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the situation worse not twenty minutes ago, and then what had she done?
    Stayed in the house where she was safe?
    Oh, no—not her.
    She’d had to try and prove a point by sneaking out.
    Had she thought of the possible consequences?
    No.
    Had she waited until she’d calmed down before deciding what her next step should be?
    No again.
    She hadn’t just landed on the snake’s head by accident this time; she’d jumped on it all by herself.
    ‘Damn it. When will I ever learn?’
    Royce peered through the front windscreen.
    He’d been quite content to follow Shara at a distance. Close enough to intervene at the first sign of trouble, but far enough back to let Shara think she’d made a clean getaway.
    It could prove interesting.
    Where would she go? Who would she meet? What would she do?
    The more he knew about her patterns of movement, her routine, the better prepared he’d be to deal with whatever the future held.
    Information was power.
    That wasn’t supposition; it was fact.
    But that attitude belonged to five minutes ago.
    He’d abandoned the hang-back strategy thirty seconds ago.
    For one simple reason.
    Shara was being followed.
    There was no doubt about it.
    Every time Shara made a turn the black sedan several cars behind her also made a turn.
    Every time she changed lanes the black sedan changed lanes.
    Logic suggested this wasn’t a random incident. Logic suggested that Brady had been watching the house and when Shara had left he’d followed her.
    Cursing under his breath, Royce pressed the accelerator flat to the floor. The large 4WD leapt forward like a giant predator, gobbling up the grey ribbon of road beneath its tyres.
    Thoughts whirred through his head at lightning speed.
    Possibilities. Probabilities.
    He assessed them all and came up with a strategy to counter each one.
    Mixed in amongst all the analysing was a good dose of blinding fury. Not co-operating was one thing, but an outright attempt to evade him was quite another—and completely unacceptable.
    The stunt Shara had just pulled reaffirmed his opinion of her.
    Her actions were thoughtless and selfish, and he wouldn’t put up with such spoilt, self-absorbed behaviour—a fact that he’d make quite clear when he caught up with her.

CHAPTER THREE
    S HARA glanced in the rear vision mirror again. The black sedan was right behind her. It was close enough that she could see Steve’s angry face framed by the front windscreen.
    ‘What am I going to do?’ she whispered.
    Thoughts swirled through her head, but no obvious solution presented itself.
    She glanced in the mirror again and did a double take.
    Surely that was—?
    But it couldn’t be.
    Could it …?
    A big dark 4WD she hadn’t noticed before was racing down the road behind them.
    She’d seen it before. Just last night.
    Royce!
    Royce was coming to rescue her.
    Relief washed through her in waves.
    She didn’t care how he’d found her. All she cared about was the fact that he had.
    ‘Thank you, God!’ she whispered. ‘Thank you.’
    What she needed now was a strategy. No more going off half-cocked and landing in even deeper trouble. She needed to think … and then she needed to act sensibly.
    She could brake. That was one option. Royce would catch up to her even faster. But what would Steve do?
    At the moment he appeared content to sit on her tail rather than actually
do
anything. It was an intimidation tactic that was typical of Steve.
    But if she slowed would he ram her with his car?
    She doubted it.
    This was a busy road. There was enough traffic to deter him from doing anything rash that could be witnessed and used against him. Unlike her, Steve thought before he acted.
    Her other option was to pull over to the side of the road. That would force Steve either to stop or keep on going. If her car doors were locked and Royce was hot on their tail she couldn’t get into too much trouble, surely?
    Deciding the latter was the better option, Shara glanced in her side mirror and