Fight For Your Life by Catherine Holland (simple e reader txt) 📖

said, and you’re right.” Sean smiled, “I usually am.” And then playfully punched her arm.
As they headed towards the entrance of McDonald’s Poppy said “Sean?” He looked at her; “Hmm?” “I just wanted to say thanks for everything, I really don’t know what I’d do if I didn’t have you for a friend.” Sean smiled warmly at her then went inside the restaurant with Poppy following on his heels. Ten minutes later they had both changed clothes and were ordering burgers and fries.
Once they were seated Poppy was once again staring into space and Sean was sat in thought, a few moments later as Sean was taking a sip of his coffee a thought struck him. “Poppy do you remember when we met with your lawyer in that police station in Ohio?” Poppy looked at him sharply, “Yes I remember, why?” Sean hesitated then spoke.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about what your lawyer said, and I know it’s been almost two years but something about that meeting keeps bothering me.” Poppy looked at him curiously, “What do you mean?” “Well, when your lawyer told you about your inheritance, you had no idea about it, but I’m thinking that maybe your dad did.” Poppy’s face paled.
“He must have known about it, but I still don’t understand what you’re getting at.” Sean took a pull on his coffee and then said “There’s no easy way to say this but... What with everything that we’ve been through, is it possible that your dad wants the money from your trust fund?” Poppy looked shocked “Why would you think that? My dad always had his own money, why would he want mime? It doesn’t make any sense.”
Sean sighed, “Everyone wants what they don’t or can’t have Poppy, and if you think about it, it does make sense. Greed and jealousy will make people do stupid things for their own wants.” Poppy looked at Sean and saw how serious about this he was, her brain was working overtime to try and make sense of all the events that had led to this day.
But some small part of her just refused to believe it, “If my dad wanted my money then why did he disown me? Why does he want nothing to do with me and yet still want the money? It doesn’t make any sense!” But suddenly all the pieces fell into place and Poppy gasped. She looked up at Sean with fear in her eyes, “But why? He’d never get away with it!”
Sean smiled sadly, “He would Poppy, if you had died with your mom that night, everything would’ve gone to your dad. And it still would, but there’s something that I think your dad has overlooked in all of this.” Poppy lifted an eyebrow in question and Sean said “You’re a survivor, and just by being here-.” He gestured around them at the McDonald’s they were sitting in “- proves that he underestimates you all the time, but now we need a plan to help us live through the night.”
Poppy gave Sean a small smile then said “Us.” Sean looked at her in question, and she said “You said that he underestimates me all the time, but it’s not just me, there’s two of us and if you’re serious about not going anywhere then you need to include yourself in whatever we do next.” Sean grimaced, “Yeah, didn’t think of that.” “I was serious you know, I meant it when I said that you could walk away.”
“Poppy, I’m not going anywhere and I mean that!” Poppy grinned and replied “Great, so... What’s the plan?” Sean fell silent at that, he was still thinking of how they could both come out of this alive, so Poppy left him to think, but she still had a hundred questions running through her head’ Who was the killer? How did he know where they were all the time? How had he managed to find them here? How had he managed to sneak around the ranch without them knowing? Had her dad really hired someone to kill her and her friends?
And the most important questions of all, How do we evade him? How do we stop him from killing us? Poppy thought back to when they’d first arrived in New Mexico, at the Airport where they were waiting for the Federal Agents who’d been killed en-route to the Airport. There was no-one else in the Airport that had lingered apart from them and...
Poppy gasped and Sean looked around them alert, “What? What is it Poppy?” “The killer.” She breathed, Sean almost stood up, his eyes still scanning the almost empty restaurant. Poppy grabbed his arm and shook her head, “No, he’s not here but I’ve seen him before.” Sean moved seats and sat next to her, gripping her shoulders hard, “What do you mean Poppy? Where have you seen him before? Do you know him?”
Poppy shook her head, “No, I don’t know him in that sense, but I’ve seen him a few times, he was sitting on the plane that we flew in on and was waiting at the Airport as well. That day you and Jamie were playing soccer and I saw that jeep through the binoculars? That was him as the same person. And lastly when we went to the mall to pick up the supplies for the bags, he was in every store we went in! God how could I have been so stupid? I led him right to us Sean!”
Sean shook his head, “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” “Because I never thought about everything as a whole before, I thought that what happened in Ohio was just coincidence, and that the events here were just a lot of bad luck, it wasn’t until what you said about my dad that it all hit me.” Sean nodded in understanding then said, “Wait, so you know what he looks like? Can you identify him to the police?” Poppy shook her head.
Even if I could I wouldn’t, look at what happened in Ohio? That Detective betrayed us all, how doo we know that this killer hasn’t already infiltrated the police here? We’re better off if we do this alone, we know that we’re being hunted, we also know that we may not survive, the question is how do we defeat the odds?” Sean smiled, “Leave that to me, I have an idea that might work in our favour but first we need to lead the killer to somewhere we know well.”
Poppy sighed, “There’s only one place that we both know well, and the killer probably does as well, and that’s the ranch.” Sean nodded, “Exactly! C’mon eat up and we’ll go.”


