“Get her out of here!” Blake cried out. “I’ve got this.”
Corey grunted as he lifted me higher.
I slapped at him. “We have to get Fred!”
“They brought reinforcements,” Corey said. “There’s two more Hummers on the way. We’ll be lucky to get out of here.”
No. We couldn’t leave him. “We have to stay. Fred…”
There was another round of shots. Someone was firing at the SUV.
Brandon emerged from beyond the other side of the Hummer. He had Fred by his elbow. Fred stumbled a little, but jogged alongside Brandon toward the Mercedes.
“Put me down,” I said. “I’ll drive.”
“No,” Corey said.
“I’ll do it,” I said. I nudged the Taser toward him. “You navigate, I’ll drive.”
As we headed toward the Mercedes, I noticed Axel had turned, firing back at the oncoming vehicles. Marc and Raven piled into the Montego and pulled up under where Axel stood on the roof. Axel took a few more shots and then jumped, landing on the roof of the car without his rifle. If it was empty, and they had to climb the roof to get to it, there wasn’t much point in taking it along while trying to jump into a car.
He grabbed onto the roof of the car while Marc took off. Axel threaded himself in through an open window into the passenger seat, steadied by Raven who helped pull him in.
We piled into the Mercedes, Brandon and Fred in the back, Corey in the passenger seat.
“What about Blake?” My stomach churned at the thought of leaving him behind.
“He’ll be fine if we can get the other bounty hunters to chase us. He’ll just have Henry and the two guys left.”
“He doesn’t have a ride out.”
“He’s got the SUV and Future’s here,” he pointed toward the black box van that was circling around the buildings.
My heart in my throat, I was grinning big seeing that van. She did really like it.
The engine was still running in the Mercedes. I shifted into drive and stomped on the gas.
The vehicle took off in a shot. Super speed.
I really liked the car.
THE MONTEGO VS. THE MERCEDES
I followed Marc, who had taken off ahead of us in the Montego. The Hummers that had come in after us were in stuck between a group of units, too big to turn around without crashing into the concrete brick. One tried, smashing a rear light. The other started rolling backward carefully, trying to complete the turn around.
But they were too slow for a Montego and a Mercedes.
Marc didn’t stop to wait for the gate. He barreled through it while it was starting to open, pushing it out of the way so we could get out quickly. I heard the scrape of metal on metal and cringed, but at least we were free to get out.
I followed like his shadow, as close as I dared.
We were out on the street, on the long stretch of road with nothing much around us.
Behind us, the Hummers had caught up and were barreling down after us.
“We’re done for,” Fred said. “We’ve got to turn ourselves in.”
“We just need to get away from these guys,” Brandon said. He looked at me. “Who let her drive?”
“If I hear one comment about women drivers,” I said, “I’m pulling over.”
Corey had his phone out, turning it on and typing in buttons. “Getting maps. But if we’re heading north away from town—“
“We need to lose them,” Brandon said.
“We can’t do this,” Fred said. “The police will…”
“We’re a long stretch from the city,” Corey said. “And those aren’t the police. They’re the bounty hunters that work for Henry. The police won’t catch up with us unless someone’s ahead of us and those bounty hunters wouldn’t want to get caught by cops that aren’t their buddies.”
“Corey,” Marc’s voice cut through. I hadn’t realized Corey had dialed him up and put him on speaker. “Tell us where to go, man. I’m running blind.”
“Head north,” Corey said. “Take this business road. Avoid the highway.”
“You better have a plan other than try to outrun them.”
“Nine Mile Road,” Corey said, scanning his phone. “Heads east and west. At the split, we go left. You go right.”
“You’re putting yourself in the middle of a conservation area,” Axel’s voice called through. “If you take that road, you’re isolated.”
“There’s roads that lead further into the forest, and then spots where there’s swamps. If we can run fast enough ahead of them, we can pull into one of those spots and might lose them.”
