She’d felt safe here. And now that had been stolen from her.
Just like life had stolen so many things from her over the past three years.
She couldn’t think about any of that right now, all she could afford to focus on was running, the fall of her feet, pushing harder, faster, as her lungs screamed for air. She silently chastised them. Better to be burning and in pain than dead.
Please, God... She’d prayed more tonight than she had since the night three years ago when everything had changed.
Summer didn’t even know what she was praying for at this point. But she knew she needed all the help she could get.
She heard a twig snap behind her. Legs screaming, lungs burning, she sped up even more, one last sprint, that’s all she had in her.
The woods grew lighter. Was that...?
There was a dirt road in front of her. A beautiful road that hopefully led to town. And people.
Still running, she whipped her phone out and used her voice-to-text feature to send a message to her siblings. Help. She wasn’t willing to chance it by taking the time to say anything else, but she needed help. One of her brothers was a police officer in Moose Haven—she didn’t know if they could GPS track her or anything, but it might be the only chance she had.
She emerged from the woods and ran into the road.
And almost ran straight into the path of a red pickup truck not fifty yards away, driving straight toward her.
Summer froze when she saw it, took only a second to make up her mind and then ran toward it, waving her arms. This couldn’t be her attacker—he wouldn’t have had time to get a truck to come after her, not when she’d heard his footsteps behind her only minutes before. It could be a getaway car, driven by another criminal, but it was a measured risk on Summer’s part—it was more likely the driver was someone who could help her. Besides, she couldn’t outrun a pickup, and if the driver of it wanted her dead, he’d just run her over while she sprinted down the road. Better to take a chance, maybe get out alive. Still, her heart pounded a crazy rhythm in her chest. How had her night gone from enjoying her usual route to this—running for her life? The driver stopped when she reached him, and she threw the door open.
“Drive.”
Amazingly, he didn’t ask questions. He just floored it down the road, eating up the gravel and throwing up dust.
Copyright © 2018 by Sarah Varland
ISBN-13: 9781488087776
Credible Threat
Copyright © 2018 by Heather Humrichouse
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