there. Watching. Waiting.
Jolene knows I'm back, I’m sure of it.
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
EPILOGUE
