I stay on the ground as the car gets closer, now shivering with fear and cold.
“Piper!”
It sounds like Ozzie. But it couldn’t be. I rise up enough to see the car as it is about to pass me. A man is leaning really far out of the open window, shouting as they drive down the highway. He turns my way, and it is Ozzie!
“Ozzie!” I shout to it after it’s passed. I jump up and run in its direction.
The car slows before the reverse lights come on.
“I’m here!” I run to them, and once I get there, Ozzie gets out of the car and pulls me into his arms.
“I’m so glad we found you. I was scared we wouldn’t,” he says.
Another set of arms goes around me. “Piper! Are you all right? You’re shivering.”
I lean up and realize it’s Durango. “You’re here! I was so worried John gave you too much of whatever it was.”
“A tranquilizer. I got stuck in the hospital for a couple of days; otherwise, I would have been here sooner.”
I’m still shivering.
“Let’s get you into the car,” Ozzie says as he opens the back door.
Durango goes back to the driver’s side. “Let me turn up the heat.”
Ozzie takes off his jacket, then climbs into the backwith me and pulls me across his lap, wrapping me up in his coat. He holds me close to him.
“Any chance you have hypothermia?” he asks.
“I don’t think so. I kept moving to keep warm. But I can’t feel my toes.”
Ozzie takes my hands and examines them. He takes off my shoes and inspects my toes. “We can check you out more when we get back to…” He glances up at Durango. “I guess we should get a hotel room for the night.” Ozzie places his warm hands around my toes.
“Ouch!” I say.
The heat from his palms actually hurts.
“We’ll let them warm up a little slower.”
Durango is watching us but doesn’t comment on the fact that Ozzie’s hands are all over me, trying to warm me up. “You’re probably right. What are the odds that a small town has one?” He points back the way they came.
“I’ll check,” Ozzie says as he types into his phone. “They have a motel. Might as well see if they have a room.”
Durango turns the car around. Meanwhile, Ozzie continues to hold me in the back seat. His hand is rubbing up and down my back. I lean my head into his chest and close my eyes. Images of John flood my brain. Then the tears come.
“Hey, you’re safe now,” he says while his arms around me tighten.
“John kept coming after me even after he was hurt,” I say.
Ozzie stiffens. “What do you mean?”
I explain how John got me into his car, gave mesomething to fall asleep, then kept me at his house until earlier today. I still don’t understand how he found me so quickly in the woods.
“John fell back on a sharp branch, and his ass is punctured. He couldn’t really walk, but somehow, he’s in a car out searching for me. He was driving slowly and calling my name before you two found me.”
“He’s driving?” Durango asks.
“I’m not sure.”
