“Yeah?” Liam clips out, and an infant’s wailing fills our car. He must be holding his buddy Gage’s month-old son.
“Sorry to interrupt baby duty, but I’ve got a tail. Three black trucks. A Ford Raptor and similar models. My securitydisappeared. Just sent you my location. I’m in heavy traffic. It’s about to break, and I suspect we’ll be surrounded.”
“Give me a minute,” Liam says as all hell breaks loose.
Traffic disperses, Tessa puts Cash on speaker, and the trucks floor it.
And so do I.
Motherfucker.
Cash’s voice is prattling, Tessa is filling him in, there is background noise from Liam’s house, and horns blare as cars scatter in several directions to avoid the monster trucks gunning for us.
I’m not sure who the fuck is listening, so I just start rattling off my moves, listing the roads and directions as I maneuver between crowded lanes and up over sidewalks and lawns. I’m off track for the resort, not exactly sure of this area anymore, and they’re gaining on me because this sporty car isn’t meant to be taking such uneven terrain. I need a breakaway.
“I’ve got a road up ahead. If I take it and do a one-eighty to throw them off, can one of you get me the fuck out of here?”
“I’ve got you,” Liam drawls calmly. “We’re gonna run interference, but there’s a hell of a lot of shit going on today. You’re gonna have to last for a few.”
I swerve around a beat-up Honda Accord, scaring the shit out of a lady, my back end fishtailing as I veer into an abandoned convenient-store parking lot that is angled with the curve of the road, and dip out ahead of a few other cars I was stuck behind to reach the upcoming turnoff.
“Fuck,” Tess and I hiss in unison at the shitstorm we’re headed into.
She’s hoisted up on her elbows, attempting to get a better glimpse.
“Lie back down,” I order her before explaining what we’re up against to everyone else. “I’ve got four cops up ahead.” At leastone of their sirens sounds as I peer in the rearview mirror again. “And the motherfuckers are gaining on us. Fuck the one-eighty. Get me out another way.”
“Two are ours,” Cash chimes in. “I’m gonna let Graves handle your route, but I’ve got positions on all the five-O we own.”
“Send that to me and contact the two in sight,” Liam barks to him before directing me. “Take the next right. You’ll be drawing the heat with you and headed into another standstill traffic situation. But there’s a driveway that will get you out.”
“A driveway,” Tessa wheezes, but no shame.
I’m right there with her. If our escape hinges on a driveway, our outlook is grim.
“Axel is assembling a team to meet you, but that’s only a backup plan. Twenty minutes out at least,” Cash informs us as I careen onto the next road, barreling past a party with vehicles parked too far into the road.
“I am certainly drawing the heat,” I grit out, feeling them encroaching on us, and if it wasn’t plain before that we’re being chased by people intent on killing us, the sight of those trucks practically running the policeman off the road in order to reach us makes it crystal clear. “How far to the driveway?”
Of all days to be driving a cherry-red sports car. No chance of blending in.
“You’ve got a half mile,” Liam begins. “On your left. It’s a circular drive, in front of a two-story colonial, but it splits off at the east corner and dumps out onto a perpendicular side street. There’s a bend before it. If you open her up to put some distance between you and your company, they probably won’t catch on … unless, well, we’ll have to see.”
“I’ve got it.” I jump into the opposing lane to get around a caravan of SUVs, hoping they’ll provide some coverage.
The drivers wave their arms and lay on their horns, but they’re left in our dust in seconds because I’m up to well over a hundred. Too fast for a turn.
“What if there are people outside at the house or in the driveway?” Tessa asks.
The trees and homes and vehicles all bleed into a burst of muddled color whipping by us. And that trepidation threading Tessa’s voice smacks into me, but I can’t focus on it now. She won’t like the answer that I’d mow a hundred people over to ensure she’s safe, so I keep that to myself.
“I can’t see that,” Liam responds to her. “This is the best we can do. A quarter mile past that is standstill traffic.”
“Slowing for approach,” I announce as I break into the turn.
There are indeed people outside, so as Tessa mutters a slew of curses, I tap the horn, rev the engine, and swing my back end out to knock over their trash cans while bolting for my escape route on the side street. They heed the warning, screaming, running, and corralling everyone. Once we zoom past them, I see their fury in my rearview mirror, but all I feel is victory.
“Talk to me, Maddox,” Liam demands as we blast onto the primarily empty street. “What do you see?”
