Avery was shaking, the fear of the unknown was almost as terrifying as driving in this storm. On both sides of the road the ditches were filled with water, the water falling faster than they could drain. Soon the roads would be flooded and they’d really be stuck. Or caught in a flash flood and drown.
Then she spotted headlights approaching fast from the oppositelane. A blue Ram truck came into view, then slowed down as it got closer. The road was narrow enough that two cars could barely pass, and in this weather they had to be doubly careful not to drive into the ditch.
Avery’s heart leapt into her throat. She couldn’t see the driver through the rain, but she recognized that truck.
Ryan.
“Just drive,” Rena growled. “Drive straight, drive slow, give no sign of anything to that driver, understand? Eyes forward, don’t even smile.”
Avery nodded. She couldn’t speak through the lump in her throat.
As Ryan passed her on the left, they were both going not much more than fifteen miles an hour. Their eyes met briefly.
Ryan did a double take. Confused at first, then recognition.
Then the moment was gone. He had passed them. His taillights blinked red. Rena turned around in her seat.
“Was that someone you know?” she demanded.
“N-no,” Avery stuttered.
“Fuck,” Rena muttered and twisted in her seat to look out the back. Avery glanced into the mirror and saw what Rena saw.
Behind them, brake lights flared.
No, Ryan, Avery thought, but didn’t say. She didn’t want him to be caught up in this mess. At the same time she willed him to follow and tried to think about how she could use this to her advantage.
Rena swore and glared at Avery. “Son of a bitch! He’s turning around.”
She grabbed the wheel and jerked it. Avery’s hands, still clamped to the steering wheel, burned as the zip ties cut into her wrists.
The truck swerved violently off the road and Avery screamed. Tires tore through wet gravel, then mud, then the world dropped out from beneath them. They crashed through a rotted fence and tumbled down a muddy slope into the waterlogged ditch. Thetruck slammed into the water nose-first, buried at a forty-five degree angle. Avery’s head cracked the steering wheel. Pain flared across her forehead. The airbag didn’t deploy.
She coughed, dizzy, disoriented, the roar of the water and pounding rain filling her ears. Thunder rocked the truck and Avery moaned.
Rena was climbing into the backseat. The two front doors were held shut by the water pressure, but the driver’s side back door was only partly blocked.
“Sam! Come on!” Rena shouted. She pushed open the back door, climbed out, partly in the ditch and partly on the slope. She yanked her brother across the seat and out. He stumbled, fell to his knees, got up and scrambled up the slope with Rena.
Avery blinked water out of her eyes. They were going to leave her here. They were going to leave her tied to the steering wheel to drown.
Ryan.
They were going to carjack Ryan, maybe kill him! Because he saw her and recognized her and came to help.
Rena didn’t look back. She half dragged Sam out of the cab and up the slope, her boots slipping in the mud.
Then she was gone.
Avery jerked against the wheel. The ties wouldn’t budge. Her hands were frozen, her fingers numb, her wrists bleeding and raw. Water poured in, covering her feet, moving up her legs. The truck groaned, the engine sputtered, then it died.
Through the pounding of the rain, she heard squeaking brakes and the blare of a horn. It seemed to go forever.
Ryan.
Then she heard a gunshot.
Ryan knew better than to get out of his truck, but Avery was in that ditch, and the truck was half underwater. What if she was unconscious?
