Page 67 of Whispers of Redemption

She drove after Brett as he raced toward the park exit and out onto Lakeshore Drive.

“That’s the car he uses for street racing,” she said, picking up speed.

“I guess you’d know,” Wade said grimly.

Cassie shot around a slower moving car that was between her and Brett.

“You need to stop chasing him, though, Cassie. It’s dangerous and illegal.” Wade said. “I’ll call it in and...blast it!”

“What?”

“I left my cell phone in my car. Where’s yours?”

“Glove box,” she said, following Brett onto a gravel road that angled off to the left. She fishtailed a little as the road curved sharply north again. “No way am I losing him, Wade. You can arrest me once we catch him.”

The gravel road dead-ended onto a paved one, and Brett made a quick right turn. So did Cassie. Her engine revved as she dropped a gear, giving her the torque she needed to accelerate faster. Then she went full throttle after him. She could see Wade in her peripheral vision, holding Angel with one hand and fishing around in her glove box with the other.

He pulled out her phone and groaned. “Cassie, it’s dead.”

“I know.”

He tossed it back inside and slammed the glove box shut in frustration.

Brett made a turn, swerving into a hard right, and tore down another straight. She followed.

“I can’t believe I forgot about his hiding spot in the woods,” she muttered.

“What hiding spot?”

She was accelerating again and gaining on Brett. “When we were in high school, Brett used to boost cars and steal stuff out of them like laptops and car parts. Then he’d sell ’em. He kept his stash in this secret spot off trail in the woods.”

She was almost on him when Brett surprised her, making a sudden left from the right lane to shoot straight up Main Street.

“Hold tight!” She’d already blown past the intersection. So, she yanked up the emergency brake. Tires squealing, she spun a one-eighty, racing back to follow him. She saw Wade grip the armrest.

Despite the speed they were driving, Cassie was calm at the wheel, weaving through traffic like she was a machine. Angel watched the scenery flying by the window, completely unperturbed.

Brett sailed through an intersection, but the light ahead turned yellow, then red. Cassie’s horn was a banshee wail as she pushed past slow-motion traffic and flew across the busy intersection, traffic to the left and right braking hard. But they were across and still giving chase, with only a couple of cars between them now.

Cassie saw Wade lean over to look at the speedometer as she hit seventy miles per hour. Then eighty. She could tell he didn’t like it. But he didn’t speak, probably for fear of distracting her. Coming up to the next intersection, Cassie suddenly swerved right onto a side road. Then made a quick left onto an empty road that ran parallel to Main Street. It held a few boarded up businesses, interspersed with empty fields.

“What are you doing?” Wade asked.

“Trust me,” she said. Cassie reached her hand down near the left side of the steering column and flipped a tiny switch there. She downshifted and slammed the accelerator. The engine screamed. With a sudden burst of power, the Mustang leaped forward and they flew up the street.

“What the heck?” Wade shouted over the roar of the engine. “Are you using nitrous?”

“It’s not illegal!” Cassie shouted back. They sailed through three more intersections at over a hundred miles per hour before she took her foot off the gas and spun the wheel hard left onto a road leading back to Main Street. Another hard right and she was literally on Brett’s tail. They were outside the downtown area now.

Cassie was unable to suppress the grin on her face or the wicked gleam in her eyes as she moved into the empty oncoming traffic lane and began inching up alongside the white Evo.

Wade looked over at her again. “You’re enjoying this way too much.”

“Shhh.”

She stayed toward the back end of Brett’s car. Then with a quick spin of the wheel, she steered her front bumper into his car, just behind the rear wheel. She broke quickly as Brett’s car went into a tailspin and the engine stalled out.

“Got him,” she said with satisfaction, as Brett’s car came to an abrupt halt.

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