Page 86 of Tanner
She couldn’t let him touch her like that.
With a choked cry, she shoved him as hard as she could. Preston stumbled back, off balance, and the gun clattered to the floor.
Junie bolted for the front door. She grabbed the knob and swung it wide.
“You bitch,” he snarled.
Before she could take a single step outside, Preston’s hands closed around her throat like iron bands. She gasped, clawing at his wrists as he dragged her back into the room.
She couldn’t breathe.
Couldn’t get air.
Her feet kicked uselessly against the floor.
Daddy…
The thought tore through her mind like a prayer.
Tanner... Daddy… Please. I need you.
Preston’s mouth hovered inches from her ear. “If I can’t have you,” he spat, “no one will. Especially not him. Not anyone.”
Junie’s vision blurred at the edges. She fought with everything she had, twisting and scratching, but his grip only tightened. Black spots danced in front of her eyes. Her lungs burned. The room tilted.
Somewhere nearby she thought she heard a low, guttural snarl. It was a sound she’d never heard before. It was as if Pup had transformed into something far fiercer. She must be hallucinating.
Her thoughts grew sluggish. She was going to die here, in her grandmother’s house, at the hands of Preston Lassiter, a man she had once called a friend.
Somewhere in the distance, she heard thudding and someone screaming. She wondered who it was. But none of that mattered now.
The irony hit her even as the darkness closed in. The joke was on her. All those years she’d wasted, worried that people would leave her.
This time, she was the one leaving Tanner.
She hoped he’d forgive her for not waiting for him to come save her. That was her last coherent thought as the world faded to black.
Tanner had never driven a horse so hard in his life. He prayed his old friend would endure.
Halo’s hooves pounded the ground in a relentless rhythm, but Tanner still urged him faster. He leaned low over the big gelding’s neck, one hand gripping the reins while the other pressed against the rifle strapped to the saddle.
“Keep going. She’s depending on us. We’ve faced a lot of dangers together, old boy. I need you one more time,” he murmured against Halo’s mane.
Every muscle in his body coiled tight with urgency. He’d make it up to the thoroughbred later, making sure he had extra grain, a longgrooming session, whatever the horse wanted. But right now, nothing mattered except getting to Junie.
The missed call from her had set off every warning bell he had. Angelina’s frantic, broken words had only made it worse. The second he heard Preston’s name and the terror in that woman’s voice, a cold, suffocating fear had gripped him and refused to let go. He kicked Halo harder, pushing the horse onward as Rainbow’s Edge finally came into view.
He didn’t slow down when the front of the house appeared in the distance. A wave of defeat hit him hard. His truck was nowhere in sight. He’d just decided to approach from the rear in case Junie had pulled around to the back of the house when he became aware of something moving. Straining to see better, he realized it was Dodger. Even from this distance, he could hear the wolfdog snarling as he paced back and forth across the front porch.
She was here. She had to be. Tanner kept his eyes on the house, planning the best approach when suddenly the front door opened. He caught a glimpse of Junie’s arm as she started to run out. Then her feet flew out from beneath her, and it took Tanner a second to realize the son-of-a-bitch had jerked her back inside.
“Junie!” he screamed even as Dodger launched through the doorway after her, snarling. Tanner dug his heels into Halo’s flanks. “Come on, boy, come on!” Halo found the strength to leap forward, eating up the distance. Tanner leaped from the bay’s back before the horse had fully stopped. His boots hit the dirt hard. He didn’t even bother tying the gelding off. Halo stood panting, sides heaving, but Tanner was already moving.
Tanner charged through the door, heart in his throat. He had no idea what he would find, but the last thing he expected was to see his Junie—his Cupcake, his precious Little girl—lying on the floor with Preston on top of her.
Her eyes were closed. Angry red finger marks circled her throat, and her lips had turned a terrifying shade of blue. Most terrifying of all, her chest wasn’t moving.
Please God, let her be breathing.
