Page 25 of Tangled up in You

"Oh, no-no-no-nooo…"

Panic flooded her when her car swerved, sending every rule when driving on a slick road flying out of her head. That minimal swerve turned into a full-blown spin when she turned the steering wheelhardin the opposite direction in an attempt to right herself on the narrow road.

"Shit!"

All that did was over-correct and send her car sliding sideways, then facing thewrongdirection. She took and held a deep breath, her heart pounding out an erratic rhythm as she squeezed the steering wheel and locked her arms out straight in front of her.

Keep calm… Keep calm…

Delicately pumping the brakes did nothing as she slid down the road. It wasn’t making a difference as her car picked up speed toward the sharp curve ahead and back down the mountain the way she’d just come up, and…

Straight toward one of those drop-offs.

"Oh, what the hell."

Both feet slammed on the brake pedal, a move that had her skidding toward the trees. She pressed harder, her legs taut as her car careened toward the side of the road.

"Oh, god!"

Glass shattering, her body jarring, an immediate, painful pull over her shoulder and chest, and the airbag smacking her full-on and knocking the wind out of her registered at once. As did the way her lips trembled, breath sawed in and out, and eyes pooled before she blinked hard, sending tears tracing down her cheeks. After that, it took a few seconds for her to realize she had stopped.

She was also still breathing—though harsh and uneven—while the air filling her lungs had a biting cold to it as she pushed at the deflating airbag.

How…

She shook her head and punched at the airbag still in her face, then gripped the steering wheel, needing it to leverage herself up and relieve the pressure from her seatbelt. What…

That didn’t make any sense. And neither did the way her wavering gaze fixed on the pool of light bouncing off a plain of white directly below her car through the broken windshield.

Cold air seized her lungs as she held her breath, before letting it out in a harsh whoosh that sentsmokespiraling from her mouth.

"Below me?"

More realization hit her as she licked her lips, then took several deep breaths to try and calm her still hammering heart as she took in her surroundings. Not only was she no longer on the road, but wherever she was, trees pressed against her car now tilted at a scary, downward angle. Thankfully, nothing hurt. But if she didn’t get out of her car soon, she?—

Creeeeaaaak.

That sound, along with a cringe-worthy scrapping along the sides of her car, accompanied her sedan sliding a little bit more.

"Great," she murmured, as her vision blurred with more tears, then whispered when her headlights went out. "I’m not making it to my birthday."

CHAPTER 2

"Crazy woman," Jonah Laverty groused low, hoping the death grip on his steering wheel would manage to keep his four-wheel drive truck steady on the slick, winding, snowy mountain road. Alyssa had a good fifteen-minute head start, which might have usually made a difference.

But in this?

There was no way she could be going at any decent rate of speed...

Dammit, she’d better not be.

He gritted his teeth, while his burning gaze held steady on the road in front of him, looking out foranysign of her. Something wasn’t right. They should have caught up with her before now—head start or not. Because, yeah, he might have been going a little faster than would have normally been advisable.

But his speed was the least of his worries. The implications ofwhythey hadn’t caught up with her sent a sharp pain piercing through his chest. At first, they’d followed the telltale signs of tire tracks. There’d only been one, and it hadn’t been hard to deduce they’d belonged to Alyssa’s car. That was before the snowhadreallystarted coming down. Now, whatever tracks might have been visible were covered.

The real possibility she’d gone off the road and they’d missed it scared the hell out of him.

"How many times are you going to say that?" Josh groused, his voice low and full of concern coming from the back seat, where he’d been tasked with keeping an eye out on the driver’s side of the road. "It’s not helping."

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