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“Shit.”

I strain to identify the rumble, turning around and getting on my knees to look through the truck cab’s back window.

“It’s engines,” I say, a knot of worry forming in my stomach. “I think ... a lot of them.”

“Keep cool.” He slows the truck to a stop and puts it in park. “I need you to drive.”

“I don’t know which way to go.”

“Just follow what you can see of this road. It’ll take us almost the whole way.”

The roar of the engines isn’t getting louder. It’s staying steady. Dread tiptoes down my spine. I should have known.

“It’s them. They’ve been following us.”

“It could be anyone.” He cups my cheek, his eyes wide and pleading. “Drive, babe. I’ll be in the back of the truck. And no matter what happens, you get yourself to the vault and open it.”

My jaw drops, ice-cold panic filling my veins. “I can’t! I don’t even know where it is!”

He points straight ahead. “It’s that mountain. When this road ends, you’ll see a gravel road to your left. That’ll take you all the way. You’ll see a huge black steel door—it’s two stories high and wide.” He checks his gun. “The keypad is under a protective cover on the left side. Flip it up and enter the password.”

Fuck. I know how Justin works, and I should have known he’d do this. He wants to know where we’re going, and close in when we get there.

“Keep driving. They want to know where we’re going. We can make it.”

He slides his hand around to the back of my neck, resting his forehead on mine. “I love you. The past month has been the best month of my life.”

Tears spill down my cheeks. “No. You’re not going to die. Don’t do that.”

“Not if I can help it. Just drive.”

I shake my head. “It’s me he’s after. I’m not letting you die for me.”

“Listen to me. The world needs you. I don’t even know how to spell the password. And if I die for you, I’ll die happy.”

He gets out of the cab and goes to the back of the truck, climbing into the bed. His weapons are back there in his bag. When he pounds his hand against the truck’s roof, yelling at me to drive, I scramble into the driver’s seat.

We are so fucked. This truck is temperamental, and I might not even be able to make it move.

The sound of the engines creeps closer. It’s because we stopped. They’re trying to stay far enough behind us that we don’t know they’re there, but because we stopped, they may accidentally catch up.

I put the truck in drive, steeling myself. I’m not losing Evander. We have to outrun them.

The truck shudders like it knows there’s someone new behind the wheel.

“Come on,” I beg. “Please, Universe, please.”

With a big lurch, it starts moving. I want to press the pedal to the floor, but I don’t. Evander eases it into higher speeds slowly, so I do the same.

The road is cracked and split; evading deep potholes takes my full focus. It takes almost five minutes to reach a stretch where I dare a glance in the rearview mirror.

Evander is crouched down, a rifle aimed at the road behind us.

I haven’t told him I love him. And I do. Somewhere over the past month, he became everything to me. I miss Briar, but I no longer ache for her, because Evander fills the empty, hollow spaces in me.

Anger swells in my chest. I won’t let Justin take him from me. He’s a poison, destroying everything in his path, and I’m not letting him destroy us.

My heart thunders in my chest as I push the truck as fast as it will go, willing it to make it through this final stretch.