Page 135 of Hell Hath No Fury

He dropped the phone and watched in helpless horror at what played out before his eyes. The car roared way too fast into the facility access road just as Nell started across. Emma was right there, and for one harrowing moment, he saw that she was about to leap into the car’s path to save her sister.

Even from two rows over, the awful sound of the impact sickened him.

There was nothing he could do. At least Emma had been too slow and wasn’t struck, but he’d seen enough traffic versus pedestrian collisions to know in his bones that Nell wasn’t likely to survive. Which left only one thing that Matthiascoulddo.

Catch the bastard.

He started the engine and rammed the gearshift into reverse. The road into and out of the rehab was a big one-way loop around the parking lot. At this hour, there weren’t a lot of vehicles in the surrounding spaces. Matthias twisted in his seat and stomped the gas pedal, steering the Jeep backward, swerving around the few parked cars. The vehicle that had mowed down Emma’s sister was barreling toward the exit. Matthias gunned it, the path to the road now clear, and managed to back the Jeep across the killer’s path.

The brutal impact threw Matthias against the driver’s door as it caved in, cushioned only by the airbags. The stench from the propellant—like burnt rubber and gunpowder—filled the air, along with the metallic screech of the two vehicles grinding together.

Then everything fell still. Matthias battled free of the deflating bags and released the seatbelt. He clambered over the center console, banging his knee on the shifter, and crawled across the passenger seat. Tumbling out, he regained his equilibrium and stumbled around the front of his Jeep to the other car.

The hit-and-run driver sat dazed behind his steering wheel. Matthias ripped the door open. He wanted to grab the guy by the collar and jerk him out of the vehicle, except his training kicked in. Killer or not, he might be injured.

Matthias glanced around and spotted a bystander clutching a phone and looking back and forth between wrecked cars and the crowd gathering around Nell. “You,” Matthias shouted, getting his full attention. “Call 911. We need two ambulances and a police response. Tell them I’ve detained the suspect.”

The man with the phone nodded and did as told.

Matthias inspected the car, the crushed engine compartment and crumpled hood. It wasn’t going anywhere except on a tow truck. A quick survey of his own vehicle told him the same could be said for the red Jeep. He turned his attention to the driver, leaned down to glare into his face. “Levi Dyson?”

The man’s face darkened into a hate-filled snarl. “That’s right.” He turned to gaze across the parked cars to the chaotic crowd at the crosswalk. “I swore I’d track that bitch to the end of the world if I had to, and I almost did. I failed once, but I got her this time.”

The crash outside of East Liverpool, Ohio. The car Emma had believed tailed them all the way from Akron. She’d been right. “But…why?” Matthias asked.

Levi leveled his eyes on Matthias. “Because she’s the one responsible for my brother’s death. She’s the one who got him addicted again.” Levi spat onto the sidewalk, barely missing Matthias. “She’ll never hurt anyone else again. I made damn sure of it this time.”

* * *

Emma sat on her knees on the pavement next to Nell, willing her sister to blink, to moan, to sob. Anything. But the only movement was the smooth up and down motion of the man in scrubs doing chest compressions. The only moaning came from Eric at her side.

The only sobs were her own.

A pair of strong hands gripped Emma’s arms from behind, gently lifting her to her feet.

Matthias.

Once she was standing, he did the same to Eric and echoed the first responders’ requests to give them space.

Emma allowed Matthias to guide her and Eric back to the sidewalk, having no mental capacity to argue. She watched what was going on before her as if viewing a nightmarish movie scene. Except, somewhere in her consciousness, she knew end credits weren’t going to roll. Nor was she going to awaken from this horror. Yet she couldn’t accept what she was seeing as real. None of it feltreal.

She had no idea how much time passed. Seconds? Minutes? Hell, it could’ve been hours. But she was acutely aware of the blood. An ambulance arrived. The efforts to resuscitate Nell grew less frantic and stopped altogether when the medics shook their heads and checked their watches.

“Time of death,” one of them said. “Eight twenty-two.”

“No,” Emma whispered. Death? That couldn’t be right. Nell had just been there, giving her and Eric a hug. Ready to start over. Begin a new life. “No. No. No.” She wasn’t aware of whether she was whispering or screaming. Matthias pulled her into his arms and held her tight as the cries of “no” slipped into sobs and the grief swallowed her whole.

ChapterForty-Three

Three weeks later

Emma stood at the edge of the water at Presque Isle’s Beach 10. The angry gray skies overhead matched her mood. The chilly temperature, the first harbinger of autumn, and the forecast of rain kept the tourists away, leaving her almost alone as she stared across Lake Erie. Cold be damned, she planted her bare feet in the sand and let the gentle waves lap at her ankles.

Two weeks ago, she buried her sister next to their parents. Although Emma had been living without being surrounded by family for quite a while, she’d always known—or at least hoped—that Nell was out there somewhere, and that eventually they’d be together again. Now, Emma was truly alone. She had no remaining family. No grandparents. No parents. No siblings.

If there was a bright spot in the past month, it was Daphne. While the little girl had lost her parents, Ashley’s fear of her going into the system had proved groundless. Ashley’s estranged mother, who’d moved to Florida, eagerly agreed to take Daphne in. Emma had heard she was doing well in her new home and was seeing a therapist to help her through the tragedies she’d witnessed.

Emma knew she needed to do the same, but she had put off making the phone call. For now.