Page 52 of Taking His Heart

“A cat?”

“Yes, they’re way better than dogs.”

“You’re seriously a cat man? How did I not know this about you?”

CJ shrugs. “I always wanted one, but Aiden is allergic. And because of that asshole, I was never allowed to get one as a kid.”

“Aw! That’s kind of sad and cute.”

CJ turns to look at me. “It is sad. I think you should kiss my sadness away.”

I lean over to press my lips to his, and my body gets thrown back against my door as the car spins. A loud bang, followed by another, sounds out with the clashing of metal hitting metal.

Everything is happening so fast. The car spins and then swerves. CJ doesn’t say anything as his hands work the steering wheel, turning it sharply. We’re then on the other side of the road, speeding against oncoming traffic.

I want to scream at him. Panic has my throat dry, my voice gone. I’m frozen to the spot as my hands grip my seat belt. Staring at cars coming straight at us at an alarming speed.

“What the fuck was that?” CJ breaks the silence in the car.

“I…” I shake my head. But it’s not me he’s asking. A male voice comes over a speaker.

“Ambushed,” is all the voice says.

Then the car is spinning again.

“Hold on,” CJ says as he turns the steering wheel, navigating us on to an off ramp.

I breathe a sigh of relief when I see we’re now going in the right direction of the traffic. That relief doesn’t last long, though. CJ continues to speed up and starts swerving between the cars. I look behind us. There’s no one there.

“You can slow down. No one is following us,” I tell him.

He doesn’t say a single word to acknowledge that I’ve spoken to him. Instead, he hits a button on his steering wheel. “Call Dad.”

Okay, well, guess I’ll keep my thoughts and panic to myself then.

I don’t want to distract him when he’s driving like this. I trust CJ. I know he wouldn’t purposely do anything to put me in danger, even driving erratically. I know my father made Aurelio do a heap of defensive driving training sessions as a teen. I wonder if CJ’s parents did the same.

Of course, when I asked dad to do the training, he told me I didn’t need to because I’d always have a driver. And then I went to Mum and she told my dad he was being chauvinistic and if it was good enough for Aurelio, it was good enough for me and Rosie. Needless to say, I got those lessons. I hated them but stuck them out to prove I could.

“CJ, where are you?” Mr. Bianchi’s voice comes through the loudspeaker.

“We were ambushed. Two cars went up in flames,” CJ explains.

“You okay? Where are you?” his father asks.

“Fine. I got the hell out of dodge. Managed to lose whoever the fuck it was. About five minutes from the Lopez estate.”

“Daniella okay?”

This causes CJ to briefly look over at me. “She’d be a hell of a lot better if she wasn’t being attacked,” he grunts.

“I’m fine, Mr. Bianchi,” I chime in.

“Okay, good. You sure you lost them?” he replies.

“Yeah,” CJ says.

“Good. I’ll meet you at E’s.” The line goes dead and then a silence drops over the car again.