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I spotted the railroad crossing sign ahead, glowing in our headlights. “There! There’s the tracks!”
The narrow road Lucas had told us to take was going to require an extremely sharp left turn. There was no way Manson could make it without slowing down, but we were barreling towards the tracks at a terrifying speed.
“Oh my God,” I said the words in the barest whimper, but Lucas still heard me.
“Manson is going to take care of you, sweetheart, don’t worry,” he said. But I didn’t like the way he said it; something in his tone raised red flags of worry in my head.
“Please be careful, Lucas,” I said. The tracks were coming closer...closer... “Please don’t do anything that might —”
“Hold on to something, Jess,” Manson said. But I didn’t even have time to brace myself before he wrenched the wheel to the side.
The tires screeched and the car swerved, the back end sliding as we turned hard to the left. The car bumped so hard that I dropped the phone, and I grabbed onto the harness and held on for dear life. The g-force was so intense it made me nauseous. Manson straightened out, and the Mustang bounced hard as it flew down the narrow pot-holed road.
He kept glancing in the rearview mirror, his eyes growing wider with every passing second.
“Goddamn it, Lucas,” he said. “He didn’t follow us.”
Turning in my seat, I saw only darkness behind us. When we turned, Lucas must have kept driving straight, leading our pursuers away from us.
Scrambling to pick up the phone, I called Lucas again. It kept ringing and went to voicemail. I tried again — no luck. With every unanswered ring, I felt sicker.
“He’s not answering,” I said, my voice sharp with dread after I’d called Lucas for the fourth time. If the bastards succeeded and ran him off the road, at that speed the resulting crash could be fatal. We had no idea where he was, and we didn’t have enough gas to go back.
“Text him,” Manson said. “Tell him to meet us at the house. I think I can make it back if I’m careful.” My breath hitched as I typed, and Manson suddenly reached over, grasping my thigh. “He’ll be okay, Jess. He’ll be okay.”
He sounded like he was trying to convince himself as much as me.
***
The Mustang was sputteringas we pulled into the yard, its fuel completely depleted. It didn’t even make it inside the garage before it turned off. Manson hurriedly got out, bringing his cell to his ear as he walked back toward the gate. I ran to join him, and together we looked down the road.
But no one was coming.
Manson dialed the number again.
And again.
“Come on, you fucking bastard, pick up,” he said. I waited with bated breath to see if this was the call Lucas would answer.
Nothing.
“Fuck!” Manson moved as if to redial, paused, then started pacing, running his fingers through his hair.
“He should be here by now,” I said. My hands wouldn’t stop shaking. The thought that Lucas was out there somewhere alone, possibly wrecked, possibly hurt, possibly...no.Don’t think about that. “We need to go look for him.”
Manson nodded, latching on to my suggestion like it was a lifeline in a churning ocean. “We’ll take the Z, it has a full tank. I need to find the —”
The rumble of a familiar engine reached my ears, and it felt as if my heart burst apart as a pair of headlights turned toward the house.
Lucas pulled up next to us, rolling down the window as he grinned. “Miss me?”
He barely had a chance to pull the handbrake before Manson wrenched open his door. The car stalled as Manson pulled him out of the seat and into an embrace, squeezing him so tightly that Lucas wheezed, “Jesus fucking Christ, I’ll take that as a yes.”
There was damage to the driver’s side of the El Camino — long white scratches in the paint, and a massive dent on the fender. But all that mattered was that Lucas was here — alive and safe. Manson wasn’t letting him go, so I threw my arms around Lucas from behind, clinging to him, trying to keep my breathing steady as his familiar scent surrounded me.
The very thought of something bad happening to him had thrown my mind into a panic. I didn’t even want to fathom the thought of waking up to a world without him in it.
“Don’t fucking scare me like that,” Manson said. “I didn’t know what the hell you were doing.”
