Chapter 1 - The Last Hit
The first удар did not send Nora Bennett over the cliff.
It only told her Celeste meant to.
Nora's white sedan lurched sideways as the black SUV slammed into the rear quarter panel. Gravel sprayed over the guard stones. Her seat belt locked across her eight-month belly.
"Help! My baby!"
The road along Grayhaven Ridge had no real guardrail, just knee-high blocks of old granite and a drop that disappeared into pine and fog.
Celeste Voss backed the SUV up.
Nora stared through the windshield. Her mother-in-law's face looked almost calm.
"Celeste, stop!"
The SUV came forward again.
A side door flew open before impact.
Alma Ruiz, the Voss family's seventy-year-old housekeeper, jumped out while the SUV was still rolling. She hit the ground on one knee, cursed in Spanish, then ran to Nora's car.
"Unlock it!"
Nora slapped at the button.
Alma yanked the driver's door open and threw herself halfway across Nora, grabbing the steering wheel.
"Don't push her!" Alma screamed.
Celeste hit them again.
Alma twisted the wheel. The sedan fishtailed away from the edge by inches.
Then another engine roared behind them.
Nora looked in the mirror.
Daniel.
Her husband stepped out of his silver pickup.
Relief hit so hard she started crying.
"Daniel! Save us!"
Celeste shoved Alma away from the sedan. The old woman fell hard on the gravel.
"Throw her off the cliff, son!" Celeste shouted.
Daniel stood there, breathing through his mouth.
Nora pressed both hands against the glass.
"Please."
He looked at her belly.
Then at his mother.
"Forgive me," he said.
He got back into the truck.
Nora had one second to understand.
The pickup accelerated.
It struck the front of her car broadside.
The world tilted.
Sky became windshield. Windshield became rock. The sedan slid over the edge and dropped nose-first into the trees.
Nora screamed until the seat belt crushed the sound out of her.
The car struck a rock shelf and stopped at a forty-degree angle.
Above, Alma staggered to her feet.
"Nora!"
Daniel grabbed for her.
She slapped him so hard his head snapped sideways.
Then Alma ran past him and jumped over the embankment.
She caught a pine branch, swung into the slope, and half climbed, half fell toward the trapped car.
"I'm coming!"
Nora saw her through broken glass.
"Alma, don't!"
The old woman reached the driver's window.
Her fingers touched Nora's wrist.
Then the rock beneath the sedan cracked.
The car slid three feet.
Alma's eyes widened.
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And below them was nothing but fog.