Chapter Five


The killer sat in thought watching the moving red dot, he would’ve expected the teenagers to go to a more populated area or to seek help from the police, but instead they were heading for the more rural areas. A cruel smile was playing on his lips as he realised that the teenagers were headed back to the ranch.
He thought, don’t they learn? With a small shake of his head and the cruel smile still on his lips he drove out of the Theatre parking lot where he’d hoped to catch the teenagers as they met up, and instead drove back to the ranch that was situated in the middle of nowhere. An hour later the killer abandoned the jeep a quarter mile away from the ranch and walked towards the darkened ranch, he had a sense of déjà vu which he thought strange and shook it off.
When he reached the front of the ranch he saw the jeep that the teenagers had driven parked up by the porch, the doors were open but when the killer looked inside he saw the jeep was empty and the keys missing. His smile became a full and evil grin as he crept around the side of the ranch heading towards the car garage, when he reached the garage he saw it was open and empty, there was still no sign of the teenagers so he headed towards the open area of land.
After walking five hundred yards he came upon a small wooded area, he took a cautious step into the tree line and froze, to his left and about one hundred away he heard twigs snap and heavy footfalls. He turned towards the sound making sure to keep out of sight, the heavy footfalls continued ahead of him and echoed around him making it seem as though there was an army running through the woods.
The killer saw a figure move to his right out of the corner of his eye and he moved towards it, the figure was moving fast but it wasn’t fast enough to evade him, within seconds he was upon the figure and the both stumbled into a large and circular clearing. The sun was beginning to rise and the killer was able to see that it was Poppy he’d caught.

* * * *

Poppy was gasping for breath, so far the plan had worked but now that Poppy had been caught she felt panic settle in, the next part of the plan was to wait for Sean to creep around behind the killer and knock him unconscious, she just had to try and wait it out. That plan failed when Poppy saw the glint of metal in the early morning light.
“Sean!” She screamed, Poppy didn’t wait for his answer but as she saw the evil and cruel smile on his face, anger overtook her fear. This was the man who’d killed all of their parents, and her friends. The man who was trying to kill and her and Sean, the killer seemed to enjoy her fear; he was an ordinary looking man with short black curly hair and deep brown eyes, there were no distinguishing marks or scars on his face and Poppy realised that this man could blend in extremely well with other people.
“Why?!” She spat at him, the killer regarded her for several seconds before answering, “Why what?” Poppy had chills run up and down her spine at the sound of his voice, it was cold and empty with a hint of barely suppressed rage underneath. “Why did you kill them? I want to know the truth before you kill me.” The killer chuckled although there was no warmth in it.”
“The truth? Be careful what you ask for Poppy, not everyone wants to hear the truth.” The killer looked at Poppy for a moment and saw the seriousness in her face. “Very well, your father Paul Cosby hired me to kill you for your inheritance money and I believe for an easier way out of the divorce he and your mother were going through.” Poppy gasped, “Why? Why did you agree to do it? What do you get out if it?”
The killer considered her words, “I don’t get anything out of it, I just enjoy killing for a living besides I’m good at it.” He mused and then continued on. “And as your father paid me in full and for any situations including witnesses I felt that your friends’ deaths were necessary to complete my job.” The killer hadn’t put any emotion into his words, if Poppy thought it was possible she would’ve thought the killer to be an emotionless robot.
Poppy lay as still as possible, but she couldn’t control her body’s shivering at the sound of the killer’s voice. The killer appeared