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I look at the road and see a giant semi-trailer coming right at Drew.
Drew’s SUV disappears like he’s teleported it, the semi coming within inches of my car, my rearview mirror filling with the dark, ominous presence of Drew’s windshield. Somehow, he pulled back just in time for the semi to go past.
I start hyperventilating.
“LINDSAY? YOU WITH ME?” he shouts, pulling back next to me again.
I can’t breathe. Can’t talk. Can’t think. Can’t anything.
“LINDSAY! I WILL SAVE YOU.”
He pulls up, going faster than me. I’m driving at seventy-three miles an hour now on a road meant for forty mph.
“I’M HERE!” I shout.
“GOOD GIRL. STAY WITH ME. YOU’RE GONNA FEEL A BUMP. HOLD ON.”
His SUV is in front of me now as we race and twist, the road like that old-fashioned Christmas ribbon candy. All I can do is sway and drive, sway and drive, sway and drive. My butt hurts and my thighs are screaming from pushing the brake over and over, like it’ll magically kick in. My head feels like it’s on fire and I’m inching up to seventy-five, seventy-six, seventy-seven...
“I’M ABOUT TO LET YOUR BUMPER HIT MINE, LINDSAY.”
“WHAT?” I nearly pee my pants. “YOU’RE GOING TO CRASH INTO ME?”
“NO. I’M GOING TO SLOW YOU DOWN. JUST KEEP STEERING. STAY WITH ME. STAY WITH ME, BABY. YOU CAN DO THIS.”
Baby.
Baby.
My stomach heaves again, but this time from emotion. Baby. Drew used to call me baby. It was his pet name for me, a word he used when he stroked my face, when he kissed me under the moonlight at the beach, when we cuddled around a bonfire.
And now, when we’re racing toward a fiery crash of death.
My body whiplashes as the front of my little Honda Fit crashes into the back of his enormous SUV. My hood buckles. I’m wedged under his back bumper.
“YOU OKAY?” he screams.
“I’M HERE.”
“ALL RIGHT, BABY. LET’S MAKE THIS WORK. POLICE ARE ON THEIR WAY. LET’S DO IT.”
The grind of metal against metal splits my eardrums, the jolt of car against SUV creating a kinetic energy that ripples through me. It’s the biggest shockwave you can imagine, followed by a maddeningly itchy vibration. My car groans, and the speedometer changes fast. My head feels like someone snapped it off.
Chapter 33
Forty-nine.
“HOW WE DOING?”
I feel the rear tire do something weird. The car wiggles in the back, and then takes a sharp yank to the right. I’m barely attached to Drew’s SUV. The car starts to pitch down, from behind.
“WHAT IS HAPPENING?” Drew shouts.
I look back. The oceanside road has gotten narrower and steeper. The back of the car is hanging off the cliff.
“BACK OF CAR! CLIFF! OH MY GOD!” I can’t think straight, can’t make a coherent sentence.
Forty-seven miles per hour.
