Bisti Wilderness Area

New Mexico

Nikki Malone expected to start the New Year off with a bang. What she didn’t expect was that she’d be kicking it off with a shootout over stolen drug money.

“Yep, that’s what happened. Exactly.”

Nikki glanced at the backpack in the passenger seat. Even in the dim interior of the car she could make out the dark patches of blood staining the faded blue denim.

Sammy's blood.

A shiver shimmied down Nikki’s spine as her gaze cut back to the long stretch of unpaved road in front of her. Remembering how Sammy had died, fear drenched her in her own cold perspiration. As far as she knew, his corpse was still sprawled where she’d dumped it—somewhere in the desert. Only God knew exactly where.

Nikki hadn't done the killing, though. No, far from it. Sammy had gotten his own self killed.

“Holy shit,” she muttered. A nightmare come to life, nothing she’d encountered in her twenty-three years had ever prepared her for this. She’d just witnessed an act of shocking brutality, seeing her boyfriend shot down like a rabid dog.

Thunk! Thunk! Thunk!

The sound of shots ringing out still echoed in her ears, kick starting her breathing with an involuntary burst of adrenaline. Complete, paralyzing shock. That pretty well described her. She tightened her grip on the steering wheel as if expecting to hear the sounds all over again.

Vision momentarily blurred. Fear blossomed inside her heart all over again. She hastily blinked away the tears. Lose it now and she'd go to pieces.

Nikki gave her cheek a slap, relishing the brief sting of her palm against her skin. Sometimes pain could be a good thing. This was no time to cry, nor time to mourn. She had to be hard, cold and emotionless. Get the job done by getting her ass down the road, far away from the danger Sammy had plunged her into.

She pressed her lips together until her jaws began to ache from clenching. Her whole body felt hot, sticky. Fueled by disbelief, shadowy thoughts swirled in her mind. Don’t look back. You can never look back. The last thing she needed was to think. But her brain betrayed her, rewinding and replaying the same bloody footage until she thought she’d scream.

“We were stupid,” she muttered bitterly. The memory sent a hot tremor through her. Their lives had been less than stellar, but at least they'd been alive. With one stupid act of greed they’d erased their chances of a clean start like chalk washed off a sidewalk by a furious rainstorm. Stealing from drug dealers was a bad idea.