Bad Penny by Sharon Sala Read Free Book Online Page A

window filming the evidence of the destruction. Then he heard the familiar whap-whap sound of helicopter rotors and glanced up. Another news crew.
     
    “How do they get out and about so fast?” Carter muttered, more to himself than to Wilson.
     
    Wilson heard his father’s voice, but couldn’t make out the words. His mind was trying to get past the sight of a truck bed sticking out of the north end of the stock pond. He grabbed the dash with one hand and the door handle with the other.
     
    “Stop,” Wilson said.
     
    “What’s up, son?” Carter asked. “Dad! Stop! Now!”
     
    Wilson was already opening the door before Carter hit the brakes, and he was out and running as Carter slammed the shift into Park. Carter was yelling at him to be careful, but Wilson didn’t hear. His heart was
     
    pounding so hard he couldn’t hear himself breathe as he cleared the ditch and kept on running.
     
    Carter cursed beneath his breath. Wilson wasn’t in any shape to be jumping stuff. Dorothy would have his hide if he brought their eldest son back to the house in any condition other than safe. Still, he knew Wilson well enough to know something must be wrong. He shifted into four-wheel drive and drove off the highway across the ditch, then through the break in the fence where the wire was down. He didn’t know the news crew had noticed the same thing Wilson had until he glanced up in his rearview mirror and saw them following.
     
    He frowned, then glanced up at the chopper overhead. “What the hell?”
     
    It wasn’t until he saw the back bumper and part of a truck bed sticking out of the pond that he panicked. God in heaven, it looked like Wilson’s truck.
     
    Catherine!
     
    Wilson didn’t know or care that his hasty exit had started a parade of vehicles trailing him to the pond. But he knew now why Cat hadn’t answered the phone.
     
    The sky was clearing. Patches of blue were showing through the swiftly moving clouds, which seemed wrong. How could the weather be improving when his life was going to hell? Rain had collected in indentations in the ground, and now it splattered up and onto the legs of his jeans as he ran. The body of a steer lay up against what appeared to be a piece of
     
    someone’s roof, but he didn’t give the macabre scene so much as a glance.
     
    Even before he reached the pond, he knew it was his truck. Seeing the plate number only confirmed his worst fear. By the time he reached the water, he was shaking. Without hesitation, he pulled off his boots, dropped his cell phone inside them and went into the water, then began feeling his way along the truck body until he reached the door. He took a deep breath and went under, desperately pulling at the handle, but no matter how hard he yanked, the door wouldn’t budge. It was wedged too deeply into the mud.
     
    God…please don’t do this now…not after everything we’ve been through.
     
    Out of breath, he was forced to emerge. He paused only long enough to take a deep breath, then went back under.
     
    He was feeling his way along the truck body to the other side, trying not to think of the obvious implications. He found the other handle, but that door wouldn’t give, either. He pulled and pulled until his lungs were bursting. In fear and frustration, he shot to the surface.
     
    Carter was in the water a few yards away.
     
    “Wilson! Is she there?” he yelled.
     
    Wilson didn’t answer. He was already going back under, even though he knew too much time had passed. Even though he knew she might not even be inside. Even though…
     
    His mind was racing as he began to move along the length of the truck
     
    again—this time aiming for the hood. He felt the curve of metal, then the place where the windshield should have been. To his horror, it was gone. He pulled himself up and inside the cab, operating entirely on touch. He found the steering wheel first, then felt the back of the seat. Desperate to find her, but dreading the