"Oh, Kelly, I'm so sorry."
"The tipping point was when Tom went to Brett's school in uniform and picked him up, and the school let Brett go with him, because he was a cop, and he said I'd been in an accident. He wanted me to know that he could get to Brett at any time. When he brought him back to me, he said he wanted us to be a family. That night, Russ and I left town. We went to a campground, but Tom tracked us down."
Kelly's voice filled with anger and pain. "He killed Russ, and I ran. I didn't know where to go, so I came here. I couldn’t take the chance you or Mom would tell me no, so I used a fake ID. I lured you to the cabin and left my necklace so you might realize Brett was my son."
"Why didn't you just say so in the note?"
"I didn't know if you would call the police and show them the note, and then Tom would find out. But I waited until I was sure you were with Brett. I love my son."
"I know you do. I'm so sorry, Kelly."
Tears slipped from Kelly's eyes. "Russ was a good man. His only mistake was to fall in love with me, and now he's dead. The fathers of both my children are dead." She gave a helpless shake of her head. "And Tom is coming for me."
She zeroed in on that piece of information. "You said you hit his car?"
"Yes. He found me near Black Falls, and he tried to run me off the road, but I turned my car into his, and we crashed. His vehicle went off the highway, and I got away. I didn't see what happened to him. But if he's alive, I'm sure he's still tracking me, and I don't know how he found me yesterday. I had switched cars."
She frowned, wondering the same thing. "Maybe he put some kind of tracking device on you or in your purse or something."
Kelly's eyes met hers, and there was a new fear in her gaze. "If he did, he's coming here. What are we going to do?"
Kelly had no sooner asked the question then the front door of the cabin crashed open and footsteps came down the hall.
Hannah desperately wanted to see Jake come through the doorway, but it was another man, a big bear of a man with blood smeared across a jagged cut on his forehead, and two black eyes.
She jumped in front of her sister as he raised the gun in his hand.
Jake blinked his eyes open. The truck had come to a crashing halt, the airbag hitting him in the chest. As he came fully awake, he realized that the vehicle was surrounded by a sea of branches, pinecones, and needles, all coated with a heavy snow. He couldn't see the road. He couldn't see anything but the tree that had engulfed them.
He glanced at his father, who was also coming back to consciousness, and he was relieved to see his eyes opening. "Are you all right, Dad?"
His father gave him a bemused look, putting a hand to his head, where blood was dripping from a cut.
"Are you hurt anywhere besides your head?" he asked. "Do you feel any pain in your legs, arms, chest?"
"No," Davis said finally. "I—I'm okay. What about you?"
"Same." He took his phone out of his pocket. He had no signal. They would not be able to call for help. He looked around as he unfastened his seat belt, trying to assess the situation. One thing was clear. "We've got to get out of here."
His father tried to take off his seat belt, but the door on his side was bent inward and had jammed the mechanism. "I can't get it off."
"It's okay." He reached into the glove compartment and pulled out an emergency box of tools, which included a pocketknife. It took him a few minutes to cut through the belt, and every second that passed added to his tension and frustration. Not only did they need to get out of this truck, they needed to get to Hannah.
Finally, the seat belt released. Then he worked on getting his door open. Once outside, he was able to cut through some branches to make some space. His dad couldn't get out of his side of the truck but was able to maneuver his way out of the driver's side, and he brought his medical bag with him.
When they were both on their feet, he could see that they were at the far end of the tree branches. The heaviest part of the tree had missed them by about ten feet, probably because they'd skidded completely off the road. Most of the tree was behind them, which was better. They couldn't go backward, but they could go forward, and that's where Hannah was.
"The cabin is that way," he told his dad.
"Are you sure we didn't get turned around?"
He wanted to be more certain than he was. But even though it was only afternoon, it was dark, and the snow was thick. It was not easy to see in any direction. "My gut tells me we need to go that way," he said, looking at his dad. "Whether I'm right or wrong, we