Dangerous Tease (The Layton Family 3)

“It's as white as a fri

dge out here.”

“Any luck tracking down our perps?”

“I haven't given up yet. Any reports from the others?”

“Negative.”

Sam slid a glance over at Hank. He held a white-knuckle grip on the steering wheel with one hand, battling the slippery road. Sam's stomach clenched. He had to find Josie, but could he risk his brother's life to do so? McPherson's Bluff loomed a half mile away, like a nightmare Sam couldn't wake up from no matter how many times he pinched himself. He'd already lost one brother in the shadow of the bluff. He couldn't live with himself if he lost another.

“Hank, why don't you have one of your guys meet us out here? He can take you back and I'll continue the search.”

“We'll find her, Sam.”

“But you—”

“I said, we'll find her.” Hank said. “Darlene, tell the others to get back to Dry Creek. It's getting too dangerous out.”

“Ten-four. You on your way back?”

Hank shook his head. “No. We're checking out the old McNerny boarding house. I'll be in touch.”

“Yes sir.”

Neither man spoke as the wind whipped snow all around them and rocked the car from its straight-and-narrow path. Everything that needed to be said was being delivered by the invisible brother bond that didn't require words.

“What's that up there?” Hank nodded toward a black square on the horizon.

Sam squinted, trying to make it out. His gut twitched. “I think it's a car.”

The black spot grew in their windshield, until no doubt remained. Snips’ car sat parked by a grove of trees near a small farmhouse. Sam's heartbeat ratcheted up and he barely controlled the urge to leap from the still-moving cruiser to search for Josie.

The sedan’s tires spit white powder from the ground as it rolled out onto the highway, coming straight at them.

Hank steered the cruiser into the middle of the road. “Hold on.” He spun the steering wheel, whipping the car perpendicular to the highway, blocking the escape.

The other car bore down on them, never wavering from its dead-on trajectory.

The yards between them became feet in a blink of Sam's eye. In his next heartbeat, the other car plowed into the back passenger side of the cruiser, throwing him forward against the seatbelt. It tightened across his neck, cutting off his oxygen as blinding pain exploded in his right arm.

Everything whirled around him as the cruiser spun across the highway in a death spin. His lungs tightened, pushed back against his spine by the strength of the rotations. The cruiser sailed off the highway and into the snow-covered field. The revolutions slowed until the vehicle came to a stop, McPherson's Bluff towering above him.

A crash boomed in the distance, followed by a bright light that turned the milky sky orange.

Sam stumbled from the cruiser, his boots sinking in the powdery snow. Blood dripped from a deep gash in his biceps, falling in fat drops and staining the blanket of white at his feet.

Across the highway, Snips’ car had barreled through the copse of trees, mowed over the historical marker and burst into a fireball.

“Josie!” His anguished cry thundered across the prairie as he took off in a mad dash toward the bonfire of metal and the sickly scent of burning flesh.

A wall of heat stopped him from getting within ten feet of the burning wreckage. No one could make it out of there alive.

Sam dropped to his knees as true agony ripped his soul in half. He should have fought more. He should have stopped this. He should have been smarter about how to track her down. What kind of man couldn't save the woman he loved?

The kind who didn't deserve her.

“There's someone over here.” Hank called from the other side of the flames.