Read Online Run Wild by Lorie O'Clare - Free Book Online

uncle’s new truck parked here and walk back into town. Damn it! She could do this. She needed to prove to herself, and the sheriff for that matter, who one way or another would probably hear about her outing this evening, that she was quite capable of handling herself regardless of what might happen. It really sucked at the moment, though, growing up with two male cousins so close in age to her. She’d only had one blowout in her life; it was when she was a teenager and not too far from the high school she, Marc, and Jake had attended. She’d pulled over at the gas station where all the kids stopped before and after school, and word had traveled fast that she’d gotten a flat. Marc and Jake had come to her rescue before she’d figured out how to assemble the jack.
    “Well, they aren’t coming to help you out tonight,” she pointed out to herself, speaking out loud, although interrupting the chilled silence around her didn’t help soothe her nerves any.
    Standing, she moved to the back of the truck, then found the jack and the pole that would help lower the spare. Tingles shot up and down her spine and she spun around, dropping part of the jack, and searched the dark road behind her. She got an eerie sensation someone was watching her.
    The last thing she needed to do was scare the crap out of herself while changing a tire alone on a dark night. Nonetheless, she aimed the flashlight at the road behind her and took her time searching both sides of the road.
    That’s when she spotted him. “Son of a bitch,” she hissed, clenching her teeth together when a cold wind whipped around her.
    She was almost positive the sheriff’s Suburban was parked in the dark, maybe a quarter of a mile behind her, headlights off and looking as black and isolated as the night.
    Why would he just be sitting there and not coming to help her?
    The moment that thought popped into her head, another followed suit quickly. He was waiting for her to admit defeat, acknowledge she shouldn’t be out here by herself late at night and would not be able to make it without his help.
    “Like hell,” she muttered, and her teeth started chattering when she returned her attention to the task at hand.
    Natasha put the jack together, lowered the spare tire, then managed to prop the jack under the truck so she could raise the flat tire off the ground. Her fingers were numb from the cold, and she was shaking uncontrollably. It was hard as hell trying to get the tire off the truck and hold the flashlight so she could see what she was doing. Finally, resolved to change the tire in the dark, she put the flashlight on the ground. It immediately rolled off behind her into the narrow ditch alongside the road.
    Natasha stared down at the flashlight, which was at least still on, so she could see where it was, as its beam glared off along the ground, highlighting every blade of grass and each weed in its path of light. The headlights on the Suburban parked just a ways back on the road popped on, startling her and hyping up the nervous trepidation already rushing through her system. She reached for the gun in the back of her pants and slid into the ditch to retrieve the flashlight. When the truck accelerated, driving toward her in the ditch, it crossed her mind to shoot out one of its tires if it didn’t stop soon. Although that would leave her and whoever was in that Suburban both stranded out here, at least until one of them managed to change their tire.
    The Suburban slowed, then parked behind her, its headlights making it impossible for her to see who was driving it. She hadn’t taken Trent’s Suburban to memory, other than the sheriff’s logo on the doors. In the dark, she couldn’t see whether there were logos on the doors or not.
    The driver’s side door opened and Natasha pulled her gun. She didn’t aim in the direction where she would guess someone would be getting out but held it aimed at the ground, her arms straight and both hands clutching the