Sunset Key by Blake Crouch Read Free Book Online Page B

million dollars in a plastic tube. This should’ve been the most exhilarating, life-changing score of her life. Instead, she was being hunted down like a dog. Because she’d put her faith in a psychopath. Because, again, her judgment had failed.
    Something niggled at her.
    A seemingly small fact she was overlooking.
    A rodent scurried through some leaves nearby.
    A mosquito whined in her ear.
    What was it?
    No flashlight.
    That was it.
    Fitch hadn’t brought a flashlight outside with him. When she’d glimpsed him walking down the steps, she’d expected to see a light wink on. But it never did. And then he’d just strolled up that path in the dark like—
    Her breath caught in her chest.
    Like he could see.
    She sat up.
    That was n ’t a strange-looking hat he’d been wearing. Those were night-vision goggles.
    Thirty, forty yards away—impossible to know for sure—Letty heard branches rustling.
    It was the sound of something big coming her way through the underbrush.
    Get out of here now.
    Letty started pushing her way through the labyrinth of mangroves. By the time she broke free onto higher ground, her little black dress dangled from her by a thread.
    An oak branch beside her face snapped off.
    The gunshot followed a microsecond later.
    A boom like a clap of thunder.
    And she was running.
    Arms pumping.
    Gasping.
    Driven by pure instinct.
    She ducked to miss an overhanging branch, but another one caught her across the forehead.
    Blood poured down into her face.
    She didn’t stop.
    There were lights in the distance.
    The house.
    She veered toward it. At least inside, Fitch wouldn’t have the sight advantage he held right now.
    Letty came out of the scrub oak and onto the dirt path that cut down the middle of the island. For three seconds, she paused. Hadn’t had this much physical exertion in months. Her lungs screamed. She could hear Fitch closing in.
    Letty opened up into a full sprint as she approached the house.
    She reached the stairs, grabbed the railing.
    Three steps up, she stopped. Maybe it was a premonition. Maybe it was just a feeling. Something whispered in her ear. You go in that house, you won’t ever come out alive .
    She backed down the steps and stared into the darkness under the stairs. Where is the last place in the world he would expect someone to hide who can’t swim? She thought.
    Her eyes fell upon the snorkel set hanging from a nail driven into the concrete.
    She grabbed the snorkel and mask and took off running toward the east end of the island—the only side of it she hadn’t seen.
    She shot back into the scrub oak. Glancing over her shoulder, she spotted Fitch coming into the illumination of the floodlights mounted to the deck. He pulled off the goggles to pass through the light. Held them in one hand, that giant revolver in the other. A big, sloppy grin spreading across his face like a kid playing cowboys and Indians.
    Another fifty yards through the oaks, and then Letty was standing on the shore in her strapless bra and panties. Her Chanel had been ripped off completely.
    The water looked oil-black.
    She could hear Fitch coming.
    Wondered how much time she had.
    Wanted to do anything but wade out into the sea.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

    L etty pulled on the mask and stepped into the water. It was cool, just south of seventy-five degrees, and shallow. She took invisible steps, no idea if the next would plunge her in over her head or shred her feet on coral.
    By the time she’d gone thirty feet out from the shore, the water came to her knees. At fifty feet, it reached her waist. She stopped, couldn’t force herself to take another step. Hated the feel of it all around her, enclosing her. Reminding her in so many ways of death.
    Fitch stumbled out of the oaks and onto the beach. He stood profiled in the moonlight. He was looking all around as Letty jammed the snorkel into her mouth and slowly lowered herself into the sea. Struggling not to make a splash or a ripple.
    The water rose above