“I have before, but I don’t have a license.” His brows zip. “Why?”
I clear my throat. “Nothing, I’ve just… never driven a day in my life.”
He looks immediately worried. “You want me to drive?”
“No, no. We don’t have time, we have to get out of here.” Buckling my seatbelt, I step down on the brake and press theStart Enginebutton.
The engine roars to life, and I grin.
Ooh. Exhilarating.
Angel is still visibly skeptical as he straps himself in. “Are you sure…?”
“I understand the basic premise,” I hum. “The rest, I’ll learn on the job. How hard can it be?”
“Not very comforting when the road runs parallel to cliffs and open ocean,” he grumbles. “This isn’t the place I’d want someone experimenting with their first time operating an automobile.”
“Have a little faith, sparrow.” I wink at him, shifting into drive.
I press a little too hard on the gas and the thing takes off, peeling out of the circular driveway.
“Dios…” Angel croaks. “Please, Trevel… I did not come all this way just to die in a fiery car wreck with a dude a just met.”
“Steady on, it’s got airbags,” I mutter, zipping down the long, winding drive, toward the road. “At least, I hope it does. I really wouldn’t know.”
The driveway leads directly to the road after coming down a bit of a hill, with ocean straight ahead. You can go either hard left or right, and I zoom right without slowing down, following in the direction I know the prison to be.
“Okay, that right there would’ve been your opportunity to experience the brake pedal,” Angel barks, gripping the handle above the door with white knuckles.
“Oh, please. It’s not like there’s traffic to watch out for,” I scoff.
“You don’t know that!” He gripes. “What about that motorcycle we heard??”
“It stopped a while ago. Angel, please relax. You’re making me nervous.”
“You should be! You’re going sixty miles an hour with the ocean barely ten feet away!”
“Right, about that, how do I change this speedometer thingy to kilometers?” I tap on the instrument cluster. “You Americans and yourmiles, andfeet.” I huff, rolling my eyes.
“First of all, I’m Colombian,” he mumbles. “Second of all, will youpleaseslow down?? You’re literally flying and it gets narrow up ahead.”
I’m not really listening to his bellyaching. I’m too busy watching the sparkly black ocean to my left. It’s quite beautiful.
“Funny how such an awful place can have fragments of such sporadic beauty, isn’t it?” I marvel.
“Trust me, if we make it out of this vehicle alive, I’ll be kissing the ground of this dreadfully stunning island,” he stammers. “Okay, slow down.Slow down slow down!”
“Whoops!”
Jerking the wheel right to avoid a barrier, I swerve off the road. And now we’re in the woods.
“What are you doing?!” Angel screams. “We’re gonna hit a goddamn tree! Oh,God, I don’t wanna die like this…”
“I know where I’m going,” I yap. “I’m gonna get us as close as possible. Hang onto your butts!” I chuckle. “I’ve always wanted to say that. Right, like inJurassic Park?”
Angel is mumbling in Spanish with his eyes closed and his hands clasped together. I think he’s praying.
We’re literally driving through the woods. I’m not certain this type of vehicle is made for this, but it’s handling like a champ, despite bounding and soaring over bumps like we’re in a dune buggy.
