CHAPTER 1

EMILY PALMER LOOKED STRAIGHT AHEAD and pushed her way through a cluster of classmates. She didn’t stop as she glanced down at a red party cup that crashed to the ground, spraying beer everywhere.

Callie swilled alcohol around in her cup. “Is everything okay?” she asked.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” Emily answered as she rambled toward her car.

Once she reached her red Ford Tempo, Emily fumbled for her keys before the taunts from Josh Hood started.

“Leaving so soon?” he asked as he pinned the door shut with his hand.

“Get away from me,” she snapped, refusing to turn and look at him.

Josh didn’t move his hand. “Wanna go one on one this time?”

“Move now—I won’t ask again.”

He laughed while he stooped down and moved his face only inches from hers. “Make me.”

Emily turned at him and glared. Then she bit his arm. Josh yelped and began cursing at her—and he left himself vulnerable. Next, she delivered a solid kick right between his legs that sent him tumbling backward to the ground. Emily unlocked her car and scrambled inside. She locked the door and fired up the engine.

As she sped away, she heard several thumps on the side of her car. She checked her side mirrors and saw a lanky shadowy figure pursuing her. She stomped on the gas pedal.

Deep breath, Emily. It’s not your fault!

She had to convince herself of this because no one else would absolve her for what just happened. Not in Millersville. A 16-year-old girl standing up for herself and making accusations that would only be taken as scurrilous? She didn’t stand a chance.

Emily lived with her parents in an aging clapboard house tucked just inside Miller County off Powder Keg Road. Despite living at the edge of the county, her drive home usually flew by. The Kentucky hills rolled on for miles and made her feel as if she were sailing on a sea of green. Once the hills gave way to thick woods, she knew she was almost home. But tonight, nothing felt like it was flying, even as she noted her speed at 75 miles per hour.

Her eyes darted from the road to her rearview mirror and back again.

Come on, come on!

She finally entered the wooded area yet continued to check her mirrors.

Almost there.

Just above a rise about a quarter of a mile ahead on the left, she could see the sign for Powder Keg Road gleaming from her high beams. But she would never make it there.

Without warning, bright lights flashed in her rearview mirror.

“What the—”

Before she could get out another word, a truck pulled next to her and rammed her car, sending it careening off the road. Emily’s car came to a sudden stop when it landed in a ditch. With the front end of the vehicle a crumpled mess, smoke began to pour from beneath the hood.

The driver of the truck got out and surveyed the scene.

Emily felt blood oozing from her forehead. Her leg throbbed with pain and her back felt wrenched. “Help me!” she cried while struggling to free herself from the car, which was now smoldering.

The driver smashed Emily’s window and pulled her out. He laid her on the grass about thirty feet away from the car that was now engulfed in flames.

Emily’s right eye had already swollen shut and she could barely make out anything with her left eye. “Thank you,” she muttered as she stared at the familiar face.

“Don’t thank me just yet,” he said as he scooped her up and carried her toward the woods.