“Stop the car,” Thomas ordered.
“What?” She looked at him in disbelief. “No!”
“Stop,” Thomas said. “The car.”
Chapter Five
“They let you go,” Thomas told Tasha grimly from the passenger seat of the SUV. “I need you to pull over. Now.”
“They didn’t let me go,” she argued, but as the words came out of her mouth, she realized she didn’t quite believe them herself. Leaving the keys in the ignition like that? Guard standing with his back to her, practically singingLa la la, I can’t see you...?
“No one’s following you. Why? Can’t answer that, can you?”
“They’re... busy...?” Okay, now she just sounded flat-out stupid.
“Pull. Over,” Thomas insisted, pointing toward one of the runaway truck ramps that they’d been passing every now and then, meant for trucks heading down the mountain. “There.” They, however, were still steadily climbing upwards. Her ears popped again as if in emphasis. “Tasha, do it. Now.”
She took her foot off the accelerator as she released her exasperation through her clenched teeth. “If they catch us because we stop—” Oh, shit! As she tapped the brake pedal, there was no resistance and her foot went right to the floor. “The brakes are out! Thomas, hold on.”
“Down shift,” he told her, leaning toward her and doing the exact opposite ofhold on, reaching for the gear shift, his hand over hers as she jammed it into second and then first gear.
They weren’t moving that fast. They’d been heading uphill, and lifting her foot off the gas had already slowed them down. And now the engine worked to slow them even more. But momentum kept the big SUV’s tires rolling, and she tried to make the sharp left turn up the ramp.
Tried and failed. Almost in slow-mo, the right front of the SUV headed directly toward a concrete barricade as Thomas, too, tried to wrestle the steering wheel even further to the left. But then he gave up, and put his left arm across her chest, holding her in place against the back of her seat as he used his right hand to brace them both against the dashboard.
They hit going maybe twenty-five miles an hour—and it was still enough to give them a jolt and to make the car screech with the sound of bending metal.
The airbags didn’t go off, but she was glad for that because the one in the steering wheel would’ve hit Thomas directly in his already-bruised head.
“You okay?” he asked, his face inches from hers.
Tasha nodded, wide-eyed.
“Get out of the car, fast,” he ordered, and his tone allowed no room for argument.
So she opened the driver’s side and slid out—he was right behind her, vaulting over the center console.
“What—” she said, but then didn’t have time to ask the rest of her question, which was a colorful variation onare we doing,because he’d grabbed her hand and was running, pulling her with him. He headed away from the SUV, up and across the loose stones of the truck ramp that she hadn’t quite managed to pull onto, and down over the side of the ramp into the brush that covered the steep mountainside.
He yanked her down, then, onto the wet ground, where he shielded her with his body as if he expected...
Boom!
With a tremendous roar, the SUV exploded, and the world around her seemed to melt into a blazing hot wind as she heard herself scream. “Oh my God! Oh myGod!”
Flames shot up into the sky and pieces of both metal and the rubble of the road rained down around them.
“You’re okay,” Thomas murmured—although he was probably really shouting over the noise. Still, his voice sounded distant, tinny. “We’re okay.”
She still couldn’t wrap her head around the fact that the brakes had failed, and yes, Thomas had been so completely right—whoever it was who’d left him for dead and kidnapped her had, absolutely, let her get away.
With the intention that she die in a literal fiery crash.
Tasha flashed both hot and cold as she lifted her head and watched the SUV burn. If they hadn’t gotten out when they did, there was no way they would’ve survived that.
“How did you know?” she asked.
Thomas shook his head as he helped her to her feet. “I didn’t,” he said. “Not for sure, but... I guessed.”
