Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
“Yes,” I confirmed. “Please, don’t hurt her.”
“Oh, I won’t hurt her. Or at least it won’t appear like it was me.”
And then I heard what sounded like him throwing the phone against something hard. “All right, ladies and gentlemen. Take two, and go!”
And I knew then, exactly what he was going to do.
He was going to make it look like Cobie had driven off the same bridge that my wife and children had died on.
I didn’t think.
I didn’t do anything but drive.
I was two minutes away.
Two minutes.
I could make it.
They would make it.
It would be okay.
It had to be okay.
Chapter 28
I want to live my life like a bear. Eat when I want to eat. Sleep when I want to sleep. Kill people when I want to kill people. You know, bear shit.
-Rafe’s secret thoughts
Rafe
Blood was running freely from the wound on my scalp. It was running into my eyes, down my cheeks, around my nose, to my chin and then down my neck.
I was fairly sure I had a broken collarbone, as well as a concussion.
But I managed to drive behind Cobie and Mary’s captor, Drake.
I’d somehow managed to stay hidden.
I’d even managed to call for help so I could stay where I was.
Because I sure as hell wasn’t fooling anyone—not even myself.
I knew the moment that I got out of this car, I’d collapse onto my knees.
I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that my legs would give out, and I’d crumble to the ground in a useless heap.
Did that stop me from getting out of the car, though?
Hell no.
It sure as fuck didn’t.
It also didn’t stop me from running—or more likely limping, but I wasn’t quite sure—toward the bridge where Drake had just pushed Cobie’s car off the bridge.
It hit the water below with a huge splash, and I vaguely watched as Cobie returned to consciousness when the jolt of the car hitting the water jarred her awake.
I’d just reached the bridge when I heard, rather than saw, a large truck heading toward us.
Just as I made the decision to jump, I saw a truck pass—a car on a chain directly behind it—headed straight for Drake who was now laughing.
He’d seen me, and he saw the state he’d left me in back at Dante’s. He knew just as well as I did that I was about to make the last decision I’d probably ever make.
I had just enough left in me to get them out. I knew I did.
I’d make it happen.
I would.
Over the side of the bridge I went, hitting the water feet first.
The cool water, a huge contrast from the humid air, washed over me, reviving me.
I swam toward the car, which had hit the creek landing on all four wheels. It was slowly settling into the water coming up to the middle of the windows.
I didn’t go to Cobie’s seat. I went to the back seat and started to yank on the door.
“The locks! Unlock it!”
Cobie’s head turned, and she hit the locks.
The moment the door was unlocked, I yanked at the handle, pulling with everything I had to get the door open.
It didn’t so much as budge.
***
Dante
Drake’s body didn’t even hit the pavement after the car I had attached to my truck plowed into him before I was out of the truck.
I dove over the side of the bridge, hitting the water so hard on my stomach that it momentarily stole the breath from my lungs.
I didn’t really notice, though, as I swam with the current toward the slowly filling car.
I had a crowbar in my hand, so the strokes were less than elegant as I sliced through the water.
Rafe had one foot planted in the riverbed and the other braced against the car’s doorframe as he pulled, and I tapped him on the shoulder.
“Back up.”
Rafe, blood running into his eyes, did as I asked.
I didn’t spare him another look as I took the crowbar to the back window.
It broke with one swift pop.
Glass shattered inwardly, pelting not just my baby girl with glass, but Cobie as well.
Cobie was already in the back seat, pulling Mary free of her car seat.
I didn’t miss the way her movements were slowing.
Her head was bleeding, too.
She handed me Mary, and instead of taking just her, I yanked them both out.
Cobie came willingly, but Mary had clutched onto me with a death grip around my throat, and I wouldn’t have been able to let her go if I tried.
I turned away from the car and trudged through the water carrying the two—three counting our baby—most precious people in my life to the river bank.
It was only when I was placing them on the grass that I turned and saw Rafe was nowhere in sight.
Chapter 29
Surely not everybody was Kung Fu fighting?
-Cobie to Dante
Dante
Six hours later, they were dragging the river.