“I don’t like it,” Axel said.
“We’ll be lucky if they don’t call anyone else in. If we go too far down this way, there’s another city and that’s too risky. Too many factors and opportunities for people to get hurt.”
“Let’s do it,” I said. I looked at Corey, who shared a brief moment with me. I nodded, smiling. “Sounds brilliant. Let’s do what Corey says.”
“Bambi,” Marc said. “Shush.”
“I get a vote, don’t I? I want to take Nine Minute Road.”
“Nine Mile,” Corey said.
“That one.”
A groan emanated from the phone, sounding like Marc.
“I vote Nine Mile, too,” Brandon said.
“Me, too,” Fred said. “I get to vote? I’m in the car.”
“Okay,” Axel said. “Let’s do that.”
“Bambi,” Marc said. “I’m going to do something crazy. When I get clear, go as fast as you can toward that exit. Do what Corey says.”
“On it,” I said, beaming. I smiled at Corey.
Corey smiled back but talked to the phone. “If you lose them, come after us. I’m going to hang up. Use the GPS to track where we are.”
“Keep in touch,” Axel said before the phone silenced.
The Montego sped up in front of me. Suddenly it jerked to the left, taking up the wrong side of the road. It slowed and then matched my speed.
Raven had the window rolled down. He made a motion for me to roll mine down and I did.
“Hey, Little Thief!” Raven boomed at me. “Show me some of that sweet, sweet ass!”
I flicked him a smile. I reached out, picking up Blake’s aviator sunglasses and put them on, looking back at the boys in the Montego. I smiled prettily.
Raven smirked, shaking his head. Marc leaned forward enough that he could see around Raven and his mouth dropped open.
I waved and then pushed the gas pedal down to the floor.
As smooth as silk, the car shot forward down the road. The Montego was gone in an instant. I was lucky I had a clear stretch with no one on the road. This business road was nearly barren, but there was absolutely nothing to lead the Hummers on our tail astray, even if we kept going.
As we were speeding along, the Montego kept up a little, but never managed to catch us. It pulled back, behind the Hummer that was trying to follow me, and got behind it. I lost sight of him but I had a feeling he was separating the cars chasing us.
“How fast are we going, exactly?” Corey asked.
“Uh,” I glanced down at the dash. “What’s… what’s two hundred and sixty kilometers an hour converted…?”
Corey twitched his eyes back and forth like he was doing the math. “About a hundred and sixty…”
“That’s how fast,” I said, and smiled. That was a lie; I was only going a hundred. Going faster made the wheel shake and I didn’t like it. I just wanted to make him worry.
“Kayli!” Brandon barked from the back seat. He was clinging to the back of Corey’s seat, and stuffed his seatbelt on. “If you kill me in this damn car—“
“I wouldn’t insult the driver while she’s driving,” Corey said, although he started putting on his own seatbelt. He leaned over, reaching around me. “Don’t freak out, I’m putting your seatbelt on.”
“Don’t distract her!” Brandon yelled.
I didn’t move, only
focused on the road, trying to keep the wheel straight as the car zoomed forward. Corey kept a hand on me while he reached for the seatbelt, then slid it across my stomach and connected it at the buckle at my hip. “See?” Corey said. “She’s good. We’re a team. We work great.”
Brandon groaned. “I still don’t understand how Blake Coaltar ended up here.”
I started to open my mouth, trying to come up with something that would defend my decision, cover Blake, and blame myself for forcing Corey to go with me. “I...”
“I found him,” Corey said. He looked at me, his eyes steady. The smile wasn’t there but there was this tiny bit at the corner that lifted up. “Kayli called after the party disaster and I bumped into him.”
“So you just decide to bring him along?” Brandon asked. “What were you thinking?”
“Hey,” Corey said. “He helped, didn’t he? He’s the one back there with Future, rounding up those other two, trying to clean up our mess.”
