Go. Go. GO.
I risked one glance back. Caleb had stopped running, standing in the dust cloud I'd left behind like a statue carved from rage. His massive fists were clenched at his sides, his chest heaving, his whole body rigid with barely contained violence. Leo was beside him now, one hand on his brother's shoulder, holding him back or holding him up, I couldn't tell. Even from this distance, I could see the shock on Leo's face. The disbelief.
They hadn't expected me to run. Not like this. Not so fast, not so recklessly, not with such desperate determination.
Good, I thought viciously, my fingers white-knuckled on the steering wheel.Underestimate me. See where it gets you.
The driveway stretched ahead of me, longer than I'd expected—winding through dense forest like a snake through grass. Pine trees pressed in on both sides, their branches heavy with snow, creating a tunnel of green and white that seemed to go on forever. Gravel crunched under my tires, the car bouncing over ruts and potholes I couldn't see in the growing shadows.
I didn't slow down. Couldn't slow down. Every second I wasted was a second they could use to catch up, a second for them to get in that SUV and come after me. I pushed the accelerator harder, felt the engine whine in protest, watched the speedometer climb.
Forty. Fifty. Sixty on a driveway that probably shouldn't have seen anything over twenty-five.
The trees blurred past. The shadows deepened. My heart hammered so hard I could feel it in my throat, in my temples, in the tips of my fingers.
Finally,finally, the driveway spilled onto a paved road. Actual asphalt, cracked and weathered but solid, stretching in both directions through the mountain wilderness. A faded sign pointed left toward something called "Miller's Creek" and right toward "Summit Pass." I didn't know which direction led to civilization. Didn't know if either of them did. For all I knew, both roads led deeper into the wilderness, into more mountains and more isolation and more distance from anyone who could help me.
I picked right and floored it. The speedometer climbed again. Sixty. Seventy. Eighty. The car shuddered beneath me, not built for this kind of speed on these kinds of roads, but I didn't ease off the gas. I couldn't. The road twisted through the mountains like a wounded snake, all sharp curves and steep drop-offs that fell away into shadowy valleys hundreds of feet below. Noguardrails. No streetlights. Just crumbling asphalt and darkness and the distant gleam of snow-capped peaks against the darkening sky.
I took the curves too fast, felt the tires skid on patches of black ice, heard the engine groan as I pushed it harder than it was meant to go. Part of me knew I was being reckless. Knew that one wrong move would send me careening over the edge, tumbling down the mountainside in a twisted heap of metal and broken glass.
I didn't care.
I'd rather drive off a cliff than go back to that cabin. Rather die than let them touch me. Rather end everything than spend another minute surrounded by their scents, their hands, their voices whispering promises my body craved even as my mind screamed in protest.
Liar, whispered that traitorous voice in my head. The one that built nests and craved knots. The one that had been getting louder every day, every hour, every minute since my suppressants started failing.You wanted them to touch you. You've been dreaming about it for three years. Every night, you dream about their hands and their mouths and their?—
"Shut up," I snarled at nothing, at myself, at the voice I couldn't escape. "Shutup."
I drove for ten minutes. Fifteen. The road stayed empty behind me—no headlights in the mirror, no sign of pursuit. The sun had fully set now, plunging the mountains into a darkness broken only by my headlights and the faint silver glow of stars beginning to emerge overhead.
Maybe they didn't have another vehicle. Maybe they couldn't follow. Maybe— A black SUV appeared around the curve ahead of me.
Not behind me.Ahead.
My brain stuttered, trying to process what I was seeing. That wasn't possible. They'd been behind me at the cabin. They couldn't have gotten ahead of me, couldn't have known which way I'd go, couldn't have?—
There it was. Black and gleaming in my headlights, growing larger by the second as it barreled toward me on the narrow mountain road.
How?
How?
I slammed on the brakes. The car fishtailed wildly, the back end swinging out toward the drop-off, tires screaming against asphalt. I wrenched the wheel, overcorrected, felt the whole vehicle shudder as I fought to keep it on the road. For one horrible moment I was certain I was going over the edge—could already feel the sickening lurch of gravity, the endless fall, the impact that would end everything.
Then the tires caught. The car straightened. I came to a stop sideways across the road, my headlights illuminating the wall of rock on one side and empty darkness on the other.
The black SUV didn't slow down. It kept coming, engine growling, headlights blazing, eating up the distance between us with predatory patience. And through the windshield, illuminated by my own headlights, I could see faces.
Mason behind the wheel, his golden features set in hard lines, his honey eyes fixed on me with an intensity that made my stomach clench. Ethan beside him, leaning forward slightly, watching me with those cold, calculating eyes. Even from this distance, I could see the ghost of a smile playing at his lips. The look of a chess player who'd just cornered his opponent's king.
They'd known. They'dknownI would run, known which direction I'd choose, known exactly how to cut me off. This wasn't a chase.
It was a trap within a trap.
"No," I breathed, my voice barely a whisper in the silent car. "No, no, no?—"
I threw the car into reverse, my foot slamming against the gas before my brain fully processed what I was doing. The tires shrieked. The car lurched backward. I cranked the wheel, trying to turn around on the narrow road, trying to find another way out. I'd barely made it halfway through the turn when headlights flared in my rearview mirror.
