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She shook her head, feeling a renewed stab of pain She gritted her teeth, trying to move She was confined She wasn’t tied up, just confined in a tiny space She could hear co
"Shit! Hoe explain more bodies in the swah her She suddenly knehy Andy hadn’t knohat happened to her This killer struck fro with swift determination
The blow that took her out had come from behind Andy had probably been asleep She had never seen whoever had co to help She had to get out of whatever she was in
Deteran to feel around And then she knew She was in the trunk of a parked car Did they--whoever they were--think she was already dead?
It better not be you, Julian, she thought,confines for a latch to pop the trunk It better not be you, because so help me, I will haunt you into eternity I will learn how tosense of panic and concentrated on her task She didn’t knohat kind of car she was in If it was a fairly new model, there had to be soht, her panic rising
Not if she let herself be consuo slowly, an to sweat, but somehow she forced herself to be calh she knew only minutes had passed She could hear the rasp of her own breathing She had to find the latch Had to If she didn’t, she would die
She wasn’t sure how long it took her to find it, and when her fingers hit it at first, she couldn’t ain, she warned herself not to panic To just press and pull until the latch released
And then… it gave
She was sure the sound would alert her attackers
She didn’t dare pause, noto shoot her, better it should happen with her at least rabbed the ri the dizziness that spun in her brain with her sudden rass and slime She could still hear the voices, but realized they were a slight distance away, by the road She had gotten out of the car on the bayou side
She staggered halfway to her feet, and looked toward the foliage and the water She knew they were there, though she couldn’t really see either Didn’t loom and darkness
"There," Brent said
There was an old-e trunk on the side of the road The trunk was open
There was no one by the car
Joulette pulled off the road Another car pulled off directly in front of theerty," Joulette said with a sigh
Brent leaped from the car; the detectives did the saot the call froerty said "Let’s spread out That e can follow any possible tracks Let’s hope she’s not already dead"
Brent didn’t need instructions He had already started running
She had to be found quickly And by him One of the men on the road was involved
He just wasn’t certain which one
"Nikki?"
She had reached the water and was carefully trying to keep to the trees as she hurried along the edge There were boats here and there along the bayou, shrimpers’ boats She had been just about to step onto one when she heard her name
Julian
She wasn’t certain if the sound had coroup of trees ahead of her
But he had seen her
She slipped back into a grove of trees
Then she saw him He hadn’t been on the boat; he had been just steps ahead of her
"Nikki!" he called again
She turned and tore in the opposite direction, racing as fast as she could
Away froe She didn’t knohether to return to the highway and pray an innocent driver would stop for her or simply find so hard, knowing that her decision ht well mean her life
A branch snapped behind her She hunkered down into tall grass that riers curled around it
In the darkness, she heard him approach Julian It was Julian He was alot to her feet, the branch in her hand
She swung out with it, striking as hard as she could
He o down She ran
Massey headed ard along the water He didn’t knohether to call out or not He gritted his teeth, listening
What the hell had happened? How had it all gone so wrong?
He heard the sound of foliage rustling behind him, and he turned As he did, his peripheral vision showed hi to a shrierty shouted raggedly
Massey stared back at hi hi hiled on the ramp for a moment, then both men crashed into the water
The sound ofsounded behind her Nikki looked over her shoulder but kept running There was another shrie, with a dock and a ramp
Was it a safe place to hide? Better yet, was there a weapon of some kind aboard?