Page 68 of The Devil's Pair

“What?” he cried. “What’s going on?”

“I think – I think he’s coming now!”

Michael’s eyes were bulging out of his face. “How? No! It’s too soon!”

“You need to check,” she panted. “Please, please…”

“I need to get him to the hospital!”

“It’s too far… it will take too long.” She twisted and turned in her seat, writhing in pain, readying the next lie, hoping hard that he was a typical man who had no clue what an advancing pregnancy looked like. “Please, Right-Guardian! I’m six months along, which is viable for him to live outside my body. If you deliver him, thensurelyit’s meant to be this way.”

“That’s true,” he muttered, turning sharply into a secluded rest stop. “Gideon’s son is strong, even in the womb, so he will enter the world triumphant.”

“Yes,” she said, her voice breaking. “Youwill save him.”

“I will.”

He unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the door and leaped out of the truck, not even turning the engine off. As he hurried around the vehicle to her, Briley undid her own belt, slid across the seat to the driver’s side. Not allowing herself even one second to think about what she was doing, she wrapped her fingers around the steering wheel in a death grip. And hit the gas.

Her eyes met Michael’s through the windshield for one split second – his were wide and shocked in the headlights as he raised his hands as if he could somehow stop the truck – then there was a thud, and a bump, and he was gone.

Briley took a deep, shuddering breath, turned off the engine, and listened for any noise under the vehicle. There was nothing, but she wasn’t about to go look. She had no desire to see what she’d done, and besides if he was still alive, she wasn’t going to give him a chance to grab her ankle as she stepped out and down. She’d seen her fair share of horror movies where the dead guy was never,everdead.

“OK, babies,” she said aloud, her voice very loud in the absolute silence. “Let’s think here.”

She looked around properly for the first time, and it came to her that although she was just off what looked like a mainroad, there was no passing traffic at all. She also realized that if someonedidpass, they’d only see the back of the truck; the front was facing the woods, pointed away from the highway. There was no way that anybody could see under the truck, and she relaxed a bit. As long as she didn’t move, whatever was left of Michael was hidden from casual passing sight, and she just hoped that nobody would pull up and park in front of her.

“OK, babies,” she said again. “So we can’t move the truck because I can’t risk anyone finding him, and I’m sure ashellnot touching him. I can’t get out and walk, because wherearewe anyway, right?” She thought for a second. “So that means calling for help. My phone is at Dux and Drake’s place, and I’m assuming Michael’s isonhim, and again, I must reiterate that I don’t want to get out of this truck to search him.” Her eyes wandered over to the glovebox, and her breath caught as she remembered that she’d seen him throw his wallet and a set of keys in there, along with some other stuff that she hadn’t been able to identify in the darkness of the mountains. “Unless…”

She reached out and over what felt like a huge distance, and opened the glovebox. She squinted in the shadows, fumbled around – and her fingers touched a cell phone. She pulled it out, scarcely believing it.

“Oh, God,pleasehave bars and battery. Please.”

For the first time in her life, Briley decided that a deity of some kindhadto exist, because not only did it have four bars, it had over seventy percent battery. She shut her eyes and clutched the phone, trying to recall one of the twins’ cell numbers. She’d always just scrolled to their names and pushed ‘call’, and she had to really concentrate to visualize any information beyond just a name. The only number that she knew off by heart and could retrieve immediately was Cheryl’s, and Briley didn’t want to call her until she was safe. She would if she really had to, of course, but she wanted to get the guys out here because they’d knowwhat to do with this whole mess. Then Briley could fall apart and call her friend. But for now…

Come on, come on. Think.

A series of numbers came to her mind out of the blue, and without thinking or second-guessing, she tapped them into the cell. There was ringing on the other end and she held her breath again, once again praying to a deity that she’d never really had much time for, wondering who the hell was actually going to pick up.

There was a click, then a gruff, rough voice said, “Who the fuck’s this?”

She paused, unable to believe that she’d calledthisman. “Wolf?”

“Holy fuck.Briley.” There was a clunk, then Wolf was hollering for someone to go get the twins. He came back and said, “Where are you, baby?”

“I – I don’t really know.” Her throat felt tight. “I – the side of a road somewhere, but I think I’m about twenty minutes from a hospital. I just don’t know which one.”

He paused. “Why do you think that?”

“Because Michael was taking me to the hospital and –”

There was the sound of voices and a kind of scuffle, and then she heard Dux (or Drake) say, “Darlin’, are you OK?”

As soon as she heard the endearment, she knew it was Drake on the phone, and suddenly, she felt so far away from him and his brother. She could be sitting in a truck anywhere at all, really, and even though she was talking to them, she had no clue how to get themhere.

“I’m – I’m –” She cleared her throat, determined to not burst into tears. When she and the babies were safe and away from whatever was left of Michael, then she’d cry a whole ocean. “I’m OK. The babies are too, I think, but I’d feel better if we all went to get checked out.”

“We’ll come get you. Wait a sec.” She heard a kind of hum for a second, then he was back. “You’re on speaker now. Where are you?”

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