She had loved living out in the middle of nowhere... until now.
Damn it.
She reached into her leather tote bag and dug for her phone. Once she located it, she tried unlocking it using her fingerprint, but it dropped from her shaky fingers.
“Shit!”
She couldn’t risk pulling over to find it. Instead, keeping one eye on the road, she leaned over and felt around the floorboards as far as she could reach. Hopefully it didn’t fall between the seat and the center console. Every time it did that, it took forever to fish it back out. And that would be impossible to do while she drove.
A flash of movement on the road caught her eye and she jerked up in her seat in time to see a deer bounding across the narrow roadway. She slammed on the brakes, her seatbelt locking, and jerked the wheel, attempting to miss the animal.
Her vehicle skidded just enough to catch the loose stones on the edge of the road, ripping the steering wheel from her grip. Closing her eyes, she braced as the front end of her BMW kissed a tree. Luckily, not hard enough to set off the airbags, but enough to stop the vehicle’s forward motion.
And her escape.
“Shit!” She slammed her hand on the steering wheel in frustration, unlatched her seatbelt and began to frantically search for her cell phone. Headlights lit up the interior of her X6, but not enough to make it easier to find her phone.
Scrambling, her fingertips touched something familiar near her foot and she grabbed her phone. Unlocking it quickly, she lost her breath when she realized what she feared was true. She had zero bars of cell phone coverage.
“Damn it!” Tossing the useless phone onto the passenger seat, she yanked her tote bag from the passenger side floorboard, where it had fallen in the minor fender bender, and once again dug inside it, searching for the next best thing besides her phone.
A sense of calm came over her as soon as her fingers wrapped around it.
Trying to keep her wits about her, she went to put the vehicle in reverse to see if she could get it free from the slight ditch and tree. But before she could, the vehicle which had been following her parked right behind her. Its front end tight to her back bumper.
Effectively trapping her.
She couldn’t go forward or reverse.
She was stuck.
She was at the mercy of whoever was rushing up to her vehicle. With the mystery vehicle’s headlights blinding her, she couldn’t see who it was since it was only a dark figure on the move.
If she couldn’t flee, she needed to fight.
She inhaled a deep breath, slowly released it and tried to slow both her racing heart and mind. She’d taken self-defense classes in college a long time ago and tried to remember some defensive moves.
Moves she should’ve taught Reilly.
Dig fingers into his eye sockets, stomp on his foot, knee him in the balls, jam his nose into his brain with the heel of her palm. Scratch, bite, kick. Do whatever was needed to escape.
Since her vehicle was pinned in, locking the doors was useless. She needed to immobilize her attacker and then, if needed, escape in his vehicle.
She could do this.
She should’ve bought a gun after what happened to Reilly. She’d have no qualms shooting that motherfucker dead since he deserved it.
Better yet, she could say shooting his ass was in self-defense. Then Reilly’s nightmare would be over, and her sister could live her life without fear—
The man grabbed her driver’s door and Reese prepared herself as it opened.
“You o—”
Shoving her arm out and pressing the button at the same time, she made contact.
“Fuuuu—”
The man immediately dropped to his knees, but the contact was broken between him and the stun gun, which meant he’d be back on his feet again sooner than she could flee.
“Get back!” she screamed at the collapsed man. “Or I’ll tag you again.” She pressed the button on the stun gun and heard the sharp crackle and saw the spark arc between the tips. The noise alone should scare someone off. But somehow, she needed to get to his vehicle without him taking her down first.
“Fuck,” came out in a groan from the heap on the ground. “Fuck! What the fuck, woman?”
Reese blinked. The voice sounded familiar.
Sort of.
She reached behind her and grabbed her cell phone, hitting the power button to illuminate the human heap, who was clutching his chest.
“Fuck! You shocked me right in the fuckin’ nipple and lit up my barbell.”
What the hell was he doing following her?
“Who are you?” she screamed. “Why are you following me?”
“I’m...” He groaned, rubbing his chest. “Fuckin’ shit!... Nick.”
“Did Billy Warren send you?” She hit the button on the stun gun again making the electrically-charged sound which could make most assholes pucker.