“Rain, please.”
“Don’t beg. It doesn’t suit you.”
I gritted my teeth and took another step. Then another before I stopped.
Why was I making this easy on her? Screw this bitch. With a smirk at my lips, I dropped to my knees, the pain unbearable but I grunted through it. Then I shifted and sat on my ass.
“What are you doing?”
“Taking a breather.” I lifted one shoulder, stretching my neck in an attempt to wipe some of the blood off my face. It hurt like a mother, but when I straightened, there was a red smear on the strap of my white tank.
“Get up,” she barked.
“No, thanks. I’m good here.” My head throbbed, but my focus was sharpening. I let it wake me up. I let it push me to fight.
At the dojo where I’d trained in Bozeman, my senseis, Cole included, had always said the best way to learn was to face an opponent better than you. Rain was better positioned. She had the knife. I had a concussion.
But I couldn’t lose this fight. I couldn’t die on this ridge.
“Get. Up.” Rain kicked my ankle, the sole of her hiking boot scraping the skin raw.
I winced, took that pain and added it to the rest, embracing it as fuel. “No.”
“I will kill you here.”
“And drag me the rest of the way?” I huffed. “Even a rookie cop would be able to tell that my body was dragged. So unless you want everyone in the county to start asking the questions I’ve been asking for months about these alleged suicides, no, you won’t kill me here.”
The air was lodged in my lungs as I waited for her to respond. A bold move, asserting myself, but at this point, what did I have to lose?
Griffin.
I would lose Griffin.
Find me, Griff. When I didn’t show up for dinner, he would go looking, right? He’d find my car. He’d ask Pops. Hopefully they’d go to Frank’s place and see through that bastard’s bullshit.
Griffin had been right about Frank, and I’d been too clouded by family history to see the lies.
“Did you put Harmony’s purse and Lily’s wallet on the trail for Briggs to find?”
Rain kicked my hip and it took every ounce of my willpower not to cry out. “Get up.”
“Or maybe you put them out there for me to find, hoping that I’d think Briggs had killed them.” I shifted as I spoke so my body would shield my hands.
The dirt was like sandpaper against my fingertips as I clawed at the ground, searching for a sharp rock or edge that I might be able to use to break the zip tie at my wrists. Cops preferred cuffs because even behind the back, a person could break the ties. All you had to do was make some space and slam down hard. But I couldn’t lift my shoulder, not with enough strength to break the tie.
“It almost worked. I did suspect him.”
“But you did nothing.”
“You didn’t leave me enough evidence,” I sneered, at her and the trail. This spot where I’d plopped down was smooth.
“Up. Now.” Another kick. Another wince. But otherwise, I didn’t move.
“Did you hit them over the head like you hit me? Was that how you got them out here?”
“Shut up.”
“I didn’t find any blood around Lily’s car. No signs of a struggle. What did you do? Trick her into thinking she was meeting Frank?”
Rain’s glare narrowed. “Stop. Asking. Questions.”
“That’s a yes,” I muttered. “Let me guess. You wrote a note—you said that’s how Frank contacted them.” Which was why I hadn’t found anything in Lily’s text and call history. “Lily came out to the country expecting Frank. Maybe you promised a little late-night stargazing. A romantic picnic and—”
“Shut up!” The knife’s blade glinted silver as it whipped out and slashed through my bicep.
My cry was swallowed up in the night. There was no one but her to see the tears, so I let them fall. Angry, desperate tears. But I would not be silenced. Not tonight.
“You hit them, like you hit me. That was why there weren’t any traces of drugs in their system.” Any injuries caused by her knife or a wound to the head like mine had been covered up by the sheer brutality of their deaths. When all that remained of a person’s skull were fragments, piecing them together to see a prior injury was nearly impossible. “Did you make her walk up the trail too? When did she take off her boots?”
“Why do you care?”
“Tell me. Before we end this, the least you can do is give me the truth.”
Her lip curled. “She kept slipping in those boots.”
“You should have left them on her feet.”
She nudged my tennis shoe. “I’ll fix that mistake with you.”
“Good luck,” I deadpanned. “No one will believe I committed suicide.”
“You’ve had such a hard time, though, haven’t you? Struggling to fit in. That awful breakup with your fiancé. The folks at the station have been unwelcome at best. You’re alone and rumor is that Griffin Eden is about to dump you too. He’s been in love with Emily Nelsen for years.”
I scoffed. “I hadn’t heard that one yet.” But I had no doubt that rumor had been started by Emily herself.
“Oh, I’ll concede that Emily is a fool, but she’s been after Griffin for a long, long time. There will be some people in town who’ll believe she’s finally caught his eye for good. Combine that with the tragic death of your parents, and it’s no wonder you’ve been so depressed.”
“It’s a stretch. Too big of a stretch.”
“I’ve been stretching for years.”
I looked up and met her cunning gaze. “It didn’t work with me.”
“Almost. It would have worked on Tom Smith.”
“But Tom Smith isn’t the chief.” I jutted out my chin. “I am. And I will see you rot in a prison cell for this. For those girls.”
However many she’d killed.
The knife shook in Rain’s hand. “I will kill you here. I will drag you if I must.”
“Fine.”
Her hand came to my hair, bunching it in her fist. True to her word, she began to drag. The pain was excruciating and I screamed again, the sound so raw and brutal it ripped through my throat just as a clump of hair tore loose.
“Stop.” Tears clouded my vision as my limbs shook. “I’ll walk.”
That only made her pull harder.
“I’ll walk!”
It took Rain a moment to let go, and when her fingers peeled free from my hair, the relief drew another flood of tears.
I staggered to my feet, my head spinning worse than it had before. The trail was wider here than it was in most places but it was still narrow. Maybe she wouldn’t have to push me over the edge. Maybe the gash in my scalp and these unsteady feet would kill me for her.
God, if I did fall, I hoped Griffin wouldn’t find me. I didn’t want my broken body, my death, to haunt his nightmares.
“Move,” Rain commanded, the knife by her side. Its blade dripped with my blood.
I started the climb, glancing over my shoulder once. I could run. It wouldn’t be easy with my hands tied, but I could race her down this ridge. Maybe if I bought myself enough time, someone would come searching.