“Lovely idea! I’m almost to my car. See you in a few.”
He had barely shoved the cell back in his hip pocket when Joe Beal materialized at his side.
The other man ordered a drink from Bluey, then turned to him. “Hey.”
“How’s it goin’, Joe?”
Joe shrugged. “Can’t complain. You?”
“I had an excellent day.” Jon-Michael looked around. “Patsy with you?” The words had barely left his mouth before he emitted a Wrooong! buzzer noise. “Sorry, stupid question. She’s out showing Hayley how to use her compound bow.”
Joe’s hand froze in midair, the glass halfway to his mouth. “What?”
Jon-Michael frowned warily at Joe’s intensity. “What part didn’t you understand?”
“Patsy and Hayley together! That’s not good.” Joe reached out to grip his arm. “There is something really wrong with Patsy—and it’s centered around Hayley.”
Frostbite raced up Jon-Michael’s spine. “Define wrong.”
The chill spread when Joe described his wife’s obsession—especially when he got to the part where Patsy’s hero worship had turned to blame. “Why the hell didn’t you warn Hayley?” Jon-Michael snapped.
“I couldn’t wrap my head around it, man. I’ve been married to Patsy for a long time and kept telling myself the hairs on the back of my neck did not stand on end last time I talked to her. But when you said they’re out together and Patsy has her bow…shit. I can’t keep fooling myself. This is trouble, man. Big trouble.”
Jon-Michael pulled out his phone and hit Kurstin’s number.
She picked up after the second ring. “I’m almost there—”
“Where were Hayley and Patsy going?” he interrupted.
“She didn’t say. But they went to Mavis Point last time and Hayley likes to shake things up. So I would bet on Big—”
Jon-Michael hung up before she finished. “Call the Sheriff’s department and tell Paulette what’s going on,” he said over his shoulder, then pushed through the door before Joe or Bluey had time to reply or reach for a phone. Just before the heavy oak panel closed behind him, he called back, “Tell her they may have started from Big Bear.”
Reaching his Harley, he slung a leg over and kick-started the machine. A moment later, as he thrust a foot to the ground to control his skid during a sharp turn onto the road, he saw Kurstie’s car approaching. She made a U-turn and fell in behind him. He also noticed Joe’s big Dually turning onto the road.
Then, emptying his mind of anything not relevant to his goal, Jon-Michael opened the throttle.
The train tracks appeared out of nowhere. Suddenly they were just there, seemingly headed straight toward the path Hayley ran before both railroad and trail gently curved west toward Big Bear Gap.
All she cared about was reaching the tracks without Patsy catching up with her. Realizing her luck could change any second, Hayley ran as fast alongside the rails as her poor pounding heart and abused lungs would endure.
A minute later she burst out into the clearing that edged the cliffs. With the trees now at her back, the early evening sunshine lost its filter and struck her fully in the face. Blocking the glare as best she could with a shielding hand, Hayley stepped onto the tracks. She trod the rustic ties cautiously until her eyes adjusted. Then she took off like a cat with a starved fox on its tail.
Suddenly she was on the trestle over the water, the shades of blues and greens far below indicating the varying depths. And there was no turning back.
Hayley blew out a pithy pfft. Who was she kidding? Turning back had ceased to be an option the minute Patsy shot at her.
Her feet set up a rhythm against deck tie after deck tie, and before she knew it she had passed the trestle’s halfway mark. The glimpses of lake through the gaps between the rough timbers settled her nerves and she began to believe she was almost home free.
“I am going to enjoy killing you, you hypocritical cunt!”
Patsy’s strident voice nearly on top of Hayley’s new conviction she had a chance at escaping screwed up her rhythm. The toe of one shoe skidded into a gap between the ties, sending her sprawling.
She caught herself before she face-planted, abrading the heels of her hands. Looking at them, she snorted. Bloody scrapes were small spuds. She whipped a look over her shoulder as she shoved herself upright.
And strung together a mixed-up string of prayers, pleas and obscenities. Her former friend was farther across the trestle than she expected. Being batshit crazy, as Ty had so aptly called her, seemed to have erased Patsy’s lifelong fear of the trestle.
At the moment she was struggling with the bow. To Hayley’s dismay, the rock with which she’d struck her former friend had damaged the hand holding the bow rather than the one needed to draw back the arrow against killer tension. She had forgotten Patsy was a leftie.
Hayley barked out a laugh sounding scarily close to hysteria. As if she’d had a plan for anything that happened from the moment Patsy first shot at her. She launched off the tie like a runner from a starting block. By the time she hit the third timber, she was running flat out.
Damned if she planned to die today at the hands of a woman she’d once called friend.
As though Hayley’s unamused laugh was the catalyst to set the other woman off once again, Patsy began raving nonstop, threatening all manner of chilling mayhem and torture. Hayley tuned it out as best she could and focused on hauling ass to the other side of the Gap.
She was within a yard of her goal, almost close enough to jump to solid ground, when an explosive blow to her upper arm sent her staggering. Her vision went red around the edges and she fell to her knees. Slowly she looked down. An arrow had stabbed through her triceps. The point and three inches of shaft stuck out in front of her arm. The feathered end stuck out the back and blood oozed a viscous red trail to her elbow.
Her head went swoopy. Knowing Patsy would be on her to finish the job if she passed out, Hayley swallowed the saliva pooling in her mouth, breathed in deeply then slowly exhaled through her nose until the nausea retreated. Bracing her good hand on the track, she pushed herself up.
And screamed at the top of her lungs when agony seared her arm. Simultaneously, cold horror iced her gut.
The rail beneath her hand had begun to vibrate.
“Oh, shit.” Gritting her teeth, she made herself climb to her feet. She found clutching her elbow to her side with her free hand stabilized the arrow and dialed back the pain from This is fucking killing me to a mere Hurts, hurts, hurts!
Somewhere in the distance a male voice called her name and her heart slammed against the wall of her chest. Recognizing the precious voice, she screamed Jon-Michael’s name. With Patsy growing closer, moving now was imperative. At least the other woman had yet to nock a second arrow. It gave Hayley some hope she could make it off the tracks without being shot again.
Fiercely focused on placing her feet, she entered the shade of the woods before she realized solid ground supported the ties she navigated. Stepping onto a rail preparatory to getting the hell off the tracks, she could feel how much its vibration had intensified.
And, dammit to hell, knew she had to warn Patsy.
It was without a doubt the stupidest, most reckless idea she had ever had. Yet no matter how crazy her old schoolmate had become, despite Patsy doing her damnedest to kill her, Hayley did not have the stomach to leave her to be mowed down by a train. Not without at least attempting to save her.