Free Nightfall by Laura Griffin Page A

and her sister had already earmarked for
luxuries such as rent and groceries and heat.
    I am so
screwed .
    Holly gazed at the crumpled
bumper. Tears stung her eyes, but she blinked them back as she
looked around. She was in a valley between two foothills. To the
east, where the valley widened and mountains rose up on either
side, was Eulee. To the west, through a twisty mountain pass, was
White Falls. She remembered a ranch a few minutes back and set out
in that direction. She glanced at the phone again.
    Signal!
    Holly felt a rush of relief
and immediately dialed her sister, praying the signal wouldn’t
vanish before the call went through. Her sister could get on the
phone with the client and make excuses while Holly figured out how
to get a tow truck out here.
    Crack.
    She dropped to her knees
beside the road. What the hell? Who would be stupid enough shoot a rifle so close
to—
    Crack.
    Her chin hit pavement. She
darted her gaze around. The smell of wet asphalt filled her
nostrils as panic spurted through her.
    That was no careless hunter.
Someone was shooting at her.
    Holly scrambled to her knees
and lunged for the ditch. She ducked her head down and crawled
frantically for the safety of the van. But as she scuttled behind
it, she realized it wasn’t safe at all.
    A loud ping rang out as the next shot hit the
bumper.
    Someone’s trying to kill
me! Her breath came in ragged gasps. She
glanced around. Where could she go? She couldn’t just sit here and
wait for someone to walk up on her. She jumped across the narrow
ravine and plunged into the thicket. She batted away leaves and
branches until she was deep within the woods, sheltered by darkness
and trees.
    What is going on? Why is
this happening? Panic seized hold of her as
she darted between thick tree trunks. The forest was dense and
damp. The floor had escaped the season’s first snow. But the trees
that had blocked the snow blocked light, too, and Holly could
hardly see anything as she plowed deeper and deeper into the woods.
Her heart galloped inside her chest. Branches stabbed at her,
ripping at her clothes, her hair. She used her arms like a swimmer,
ignoring the stinging cuts as she swiped desperately at the brush.
Her toe caught a rock. She pitched headfirst into a void. White-hot
pain exploded inside her head.
    ***
    “ What do you mean it didn’t
happen?”
    “ Just what I said. It didn’t
go down.”
    “ Are you sure?”
    Colin Denton gritted his
teeth as his headlights sliced through the falling darkness. “I was
there almost two hours. He didn’t show.”
    Silence on the other end.
Colin glanced at the phone in the cup holder to make sure the
connection hadn’t dropped.
    “ So what do we do now?” his
boss asked.
    Colin smiled ruefully, but
of course, there was no one there to see him. He was alone in his
pickup. He was alone on the road. He was alone in this isolated
corner of Montana, as he had been for the past five months. Colin
was a loner by nature, but the constant isolation was starting to
get to him, and it wasn’t even full-on winter yet.
    Next operation, he was
thinking about getting a dog.
    “ I say we sit tight,” he
answered, scanning the roadway for ice. It had gotten into the
forties today, but the temperature was sinking fast and it had
started to snow. “Hooks doesn’t get paid until he delivers the
goods. Something spooked him tonight, but he’ll reschedule. Believe
me, he needs the money.”
    “ And you’re sure you got the
place right?”
    “ I’m sure.”
    “ And the
vehicle?”
    “ A white Dodge van. I’m
positive.”
    The truck skidded as Colin
hit a patch of ice. His shoulders tensed until he felt the tires
grip asphalt again. He checked his rearview mirror, but no one was
behind him.
    In his peripheral vision, he
saw a flash of metal. He glanced to the side as he sailed past the
back end of a white van.
    “ No freaking way,” he
muttered, tapping the brakes.
    “ What’s that?”
    “ I may have just