Page 60 of The Wrecked One

MYA

The rain continued to hammer down, angrily beating the pickup truck. I’d finally agreed to wear Oliver’s hoodie but had ditched his hat once in the truck since it was now soaked. I also chose not to protest when he blasted the heat, redirecting every vent my way. There was probably a more technical name for those, but whatever, my teeth were no longer chattering thanks to them.

Oliver hadn’t spoken a word since our embrace by the lake. Not so much as a syllable or sound. So, as he continued to drive us back toward his dad’s place, my thoughts carried plenty of the conversation for the both of us in my head. My nails bit into my thighs through my wet jeans as my brain continued replaying Oliver’s words about his mother’s experiences.

What she went through while her husband had to watch. How that’d nearly been my experience with Oliver . . .

No wonder he left and went off-the-grid. Any pent-up anger and hurt I had toward him vanished the moment he shared those painful memories.

I had no clue how he’d gone through so much in his life and had never broken down before. I’d thought I was strong, but Oliver redefined the word. And I’d do everything in my power to help him get through this.

“Any better?” His deep voice jostled me free of my thoughts, and I opened my eyes. One of his hands rested on his lap while the other white-knuckled the wheel.

“Warmer, you mean?” Because better wasn’t happening anytime soon. “Getting there.”

He shifted on the seat to reach into his pocket, producing my phone. “You said not to bring it, but I did.” He set it on my leg without touching me. “Make sure it works and didn’t get water damage. I have plenty of disposables back at the cabin if you need another, though.”

His narrowed eyes cut to the rearview mirror, and instead of powering on the phone, I followed his gaze out the window. The back windshield wiper blades weren’t quite able to keep up with the rain, but I could still see a vehicle behind us that must’ve snagged his attention for some reason.

“Everything okay?” I faced forward as he went for the glove compartment and popped it open. “Glock 19. So, definitely not okay.” Not a longshot interpretation by any means with him now resting the midsize pistol on his lap.

“That SUV is going too fast. Locals would never drive like that in a storm here.”

“A tourist, maybe?” I turned on the phone and it immediately pinged with multiple notifications. Texts and voicemails from both Gwen and Mason.

Gwen: Your location has been compromised. Someone betrayed us.

Gwen: Get the hell out of there.

Mason: Mya, godammit, are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay. You need to get out of there.

“Not a tourist behind us,” I let him know, almost too casually. The reality of our situation had yet to catch up with me. Disbelief was still clouding my thoughts. “They found us.” They. The Collective. Who else could it be?

Oliver didn’t have a delayed response like me, and he took a sharp turn, flying down a side road between a thick bank of trees as I tried to get ahold of Gwen. No luck.

The SUV followed right along, picking up speed behind us, an obvious sign that we were being followed and probably in trouble.

I tried Mason next, and the call went unanswered, so I opened up my voicemails and played Gwen’s first.

Activating the speaker, I nearly dropped the phone as Oliver took another turn, this time going off road.

“That hacker gave us another heads-up. Someone on Carter’s old crew was flipped. That means they have access to your tracker. Your earrings. Lose them and get somewhere safe. They know where I’m at, too, so I’m with my dad, leaving now before the safe house gets hit.”

No freaking way Easton, Teddy, or Steve would do this. It made no sense, but now wasn’t the time to question it. I set the phone on my lap and hurriedly unscrewed the backs of the earrings Gwen had given me, then partially rolled down the window, battling the rain as I chucked the diamonds outside.

“Someone on Carter’s team betrayed him?” Oliver said under his breath, mirroring my own shock at that fact. “There’s only one reason anyone would ever do that. That’s a death sentence.”

They must have had no choice. Faced a horrible decision like Oliver had in Thailand. Oh, God. “I should’ve left my phone on in case of an emergency, but I thought it’d be safer for it to be powered off.” I shook my head, remembering there was another voicemail. “I haven’t been thinking that clearly lately.” Like for the last four months.

I pressed play on the second message, but quickly swapped the line over for an incoming call from Mason.

I blurted his name in a rush as Oliver continued to fly down the narrow dirt not-a-road-road, bouncing us around a bit, while also placing some much-needed distance between us and the SUV.

“Oh thank God. Are you okay?” Mason asked over speakerphone, and I almost dropped the phone again as another bump nearly sent me off my seat.

“We have a Suburban on our ass,” Oliver announced. “Not sure how many guys are in there, or if the traitor is with them, but we have to shake them. I can’t risk her safety and deal with them.”

Dealing with them wasn’t an option. Hell no. Whether I was in the truck or not. He was right, there could be five heavily armed guys there and he had one Glock. Not a fair fight.

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