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She had to wait on some traffic, so even though he had to walk farther, he was right behind her as she left the lot. She drove the speed limit, and stuck to the slow lane. He wondered if she did it to annoy him, and grinned at the thought. Everyone knew cops drove faster than the speed limit; it was kind of a job requirement.
Traffic was light, so as he followed her Eric had plenty of time to think, to consciously admit some things to himself. He wanted her. Not just for a night here and there, not for a date or two. She’d gotten under his skin in a big way, and he might as well not fight it. He wanted her, bad coffee, trust issues, and all. It had been a long time since he’d wanted anyone or anything this damn bad. He even liked the way she poked at him, like she was doing now with her overly cautious driving. If this was her normal mode of driving, she wouldn’t have been paying a speeding ticket the first time they’d met.
His gaze was on her taillights, and his mind was definitely elsewhere, so the red light caught him off guard. He’d have been tucked right on her ass, otherwise. Jaclyn made it through on yellow. Was she trying to get away from him? Trying to annoy him? It wasn’t like he didn’t know where she was headed. Had she run through that light because she was driving as absentmindedly as he was, and maybe for the same reason? Maybe she was thinking about last night, or last week, or the possibilities for tonight. Even better, maybe she was thinking about the possibilities for next week, or next year.
After checking oncoming traffic and finding none, Eric thought about going through the red instead of waiting for the light to change, but a woman in a tight exercise outf
it made a quick turn and popped into the crosswalk directly in front of him, jogging, her ponytail dancing with each step. He made a disgusted sound in his throat. She had to be the slowest damn jogger he’d ever seen.
Headlights suddenly loomed behind him. A light-colored car, a BMW, flew past him on the left, blowing through the red light and almost taking out the jogger. The woman jumped back, directly in front of Eric’s grill. She yelled at the car that had almost mowed her down, and then shot her middle finger toward the taillights.
Directly ahead the street shifted from four lanes to two, with turn lanes in between, and oncoming traffic began blaring horns at the Beamer. The Beamer swerved, then sharply pulled in right behind Jaclyn. Damn, that had been close.
And why take the chance of running the red light, and getting ahead of exactly one car? The payoff was way too small for the risk. Except—
“Shit!”
Eric popped the red light onto his dash, turned it on, and lowered his window to scream at the jogger, who was still standing in front of his car staring at the offending BMW. “Lady, get the fuck out of the way!”
The woman turned sharply, anger plain on her face. Maybe she’d been about to argue with him, maybe shoot him a bird, too, but she saw the flashing cop light and obeyed, lurching back onto the sidewalk. As he shot past her he saw her smug, vindicated expression as she sent a “gotcha” smile down the road.
Jaclyn and the other car were too far ahead of him. He could feel every foot that separated him from her, panic moving like shards of ice through his veins. If he were right, he couldn’t get there in time. He knew it. He could see it happening in front of him, and there was nothing he could do about it. To make things even worse, as he shot through the intersection another car made a right turn in front of him, slowing him down even more. No one seemed to be registering the light yet; oncoming traffic wasn’t moving to the side, and the asshole in front of him wasn’t pulling off the road.
He grabbed his radio and began yelling into it, edging to the left as he tried to force a path past the car in front of him, who stubbornly refused to yield. No matter what, he thought, this asshole was going to get a ticket.
Jaclyn realized, too late, that she’d left Eric back at the red light. She slowed down a little so he could catch up with her after the light changed. He probably thought she’d left him behind on purpose, but she hadn’t. Maybe he did turn her upside down and inside out, but she wasn’t silly, and trying to evade him when he knew where she was going was worse than silly, it was downright stupid.
Because she was watching him in her rearview mirror, it was impossible to miss the speeding car that ran the red light. Instantly she saw the hazard, the car flying toward her, the road narrowing down to two lanes, the oncoming traffic. She flinched and speeded up, trying to give the car room to pull in behind her because there wasn’t room on the shoulder for her to let it by, which she would have preferred doing. It was better to have stupid drivers ahead of her than behind her, anyway.
