After walking for ten minutes, I still don’t have a signal, and I don’t like being this far from my truck. As I turn around to head back, I see lights in the distance.
“Hey!” I jump up and wave, but the car is too far away to see me. I watch as it gets closer, part of me wanting to flag it down and the other part wanting to hide in case whoever’s inside it is dangerous.
I decide to just risk it, not wanting to spend the night out here. As the car gets closer, I move to the other side of the road and jump up and wave. Turns out it’s not a car, it’s an SUV. As it reaches me, it swerves a little and slams on the brakes. The headlights are blinding me, but I can see someone getting out of the back. A tall, dark figure comes toward me.
I’m dead. This guy is going to kill me. Or rape me. Or both. Shit!
I take off, running toward my truck.
“Ella?”
I stop and look to see who said it, but I’m still blinded by the headlights. “Who it is? Who’s there?”
The dark figure moves closer. I’m about to take off running again, but then I see him, and his annoyingly handsome face.
“Briggs?”
Chapter 12
Ella
“Ella, what the hell are you doing out here?” Briggs asks, squinting from the bright lights. He looks back at the SUV, which I now recognize as Finn’s Range Rover. “Pull up!” he yells at whoever’s driving, which I’m guessing is Finn.
The SUV pulls forward, the headlights now shining in front of us instead of in our eyes.
“What’s going on?” I hear Parker yell as he rolls his window down.
“It’s Ella,” Briggs yells back.
“No shit?” Parker gets out of the SUV and comes up next to Briggs. “What the fuck you doing out here?”
“My truck broke down,” I tell him. “Can one of you call me a ride? My phone doesn’t work out here.”
“Ours don’t either,” Briggs says. “You have to go another eight or ten miles before you get service.”
“Great,” I mutter.
“We can give you a ride,” Briggs says.
I roll my eyes. “Thanks, but I’d rather not be murdered tonight.”
He glances at Parker. “She doesn’t want to be murdered. There goes our plan.”
“I say we do it anyway.”
For a moment, I think they’re serious. I’m about to make a run for it, but then hear them laughing.
“She fucking believed you,” Parker says, pointing at me. “Look at her face. You scared the shit out of her.”
“What’s going on?” Finn yells out the window.
Parker and Briggs ignore him.
“Can one of you call my dad when your phone’s working again?” I ask. “I’ll give you his number.”
“You really want to be left out here alone?” Briggs asks. “In the dark?”
“I’ll wait in the truck. I’ll be fine. Besides, why do you care if I’m out here alone? You’d love it if some psycho came along and killed me.”
