Page 48 of Read This Before the Villain falls in Love with You

I cross my arms. "We put milk in things that deserve it. Unlike you people, who put opinions in things that don't need them."

He laughs, one hand loose on the wheel, and for a second the road ahead is just gravel and cypress trees leaning in from both sides, gold light coming through the branches like something out of a postcard nobody would believe was also a crime scene waiting to happen.

Then the SUV comes out of the tree line behind us, and there's no time to be think about anything.

It hits our rear bumper hard enough that my head snaps forward and the seatbelt bites into my collarbone. Dino swears in Italian, both hands back on the wheel now, and the second vehicle swings wide to the left like it's trying to box us in against the ditch.

"Get the fuck down!" he bellows, the amusement vanishing in an instant as his knuckles turn white on the wheel.

I don't need to be told twice. I drop sideways across the seat as the back window explodes inward, glass raining across my shoulders in a hundred small stinging bites. Gunfire, fast and flat, cracks somewhere close, and Dino jerks the wheel hard right. The car fishtails, tires screaming against gravel, and for one long, sick second I genuinely believe we're going to roll.

We don't. We slam sideways into the ditch instead, hard enough that the airbag punches out of the wheel and catches Dino across the face. He groans, and there's blood, too much blood, running from somewhere along his hairline.

I crawl forward on my knees across the shattered glass, gripping his collar with shaking fingers. "Dino. Look at me before you pass out."

He blinks hard, batting my hand away while wiping blood out of his lashes. "I'm good. I'm completely good, just give me a second to find where my skull went."

"We don't have a second for skull hunting!" I smack the back of his headrest to rattle him awake. "Look in the side mirror, genius!"

"Can you drive?" I check behind us through the missing glass. Tires crunch over the gravel, steady and calm.

He grunts, fumbling at the crumpled ignition column with bloody knuckles. "I said I'm good."

"You're bleeding into your eyes, you idiot!" I shove hard at his shoulder. "Start the car before they blow our heads off!"

"Stop hitting my spine, I'm working on it!" Dino jabs the start button until the engine coughs and roars to life.

Dino coughs out a raw, bloody breath and yanks the shifter into drive. I spin around, peeking over the headrest through the jagged frame where the rear glass used to be. Two men step down from the black SUV into the dust, combat boots hitting gravel in sync. Both keep short black rifles tucked tight against their shoulders, barrels locked dead on our bumper as they walk toward us without breaking stride.

I dig my nails into the upholstery and scream at the top of my lungs. "Drive! I don't care if the fucking car sounds like it's dying, drive!"

Dino floors it. The car screams out of the ditch at an angle that should not be physically possible, throwing me sideways into the door, and another burst of gunfire chews into the trunk behind us. Something metal pings off the frame close enough that I feel the vibration through the seat.

I point frantically ahead, where the private road forks toward open fields on one side and the estate gates on the other. Adrenaline has clearly made me the navigator. "Left! Take the fucking left, it's shorter!"

Dino hauls the wheel around until his forearms bulge. "How do you know that?" he shouts over the whining engine.

I hold onto the roof handles as the car shakes violently. "Because I looked at the map so I could escape, and today is the day!"

"Remind me never to play trivia against you!" Dino mutters under his breath.

He takes the left. The car clips a low stone wall on the turn, sparks flying off the paint, and for one gut-dropping second we're airborne over a dip in the road before the tires slam back down. I bite down hard enough on my own tongue to taste copper. Behind us, the SUV is still coming, closing the gap, and I turn to look through the shattered rear window at the two men leaning half out of their vehicle, weapons braced.

I grip the headrest and track the black bumper surging forward in the dust. "They're gaining."

"I noticed, fucking thank you!" Dino jerks the wheel as his chest heaves.

I brace myself against the dashboard. "I'm just saying it out loud in case pointing at things helps!"

"It doesn't!" he roars.

The estate gate appears ahead, iron and stone and, thank God, already swinging open, guards spilling out from either side with rifles raised the second they register the second vehicle. Dino doesn't slow down until we're through, tires screeching against the courtyard gravel, and the moment we stop moving my whole body decides this is the appropriate time to start shaking uncontrollably.

Behind us, the estate's men open fire on the pursuing SUV, and it reverses hard, tires spitting stone, and peels away back down the road it came from. Nobody chases it. I find out later that's a deliberate decision, that Adrian doesn't want his men strung out along an open road while whoever sent that car regroups somewhere with better cover. In the moment, all I understand is that the noise stops, and my ears are ringing, and Dino has slumped back against his seat with blood running into his eyebrow like he's just run a marathon and lost.

I unbuckle my belt with numb, trembling hands. "You're still bleeding."

He manages a faint, bloody grin as he wheezes. "You're fucking observant. Guess the whole crisis thing is real."