Chapter Seventy

NORMAN DRIVER TOOK the full force of the car’s bumper in the front of his legs. I caught a glimpse of his shocked face as I came roaring up the dirt road from the inn. I’d grabbed the keys to Vinny’s sedan from a hook in the hall. The car was old and powerful and had a lot of weight behind it. Susan screamed in the passenger seat beside me, her strength failing and the life draining out of her, but not enough to disguise the crash from her senses. Driver’s shoulder collapsed the windshield in front of us, and I heard his body tumble over the roof of the car, thumping onto the road behind. I slammed on the brakes, threw the car into park, and leaped out. But by the time I reached his body, I knew it was too late. His back was twisted unnaturally, his breathless, hairy chest exposed through his torn shirt.

I looked into the woods, spying movement. Shauna was standing there, a rifle in her hands, heaving with exertion. The urgency with which I’d moved since shooting Susan was still with me. I reached out to Shauna, even as I was backing away, retreating to the driver’s seat of the car.

“Come on!” I called.

I was offering her one final out. A peaceful surrender. She could come with me and end this dark journey she had begun. Yes, it would mean jail time. It would mean facing her son, her friends, her family through the chipped and scratched glass in the prison visiting room, probably for the rest of her life. It would mean being punished for being a punisher, for taking revenge, for stepping outside the law just exactly as her husband had. I knew those were terrifying prospects for Shauna, or for anyone. But if she did not come with me now, wherever she was going could only be more frightening.

I left my hand hanging for a second, maybe two.

Shauna didn’t budge.

I pulled the door of the car closed and drove away.