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Laura stepped forward, wanting to keep Hayley behind her for protection, and he must have interpreted it as an aggressive move. He rushed Laura, then Hayley, using his body weight and momentum to knock both of them down. Hayley tried to get up and grappled with him briefly before he threw her to the ground. Her head rebounded, and Laura was grateful that they were lying on soft soil instead of rocky terrain.
She swung her legs to tangle with his, tripping him and making him crash to the ground between them. He lunged for Hayley’s gun but she pulled it out of reach and then thrust it back, connecting with his chest. He cried out and grabbed the rifle as she tried to take it back again, and she tugged helplessly a couple of times, unable to shift it. He couldn’t get the weapon. It was the only advantage they had. Laura threw herself on him, hands extended, and deliberately began to scratch viciously at his face and neck from behind.
With a yowl, the killer let go of the gun and reached up to stop Laura’s hands instead. Laura didn’t see what happened next – too busy trying to wrench her hands out of his grasp without allowing him to crush or break her fingers. But there was a sickening crunch and then a groan, and he let go of her hands.
Laura scrambled to her feet and a ready stance, then looked down.
His eyes were closed, his face pale. There was another fresh red mark on the other side of his head, neatly opposite the one that had broken the skin before. Hayley was panting beside her, still holding the rifle at the ready, butt-first like a bludgeon.
“Is he dead?” she gasped.
Laura knelt, cautious, always watching for signs that he would wake up and attack again or that he was faking. She found his neck with two fingers, sought out his pulse.
“No, he’s just unconscious,” she said.
“Should we kill him?” Hayley asked.
Laura glanced up to give her a wry look. “I have a better solution,” she said. She pulled a pair of handcuffs out of the pocket of her windbreaker and grabbed the killer’s hands one by one, cuffing them behind his back as she rolled him.
There was a moment of silence, the two women still breathing heavily. It was like the whole of the woods around them had gone quiet. Then they both heard it at the same time: the sound of something crashing through the trees.
They shared a glance of alarm.
Was the killer not working alone? Was there someone else out there ready to come and avenge him?
“Laura!” a voice shouted wildly, and Laura’s eyes slid closed for a second in relief.
“Nate!” she shouted back. “We’re over here!”
There was the sound of even more frantic progress through the trees and then Nate burst out into the clearing in front of them, his face full of clear panic. “Jesus! What’s happening?”
“It’s him,” Laura said, indicating the man lying on the ground at his feet. “It’s him. And this is Hayley Sommers.”
Nate paused right in front of them, staring. He was giving her a funny kind of look. The kind of look that saidI can’t believe you did this again – but thank God you’re okay.
“Is anyone hurt?” he asked, glancing between all three of them. Hayley and Laura were catching their breath now. Hayley was leaning on the rifle like it was a walking stick.
“We’re a little bruised and battered,” Laura said. “He’s got a couple of head injuries.”
“Anything that needs medical attention?” he asked, putting the question directly to Hayley.
She shook her head, swallowed, then shrugged. “I was out cold all night,” she said. “I don’t know what he did to me. My throat hurts.”
Laura could see bruises in the shape of fingers on her neck. “She should get checked out,” she said.
There was a beat, and then Hayley burst into tears. The adrenaline was leaving, now. The shock was right behind it. Laura put a reassuring hand on her back, turning to Nate. There were police officers emerging from the trees around him now, all of them clearly on high alert, decked out in bulletproof gear and making their way through the undergrowth awkwardly.
“We need to get her under a foil blanket, too,” Laura said. “She’s been out here all night.”
Nate nodded and turned to start barking orders at the locals. Within short order, the killer had been assessed and hauled up so they could carry him back to their transport, Hayley was being led through the trees by an EMT, and Laura – blessedly – was holding a takeout cup of coffee.
“You ready to go?” Nate asked her.
Laura glanced back at the hut – the one she had seen in her vision, the thing that had led her here in the first place. The full circle moment.
“Can’t I just stay here so we don’t have to face Rondelle?” she whined, and Nate only laughed.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
