She screamed, her legs burning as she ran.
But it didn’t matter how fast she ran or how loud she yelled, she couldn’t outrun a motor vehicle. She hadn’t been able to save Stephen, and now she wouldn’t be able to save herself.
For the second time that night, Tanya’s scream pierced the air and Cooper’s heart. The car’s lights illuminated her. Her eyes were wide and her face pale with terror. He hurried to catch up but she was ahead of him, the car between them.
“Run!” he yelled, urging her to move as the car barreled down on her where she ran across the front yards of a row of houses. As a kid she hadn’t been able to run very far or very fast because her asthma would act up. Hopefully, she’d outgrown that.
Cooper had already drawn his weapon. But if he shot at the driver, the bullet might pass through the windshield and hit Tanya before the front bumper of the car could. So he aimed at the tires and quickly squeezed the trigger.
One back tire popped, deflating fast so that it shredded and slapped against the rim. But despite the flat, the car continued forward—straight toward Tanya.
Still running, Tanya veered between two houses. But the houses weren’t so far apart that the car couldn’t follow her.
Cooper shot out the other back tire and the car swerved, careening across a lawn. It scraped against a tree and proceeded to the street, cutting off another vehicle that blared its horn. Sparks flew from the rims riding the asphalt, but the car didn’t stop. Yet. Eventually it would have to, though, so Cooper figured he might be able to catch up to it on foot.
But he had a greater concern. “Tanya!”
He ran across the yards, stumbling over the deep ruts that the car had torn in the muddy spring lawn. Then he veered between the two houses as she had. Lights flickered on inside those houses, brightening a couple of the dark windows. They must have heard either the car or his yelling. His throat burned from the force of his shouts. “Tanya!”
He nearly stumbled over her where she lay sprawled across the ground. The light from the houses cast only a faint glow into the backyards, so he could barely see her. He holstered his gun and then dropped to his knees beside her. His hands shook as he reached for her.
Despite his efforts to stop it, had the car struck her anyway? Had it run over her once it had knocked her down? He couldn’t tell if she was conscious or not, if she was alive or dead. Her hair had fallen across her face, the strands tangled. He brushed it back as he slid his hand down her throat, checking for a pulse. Thankfully, she started breathing, but laboriously, the breaths rattling in her chest.
Obviously she hadn’t outgrown her asthma and all the running had brought on an attack. She opened her eyes, the light glinting in them.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “Do you need your inhaler?” He’d left it in her purse back at the church, though.
She sucked in a shuddery breath and then choked and gasped.
Cooper wanted to pick her up and cradle her in his arms, but he didn’t dare move her if she was hurt. “Did the car hit you?”
Bracing her palms on the ground, she began pushing herself up. But Cooper caught her shoulders, steadying her. “Don’t move. If you’re hurt—”
“I’m not hurt,” she said as she tried to control her breathing. “I just fell.”
Maybe she’d only been out of breath from running as fast as she’d had to so the car wouldn’t have run her over. “Are you sure?”
“I’m not hurt,” she repeated. “Because of you...” Then she threw her arms around his neck and clung to him as she had when he’d first arrived at the church. “Thank you!”
But Cooper couldn’t accept her gratitude—not with the guilt plaguing him. It wasn’t just guilt that had his heart racing, though. It was fear. And probably her closeness. With every breath he took, he breathed her in; she smelled like flowers and grass. And the grass reminded him that she could have been killed. He grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away from him. “What were you thinking to leave the church on your own?”
She tensed. “I was thinking I wanted to get the hell out of there.”
Was that his fault for not immediately agreeing to his mother’s suggestion that he marry her? Had he hurt her pride?
“Then why didn’t you leave with Nikki when she took your sister home?” he asked.
She uttered a mirthless chuckle. “Do you really think I would have been any safer with my sister?”
“She wouldn’t have tried to run you over with a car,” he pointed out as he helped her to her feet.
She stumbled as if her legs were still shaky. But instead of leaning on him again, she steadied herself. “No,” she agreed, “but she might have tried to shove me out of one.”
He couldn’t argue that, not after the way Rochelle had attacked her in the church.
“Cooper!” Logan called out to him as he ran between the houses and joined them in the backyard. “I couldn’t catch the car.”
He had forgotten that his brother had been right behind him when he’d left the church. His order for Logan to stay with their mom had been overruled—by their mother. She’d reminded them that the police officer was still in the parking lot and even if he wasn’t, she could take care of herself. She was armed, and their father had taught her how to shoot very well.
Logan was huffing and puffing for breath. “I could barely keep up with you.”
When Cooper had heard Tanya scream, he had taken off running. He reached for his cell phone now. “Did you call the police?”
“Called ʼem,” Logan said, which was confirmed with sirens whining in the distance. “Did you get a better look at the car than I did?”
“Long and dark,” Cooper replied. “With the windows too darkly tinted to see inside.”
“What about the plate?”
“There wasn’t one.”
This hadn’t been some drunk driver whose car jumped the curb and veered into a yard. This near-miss hit-and-run had been planned.
Just to scare her or to kill her?
* * *
TANYA HELD HER breath, pressing down the fear that threatened to choke her. She stared up at the dark windows of her apartment, wishing she could see inside, but she stood on the sidewalk three floors below. Light flashed behind the arched window in the peak of the attic where she lived.
Was it the beam of a flashlight or the flash of gunfire? She gasped, and the breath she’d held escaped in a rush of fear.
“You shouldn’t have let him go inside alone,” she admonished his brother. “The driver of that car could be in there, waiting...” For her. And Cooper would step into the trap her stalker might have laid for her.
She should have had one of the police officers who’d taken the report for the near hit-and-run bring her home. They had offered a ride and protection. But the Payne brothers had assured the officers that they would make sure she stayed safe.
How? By putting themselves at risk?
Logan chuckled. “Cooper can handle himself and whoever he might encounter.” His slight grin slipped into a frown that furrowed his brow. “He wouldn’t have survived three deployments in Afghanistan if he couldn’t.”
But