“Go away,” I screeched. The pounding ceased and the elevator moved non-stop downward.
It wasn’t my imagination. Jackson was out to get me. He wouldn’t let up until he got what he wanted, me dead or behind bars for a crime I didn’t commit. It had all been about payback.
When I reached the lobby, I bolted from the elevator car like hell’s demons bit at my heels and darted toward the exit.
No one shouted my name.
A hand didn’t clamp down on my shoulder.
No gunshots pierced the silence.
I ran into the night.
As I hastily made for the street, my cell rang in my pocket. I stopped to check call display. Jackson.
He was probably calling from the hospital lobby wanting to know where I was. I found a bush to hide behind and answered his call.
“What do you want?” I looked through the branches, waiting for him to show himself. He didn’t.
He was cagier than I would have thought.
“Josie, my God, where did you run off to? If it was something I said or did, I’m sorry.”
He was good. I gave him that.
“Tell me where you are, and I’ll come to you.”
I just bet he would. “It’s not a good idea.”
“You come to me, then.”
Footsteps echoed in the air.
“That’s not a good idea, either.” I ended the call, set the cell to vibrate and moved deeper into the evergreen shrub, using the branches to hide me. The phone quivered in my hand. The footsteps I’d heard stopped. I looked at the screen. Jackson. I peeked through the foliage but saw no one. It didn’t mean he wasn’t out there somewhere, though.
A full sixty seconds passed in silence. Not the sound of a car, a bird, a voice, the crunch of gravel. Nothing. Just dead air.
Time seemed to stand still.
Then my ears popped, and I heard an owl hooting, a car starting, a cell ringing and a siren squealing. If I waited any longer, I would have another panic attack and Thomas wasn’t around with a paper bag. I was on my own.
I sprang from my hiding place and ran through the parking lot and onto Pine Street, not knowing where to go from there. I knew where I couldn’t go – Amy’s. Jackson knew I stayed at her apartment for the time being.