“Fair enough.”
“Dan pissed that you took off?”
“Nah. Courtney and Luna were cooking and Dan, Chris, and Marcus were just hanging out. Ron and Eric and their wives don’t get in until morning.”
I’m focused on the van and the road in front of me so I merely grunt in response.
Suddenly the van swerves, veering off into the woods on a road I would’ve missed if he hadn’t turned off.
“Fuck—we just turned and we’re on some back road bullshit.”
“Almost there.”
I’ve just righted the truck after the sharp turn caused me to briefly fishtail, and then I see headlights behind me.
“Right behind you,” Rage says.
He keeps pace with me as we fly down this deserted road that seems to be heading toward nowhere. If the guy in the van was innocent, he wouldn’t be doing eighty, trying to lose me.
He turns again, like he knows this place, and I’m right behind him.
This has the potential to go very, very bad and I hear Rage talking on what’s probably an earpiece.
“…no, I don’t think so… not that I can tell… yeah, there’s nothing but?—”
All of a sudden, the van screeches to a stop. I slam on the brakes, coming to a stop about two inches from his rear end. The next thing I know the driver’s side door opens, the guy jumps out and disappears into the woods.
What. The. Fuck.
“You want me to go after him?” Rage is at my window, the Colt .45 he prefers in his hand.
“Let him go,” I say. “We don’t know where the fuck we are or what might be waiting for us in those woods. I’m more concerned about the woman.” I get out and Rage walks behind me as I carefully approach the passenger side.
I glance back and Rage gives me a nod, indicating he has my back, so I reach for the handle to open the door. As soon as I do, the blonde tumbles out and into my arms.
Chapter Two
Allora
All I can think when I start to come to is that he smells good.
The guy from the gas station.
Everything is fuzzy, but I distinctly remember the relief I felt when the door to the van opened and it wasn’t the guy who’s held me captive the last forty-eight hours.
The cute guy from the gas station caught me as I fell and then darkness overtook me again.
I’m in another vehicle—this one isn’t the van—and the man from the gas station is talking in a quiet, soothing voice.
“You’re okay. Just hang on until we get to the hospital. Hang on, honey.”
Honey.
If I didn’t feel so woozy and confused I would have smiled at the endearment.
He’s driving fast but the sound of the engine is oddly soothing.
Hell, anything after the last two days would be soothing.