“As far as we know, they’ve got them out-gunned,” Brandon said. “There’s nothing stopping them from killing the lot and driving them out to some swamp. We don’t know what they’ll do.”
“You have to trust they’re smarter than that,” Corey said. “He’s got a clean record, outside of our last shindig. And Future…well…”
“I still don’t understand who you guys are,” Fred said. “She said Harry sent you.”
“We’re professors,” Brandon said, as if he’d had his story ready. “We’re from the same school.”
“That prep school he goes to… what’s the name? Something French. Le Guinn Academy?”
“Yeah,” Corey said. “That one.”
Fred made a noise. “What kind of school is it?”
The Academy had a name? The kid told his cousin about it? I guess if his parents let him go to school at this Academy, he probably had to have a name for the thing.
Fred pressed his hand to his face and wiped at it. “That’s one hell of a school.”
“Yup,” I said loud, and glanced at Corey. Corey beamed.
“Don’t we have to turn?” Brandon asked.
“Coming up,” Corey said, pointing.
I slowed, giving the Hummer behind me a chance to keep up, and so I could make the turn without killing us all.
We ended up on a narrow two-lane road, surrounded by trees instead of out in the open. There were slight turns and it was impossible to see too far ahead. If I went super-fast, I was at risk of running into someone who may be slow or stopped on the road.
I gunned it as soon as the Hummer pulled in behind us.
“I don’t like this,” Brandon said.
“She’s doing fine,” Corey said.
“That’s not—“
A thick metal clunking sound echoed through the car. I didn’t get it at first. I thought maybe the tires picked up a rock.
The boys ducked automatically low in the seats.
“Shit!” Brandon yelled. He opened the middle console from behind and started searching it. “They’re shooting at us. Tell me the badass billionaire keeps a gun in here.”
“What do we do?” Fred asked, ducking low with Brandon in the seat.
“Punch it,” Corey said to me.
My heart was in my throat, but I focused on the road, pushing the pedal down as far as I dared. A straight shot was one thing. The slight curves in the road and the high speed required complete focus.
I prayed we weren’t about to run into anything.
At first, the Hummer stayed with us. They took a couple more shots at us, but completely missed the car. They couldn’t get in a clean shot with both cars swerving.
They went for trying to barreling me down.
When I saw him starting to creep up on my left, looking to tuck into my rear tail light, I stomped on the gas and shot forward.
The Hummer swerved, where it almost hit us but missed.
“They’re trying to kill us,” Fred said.
“We gave them cover,” Brandon said. “No witnesses.”
“Let’s make sure we lose them,” Corey said. He pointed forward. “Keep on this road, Kayli. Brandon, watch the back. There’s a bunch of these little outlet roads along this stretch. If we can get ahead of them enough…”
“We can pull into the swamp and be trapped,” Brandon said.
“Or they keep going forward, thinking we’re ahead of them.”
“Or they shoot us down before we get a chance.”
“All you Negative Nancys can get out of the car right now,” I yelled at them.
“Shush,” Brandon said. “Keep driving.”
“She is driving,” Corey said.
“Stop sticking up for her all the time,” Brandon said. “She can defend herself.”
“Stop yelling at her.”
I sighed, swallowed and focused. Loved them both, but I was about to ditch the car and take my chances on foot in the swamp.
And then I had a brilliant idea.
“Corey!” I cried. “Corey, Corey, Corey…”
“What? What? What?”
“Tell me there’s a turn where there’s like… water at the end. A swamp?”
“There’s swamps all over.”
“Look ahead of us,” I said. “I need to turn onto a fairly straight road that leads to low water.”
Corey picked up his phone and stretched out his map. “Maybe a mile and a half away.”
“What are you planning?” Brandon said.
“As soon as we get to that turn, I need you guys to jump,” I said.
“We can’t jump when you’re going this fast,” Brandon said. “And we’re in the back seat.”
“I’m going to slow down in the turn. Everyone get out.”
