He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not

she flung open the door. His fingernails scraped across her skin, gouging her arm. She fell to the ground, rolled away from the car. Scrambling to her feet, she took off running toward the trees.
    E ven before Logan pressed his fingers against the side of Bennett’s neck to check for a pulse, he knew Bennett was dead. His skin was still warm, but not as warm as it should be. The side of his head was bloody, but that wasn’t what had killed him. “His neck is broken.”
    “What the hell happened here?” Pierce picked up the chain lying on the floor, attached to a metal hook.
    Logan took the chain and held it up so the light from the cabin’s window shined on the links. “There’s a long, brown hair.”
    “Amanda’s?”
    “Count on it.” Logan dropped the chain and rushed outside, studying the ground, looking for a trail to tell him where Riley had taken her. His car sat abandoned a hundred yards away, the passenger door flung open. The engine was running when he and Pierce had arrived. Pierce had turned it off and grabbed the keys to ensure Riley couldn’t get away if he managed to get back to his car before they found him.
    They’d wasted precious minutes going into the cabin, but they had to be sure Amanda wasn’t inside. Logan crossed to the car and tried to interpret what he saw in the dirt. He crouched down, mentally sorting through the footprints, piecing together what had happened.
    “I’m not sure where Bennett fits into this, but I think Riley must have made Amanda think he was here to help her. She got into the car with him. Then something tipped her off and she jumped out of the car, fell.” He walked around the door, picked up the trail again. “She got away from him and ran toward those trees. Riley ran after her.”
    They jogged the fifty feet to the line of pine trees. Logan tried to find the trail again. “There are too many pine needles, not enough dirt. I can’t tell which way they went from here. There are two paths here.”
    “The brush is thick,” Pierce said. “If either of them went off the path we should see some broken branches, maybe some torn clothing.”
    “Let’s go.” Logan motioned for Pierce to take the path on the right, while he took the one on the left.
    “W hat have you done?” Amanda cried out.
    Pierce had burst into the clearing with his gun raised, apparently surprised the path ended so abruptly. That split second of indecision may have cost him his life. Riley had brought down his own gun on the side of Pierce’s skull, dropping him to the ground.
    Now he lay unmoving, and Amanda wasn’t sure if he was even breathing. She ran toward him, but Riley’s arm snaked around her waist and he yanked her against him. She twisted and tried to pull away, but he slapped her across the face, slamming her head back.
    She held a hand to her throbbing cheek, blinking back the tears that had sprung to her eyes. Her heart ached for the man she’d known as Riley—and his boyish charm—because the man with her now wasn’t the Riley she’d known. “Why are you doing this, Riley? I don’t understand.”
    He reached a hand up toward her face and she shrank back from his touch. His eyes filled with regret. “If I hadn’t left that damn CD in my car . . . ah, well. It was just a matter of time. This wasn’t how I’d planned to punish you, but as it turns out, this will take any suspicion off me. After I punish you, and eliminate Pierce and Logan, everyone will think my brother is responsible. I’ll be a hero.”
    “Your brother? But, who . . . Tom Bennett is your brother? I don’t understand. He attacked Karen. He abducted me.”
    “Tom knew you’d found me again. But Tom is . . . was . . . weak. He never understood. He thought he could protect you by taking you away. He didn’t want me to know where you were, but, of course, as soon as I heard you’d been taken, I knew it was Tom, and I knew he’d come back here. We grew up here.” He shook his head. “We argued about you several times. I tried to explain, tried to tell him you had to be punished or we’d never find peace.” He tapped the side of his head. “Tom was always a little off. He never understood. He didn’t believe me when I told him you’d come back so soon.”
    The horror of what she’d done filled Amanda. She’d killed a man who was trying to help her. “He was trying to save me,” she whispered. “From you.”
    Riley’s hand tightened around her waist, and he leaned