Love Inspired Suspense April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 by Laura Scott (free e reader .TXT) 📕

said, appearing not to notice his silence. “Every boy wanted to be you and every girl wanted to date you.”

He shook his head, partly in negation of the boy he had been. “I was young and full of myself. My head was so big that I’m surprised I could get my football helmet on.” He sent her a curious look. “I’m flattered a girl like you ever paid attention to me. You were always studying.”

“I was trying to get through high school as quickly as possible. Those years weren’t happy ones for me.”

“I’m sorry. Sorry I didn’t see how lonely you were. I was Brett’s friend. I should have noticed, should have paid attention.”

“You have nothing to feel sorry about. All the girls were dying to be asked out by you. But you had eyes only for Marie.”

He remembered. Marie had been everything to him. Looking back, he wondered whether they would have remained together after graduation. She had always dreamed of going to New York and starring on Broadway. As for him...he hadn’t looked beyond the next football game. Shallow didn’t begin to describe him.

Until the accident.

Until everything had changed.

As Liam drove, Paige looked out the window at the woods, her gaze taking in towering pines and dense underbrush as she stored away impressions of Reva Thomas. The woman was pretty, smart and clearly ambitious. Her attitude regarding people who didn’t like her seemed a healthy one, if a bit shallow. Better that than internalizing everything as she did, Paige reflected.

Her thoughts moved on to Jerry Newley. Something about yesterday’s visit bothered her, but she couldn’t identify it. Jerry had been welcoming enough, so it wasn’t that. Something she’d seen in the house, maybe, but the memory wouldn’t jog loose. She was left with a niggling sense of having missed something important, leaving her feeling unsettled. Grasping at it, she thought she had it until it spun and floated away. From experience, she knew that the harder she thought on it, the more elusive it became.

“Where to now?” Liam asked.

“I want to head back to S&J to do some research about people’s finances. Whoever is behind this has access to money. It isn’t cheap to stage accidents or hire trained men.”

“Good plan.”

But just as he said it, two high-riding pickups drove up on their tail. Liam slowed to let them pass. One did, while the other remained behind.

“Our shooter is back,” Liam said, “and he’s brought a friend.”

Within minutes, the trucks had sandwiched Liam’s rented car between them. Hemmed in, Liam and Paige had nowhere to go.

Paige assessed their options, a steely coldness overtaking her. Escape first. Fight later. Only they weren’t given the choice as the pickups closed the space.

“Can you take out the truck behind us?” Liam asked.

“Watch me.”

She rolled down her window and aimed at the front end of the truck following them, putting three shots in the engine block, a much easier target than a tire. Taking out a tire on a moving vehicle wasn’t nearly as easy as television cop shows portrayed.

That took care of the men behind them, but she and Liam still had to deal with the truck just ahead of them.

It sped up, then did a quick 180 in the road, barreling straight at them.

“Hang on,” Liam said as he swerved to miss the huge black truck.

She was doing just that.

He overcompensated, and the car spun off the road. “We’re going over.”

Instinctively, she braced herself.

The car teetered on the edge of the road, then rolled down an embankment.

The impact was fierce. Metal crunched. Glass shattered. Airbags deployed.

Two men from the second truck were heading toward Paige and Liam’s disabled vehicle.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” she said.

Paige and Liam scrambled from the vehicle and plunged into the marsh just seconds before the men reached them.

The wind made a mournful noise, tickling the back of her neck before it slid down her shirt in a chilly blast. She shivered and wondered how long she and Liam had before the rain started and things turned really hairy.

She didn’t have to wait long.

The rain came in stinging pellets, unbelievably cold.

With their pursuers gaining with every second, Paige and Liam ran through the marsh, Liam taking the lead. Something about the spongy ground just ahead of them sent off warning bells in her brain.

“Wait,” she yelled. “Quicksand!”

EIGHT

Her cry came too late. Liam was already waist-deep in the deadly bog.

She had to get him out before he sank any deeper. She undid her shirt, grateful she had a long-sleeved T-shirt underneath. After knotting the end of one sleeve and wrapping the other around her hand, she tossed it toward Liam.

“It’s not long enough.”

All the while, the men were getting closer, ever closer.

“Get out of here,” Liam ordered. “It’s me they want. Not you. You can still save yourself.”

As that didn’t deserve an answer, she didn’t give one. She needed something to lengthen the reach of her shirt. Looking around, she saw a long branch. That should do it.

A closer look showed that the wood was rotting. It would crumble to pieces before she could pull Liam from the quicksand. She poked beneath it and saw a thick vine. If she tied her shirt to one end, the length should do.

Rain and wind obscured much of her vision so that she could barely make out Liam. When she saw him, he was trying to push his way through the quicksand.

“Stop thrashing around,” she yelled. “You’ll only make it worse.”

Voices of the men chasing them reached her. She had to get Liam out now.

Hurry.

Fingers fumbling with cold and fear, she struggled to tie the shirt to the vine. At last she had what she hoped was a reasonably strong knot.

She whipped the vine into the air much as a fly fisherman would cast his rod. Her first try didn’t land anywhere near Liam, and she tried again.

There.

“Got it,” he shouted and grabbed hold of the shirtsleeve.

“Just hold on while I pull. Don’t try to help.”

For