Did she regret her almost year-long journey to trying to quietly and calmly find her brother? No.
Did she regret breaking the law, fighting off bad guys and going up against Lawson by herself? No.
Did she regret sharing her life story and current plan with Price Collins, charming deputy with an easy smile and warm hands? Not at all.
Did she slightly, a little, maybe kind of regret not listening to him back at the barn and chasing one of the men all the way into the woods while he dealt with the other, only to fall down a rather steep hill, making herself an easy target for said man? Well, she couldn’t say shedidn’tregret it.
She didn’t recognize this man, but made the assumption that he might have been the one who had attacked Josiah Teller after she had left his house.
And that jump in conclusion happened all thanks to the knife he had in his hand as he backtracked to the spot at the bottom of the hill where she was currently struggling.
All the training and skills she had accumulated through the years took a back seat while she scrambled to pull air back into her lungs. The impact of the fall had done more than a number on her.
“Your hands go into your pockets at all, and I cut them off.” The man’s voice came out strong and full of oxygen. He was a few yards away but closing that distance fast.
JJ put her hands up in defense. Her leg muscles worked double-time to push her to stand.
“Un-unarmed,” she managed to say.
The man kept coming.
JJ hadn’t seen the state of Josiah’s house after his attack, but she had seen the man. The cuts, the blood… She could fight against a knife but, the truth was, knives scared her simply for the fact that she could imagine what a cut felt like. The pain and sting. It was all too easy to imagine what the man could do without having it actually happen.
“Stop—stop,” she said around a cough.
He still didn’t.
So JJ took a lesson out of her godfather’s page of parenting.
“Chicken—chicken wings!”
Her voice had found some more of its strength. The man she’d just yelled at heard what she said loud and clear.
And it made him slow.
“What?” he asked.
JJ took a tentative step backward.
If she hadn’t fallen, she could have cut off his attempt to pull his knife out. Now? She needed help. Preferably her partner with the gun. JJ, at least, assumed Price had his service weapon on him.
Either way, two people against one very sharp-looking knife sure sounded more strategic than one.
“Spaghetti!” JJ yelled, this time louder than before. “Fruit Roll-Ups, hummus, Pringles!”
The man’s eyebrow rose but the rest of him paused.
She had confused him enough to have him stop in his tracks.
The second he stalled, she went into gear.
JJ spun around and ran along the bottom of the hill, hoping for an easier way up than the tumultuous path she had taken down. The man cussed behind her. She wasn’t going to be a damsel from a movie and look back. Instead, she tucked her chin and made fast work of searching out more even ground. She couldn’t have been that far away from Price. Once she was at the top of the slope, she could probably see where he was detaining the man from Jamie Bell’s house.
“Winnie Collins!”
JJ came to an almost instant halt.
She whirled around, utterly confused.
