Tires spun. The truck roared down the drive. Carter gave himself two minutes, just in case Wes had second thoughts; then he hurried out of the basement, locked up, deposited Wes’s key ring in the drawer behind some bottle openers, and let himself out. After locking the door securely behind him with Carolyn’s key, he took off, running up the hill and through the woods in the oversized boots. It had started snowing again, hard, which was damned lucky. His tracks would be covered before daylight.

CHAPTER 37

“I can’t, not tonight,” Cassie whispered from her bed. It was late. What was Josh thinking, calling after midnight. “And don’t argue with me, okay? I’m not going to let you tell me what to do.”

“So you can let your mom control you.”

“I said, ‘Don’t go there.’”

“Okay, but what about tomorrow? There’s a party.”

“I can’t. Look, Josh, don’t do this, okay?”

“But I love you, Cass, you know it.”

Do I? “I can’t risk it.”

“Tomorrow. We can go earlier. There’s another candlelight vigil for Ian’s mom—you could say that you wanted to go. I just want to see you again.”

“I don’t know…” But there was a part of her that needed to get out, away from these four walls with a tense mom, dorky sister, and watchful bodyguard.

“Think about it,” Josh said, and hung up.

Cassie bit her lower lip and looked out the window. Would the damned snow never quit? It was true she was bored to tears and her mom and her were getting on each other’s nerves. Big time.

She’d nearly broken up with Josh…and had had second thoughts.

But to sneak out using the excuse of going to a candlelight vigil for Lynnetta Swaggert? How lame was that? How slimy?

She flung herself back against the covers and fought tears.

Her life was shit.

“I will come for you…” a disembodied voice whispered over the frozen terrain. Snowflakes, tiny beads of ice, rained from a moonless sky.

The voice seemed to resonate from everywhere—the mountains, the river rushing by, the dark forest.

“Who are you?” Jenna cried, scared out of her wits. She was running as fast as she could, gulping terrified breaths of cold air and looking over her shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of whoever it was that was following her. She saw nothing, but he was there, chasing her, following her every move. She sensed him. Felt him. Knew he was chasing her.

There was no escape and yet she ran, her bare feet slipping on the hoar-frosted ground, her tight black dress, binding, restraining her from running faster.

“Jenna…Jennnnnnnaaaaa.”

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She died a thousand deaths at the sound of his voice. It seemed to come from everywhere. “Who are you?” she demanded, as the wind whipped through her hair and clawed at her face.

“You know.”

“I don’t!” Her legs were like dead weights, dragging her deeper into the snow, her dress ripping and peeling away as, frantic, she scrambled among the headstones, forcing herself through the snowflakes that stung as they pelted her skin.

The voice whispered against her ear, “I am everyman.” Deep, male, and guttural, it echoed through the cemetery.

“Leave me alone.” She tripped over a short stone wall that had been hidden in the snow.

“Wait for me…”

“Leave me the hell alone!” she screamed, turning to facenothing. No ogre. No wraith. No horrid creature stalking her. The snowflakes continued to fall and spin and dance in the night.

Tags: Lisa Jackson West Coast Mystery
Source: readsnovelonline.net