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“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.”
