Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91402 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 457(@200wpm)___ 366(@250wpm)___ 305(@300wpm)
Fucking move! I would not stand here, powerless. The Range Rover might have survived the blast—
“Heads up,” Ethan said in an urgent, alarmed voice as he shoved me from the road. A dark SUV roared straight for us.
He had his sight set down the barrel of his pistol, aiming at the driver. I was with him on this plan, to commandeer the vehicle. But as it neared, I recognized it. He must have as well, because he lowered his weapon.
The Range Rover, with Jason seated behind the wheel, growled to a stop beside us.
Blood trickled down my brother’s neck stemming from his ear. Fletcher sat in the passenger seat with dirt, blood, and an angry expression splattered across his face. The window had been shattered, and he yelled through it. “Get in!”
Ethan yanked open the back door, and I jumped in after him.
“Go!” I ordered before we were seated, before I even had the door closed.
“Where’s Tony?” He asked while reloading his weapon.
It came from both men in the front seat. “Down.”
35
KARA
The car took a corner so hard I slid across the seats and my head collided with the door, jolting me awake. The pain had diminished to a level that was more bearable, less searing. But I felt sick.
Oh, no.
I turned my head and vomited on the floorboard. Juric was driving, and although he didn’t turn to look at me, he must have heard what I’d done.
“I threw up in your car,” I said, somewhat proud of myself.
“Not my car.”
I was still foggy. What were these sparkly crumbs all over me?
Safety glass. That was why it was loud. He didn’t have the windows down—the back windshield had been shattered. Panic surged inside me when I realized this was Shawn’s car. Where was he? Oh, God. What had Juric done to him and Ethan?
I tried to sit up, but the pain was intense and lingering.
“Stay down, unless you want the marshal to accidentally put a bullet in your head.”
How long had I been out? There was a noise, like hail but louder, on the trunk of the car. Bullets.
The car wove dramatically, and every time I reached for the door handle, another swerve sent me crashing to the other side of the back seat.
“I don’t recommend jumping, if that’s your plan,” he said. “If you were unlucky enough to survive, the pavement would take your skin off.”
Posed with the alternative of spending more time with Juric, was this really that bad of a choice? Yet I’d made enough bad choices to last a lifetime, so I heeded his warning. He fumbled with his phone. I’d be damned if I’d let him call for reinforcements or do anything else with it.
Screw the pain. Pain is fleeting.
I reached for the door handle, and he swerved again, helping to prop me up. Ignoring the danger from the car behind us, I lurched forward, grabbed his phone, and tossed it straight out the open back window.
It bounced noisily off the trunk, shattering with a satisfying crack.
I’d caught him off guard, but he recovered quickly. “You’re going to wish you hadn’t done that,” he snarled.
I did the instant I saw his gun. It had been in his lap, and he took one hand off the wheel to grasp it, his finger on the trigger. He bent his arm backwards through the seat opening and buried the barrel in my knee. He pressed down so hard, I couldn’t move free of it.
“You’ll have to carry me, if you do that,” I said, trying to appeal to his practical side while wincing from the pressure.
“Only if I decide to keep you. I could shoot you in the stomach and listen to you die.”
“You don’t want that. You’ll never have gotten control of me. I’ll win.”
“I don’t think you’ll care when your dead.”
No, of course I wouldn’t, but I was banking on him caring.
Suddenly, the car jolted. I flew forward, my body colliding with the back of the front seat. We’d just been rear-ended by the car behind us with a sickening crunch. It sent a new wave of pain through me . . . but it was a blessing in disguise.
It made me aware that I had control of my body.
We were on the outskirts of a village, and Juric had to slow to weave through the traffic. I turned to look out the back window—
All I could see was the front seat, and Shawn was not there. Jason’s face was pure focus, his hands wrapped around the steering wheel of a Range Rover. There was an unfamiliar man seated in the passenger seat, blood and dirt dotting his face and light brown hair. Despite the high speed and frantic turns that we made, Jason kept the Range Rover unbelievably close to us.
For a half-second, I considered scrambling out the broken back window and up onto the hood of their SUV, but . . . really? I was still weak and by no means a daredevil. It sounded like a great idea if I wanted to die.