Page 146 of Rear View
Chapter Forty
Xavier
I love you, Xavier.My girl’s words echoed in my head and my gut dropped, ’cause they’d been a goodbye. A fuckin’ goodbye.
Nah, dream girl. Not lettin’ you go. Not yet.
Not ever.
“Guardrail’s eighty feet out,” Alec called.
One hundred and fifty feet to dead air. To a plummet they wouldn’t survive.
The helicopter’s spotlight bounced off the sixty-foot rock face to our right when it tracked from us to Barlowe. “Pull the vehicle over. Stop. Pull the vehicle over.”
The cops were too far back, useless. So, I only had one option to help my girl. And my plan only gave me a single damn shot.
Downshifting, I slammed my foot on the gas. The car punched forward, and I closed in. Fast. Barlowe veered into my path, but the prick’d picked the wrong fight, ’cause he wasn’t on his turf anymore.
He was onmine.
His car’s momentum shifted across the center line.
Alec’s voice tightened. “Fifty!” He gripped the roll bar tight.
I jerked right in a Scandinavian slide. Just like I wanted, Barlowe followed, trying to block me out. Popping my e-brake, my wheels locked up and I cut left again. The ass end of my vehicle swung wide, drifting as I passed him. My wheels skimmed the edge of the road, inches from the scattered trees and sheer drop down the mountainside.
“Ten feet!”
Time slowed. I found my girl and locked on that copper gaze, screaming my message.Hold on, darlin. Hold. The. Fuck. On!
The whites of Barlowe’s eyes lit under my headlights. He paled.
Ryah’s arm shot to her left and his seat belt snapped away.
“FIVE!”
My tires shrieked as my car’s ass end raked across the guardrail. Sparks flew. When I reached Barlowe’s front quarter panel, I dropped it into gear and released the e-brake. Punching the gas, I drove forward,intohim, knocking him off course. Ryah grabbed Barlowe’s wheel and cut it, veering farther right and straight toward the cliff face.
She and Barlowe snapped to the side. Her hair flew, whipping as their momentum shifted. His car hit, giving under the stone. Metal screeched and buckled. Plastic exploded. My girl’s seat belt locked, and Barlowe went airborne. His body launched toward the windshield. The glass shattered and cubed as he broke through. The car came up short, back wheels lifting.
Barlowe’s shriek of terror echoed across the night.His head collided with the rock face. Then his shoulder. His body broke, and crumpled, painting everything with blood and bone and my sheer satis-fuckin’-faction.
He dropped to the ground.
Dead.
“Holy shit,” Alec said.
The car crashed back to the road. I locked up my brakes, skidding to a stop twenty feet away.
“RYAH!” I thundered, tore off my harness and exploded from the car. “RYAH!” I ran, vaulting over what was left of Barlowe’s hood and toward her side.
Alec followed, tight on my heels.
The airbag was inflated against her chest, its dust covering her clothes and face. And blood. Some dried, some new. Her eyes were closed, her head slumped to the side.
Alec’s attention snapped to the right. “We got gas, X.”
