Page 9 of Her Final Hours (High Peaks Murder, Mystery and Crime Thrillers #3)

“Oh, come now, Maddie. Not even a hello?” He forced her up against the car, his voice dripping with menace.

He could see her unraveling. Gone was the strong woman that she wanted everyone to believe she was.

He could see the weakness in her eyes. She lunged forward, trying to knee him in the nuts, but he anticipated the move.

“No. No, you don’t get to do that. Just stop.

I’m not going to hurt you. I could never hurt you, Maddie.

Not like how you hurt me.” His tone was laced with bitterness.

“Let me go.”

“Once you stop fighting me.”

“How did you get out?”

He grinned, leaning forward and whispering in her ear as he breathed her in. “Good behavior. At least one of us has been good.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t play coy, Maddie. I’ve seen you with him. Why are you attempting to replace me? Huh?” he asked, his voice dripping with venom as he demanded answers. His face contorted, anger and longing taking over. He wanted to understand, understand why she’d hurt him.

“You better let me go. He’s coming here.”

“No, he’s not. Don’t lie. Right now, he’s working on a construction site on the west side. Like clockwork.”

“You’ve been stalking me?”

“Stalking? Is that what you call it?”

“You’re breaking a no-contact order.”

“Am I?”

“You put me in the hospital.”

“You put yourself there. I told you to back off. To leave me be. To not keep pushing my buttons. But oh, no, you couldn’t listen, could you?

Too busy trying to play the good girl, the law-abiding citizen.

How easily you forgot what you did before that.

Does Daddy know? Huh? What about your brothers?

Don’t you remember?” He paused, hoping that she would nod in agreement.

Maybe even smile at who they were — how they were.

“We were good together, Maddie. We can still be good together. I’m willing to forget the past. Put it behind us.

Of course, that requires you to do the same.

Starting with cutting that loser loose.”

“Fuck you!”

Tommy brought a hand up.

“Go on. Go on. That’s what you do. See what happens.”

He lowered his hand, then snatched her phone from hers.

Before swiping through her contacts, he brought it up to her face to unlock the screen.

“Jake Randall. Huh. How about we call him? And you tell him you no longer want to see him. It’s over.

And you’ll put his things outside your house for him to collect. ”

“Never. ”

“Okay then. I wonder what he would say if he knew you were with another guy. How about a selfie,” he said, holding it up before bringing his face to hers and kissing her before she could do anything.

Maddie shoved him back, all venom and anger. “Get your fucking face away from me. Help! Help!” she shouted, but before she could yell further, he tossed her phone away and put his hand over her mouth, pressing firmly.

“Shut up. Listen to me!” he said through gritted teeth.

He waited until she stopped struggling. “I’m not going to hurt you, Maddie.

I’m not the same person as before. I’ve changed.

” She mumbled something behind his hand, but it only came out incoherent.

“I know you don’t believe that. But it’s true.

That’s why they let me go. Being a lawyer and all, you should know they don’t do that unless they see real change.

Now I don’t expect you to take me back immediately, no — go home, think about it.

Eventually, you’ll see we can rebuild this bridge, and everything will be beautiful again.

Heck, even better than before. You’ll see. ”

Maddie’s voice quivered from behind his hand as she tried to speak, yet was stifled by fear.

He could only imagine what she was saying.

Her eyes darted around, searching for any means of escape.

At that moment, a raw glimpse of vulnerability flickered across Tommy’s face, a fleeting realization of the monster he’d become.

“Now I’m going to take my hand away from your mouth. Don’t scream. Okay?”

There was hesitation, but she nodded.

Just as he removed it, a jogger appeared out of the forest, interrupting the tense confrontation.

Tommy’s eyes narrowed with frustration as the unexpected intrusion threatened to derail his plans.

He released his hold on Maddie, his fingers loosening their grip from her wrist, but his gaze never wavering from her .

The jogger was some young guy in his early twenties, full of spit and vinegar and hopped up on too many protein shakes.

The kind that thought they could change the world, and that began here, in this parking lot.

Big mistake. The jogger slowed, concern etched across his face.

“Is everything alright here?” he asked, his voice laced with genuine worry.

Tommy’s mind raced, searching for a plausible explanation.

He thought back to the multiple times neighbors overhead their fights.

One even showed up on the doorstep. It was like old times.

He forced a smile, trying to appear calm and collected despite a storm raging within him.

“Just a little disagreement,” he replied, strained but composed.

“Nothing to worry about. We’ll sort it out. Won’t we, darling?”

Maddie’s eyes filled with fear and relief as she seized the opportunity to distance herself from Tommy. She edged toward the jogger, her body language pleading for help. Sensing the tension in the air, the guy nodded cautiously, unsure of what he had just walked into.

A momentary thought passed through Tommy’s mind. He could use the knife. But it disappeared as quickly as it came. That wouldn’t help. No, she needed to see that he had gained control and wasn’t the same.

“Are you sure? I can call the cops if you need assistance,” the jogger offered, his hand hovering over his phone. The asshole was still a reasonable distance away, possibly out of range of the cell phone blocker.

Tommy’s facade faltered momentarily but he quickly regained his composure, realizing that further delay could jeopardize his chances of confronting her alone. “No need for that. We’ll handle it ourselves,” he said, his tone masked with false reassurance.

Reluctantly the jogger acquiesced, though there was a hint of doubt still in his eyes. “Alright, but if you need any help, I’ll be here for a while,” he said, clarifying that he wasn’t going anywhere. Another small town hero. His gaze occasionally darted back to Tommy and Maddie.

Tommy knew the conversation was over. He locked eyes with Maddie, his expression a mixture of intensity and desperation. “This isn’t over, Maddie,” he said in a low voice. His voice held a chilling promise. “I’ll be seeing you.”

With that said, Tommy retreated, his footsteps fading as he returned to his truck, his mind filled with a volatile cocktail of emotions. The encounter hadn’t gone as planned, but it only fueled his determination to reclaim what he believed was rightfully his.

Back inside, he eyed her through the windshield as the engine roared to life, a symphony of power and pent-up aggression. Tommy cast a final glance her way, his eyes gleaming with anticipation and menace. High Peaks had become a battlefield, and he was determined to emerge victorious.

With a screech of tires, his truck sped away into the morning, leaving her standing there, trembling with fear and uncertainty.

He glanced at her in his rearview mirror as she retrieved her phone from the ground and brought it to her ear — no doubt calling the cops or alerting her brothers to be on the lookout. He expected that. He expected it all.

The park was perfect.

No cameras. No one really to vouch for her except that interfering jogger, and he had a way of keeping someone like that quiet.

He drove by a cop car idling in a turnout and smiled.

The chase had begun. Tommy was now driven by a toxic mix of obsession and revenge, and today had set the wheels in motion for a sinister game.

At the heart of it all, Maddie and those around her would soon discover the line between hunter and prey was about to blur, where anything could happen and would.

And only one would be satisfied, and he fully intended that to be him.