Love Inspired Suspense April 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Laura Scott (speed reading book .txt) 📖

company had been the draw. If he hadn’t been so caught up in his dream of home and family, he’d have seen that she was more interested in his money than in him.

He put aside any attraction he felt for Paige. He wasn’t going down that route again. The only thing he needed from her was to keep him and Jonah safe.

He felt like he’d traveled back in time. He’d spent the last fifteen years trying to forget, and now it was back. With a vengeance. Sometimes it was just too much trouble to keep the memories stored away where they couldn’t hurt him. Sometimes it was best to let them have their way. It looked like this was going to be one of those times.

“Where do you want to start?” he asked.

“Back in Willow Springs. With the families of the kids who died. I’m assuming you have a list.”

He opened his backpack, pulled out a tablet and showed her the list he’d compiled of kids who had died in the accident, their families, addresses and anything else he thought important.

She glanced at it. “Got it.”

“Just like that?”

“Just like that.” She tapped her temple. “Photographic memory.”

“Must come in handy.”

She flashed a grin. “Sometimes.”

He shouldn’t have been amazed, but she’d managed to surprise him all the same. “Any other superpowers you want to share with me?”

“I can’t leap over buildings in a single bound yet, but I haven’t ruled it out.”

“Let me know when you take your first leap.”

“You’ll be the first to know.”

In the parking lot, Liam pointed to his car, a navy Suburban. “I’ll drive.”

“Okay by me.”

Liam pointed the car toward Willow Springs. He hadn’t been back to his hometown since graduating from high school. When his parents had relocated to Savannah, there’d been no reason to return and plenty of reasons not to.

The trip took longer than it should have due to construction and detours. One detour took them deep into the country, where rolling hills and valleys replaced city streets and highways.

As they approached a particularly steep canyon, Liam applied the brakes. Nothing. He repeated the process, then pulled the emergency brake. Same result. He shifted the car into a different gear with the same result. Not only were the brakes out, the steering was gone, as well.

“What’s happening?” Paige’s voice was calm, though he heard the tension underlying the words.

“I don’t have control of the car. I think someone’s hacked into the operating system and taken it over.” Liam did a quick scan of options, none of which he liked. “We have one shot at surviving. And it’s a long one. When the car goes over the edge at the next curve—and it’s going to—we have to jump. Tuck your head inside your arms and jump.”

“Jump? You’re kidding. Right?”

“I wish I were.” He loosened his muscles and undid his seat belt. “Now!”

TWO

Paige jumped.

With her arms crossed over her face, she rolled down the rock-strewn cliff until a stubby tree halted her momentum. Rough bark bit into her arm. The wind knocked out of her, she held on, breathing heavily.

They’d both jumped just as the car went over the edge, Liam on the driver’s side and she out the passenger side. The car tumbled down the side of the canyon and came to rest at the bottom with a crash of metal and glass.

She shuddered at what would have happened if she and Liam had still been in the car. If they hadn’t jumped when they did, they’d undoubtedly be dead.

Liam. Was he all right? She looked about, spotted him about a dozen yards from her position.

“You okay?” he shouted.

“I think so.” She’d be sporting plenty of bruises and scrapes, but nothing felt broken. She shook her head in an attempt to clear it and the ringing in her ears.

“Can you get up?” His voice echoed in the surrounding valleys and hills.

In answer, she braced her back against the tree and tried to stand, grateful to find that her legs were working. Barely. Her right shoulder and arm had taken the brunt of the impact with the tree, and she winced as she tried to move them.

“How are your climbing skills?” he asked.

“Let’s find out.” Now wasn’t the time to tell him that she had an irrational fear of heights. Don’t look down. Keep focused on the next step.

It was painstaking work, their progress measured in inches rather than feet as they clawed their way up the steep grade. Recent rains had turned the hillside into a muddy slide. With her bare hands, she scooped at the wet, crumbly dirt, seeking any handhold.

Kudzu vines covered the hillside, coiling and curling. She used them as anchors when there was nothing else to give her a firm hold.

Half-buried rocks tore at her palms, shredding the skin, but she didn’t let the pain stop her. More than once, she lost her footing. Fortunately, she was able to grab onto something and didn’t follow the path of the car.

Heavy winds whipped through the canyon, fighting her for every inch of progress. They stung her face and made seeing beyond her next handhold nearly impossible. Still, she kept climbing.

She refused to let wind, mud and gravity defeat her, but for every step she took forward, she slid back two. Fury at whoever had hacked into Liam’s car propelled her forward when it would have been easier to give up.

“Need help?” Liam said when she stumbled for what seemed the hundredth time.

She was no rock climber, but she could handle this. Irked that he thought she couldn’t, she said a curt, “No, thanks.”

But her foot slipped as soon as the words were out. She grabbed the first thing within reach and found herself hanging from an offshoot of a tree, a flimsy thing when she thought of the distance to the bottom of the hill.

Suspended over the canyon, she clung to the branch for all she was worth. Slick with blood and mud, her hands slipped, and she doubled down on her