The city blurred past me in a jiffy as the vehicle hurtled down the road. I swiped my fingers through my hair, unable to quiet the voices in my head. I just needed some peace, but that seemed impossible to find.
The car surged forward with reckless abandon, and I almost knocked down a cyclist.
“Hey, watch it!” the man yelled as my vehicle sped past him.
I was too caught up in my thoughts to apologize or feel guilty about nearly hitting him. The car sped down the highway with my eyes fixed on the road ahead. It felt like I was running away from myself, but the faster I went, the emptier I felt inside.
First, I betrayed Nik; now I’d betrayed the whole bureau. Was there something wrong with me? Did I make the right choice by letting a man like him walk free? What if he came after me? What’s the guarantee that he’d forgive me for the trouble I put him through?
Would it even matter to him that I retraced my steps and refused to testify against him? Was I safe? What’s going to happen to me now?
Nik would come for me, and the Bureau would also do the same. The million-dollar question now was: Which one of them would find me first?
That question had barely registered when the sound of screeching tires behind me caught my attention. I looked in the rearview mirror just in time to see a black SUV make a dangerous swerve around a truck.
The car sped past us in an instant. The next moment, its bumper hit the back of mine, causing my car to jerk.
“Shit.” I switched gears and gunned the engine, my vehicle accelerating with a deafening roar.
I sped up the highway, the speedometer needle climbing up to three digits. The vehicle behind was unrelenting, the driver hitting the accelerator hard. It wasn’t until I looked more closely in the rearview mirror that I realized Nik was the one chasing me in that SUV.
My heart skipped a beat, and I slammed on the gas, my vehicle weaving through traffic like a rocket. He followed, chasing me through the city—every turn, every reckless swerve.
I refused to slow down, and neither did he. This man was determined to catch me, never to let me slip through his fingers. The closer he drew to me, the faster my heart raced. I wasn’t sure why he was hell bent on catching me, and I wasn’t ready to find out either.
I took a sharp turn down a lonely street, my tires screeching loudly against the asphalt. And just when I thought I had lost him, his car appeared behind me again. This time, faster than ever. I struggled to maintain a safe distance between us, but his car shot off and overtook mine in a heartbeat.
Nik swerved his vehicle to a stop, cutting me off with perfect precision. To avoid a collision, I had to slam on the brakes, bringing my car to an abrupt halt.
I watched him get out of his car and rush toward mine with hurried steps. By the time I looked out the window, he was already standing outside.
“Open the door,” he demanded. “Open it, now!”
Driven by fear, I unlocked it.
He yanked the door open, grabbed my hand, and forced me out of the car.
“Let go of me!” I blurted out, squirming out of his hold.
He left my hand and grabbed my jaw, his voice low and venomous. “I should end you right now.”
“For what, clearing your name?” I asked, masking my fear with anger and arrogance.
“My name was ruined because of you in the first place!” He raised his voice a bit higher than usual. “You betrayed me! You used me!”
I knocked his hand off my face. “That’s rich coming from the man who locked me up in his mansion for weeks!”
“I was trying to keep you safe, and you paid me back with betrayal!” he snapped, his tone tinged with more pain than rage. “You lied to me for months, used me, pretended you cared when in actual fact, you were just playing a part.”
His words cut me deeper than a knife.
My voice dropped to a low whisper, my eyes locked on him. “Is that what you think?” I began, calm and gentle. “That I was just playing a part?”
He stared at me in silence, his expression softening by the second.
“Was I playing a part when I gave myself to you twice?” My voice rose higher than his. “Was I playing a part when I got pregnant for you, huh?” I pushed against his chest. “Tell me, Nik, was I?”
“I don’t know. You tell me!”
