slightly. “Sounds like you’re trying to blackmail me into visiting you.”
Tina laughed, a self-deprecating sound that for an instant touched Kate’s heart. “Call it a bribe, okay?”
Kate sighed. Bribery or not, she needed the cross back around her neck. Sure, Tina could mail it to her, but Kate wouldn’t risk losing the cross again.
“Give me directions,” she finally said.
“Take the connector to 400 North.”
Jamming the phone between her ear and shoulder, Kate reached into the pocket of her lab coat. She pulled out a small tablet and ballpoint pen and jotted down the instructions.
“Tell me what you think you discovered, Tina.”
“Not over the phone. You’ve got to see it. With your scientific background, you’ll know if it’s worth my getting worried.”
You already are, Kate wanted to say. “Surely there’s someone else who can help you.”
“I don’t know who to trust.”
“The police?”
“No!”
“You’re scaring me, Tina.”
“Yeah. I know. That’s the way I feel. Scared to death.”
Kate hadn’t wanted the phone call from Tina, hadn’t expected it. Yet, here she was zooming along a desolate back road, heading into rural North Georgia on the coldest day in February to meet a woman she never thought she’d see again.
Dark clouds rolled across the evening sky and added to the anxiety eating at her ever since she’d heard Tina’s voice. Usually the levelheaded pragmatist, Kate had done an about-face. Driving into an approaching storm to revisit a friendship that probably should remain dead didn’t make sense.
Her cherished cross was the only reason she had agreed to meet Tina. Ever since she’d given it to Eddie, her life had fallen apart, as though God had left her when she’d parted with the necklace. Maybe retrieving the cross would turn her life around. Right now she’d do anything to get back on track.
She looked at the empty can of diet soda perched in her car’s console. Too much caffeine and too little sleep over the last few days working on her research project had taken its toll.
Now she had two weeks to kill.
She’d meet Tina, get the cross and find a B and B on the way back to Atlanta. A good dinner and a soak in a hot tub sounded like a fit ending to a long day. About twelve hours of sleep were just what she needed.
Kate reached into her handbag and grabbed a bottle of antacid tablets. She could imagine her boss’s voice. “You’ll kill yourself before your thirtieth birthday.” Jason Bannister often teased her about her marathon work habits. Probably the most savvy scientist Kate had ever worked for, Jason had hired her six months ago for research and development, confident she would succeed.
The partnership study with Southern Technology would have put Bannister Scientific on the map in diabetes research and ensured the two companies merged into the largest laboratory in the southeast.
Except the clinical trials hadn’t supported Southern Technology’s data. The newspaper article only compounded the problem.
Kate shouldn’t have talked to the reporter. She’d had a lapse in judgment, which was something she didn’t accept in others, and certainly not in herself.
She shook her head. She and Tina were exact opposites in that regard.
Tina saw the good, ignored the bad. Maybe that was why it hurt so much when her once-upon-a-time friend had cut Kate out of her life.
Kate glanced at her reflection in the rearview mirror. Even Tina’s raven-black hair and voluptuous Latina body contrasted sharply with Kate’s rather average looks. In Kate’s opinion, her only attributes—and that might be stretching the point—were her fierce determination and blue eyes. Right now those eyes were bloodshot-red.
A roll of thunder forced her attention back to the road as twilight faded into night. Kate switched on the Mustang’s headlights and took a left at the four-way stop. So far, she’d had no problem following Tina’s directions, but the descending darkness and plummeting temperature threatened to make the last segment of the journey more challenging.
What had brought Tina to this isolated spot? A job? Nothing indicated the area was inhabited other than a few mailboxes by the side of the road and driveways that twisted into oblivion behind the tall pine trees.
Lightning flashed across the sky. Seconds later, a crash of thunder sounded as if it hit the edge of the road. All around her the pine trees danced, their groans mixing with the whistling wind.
A fine mist turned to drizzle. Kate clicked on the wipers and checked to make sure her window was closed tight, then shoved the heater knob to high.
A road sign warned of a sharp curve. Kate downshifted and felt the powerful engine slip into Second. From what Tina had said, a bridge crossed Mercy Creek just ahead.
The rain strengthened. Fat drops splashed against the windshield. A blast of wind hit full force. Kate gripped the wheel to keep the car from crossing the yellow line. As the wind surge died, she flipped the wipers to high and scanned the road for the bridge. The turnoff to Tina’s should be on the far side of the creek.
From out of nowhere, a deer charged into the beam of her headlights. Kate pushed in the clutch and stomped on the brake while her hand shoved the gear into First. The tires squealed in protest as the car skidded across the road.
The animal hit the front bumper with a loud thump, soared in the air and crashed against her windshield.
The massive carcass blocked Kate’s view. Instinctively, she turned against the skid. The deer shifted to the passenger’s side, smearing a bloody trail along the windshield.
Her heart slammed against her chest.
The Mustang was headed for the creek.
The car broke through the guardrail. A jagged edge of steel grated against the door, ripping a gash in the passenger side. For half a second, the auto teetered on the edge of the bridge, then plunged into the raging current below.
Kate screamed. Ice-cold water rushed in like a tsunami, flooding everything in its path.
She floated somewhere outside the realm of consciousness until a searing pain in her leg and bone-chilling cold snapped her back to reality. Where was she?
Try to think. The car, a deer, the bridge…
Oh, dear God.
Water swirled around her knees. She couldn’t feel her left leg, couldn’t move it. The right one throbbed with pain.
Get out. Kate unbuckled her seat belt and pushed on the driver’s door. Locked. She reached for the button to release the latch, grabbed the handle and shoved. Nothing budged.
She tried the automatic window. A grinding noise filled the car, and the glass lowered ever so
