“Fuck, fuck! This is bad—this is so fucking bad—”
“Adrien,” I cut him off, voice sharp enough to slice stone. “Take the shorter route. If they follow you, lose them.”
“Kas—”
“We’ll take the longest route. It’s emptier. You know the drill.”
Adrien shoves his hands in his hair and swears under his breath before he puts his helmet on. I swing onto my bike, engine roaring underneath me, vibrating through my bones. I look at Kiara. Her terrified eyes. And the thought hits me like a punch to the ribs.
This might be the last time I see her. My throat closes and my heart crushes itself from the inside. I knew I couldn’t have it.
Kiara
Present
“Come here,” he says.
He’s always so calm. Even now. I’m not sure if it should calm me down or the opposite.
I quickly close the distance between us. He grabs my waist, takes his knife, and cuts my dress right above the knee, turning me around with force and ripping the rest of the fabric, throwing it on the ground, everything done so quickly as I still can’t catch my breath.
“Get on and take this.”
He takes his suit jacket off, leaving himself in the crisp white shirt, gripping his tie and loosening it with such force it finally gives me a glimpse of nervousness from his side.
I get on, circle my hands around his torso and we get off in seconds.
“How long until they realize we’re gone?”
The moment the dumb question leaves my mouth, the garage door explodes open behind us, men tumbling in, but we are already on the driveway, gone, speeding out on the road.
We hit a hundred in seconds and merge onto the highway, but a black sports car is already glued to us. He pushes to two-fifty, the bike trembling under us, but they still won’t drop.
The blood on my skin feels like ice. The engine beneath us growls like it’s ready to tear the asphalt in half. He leans forward, pushing the bike harder, and the world turns into wind andblurred white lines. My arms lock around his torso as the torn dress slaps against my thighs. Then I see it, ahead of us—two massive cargo trucks side by side.
“Kasien!” I scream.
“We’re going through,” he says, calm as a scalpel.
There isn’t even space. Jesus, we’re going to die. He tilts the bike, threads us between steel walls with millimeters to spare, so close I feel like the cargo trucks are squeezing us in for a second, and then we burst out into the light.
I look back just in time as the left truck slams its brakes and opens just enough space for the car to slip through. And suddenly, another car follows.
“Two of them,” Kas mutters. My stomach drops. “I need to take them down,” he says, voice low.
I squeeze his waist until my nails dig into him. “But there are two—”
Another bike bursts onto the highway from the on-ramp on our right. Adrien, moving like someone who’s done this a thousand times. He yanks the bike beside us and Kas breathes out.
“Thank fucking God.”
Adrien lifts two fingers, Kasien returns the gesture, a silent plan that I don’t understand.
“Kiara,” Kas says into my helmet, “don’t let go.”
I don’t even breathe. I just hold tighter. Both bikes drop into a hard sideways slide at the exact same second. Kasien to the right, Adrien to the left, tires screaming, as the bikes skid on the asphalt. Both of them straighten in the same heartbeat, and in one flawless synchronized motion both draw their guns, firing instantly, two shots each, right through the windshield of each car. Perfectly timed, perfectly placed.
The cars instantly lose control and start violently rolling toward us. The first car slams into the guardrail and rolls,metal shrieking. The second folds into itself, flipping twice. We instantly rocket forward before the wreck can swallow us and kill us.
