Page 69 of The Flame

Jessie turned around in her seat to look at me. “She’s fine once she’s warmed up a bit.”

“You know I can drive, right?” Daniel offered.

“You both need to keep your heads down.” Lisa concentrated on changing gears to forward drive before she continued. “I’d rather not be seen with Capra’s ‘most wanted’ in the back of my car, if you don’t mind.”

We slunk low, although I made sure I could still peer through the window. I wanted to see where she was taking us. “Wherearewe going?”

“I’m taking suggestions,” she quipped.

“Parklands.” Daniel looked at me. “You said the council homes are standing empty. Think about it. They won’t believe we’d dare hide out in our own back garden. That’s the last place they’ll look.”

That made sense. Then again, hiding out in the nature reserve had made sense to me.

I remembered, “The Otter place has been repurposed,” and then I bit down on my back teeth to stop them from shattering. We were traveling at speed and hitting every bump in the road.

“What about the place Brenda and I are—werebuilding?” Daniel said. “Construction ran over schedule and the roof hasn’t been laid yet. It’s not in a state to be repurposed.”

“What about the builders?” I asked. “Won’t they be on site?”

“We lost our slot with the roofers because of the delay,” Daniel replied. “The new date they gave us was in January.”

Lisa flapped a hand at us, thankfully keeping her eyes on the road. “That’s not a bad idea.”

“Watch out!” Jessie yelped.

At the same time, Lisa slammed the brakes. She must have jerked the wheel as well. The car practically reared and went skidding on the dirt gravel. My knees rammed the seat in front of me. My neck snapped and my forehead hit something hard and bounced and everyone screamed.

Except for Lisa, maybe.

When the car came to a sliding halt, she glanced around at us. “Everyone okay?”

I glared at her.

Daniel put a hand on my arm. “You okay?”

I curled a hand around the back of my neck and rolled out the giant crick. “I’m alive.”

“There’s a guard,” Jessie whispered.

“Of course there’s a guard,” Lisa retorted. “I’m notthatbad of a driver. He came out of nowhere.”

The breath whooshed out of me. And my head was throbbing from where I’d banged it. And why the hell had I ever trusted Lisa? She’d practically driven us straight into a guard.

Daniel inched forward to peer between the seats.

“Stay down,” Lisa pushed through her teeth. “Seriously? Everyone, just stay calm.”

“He’s just standing there,” Daniel said, slumping out of sight again. “Why doesn’t he move off the damned road?”

“I’ll deal with him.” Lisa opened her door, stepped out, and closed the door.

I rolled down my window so I could hear what was going on outside.

“Are you crazy?” she blasted the guard. “You came out of nowhere. I almost ran you over.”

“What are you doing out here?” I heard a male voice respond in a deep, even keel, not catering to her outrage.

“He’s looking at us,” Jessie squeaked. “Oh God, he’s trying to step around her.”

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