AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Almost.” Mato, whose upper body had been shielding Prim from view, deliberately leaned back to give the man a look.
Prim wasn’t sure what made her look up —morbid curiosity, perhaps, or a crazy death wish? Instead of the monster she’d been expecting, she found herself staring into the cool, dispassionate gaze of a perfectly normal looking man.
He was blonde, blue-eyed, and clean-shaven. His navy suit looked like it was designer quality. He wore a simple white dress shirt, unbuttoned at the neck. No tie. One hand was draped carelessly over the wheel as he continued to rev his motor.
“Move.” He spoke one word as he raised a black-as-sin handgun. It had an unusually long barrel.
A silencer.Her whole body went numb.
Mato revved his motor sharply, shooting ahead of the other car. As it turned out, he’d pressed the gas pedal in the nick of time. A bullet pinged into the metal body of his car.
Prim was too frozen to move. Unless she was mistaken, the man had been shooting at her. Air wheezed torturously in and out of her mouth as she experienced her first panic attack.
Before she could catch her breath, the other driver revved his motor and caught up.
“Come on!” Mato shouted to him at the top of his lungs. There was a maniacal ring to his voice. “One last race, man!” He hit his gas pedal and brake at the same time, skidding his tires and leaving rubber.
The smell of burning rubber filled the car, making Prim feel nauseous. She didn’t dare look up again.
The other car leaped forward as the man gunned his motor.
“That’s right, you animal,” Mato growled, mashing his gas pedal to the floor. “Hold on, Prim!”
“To what?” She gasped out the words, flailing with her bound hands.
He didn’t act as if he’d heard her. He gripped the wheel with his injured hands and drove for all he was worth.
A short line of cars appeared over the next ridge. Two were in front of them. One was in the other lane.
Prim clung to the grab bar, watching in horror, as the other race car driver zipped through the line of cars, running the one in the left lane off the road.
Her lips moved in a frantic prayer for mercy, though no sound came out.
Mato hung back behind the two cars in front of them, weaving back and forth on the road behind them as if he was trying to pass them.
The other race car disappeared over the tip of a hill ahead.
“Okay. This is our only chance,” Mato informed her between gritted teeth. “We’re gonna make a break for it, Prim.” Without warning, he jammed on his brakes to the shoulder.
Instead of stopping, he slowed to a crawl and drove the car down the embankment. When he finally turned off the motor, they were sitting well below street level.
Her eyelids fluttered in alarm against her cheeks as she straightened and stared dazedly out the window. “Wh-what next?” They were still a good quarter mile or so from the garage she’d toured.
“We run.”
“Where?” For as far as she could see were tree-studded hills and deadfall strewn across the ground.
“There’s a cave ahead.” His face was a deathly pallor as he struggled with the door handle. “My dad’s waiting for us there. He has a plan.”
You seriously expect me to trust the guy who got all of us into this mess?She moaned in despair as he got his door open and managed to lift the gun between his injured hands.
“Come on, Prim,” Mato begged, jogging around to her side. “We probably don’t have much time before he circles back, and I’m not exactly following orders here.”
She fumbled with the door handle and pushed it open, sending a longing glance at the weak hold he had on the gun. It probably wouldn’t be hard to wrestle it away from him at this point.
“Whatever you’re thinking, please don’t do it.” He shook his head at her. “It’s the only reason I put you in cuffs. I didn’t want to fight with you.”
“I suppose you made me throw my cell phone out for the same reason,” she snapped, gritting her teeth to keep them from chattering.
