Page 41 of Kill Your Darlings

Circling the sedan, I aimed my phone’s flashlight at the flat tire.It was hard to tell at this angle, but I’d have expected a clean puncture, not a jagged tear.

I frowned.Was I really thinking…well, whatwasI thinking?Sabotage?

No.I had to have hit something.

What?

The faint sound of an engine in the distance snapped me to attention.I straightened, the hair on my nape prickling.I listened uneasily and thought I recognized the muted growl of a V8 engine driving slowly up the road.

Right.Because I was such a car guy, I could recognize a V8 from a large diesel?

Now I was really letting my imagination run away with me.

Headlights flickered across the trees a few yards down.My pulse spiked.I clicked off my phone, instinctively backing into the shadows, and then stepping still farther back, slipping deep into the trees.

You’re losing it, Chandler.

Probably.Almost certainly.And yet, I dived behind the nearest trunk, and crouched down.I peered cautiously through the ferns, the cool fronds tickling my face.My gaze fixed on the road, waiting…

A second or two later, a car—large, dark, with a long hood and classic, sweeping lines—glided into view.

A vintage Cadillac DeVille.

My heart stopped.

Not my imagination.

Not losing it after all.

“What the hell…” I whispered.But yes, what the hell?What the hell was going on?

The Cadillac slowed as it neared my rental, high beams illuminating the empty interior, the lopsided front.

To my horror, the Cadillac suddenly pulled in behind the rental, red exhaust furling into the night air.The driver’s door opened and a man got out.

He was built like a bull.Large and broad-shouldered.He had a face like a bull, too.Long, blunt features, rough-hewn like something carved out of wood.His hair was silver, but he didn’t move like an elderly person.

I didn’t recognize him.

Or did I?

No.But… Therewassomething vaguely familiar about him.Or maybe he was just a type.The archetypal movie villain type.

I didn’t move, didn’t dare take a breath as he stood silhouetted in the glow of the headlights.

What the fuck do you want?

He stared at the tree line and my heart stopped.

He turned back to the rental, peering inside.He tried the door handle.

The rental chirped and its car lights blinked.

Shit.My breath caught.The key fob was in my pocket.Had the car just unlocked?Was I still close enough to trigger the system?

Instinctively, I felt for my back pocket, and nearly overbalanced into the damp earth.It was already too late.The car was either unlocked or not.

The man tugged on the sedan door again, slapped the roof of the car, and stepped into the middle of the road, his head turning slowly, scanning the darkness.