Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 77961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77961 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
We wrestle to get to the driver, and my leg gets caught in the gap between the seats, twisting in a way that sends fiery streaks of pain shooting all the way up to my groin. Mason’s a heavy fucker, and I’ve got all his weight on top of me. Mason punches me in the head and I jam my thumb into his eye, steeling myself against the sickening pop.
He screams. “I’m gonna fucking kill you!”
Bracing against the driver, I throw myself around, using him for leverage. I wrench open the door and flip him out with a move that would’ve made my high school wrestling coach proud. His limp body tumbles out, and the whole car lurches as the rear wheels run him over. The bump knocks Mason off balance, and I manage to push him back to the other side. Blood is streaming down his face.
“Can you drive?” I shout to Rory.
“On it!”
I force Mason deeper into the passenger side, giving Rory room to squeeze through and into the driver's seat. The door is still flopping, and just for a moment I imagine her losing her balance and tumbling out, but she settles in the driver's seat and gets her hands on the wheel.
Not a fucking moment too soon. She throws us back towards the right, barely avoiding a pickup truck that's frantically flashing its brights, like we don't fucking know we’re sliding all over the fucking road.
This time I've fucking got him, pressing my knife closer while both of his hands are trying to push my arm back. But with all my weight behind it, it's slowly closing on him. Motherfucker.
“Ms. Whittaker, it doesn't have to be like this!” he yells desperately. “I know you don’t agree with what your father’s doing!”
“Tell me where he is,” she screams back at him while she wrangles the limo into its lane. We hit a bump and my blade draws blood, a trickle of red sliding down in his throat and onto his shirt.
“We're almost there,” he yells desperately. “I didn’t lie about that. Go right up ahead, and you'll see that I'm telling you the fucking truth. I swear, we're almost fucking there.”
“Rory, we shouldn't—”
She turns the car down the road Mason indicates, jostling us. “If Dad is there, we have to get him.”
Mason tries to break free, but I throw that motherfucker right back into his seat. “Don't fucking think about it,” I hiss, then raise my voice. “We can't just fucking drive right into it. It's guaranteed to be a trap.”
“Don't listen to him, Ms. Whittaker. He's waiting for us.”
For a moment, she looks torn, but then two black SUVs peel out from dirt roads in the trees, boxing us in.
Mason grins, now that his cavalry is here. His expression turns into shocked surprise when I grab him by the hair and slit his throat with a quick pull of the blade, like he can’t quite believe that I would actually do it. Kidnap my girl? Of course I’d fucking do it. I shove him down quickly to keep Rory from seeing too many of the gory details.
Rory gasps. “Did you just—”
Fuck. “Eyes forward, Rory. We need to get the fuck outta here.”
“I can't! There's one behind us, too.”
Two loud pops like gunshots go off. The front of the car drops as the tires explode and the wheel hubs start scraping on the asphalt. What little is in the back gets thrown into the front with us at the sudden deceleration. And as soon as we screech to a complete stop, the SUVs veer out, giving them just enough distance for the riders to jump out on the far sides and aim at us, using their vehicles for cover.
The only good thing about realizing that you are utterly and completely fucked is that things become very clear very quickly. “Honey, I'm good, but not good enough to take them all out.”
I pull out my phone, set it on mute and bring up the first contact, typing a quick message and getting ready. I might not make it out alive, but if I can at least let someone know where we are, Rory could live.
She’s also entering crisis mode. She dives into the back and grabs her backpack, rummaging through it quickly and digging out a small black piece of circuit board with a plug on the end. “Hide this. If you can keep it away from them, do it. If you can’t, destroy it.”
I have no idea what it does, but I only need to know she wants it hidden. I drop it into the slight gap behind the boot holster for my knife. They’re gonna take that anyway. If I’m lucky, it’s so small that they won’t see it.
We stare at each other for a long moment. Cupping her cheek with my fingers, I lean in and kiss her. “It’s been fun, smarty-pants.”