“You’re fucking insane!” Brandon said. “That’s too much time.”
Corey looked behind us at the Hummer that was keeping up, barely. There were parts where it was out of view for a second. He looked ahead, and then looked at his phone. “If we don’t run into anyone on the way, we should be able to get ahead just enough,” he said. He looked at me. “If you hurry.”
I bit back fear and got as close to a hundred as I dared.
Brandon kept shaking his head. It looked like Fred was making a sign of the cross across his chest.
“Coming up,” Corey said. “On the left.”
“We’re losing them?” I asked.
“Good enough.”
I didn’t have a chance to look back. “Right at the turn off, I stop the car. Everyone gets out, take off through the woods on foot. Try to separate.”
“What about you?” Corey asked.
“As soon as you get out, I’m going to try to lead them toward the swamp.”
“You’ll be a sitting duck,” Brandon said. “They’ll shoot the shit out of you.”
“Do what I say.”
“We’re not leaving you,” Brandon yelled at me.
“Hey,” Corey yelled back. I thought that was the first time he really yelled back at Brandon, putting a boom behind his voice. “She’s got a plan. I think it’s a good one. Trust her.”
Brandon shook his head, his mouth open like he wanted to yell back, but couldn’t come up with anything.
I slowed the car enough, and at Corey’s directions, turned onto a narrow, one lane dirt path.
I stopped when I was partially out of view of the main road, but the tail was visible. “Go!”
Corey jumped out, pulled the back seat away enough and held open the door enough for Fred and Brandon to jump out.
As soon as they were clear, before Corey had a chance to close the door, the Hummer appeared behind us. It moved quickly past us as they’d been going too fast to turn quickly. Tires screeched as they slammed the breaks.
I started to punch the gas. I needed to get them away from the guys.
Right as I started taking off, Corey ran forward, clinging to the door. He got in, slamming it shut.
“Corey!” I screamed at him. “You jerk face! W
hat are you doing?”
“No one goes alone,” he said, a smirk on his face.
I rolled my eyes, sighed and shook my head. He was planning to stay all along. He must have used twin telepathy or something to tell Brandon he’d stay and that’s why he stopped arguing. I could have shot them both.
The Hummer appeared and started hauling it down the dirt path, getting right up on my butt.
“How far is the swamp?” I asked.
“A mile,” Corey said. “I think.”
“You think?”
“These small roads aren’t precise on these maps. It looks like it heads straight to the swamp though.”
I nodded. “Let me know when we get close.”
“What are you going to do?”
“Whenever we get to it, I’ll stop the car. We have to jump and run. They may crash into it.”
Corey stared ahead at the dirt path. I kept my eyes on the road. I didn’t see a swamp in front of us, only more dirt. I tried speeding, but it was difficult because we were bumping along, hitting holes in the road. The Mercedes wasn’t designed for this.
The Hummer was dominating. There was a thunk and we lunged forward. The Hummer was going to try to run us over.
“You need to get ahead of them,” he said.
“I’m going to smash us into a tree on these pot holes.”
“If you go fast enough,” he said. “You won’t feel them. You fly over them.”
“Really?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Physics.”
“Corey,” I said, speeding up. “You didn’t have to lie to your brother. I mean about Blake.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s better this way.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. There wasn’t time and there’s been so much going on.”
“I was mad at you,” he said and then he turned toward me. I couldn’t turn my eyes from the road, but I could feel his gaze. “If anyone had a reason to hate and avoid Blake Coaltar, it was you. So whatever compelled you to take a chance, it had to be a big reason.”
My cheeks heated to full tilt. He’d figured out what I was up to. “It wasn’t you,” I said. “I never… you’ve always been nice to me. I just couldn’t go in blindly.”
“It’s not easy looking from the outside,” he said. I caught a glimpse of his smile. “And now that I’ve talked to Blake, he’s not that bad. Maybe he’s another one where we were too far on the outside to see the inside.”