Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70716 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 354(@200wpm)___ 283(@250wpm)___ 236(@300wpm)
“Someone is fuckin’ shooting at us. Put your head down girls. Now.”
Cohen’s voice is harsh and sudden, and we do as he asks, putting our heads down between our knees. I’m terrified, and even more so now I can’t see anything. Samson shuffles, reaches back, and is grabbing for something, and I catch sight of the gun he pulls from underneath the chair. “Call Alarick,” Cohen orders, speeding up. “Alert him.”
Samson does just that, and a moment later I hear his frantic voice as he alerts Alarick to what’s happening.
“Can you see anyone behind you?” Alarick asks, his voice slightly muffled as it comes through Samson’s phone.
“Black car, it’s a sedan, can’t see who’s in it. Didn’t even notice it approachin’. What do you want us to do, boss? We don’t know how many people are in there, or what kind of weapons they’ve got. They clearly want us to fuckin’ stop. We do, we’re goin’ to die.”
Jesus. Christ.
Die?
We’ll die?
“Speed up, five miles to the left there is a dirt road. We’ll go down it, our trucks will take it well, theirs won’t go down that easily. We’ll get ahead of them there until we can lose them. Call Mykel, tell him the plan. Don’t stop. No matter what.”
Samson hangs up the phone, and I hear him alert Mykel, too.
I glance at Merleigh and she’s shaking.
Poor thing.
I reach out and take her hand, and we both keep our heads down but she gives me a look that shows how grateful she is for that small gesture.
Cohen speeds up and shots ring out, hitting different parts of the truck. I’ve never felt so sick in my life. Will a shot come right through the seat and kill one of us? What if Cohen gets shot? Or someone else.
We’re flying now, so fast the car is banging and bouncing as we power down the road. That must mean the two trucks in front of us are going even faster.
What feels like hours pass, but in reality it is only minutes. Suddenly, Cohen screeches off the side of the road and we all lose our balance, slamming into the sides of the car. Merleigh falls over onto me and my head hits the door with a hard thud. “Sorry,” Cohen growls, his voice tight. “Hang on.”
Now we’re bouncing so hard everything on my body is shaking. Trees scrape down the sides of the car and Cohen is jerking it around as he navigates his way down the dirt road. The shots stop and I wonder if the black car followed us down. My question is answered when Samson informs us, “They’re not followin’ us.”
“Tell Alarick, but we’ll keep movin’. Can’t risk them catchin’ up if they’re just laggin’ behind.”
I clench my eyes shut for what feels like forever as we bounce around, just waiting for another shot to ring out. Thankfully, it doesn’t. Cohen stops eventually. Slowly, Merleigh and I lift our heads.
We’re in the middle of some pretty thick bushland, with only a dirt road running through it, and even that is narrow and overgrown. Cohen’s truck is no doubt going to be covered in scratches, judging by the sounds we heard as we were moving. “Get out of the truck, but stay close.”
We do as he tells us and get out of the truck. I glance around, terrified at any moment they’ll pop out of the bush and start shooting at us. We’re pretty deep in, and if they’re only driving a sedan, there is just no way they’d be able to get down this far. The trucks struggled to get through as the road narrowed. I take a look at Cohen’s truck as we walk toward where Alarick and Mykel are pulled up, and I cringe at the bullet holes and scratches.
“Is everyone okay?” Alarick asks as his eyes scan over us.
“We’re all fine,” Cohen informs him.
“That was terrifying,” Briella says, stepping closer to Alarick, her eyes scanning the bush too.
“We’re not safe. Anyone know who the fuck those men were?” Alarick asks.
“No fuckin’ idea,” Kendric growls. “But whoever they were, they were determined to fuckin’ stop us.”
An idea comes to me as they’re talking.
If this road goes straight through to another road, they’re more than likely going to go to the other end to wait for us to emerge. We’re safer if we turn around. I take my phone from my pants and pull up a map. I can see the road Alarick directed us down, I can also see it comes out onto another smaller road that leads into a town, about another ten or so miles.
“We need to turn around and go back out the way we came in,” I say, looking at Alarick.
“What the fuck would we do that for?”
I take my phone over to him and show him the screen. “Because this road goes out near a town and you can bet they’re going to be waiting at that exit for us. If we turn around, we’ll be safer.”