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Back Minutes to Kill Save as PDF
Chapters (45)
  1. Title Page
  2. Copyright Page
  3. Dedication
  4. Contents
  5. Chapter One
  6. Chapter Two
  7. Chapter Three
  8. Chapter Four
  9. Chapter Five
  10. Chapter Six
  11. Chapter Seven
  12. Chapter Eight
  13. Chapter Nine
  14. Chapter Ten
  15. Chapter Eleven
  16. Chapter Twelve
  17. Chapter Thirteen
  18. Chapter Fourteen
  19. Chapter Fifteen
  20. Chapter Sixteen
  21. Chapter Seventeen
  22. Chapter Eighteen
  23. Chapter Nineteen
  24. Chapter Twenty
  25. Chapter Twenty-One
  26. Chapter Twenty-Two
  27. Chapter Twenty-Three
  28. Chapter Twenty-Four
  29. Chapter Twenty-Five
  30. Chapter Twenty-Six
  31. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  32. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  33. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  34. Chapter Thirty
  35. Chapter Thirty-One
  36. Chapter Thirty-Two
  37. Chapter Thirty-Three
  38. Chapter Thirty-Four
  39. Chapter Thirty-Five
  40. Chapter Thirty-Six
  41. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  42. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  43. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  44. Acknowledgments
  45. About the Author

Lisa gestured with the blade. “Put the cuffs on.”

Her chance for escape, as slim as it had been, was gone. With a sinking sensation in her belly, Jewel squatted and fastened the handcuffs around her wrists.

Lisa left the shed. The padlock closed with a metallic snap.

There couldn’t be more than a few hours of daylight left. She’d had enough water to keep her alive until tomorrow. But then what? What did Mick have planned?

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Hannah blinked the airbag dust from her eyes. The dashboard light cast menacing shadows on the man’s lean face as he leaned into the car and dragged out the screaming girl.

“He’s gonna kill me,” she sobbed.

Terror rounded her eyes as she scrambled for a hold on the car seat. She reached for Hannah, panic stiffening her fingers into desperate claws. Hannah struggled to move, but her body was held fast by the seat belt. The latch refused to release her. The space between them grew as if being stretched.

“No!” Hannah’s fingers worked at the jammed belt release.

Jewel’s face blurred and shifted until it was little Carson being carried away, his small body kicking and fighting for freedom, his eyes pleading with Hannah to save him.

Fear squeezed her lungs in a vise grip. Her breaths locked down.

Hannah jolted. Her body jackknifed to a sitting position. Lightheaded and confused, she drew in a lungful of painful air. She put a hand on her chest. Under her sweat-soaked T-shirt, her heart rapped against her ribs like insistent knuckles. She’d been well and truly immersed in her nightmare. Despite her disorientation, she knew the dream hadn’t woken her.

What had?

Pushing away the confusing jumble of images, she focused on her surroundings. Moonlight slanted through the blinds onto the duvet, and a dull headache throbbed in her temple. Accustomed to waking in a different hotel every few weeks, she found the change of scenery no surprise, but the intimacy of the homey decor unsettled her.

A storm of barking erupted downstairs. Again? She checked the clock. Four a.m. Grant and the family had left in a flurry of excitement, and Hannah had gone back to bed only an hour before. But she was glad to have been woken. She didn’t need to experience the terror of that dream. She had enough anxiety. Today was Monday. Whatever end was going to come to Jewel would happen tomorrow, and the Las Vegas police were no closer to finding her. As if failing Jewel hadn’t been enough, her imagination had reconstructed the events of last spring until Carson hadn’t been saved either. Eight months later, the memory of the week little Carson had been targeted by Lee’s killer still haunted Hannah’s sleep.