Page 36 of Burn

Thirteen

GRACE

The weight of Voodoo’s hand on my leg snapped me back to the present. I hadn’t even realized I was zoning out until he touched me.

Jerking my head around, I stared at him. “What?” My brain was a little fuzzy. It had taken every bit of effort to not just burst into tears earlier when he played word games with my questions.

“I need you to focus,” he repeated his earlier statement. It was like I was on a dubbing delay and getting the words a half second behind when he was saying them. “We’ve picked up a tail.”

I twisted in the seat to look behind us. We’d been on the interstate pretty much from the moment we left the coffee place. There was still food in the bag at my feet, but the last thing I wanted to do was eat.

There were two cars behind us. A white four door sedan and a dark SUV that looked eerily like the ones in Manhattan. My stomach bottomed out. Alphabet had thrown that liquid bomb onto the other one and set it on fire.

“Do we have to throw something on it to blow it up?” I did not have the best aim. The one year I’d played softball, I’d doneit with Am for fun. They’d eventually put me anywhere I didn’t have tothrowa ball. I could catch one, but throw it?

Nope.

“That is not my plan,” Voodoo said, his tone calm and even which seemed utterly at odds with the idea of men following us. Well, followingme. How were they still doing that? I didn’t even know where we were.

“You have a plan?” The knowledge rasped like sandpaper through me. “You planned for someone to follow us?”

Alphabet and Lunchbox had done the same. They’d even called someone. Then just kept right on going. At no point had it been serious, at least until Alphabet threw that jar with the liquid bomb in it.

So maybe this was what they did?

“You know what, let’s argue about that later.” If he had a plan, he must have assumed that someone finding us was a possibility. “What do you need me to do?”

The last time, I’d just hidden in the back. Oh, and I’d helped hold the jar while Alphabet got resettled.

“Take even, slow breaths. I don’t want you to start hyperventilating.”

Almost at once, I tried to calm my breathing. I had started panting, almost stupidly so. “Breathe, right I can breathe.”

“I’m glad to hear it.” He wasn’t looking at me. The calm draping him left me envious. Lunchbox and Alphabet had been the same way. At least then, they’d had each otherandGoblin for backup.

“I’m not going to be great at backup,” I warned him, stealing another look at the side mirror. The SUV was still back there, behind the white sedan. Neither vehicle seemed intent on overtaking us.

That was good, right?

“You don’t have to be, firecracker.” He reached over to flip down the glove compartment. There was a gun in a holster right there. There was also a taser. “Those are right here if needed. If you aren’t comfortable with a gun, don’t pull it out. You’re more likely to hurt yourself. Use the taser instead and never point it at yourself.”

The sense of falling held me captive even as ice seemed to slick over my body despite the fact I was burning up. “Taser,” I repeated. “I’ve used one before. Does this fire or do you have to be up close?”

“Up close,” Voodoo warned. “You shouldn’t need it, but if you do, let them get right there and then you send a few thousand volts through them until they drool into the ground.”

“Are you sure they’re following us?” Because those cars hadn’t fallen back or gotten any closer.

“Hmm-hmm.” Voodoo glanced at me then flipped the glove compartment closed. “Sit back.”

I was, but he didn’t give me a chance to ask why before he suddenly depressed the gas and the Jeep rumbled with unexpected power. We pulled away from the white car, and I kept my gaze fixed on the side mirror as the distance between us grew wider and wider.

The SUV jerked out from behind the sedan and accelerated past it just as we reached a slight rise. I lost sight of them for a moment, but I didn’t have long to wait before they appeared in the side mirror. We were still pulling away though.

A ripple of apprehension seemed to skate over my scalp. The roots of my hair all seemed to tingle and if I were a cat, it would probably be standing a little higher. The road curved and I lost sight of the SUV again. The thud of my heart was far too loud, and it struck my ribs with dizzying force.

Flicking a look toward the dashboard, I clenched my jaw. We were well past three digits on the speedometer. Any complaintsI had died unspoken. I gripped the sides of the seat and said nothing. The last thing I wanted to do was distract him.

Even more terrifying—the SUV behind us was working to close the gap. Cold flash-fired through me again.

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