Page 144 of Delicate Escape

I glanced at the turn she wanted me to make. We’d been slowly gaining altitude as we wound around the road that led to the mountains. But this one would take us directly up. It was also flanked by plenty of tall trees. Ones I could possibly send the car into. It was my only hope. I’d just have to pray that if her gun went off, the bullet wouldn’t hit me, or that it wouldn’t be a lethal shot at least.

“Turn!” Raina yelled.

I jerked the wheel, making the turnoff and sending gravel flying. Raina’s hold on my hair tightened as she used me to steady herself, making a fresh wave of pain dance across my scalp.

I managed to keep the car on the road, straightening and heading up the side of the mountain. The incline would make it hard to get enough speed to crash like I wanted and needed to. I pressed my foot to the gas, praying I wasn’t making a mistake and sending us careening over one of the steep drop-offs to my left.

Raina kept a hold of my hair, gripping it tightly as she turned around. “Fucking pigs,” she snarled and leveled her gun at the back windshield.

Fear spiked, and I prayed she wasn’t a good shot. That she wouldn’t hit Deputy Allen.

Another crack sounded, and glass spiderwebbed. Then another shot and another.How many bullets does a gun hold?I had no idea. She could be out for all I knew, or she could have a dozen left.

A laugh pierced the air, but it had a sickening quality to it. “We’ll see how he does getting up the mountain missing a front tire.”

My gaze flicked to the rearview mirror for a split second, just long enough to see through the smashed-out window that Allen’s vehicle had slid to a stop. My gut soured. If I crashed now, there’d be no backup. I just had to hope that I could hit with enough force that it would cause Raina some injuries.

That thought had nausea swirling. Even with all she was doing, I didn’t want to hurt her. She’d had enough pain in her life. Agony that had clearly twisted her mind in unbearable ways.

I knew what it was like to not trust your own brain or memories. They became a gnarled knot you couldn’t see the beginning or end of.Like a cord you couldn’t identify. You didn’t know what it had once been because it was something entirely different now. Something you couldn’t see your way out of.

But I did see now. I knew. The truth had finally found me. And falling in love with Shep had helped me—as if he’d pulled away a veil that had been left over my eyes. I could see the world through new eyes now, all the shades and colors as they truly were.

It was a gift I’d never be able to repay.

But I would be brave enough to fight for what we had.

My gaze locked on the road ahead. Through the trees to my left, I knew there were sharp, cliff-like drop-offs. I wasn’t about to risk going through those trees to a rocky death. But only forest was to the right.

Those trees had been one of the things that had soothed me when I moved to Sparrow Falls. Their endless beauty and calming scent. I just hoped they could rescue me one more time.

I turned the wheel toward them and pressed the gas pedal to the floorboard just as Raina screamed.

56

SHEP

“Get in,”Anson ordered, yanking open the door to his truck.

I didn’t wait for another barked command, just hauled myself into the cab and slammed the door as he climbed in opposite me.

Anson started up his truck and threw it in reverse. “Open the glove box. I’ve got a police scanner in there. We can figure out where they are.”

Trace hadn’t shared that piece of information, telling me to wait for his call. Like hell would I sit at home twiddling my thumbs while Thea was out there fighting for her life.

Her life.

Just thinking the words had an invisible fist slamming into my gut and forcing all the air from my lungs. Everything burned as if my entire body had been engulfed in flames.

Which was exactly what it would be like if anything happened to Thea. I couldn’t do life without her now that I knew what it was like tobe loved by her. She made everything…more. As if just having her in my presence made the world around me crisper and more beautiful.

“Hit the orange power button. It should already be tuned to the Mercer County channel,” Anson said as his foot pressed harder on the gas, making gravel fly.

I fumbled with the device that looked like a walkie-talkie. The moment I hit the orange button, static crackled.

“Unit four in pursuit of Thea Stewart and unknown subject on Terrace Road just past mile marker thirty. Allen’s vehicle is out of commission. Shots fired. Unknown subject is armed.”

I gripped the police scanner so hard the plastic began to crack. I instantly loosened my grip, forcing my body to release so I wouldn’t lose the one connection I had to Thea.

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