The car darted in behind her, then surged forward and hit her rear bumper. The rental Toyota lurched, skidded sideways a little, regained its traction. Jaclyn cried out, but knew to let the car’s steering correct itself. That’s what the bells and whistles were for. She wanted to fight the steering wheel, but she knew better, and sure enough the car straightened itself out.
What was wrong with the idiot behind her? Her first thought was “drunk,” and then her heart skipped a beat. The last time she’d thought a drunk driver was on the road with her, that “drunk” had tried to kill her. This wasn’t the same car. Even though every witness had remembered a different color, they’d all remembered dark. This car was light in color, kind of a tan. She knew Eric would want her to try to make out an emblem or a name, something by which to identify the car, but as the car rammed her again—harder this time, so hard she was jostled and once more the Toyota went skidding sideways—she gave all her attention to the road. Thank God! In the distance she saw the flash of light that assured her Eric was coming.
The car behind her pulled into the now-empty turn lane and speeded up to pull alongside. Jaclyn turned her head, looked at the other driver. Despite the wide-brimmed hat that shaded a large part of the driver’s face, and despite the rapidly fading light, the headlights of the oncoming cars and the lights from the dash revealed a face she knew.
Taite Boyne, the maid of honor who had told Carrie to fuck off in such spectacular fashion. Her teeth were bared in a grotesque travesty of a smile. The passenger-side window was down, so Jaclyn also saw, very clearly, the pistol in Taite’s hand. Instinctively Jaclyn hit the brakes.
The shot went wide, missing Jaclyn but shattering the driver’s side window and the windshield. The car behind Jaclyn rear-ended her and sent the rental car up and onto the curb. The impact was incredible, rattling every bone in her body and throwing her forward against the seat belt, which jerked her back with a force that jarred her head as if she were being whipped back and forth on an unpredictable roller coaster. She held on tight, shaking and shaken by the gunshot and the jerking of the car. Her heart pounded, every muscle in her turning into a weak, trembling mush. The only thing that kept her from completely losing control was the fact that Eric was coming.
The car that had rear-ended her shuddered to a stop and the driver jumped out.
“You stupid bitch!” the driver screamed at Jaclyn, “what the fuck you doing?” He was scarlet in the face, shaking his fist at her as he advanced toward her car.
Ahead, Taite made a wide U-turn in the road. Panicked, Jaclyn turned her head and saw the light that signaled Eric would be here in seconds, but Taite was much closer, and seconds would be too late. She was a sitting duck; she had to get out of the damn car.
“Get down!” she shrieked at the angry man bearing down on her. “Gun!” As she screamed she fumbled for the release on the seat belt, trying to fight her way free, but the latch seemed to be jammed. The man glanced around, noticed the flashing light and the speeding car and the shattered windows, and with a curse he moved to the side of the road to duck around and behind his own car, flattening his body on the ground and covering his head with his hands.
Jaclyn threw an agonized glance at the oncoming car. She couldn’t get out; the seat belt held her pinned so tightly she could barely move. No, it wasn’t the belt, it was her hands; they were shaking so violently she couldn’t press the release. Three seconds.
She pushed the latch and the seat belt snapped away. Two.
She threw herself sideways, trying to reach the passenger door. She was too late, too late. One. Taite was almost there, almost even with the car.
And then Eric’s car sliced by, light flashing, and instead of swerving around Taite, he rammed his car into hers, head-on.
Air bags had to be one of the best inventions ever, Eric thought foggily as he swam toward consciousness. Thanks to the impact his head swam, too. And, fuck, he hurt. He felt as if he’d been hit in the face with a baseball bat. He was going to feel like hell tomorrow. But he knew where he was, knew exactly what had happened.
He’d only been out a couple of seconds, because Jaclyn had just reached the car and was doing her best to open his door, frantically yanking on the door handle, screaming at him. Eric lifted his head. He could see just enough through the shattered windshield to tell that the front end of his car was smashed and twisted. The car might be totaled. Shit. The paperwork on this was going to take a week and a half.
