Page 57 of Maverick Detective Dad
Everly blinked hard, trying to stave off the dizziness, and she noticed something. She wasn’t losing consciousness as fast this time as when he’d shot her with the dart on the porch. Maybe because she’d been right about him not being able to get a full dose in her. It was also possible this drug wasn’t as potent as the other had been. And she could think of a bad reason why he wouldn’t want her completely knocked out.
He might want her awake and aware when he killed her.
Or rather when he tried to kill her. Because Everly had no intentions of making this easier for him.
He took the road away from Silver Creek, probably because he knew someone had called Grayson by now, and that the sheriff would be responding from that direction. Noah would realize that, too, and that’s why he would know which way to come after her.
However, there was a problem. The road away from town was narrow and filled with sharp curves. Not a good combination considering the storm.
Which meant the killer likely didn’t intend to go far.
Maybe he had plans to turn onto a ranch trail. There were plenty of them out here. He could pull the SUV into some trees so he wouldn’t be visible from the road, and Grayson or Noah might drive right past them.
In the distance she heard the howl of a siren. Noah probably. Hopefully, she silently amended. Maybe that head injury hadn’t been so bad that it prevented him from driving. Then again, this was Noah. Nothing short of death would prevent him from coming after her.
And that meant the vigilante would have a chance to kill him, too.
That caused an ache inside her that went all the way to the bone. She didn’t want to die. She wanted to live a long life with her daughter. But she didn’t want that life to come at Noah’s expense.
When she saw the killer glancing to the sides of the road, she knew she’d been right about him looking for a trail. He’d soon find one which meant she had to do something before he pulled off.
But what?
Her first thought, a terrifying one, was she could cause them to wreck, and just the thought of it gave her a hard slam of flashbacks. The crash, the blood. The horrible anguish she’d felt because she had believed she had killed a woman.
But she hadn’t.
And Everly used that to try to anchor herself, to fight both the panic and the dizziness. She had one shot at this, and she had to take it before the killer got her off the road and into the woods. He could kill her there and then use her to draw out Noah.
That wasn’t going to happen.
Everly said a quick prayer, and with the cruiser lights flashing on the dark road behind them, she drew back her elbow and rammed into the killer’s ribs. He cursed her and tried to hit her in the face with the gun, but Everly latched on to his hand as if her life depended on it.
Because it did.
Hers, Noah’s and Helen’s.
She held on even when he pulled the trigger, and the bullet slammed into the windshield. She dug her fingernails into his hand, causing him to howl in pain. Then, she gave him a second jab with her elbow.
He turned, trying to fight her off, but the SUV went into a skid. The killer tried to grab the wheel, but there wasn’t enough time. The SUV flew off the road toward a fence.
The killer cursed, not a low growl this time, but in his actual voice.
Everly knew, she finally knew, who the vigilante killer was.
Just as the SUV slammed into the fence.
FROMTHEMOMENTthat Noah had started chasing the SUV, he’d known that this could turn deadly. The roads were in the absolute worst condition for a car chase, and even if the killer had a plan to take Everly to a secondary location so he could murder her, that didn’t mean the snake wouldn’t kill her by wrecking the SUV.
Noah tried not to think of that. Tried to focus only on getting to Everly before she died.
But then he saw the SUV fishtail on the slick road. The tires skidded through the water, and Noah’s heart dropped when he realized the driver was out of control. Maybe Everly had something to do with that because even though he couldn’t see her, he was betting she was fighting for her life. If she was capable of fighting, that was. It was possible she was already unconscious from the drug the SOB had managed to pump into her again.
“I’m not far behind you,” Noah heard Grayson say through the speaker on the dash of the cruiser.
Noah had called him the moment he’d started the pursuit because he’d known he would need the backup. Had known, too, that Deputy Molina would need medical attention since he’d seen the deputy lying on the ground outside Everly’s. Grayson had already called for an ambulance, and he might need to call for another.
Because ahead of him, the SUV flew off the road and plowed into a barbwire fence.
