How was he so focused? The calmer he became, the more she wanted to jump out of the car screaming like a wild woman. She tried to relax her body and instead tightened every muscle.
“Relax,” he murmured, flicking his blinker and moving over into the slow lane.
She scrunched down a little to see in the side mirror. The trucks behind them remained in the fast and middle lanes, abreast of each other and not speeding. They looked like well-equipped working trucks complete with thick grilles. “Please tell me what’s going on.”
“I’m not sure.” He punched in a series of buttons on the GPS in the dash. “Get ready to hold on to something, but try to keep your body aligned forward, okay?”
She could barely breathe. Was he losing his mind? The trucks hadn’t changed speed or trajectory at all. They weren’t even in the slow lane. “I think you might be paranoid.”
He shook his arms out. “Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not coming for you.” While his voice remained light, a thread of tension wove just beneath the surface of each word. He reached for a gun in his waistband and pulled it out. They drove past an exit.
At the sight of the weapon, her mind fuzzed. “Wait a minute. Just—”
Denver yanked the steering wheel and they crashed down a snowy embankment, swerving at the last second to catch the side of the exit.
Noni screamed, slamming her hands onto the dash. Her neck snapped to the side, and she scrambled to remain in position, facing forward. If they crashed, she would be safer not twisting.
The SUV bumped and jumped down the hill, throwing its back end up. Pain ricocheted up her spine as they slid and hopped toward the off-ramp.
Denver barreled down the exit and ignored the stoplight at the bottom. He made a hard right through the red light, and the SUV skidded on the ice, spinning out in a full circle. A car honked and shot out of the way. Denver slammed the SUV into reverse and whipped it around, his foot pressing the pedal.
Noni panted and turned to see the two trucks sliding down the hill and catching the exit. “They’re coming.”
“I know,” Denver said. “We need to lose them, and then we’ll get to the safe house.”
She reached for the gun in his hand. “I can shoot them out the window.” Could she? She’d never shot at anybody before. Her stomach lurched.
“I’m driving too fast.”
She swallowed rapidly. “I’m sorry I got you into this. It has to be the Kingdom Boys and Richie.”
He frowned into the rearview mirror. “I don’t think so. These guys are too good.”
Pings echoed off the metal body of the SUV.
“Get down.” Denver grasped the nape of her neck and pushed her face down.
She struggled to breathe as the seat belt tightened across her torso. “They’re shooting?” Adrenaline ripped through her veins, bringing everything into way too sharp of a focus. Her breathing. The tick of the heater. Denver’s total sense of calm. “Oh God.”
Something crashed into the back of the SUV, throwing it into a wide tailspin. The seat belt across her lap constricted her, shooting pain through her abdomen. “No airbags?”
“Any SUV left by my family would’ve been modified in case of, well, this,” Denver muttered, pulling on the steering wheel and trying to correct. The driver’s side door smashed into a blue postal mailbox, and he instantly hit the gas pedal, spiraling them back onto the street. “They rammed us.” He drove up onto the sidewalk and whipped around a building into a dark alley. They flew by garbage cans and metal doors.
“If not the gang, then Cobb and Madison?” she asked, her hands shaking.
“It would make sense. I have a bad feeling Cobb has been watching Malloy just in case we contacted the cop again.” Denver took another turn onto a street and nearly smashed into one of the trucks. “This has nothing to do with you.” He clipped the truck’s back bumper and swerved.
A man jumped from the back of the truck, landing on the roof of the SUV. His body thumped hard above them, and the metal protested.
Noni’s mouth gaped, and she turned toward Denver. “Who are these guys?”
The man on the roof leaned over the passenger side and punched her window. Glass flew inward. She ducked and screamed as a piece sliced into her neck. Pain slashed down to her collarbone.
Denver swore and aimed his gun up at the roof, firing rapidly. The percussion exploded in the SUV, and Noni clapped her hands over her ears. Her entire head rang.
The man on the roof rolled to her side and kept on falling, leaving a smear of blood on the jagged remainder of her window. Snow and ice blew in with the blood. She tried to stifle a scream and covered her mouth with her hand. Tears filled her eyes. “You shot him,” she said numbly.
“Yeah.” Denver angled his head toward the back window. Blood dripped from a cut above his cheek.
