Sunset Key by Blake Crouch Read Free Book Online Page A

cooking, trying to process her next move. So much fear coursing through her, she felt paralyzed.
    There were dishes everywhere.
    A tart cooling on the granite beside the oven.
    Water dripping from the faucet.
    Every second slipping by like the prick of a needle.
    Fitch expected her to run. To chase her across the island. So should she stay in the house? Hide in a bedroom on the second floor and let him wander around outside in vain?
    Decide. You can’t just keep standing here.
    Grabbing the knife, she bolted across the room into the foyer. Jerked open the front door. Slammed it shut after her. She shot down the steps, wondering which way to go. The shore seemed like a bad idea. She headed into the interior of the island, staying off the path, fighting through the undergrowth. Gnarled branches clawed at her arms. Ripped tears in her Chanel dress. Her bare feet crunched leaves and tracked through patches of dirt. She’d barely made it fifty yards when a blinding pain seared the sole of her right foot.
    Letty went down, clutching it.
    In the moonlight that filtered through the leaves, she studied the damage. The underside of her foot had been starred with a dozen sandspurs. She began pulling them out one at a time. Wincing. Wondering how many minutes she had left. Less than two? Less than one?
    The sound of the front door creaking open on its salt-rusted hinges answered her question.
    She looked up.
    All she could see was the top half of Fitch standing on the deck. When he reached back to shut the door, she noticed that he wore a strange-looking hat. He moved out of view, the steps groaning as he descended.
    Letty dug the last few spurs out of her foot.
    She could hear Fitch approaching.
    Footsteps and heavy breathing.
    She didn’t move.
    Figured Fitch had to be walking up the path. It didn’t sound like he was thrashing through undergrowth.
    Letty inched back farther into the shadow of the scrub oak. Tucked her chin into her knees and tried to make herself as small as possible.
    Fitch passed within twenty feet.
    She crouched there listening until his footfalls could no longer be heard.
    Letty crawled out from under the oak and came to her feet.
    Total silence.
    The stars shining.
    The moon still climbing in the sky.
    She knew what the shore on the dock side of the island was like from that sunset stroll. A narrow strip of beach lined with vegetation. No place to hide.
    She moved slowly through the scrub oak, taking care that her shoulders didn’t brush against the branches. She crested the midpoint. The island sloped gently down to the opposite shore. This side struck her as more wild. There was no beach. Just mangroves all the way down to the water.
    She squeezed her way through the slim trunks. The mangroves grew more densely clustered as she neared the shore. Letty crawled on hands and knees now. The foliage above her head so thick, it blotted out the sky. Only splotches of moonlight scattered across the ground.
    She went on until the trees were too close to go any farther.
    They boxed her in like prison bars.
    Lying on the ground, her body twisted between the mangroves, she finally breathed deep and slow.
    The temperature hovered in the upper sixties, but she was shivering, covered in sweat. Her dress had been shredded as she climbed through the mangroves. It hung from her shoulders in tatters.
    She felt good about this spot. Considering that it was dark, she was all but invisible. And Fitch would have a hell of a time reaching her. She couldn’t imagine the old man, who had at least ten inches on her, fitting through this grove of tightly packed trees. How big had he said this island was? Fourteen acres? Best-case scenario, she could hole up here for the night. Fitch had to report to prison tomorrow. If she could survive until then…
    Letty glanced at her watch. The tips of the hour and minute hands glowed in the dark.
    Seven thirty.
    She should’ve been meeting Javier at the east end of the island with fifteen