“You’re getting somewhere,” she said. “And that is important.”
“It’s just where I end up,” he said. “I’m pulling onto the thruway now. I’ll be back in an hour. Are you around tonight for dinner?”
“I am,” she said. “Why don’t you stop at my place and I’ll try to take your mind off of today. I know there is more going on than you’re telling me.”
“There always is,” he said. “Text me when you’re ready for me.”
“I think I was born ready for you,” she said, laughing. “And though it might sound funny, it’s a little bit scary at the same time.”
“More than a little bit,” he said.
Rory disconnected the call and blended into traffic, then turned the music up to get lost in the melodies.
He needed a break but knew it wouldn’t be wise now.
His mind just had to shift from fact to fiction. Might be easier if they had more facts.
As he neared his exit fifty minutes later, he put his blinker on and tapped the brakes.
Nothing. He wasn’t slowing down.
His foot went to the floor, and his brakes were gone.
Motherfucker.
He swerved back onto the highway. Taking the exit at seventy-five miles an hour was a death trap.
But wasn’t that the point?
28
NOT MUCH SHAKES YOU
“What do you mean Rory has been in an accident?” Gale yelled into the phone two hours later.
“He’s unconscious and on his way to the ER,” Ford said. “I don’t know what is going on, but I’m heading there now.”
“I’ll meet you there. Ford. This is related. You know it. What happened?”
“He was past the exit a few miles. He was going up the mountain and then went off the road into the woods. He hit a tree pretty fast head-on.”
She gasped. “Do you think someone ran him off the road?”
“I don’t know. I’ve got men I trust talking to State Troopers now.”
“Go there,” she said. “Please. I’m going to the hospital and texting Blaze.”
Ford hesitated. “Gale, let me get the information from my men first. He’s alive.”
“But probably not meant to be,” she shrieked.
She had her purse in her hand and was running out the door and waving to her staff.
“I don’t need you in an accident either. Clay can come get you and drive.”
“I’m not waiting for him. I’ll calm down. I promise. I’ll see you there.”
She hung up and was in her car driving to the hospital that was less than twenty minutes away.
