Page 103 of Violent Little Thing

I was breathing heavily by the time I got there.

When I did, I found Gentry unconscious on the ground. Dempsey next to him, also on the ground but awake.

“What happened?” I rasped, moving closer to Dempsey.

“Sir,” the medic with her said. “Stay back. She needs medical attention.”

They put a collar on her neck to hold her completely still, but Dempsey didn’t let that stop her.

She turned to me and started talking. “We were sideswiped by a truck, then hit head-on by another truck. Black, license plate starting with FOP. They drove off. With Charleigh.”

Fuck.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Did anyone see anything?”

“I did,” a man said. “I called out to that man. But he didn’t seem to care. He was yanking her, and man, you could see that her leg was broken. She had a bone sticking out of her thigh.”

My stomach threatened to upend.

God, she had to be hurt badly.

“What happened?”

“He put her in the back seat of that vehicle he used to sideswipe them. She passed out when the door hit her leg. She was screaming before that.”

I closed my eyes.

“The sheriff went after her,” someone said.

I looked back to see Jessamy standing there.

“I was in the back of his car,” she murmured. “He pulled over, got the information, and kicked me out of the car. He told me to tell you that he’s in pursuit.”

I nodded, throat thick.

“I’m sorry,” she said to me. “He’ll get her, though. Black won’t stop until then.”

I nodded, agreeing.

But nothing inside of me felt agreeable in that moment.

Rage, hot and thick, coursed through my veins.

“What did this man look like?” I found myself asking.

I felt detached from my body.

As if I was just there, but not quite there at the same time.

“Black hair. Curly. Around five-foot-eleven or so. Skinny.”

Chris.

“Chris Gates.” Gentry groaned and sat up.

Just as fast, he passed out again.