A low snarl rumbled up Snow’s throat as he was forced to stop at the intersection, his eyes still locked on Gratton as he plunged back into the growing darkness. Let him drop back into the shadows. It was better to be far from prying eyes. Bile rose as memories of what the man had done to Ian cluttered his brain. Never again. Gratton shouldn’t be allowed to breathe.
Cold air clawed at his fingers and stung his eyes, but he barely noticed. He waited only for an opening in the traffic. His entire body hummed with barely constrained energy until Snow was sure he was about to jump out of his skin if he couldn’t move soon.
As the light changed, Snow swore, launching himself across the intersection before the last car has finished crossing the thick white lines. He plowed through a smattering of people, deaf to the shouts, his focus only on where he’d last seen Gratton before the thickening shadows closed around him again.
The glow of the Village stretched only a few doors down West Sixth as he headed east. The bare limbs of the flaking sycamore trees stretched overhead. What few lamps that peppered this street were out, whether by some failure of the city or Snow’s poor luck he didn’t know.
His steps slowed as he reached the end of the street and the black, gaping mouth of a tunnel loomed before him. No light touched the darkness inside. Was Gratton waiting in there?
Fumbling in his pockets, Snow pulled out his car keys and thumbed on the tiny flashlight attached to the key ring. He scanned the ground, looking for a possible weapon and came up empty. It would be dumb as hell to go into that tunnel without one, but he didn’t want Gratton to get away. Snow edged forward, his heart pounding painfully in his chest as he swept the tiny light back and forth across the space wide enough to fit only a small truck. But there was no one waiting for him.
Snow paused as he exited the tunnel. The immediate area opened up, revealing the intersection between West Sixth Street and Johnson. There was a small, dimly lit parking space for local businesses and a bar along with a green space holding some kind of neighborhood sign that he couldn’t read, but no Gratton. It was as if he completely vanished.
“Fuck!” Snow balled his fists at his sides and took another step forward, but he didn’t know where to go. He needed help or maybe a plan. Rowe would be more than happy to help him, leaving Ian safely in the protection of Lucas and Andrei.
As he took his first few steps back into the tunnel, the low rumble of a car starting reached his ears. Snow turned to see a dark sedan back out of a parking spot and head slowly toward the tunnel. He took a step backward and found his shoulders pressed against the frigid concrete wall. He was trapped. And the driver knew it.
The sedan’s engine revved and the car leapt forward, barreling for the wrong side of the road and Snow’s tiny patch of sidewalk. Turning, Snow skinned his cheek against the rough concrete as he stumbled in his haste. Gaining more secure footing, he ran to the far end of the tunnel. Behind him, the engine of the car growled, echoing through the tunnel. Metal screeched as the car jumped the curb to run along the sidewalk at Snow’s heels. He didn’t dare look around and risk being run over or crushed against the wall.
The second he cleared the tunnel, Snow dove over a waist-high wrought iron fence and rolled across the hard, frozen earth until he was on his feet again. Sparks lit up the darkness as the car scraped along the wall before dropping back down to the road. The driver jerked the car across the grassy median to put it in the correct lane before roaring toward the Village. At Main, the car turned right, heading toward the river.
Snow dropped his head back and closed his eyes, trying to catch his breath now that he was safe. The asshole had tried to run him over. Unfortunately, he didn’t get a glimpse of the license plate.
A low groan rumbled from Snow as he straightened, aches filling his shoulder and back. His face stung from where he’d grazed his cheek. A trickle of blood chilled by the cold air edged down toward his jaw.
Standing with both hands gripping the ice-cold metal fence in front of him, he stared at the last place where the car disappeared. Should he tell Ian that Gratton was in town? Was there a chance in hell it was just a coincidence that they were all in the same place at the same time? He wished it was, but the ugly knot twisting in his stomach warned that their past was back to destroy their lives.