When the truck hit the water, the impact twisted Liza and she felt a bone in her right arm snap. Howling with pain, she let go of Pepper and pulled the arm close, even as she tumbled backward off the truck and into the water. As the water closed over her head, she moved her broken arm and almost drowned trying to cry out from the pain. Using her left arm, she managed to surface and saw Pepper in the driver’s seat of the rapidly sinking truck. She’d hit her head against the steering wheel and blood coursed in a ghastly stream down her face. She was struggling to open the door, which had been crushed as it scraped a tree on its way through the woods.
Gritting her teeth against the pain, Liza found footing in the shallows around the back of the truck and stepped into the depths again to try to get the dog and Pepper out of the passenger side of the truck before it went down. Gasping from the pain of moving her arm, she inhaled water and coughed the entire way as she made her way to the passenger window.
She couldn’t get the door open against the pressure of the water, especially with only one arm. She hooked her left hand in Peaches’ collar and helped pull her through the window, going under in the process. Resurfacing, she braced her good armpit on the window ledge as the red and blue lights from the screaming police cruisers flashed across her.
“Come on,” she cried, motioning for Pepper to come through the window. “The truck’s going down.”
Pepper sat very still, as though the situation weren’t critical. She turned her bloody face toward Liza, staring at her with cold, hateful blue eyes. Surrounded by the streaming blood, the eyes were downright grisly. Liza looked away but continued to reach for Pepper until she felt the woman slap her helping hand away. Glancing back, she saw that the encroaching pond water had reached up to Pepper’s chin. Pepper didn’t seem to be worried; she simply relaxed further against the backrest, allowing the water to close over her.
When Peaches’ dog-paddling paws grazed Liza’s broken arm, bringing tears to her eyes, she released herself from the truck and pulled the dog to shallower water. She reclined there panting, Peaches licking her face, as she watched the truck go down in a swirling whirlpool.
CHAPTER FIFTY
“She had a bad, bad childhood,” Shay said softly. “Had brothers and a father who were pretty mean to her.”
A breeze snuck in and lifted a tendril of her unbound ruddy hair. The teasing caress lingered, then ceased abruptly. Peaches, panting lightly, pressed against Shay’s leg and she bent absently to caress the long, fuzzy ears.
The three stood together at the northern edge of Dooley’s Folly. The peaceful water showed none of the trauma from yesterday’s events, except in its disturbed, murky undertones. The salvage crew had come earlier that morning and removed the truck wreckage. The only evidence that something tragic had occurred here could be found in the flattened, muddy foliage and skid marks embedded in the dirt banks.
Pepper’s body had been recovered after the accident, and both women felt an enormous sense of guilty relief that the threat of her had been taken from their lives. It was sad that Pepper had chosen death to future incarceration, but Shay, who had known her best, was not surprised.
Liza shifted her weight from one foot to the other, eyes never leaving the water. She was groggy from the pain medication the hospital had given her. “It’s no excuse. There is no excuse for what she did to you.”
Shay sighed heavily. “I know. And she was Chris, from the shelter, the homeless woman who lived at the mission?”
“Yes. I had no clue. I feel like such a fool… She had this all planned out, even traveling with a man.”
Liza had been relieved that Shay understood her earlier apology about unknowingly leading Pepper to her, but guilt lingered.
“There’s no way you could have known, honey. No way. I didn’t even recognize her.”
Liza stirred impatiently. “But still, she was new to the area. That should have set off alarm bells, but here I was, working right alongside the enemy, for Pete’s sake.”
Shay laid a calming hand on Liza’s shoulder. “It happened and it’s over. Let it go. I’m not sorry she’s gone. I have to say that.”
Liza studied Shay, eyes fixing on the bright white bandages that peppered her lover’s face and arms. “Me too, honey. No matter what, we would have always had that fear in the back of our minds. That she was out there somewhere and could harm us. Yet again.”
Shay smiled hesitantly, catching and connecting Liza’s gaze. “Us? Have we become an us, you and me?”
Liza pulled Shay close with her good arm, her gaze holding Shay captive. “You know I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Peaches insinuated her body between the two, tail wagging and slamming against their legs. She appeared to have recovered completely from the trauma of the day before, having been left with only a small gash on one flank. Both women laughed at her intrusion. Shay took Liza’s hand.
“Come to the house?” The request was coy and unbearably enticing to Liza. “I’ll put an ice pack on your cast.”
“I bet you will,” Liza said pointedly.
Shay laughed lightly and her voice grew soft. “You know I’ll always take care of you, don’t you?”
“Yes, and you know I’ll always take care of you, right?”
Shay nodded and leaned up for a quick kiss. Their eyes met, gazes lingering.
“Lead the way, sweetheart, and I’ll follow,” Liza said, her voice low and full of promise.
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