Chapter 44
The past four years ago
Clare knew she had no choice; they were close to the woodland area, if she threw herself out, and she still had a chance. “Tim, I need to jump.”
“Don’t be so bloody stupid. He will come after you. You’ll be hurt, you won’t get far.”
“I don’t have time to discuss this with you. Your Range is a hulk. Take it to the right and let him batter the shit out of it as I make a run for it. Tim please it’s my only chance. You know that.”
The BMW hit Tim’s car again, Clare was thrown forward her entire body slamming into the back seat, and it was too late to consider that maybe she had taken the seatbelt off too early. “The man is insane Tim. He won’t stop; you need to let me do this.” She was gasping as she spoke, every rib felt as it if had been broken.
Jonathan was not letting go. He knew she was in there; he was prepared to kill to get her back. He didn’t care whose car was a match for whose, he was getting her and he was getting her now.
Tim easily turned the wheel and swerved the car, Jonathan’s BMW drove straight into the side, he reversed and came smashing back into the side of the Range Rover. “Now Clare! Now is your only chance.”
She hurled herself out; the drop to the ground was further than she anticipated. Clare rolled clutching her sides as she did. Tim caught her eyes as she looked up at him. “Run.” She saw his mouth form the word, adrenalin rushed through her body and from somewhere she found the strength to get up and run through the woodland.
She could still hear the crunching noise of metal as Jonathan’s car slammed again into Tim’s. Tree branches scratched across her face, she stumbled and fell, feeling her face squashed into the moist earth. All Clare wanted to do was lay and sob on the ground.
The pain soared through her ankle, holding the scream in her throat she pulled herself up off the ground and tried to run, the pain seared, she knew she had to keep going. Her breath was coming in short spurts, her ribs ached and the terror gripped her like nothing she had felt before.
Her life depended on her instinct to survive, to put as much distance between her and Jonathan as possible. He was not a man of empty threats and this time she knew he would hurt her.
She kept going and going until physically she could not run any further. She stopped, it was unchartered territory for her, and she was lost. Very lost!
Desolation and despair filled her, as she sat on the damp ground behind a huge oak tree. The stark realisation that her mobile and her purse, with her only money was still in Tim’s Range Rover brought tears to her eyes, they began to flow and silently she wept. Their meticulous plan had all gone out the window in one just one day.
Clare stared ahead at the trees; something caught her ear. Was it the sound of a branch breaking? She held her breath, surely not she told herself. She could not allow herself to even think that Jonathan would be behind her, she had been quick to jump out and make a run for it.
It was definitely the sound of a branch snapping. Sweat began to trickle between her breasts; the pain in her ankle was unbearable. Rustling of leaves made her ears prick on end, something was close by. She pushed her small body against the large tree and closed her eyes. Not daring to move, she waited.