Page 92 of Texas Hold Em'
“Carrie, no,” I started, but she’d already dropped the clutch and pulled away. Wolverines fired at her, and Mason, the closest to us, fired back, clearing her path as she opened the throttle and sped up the rise in the direction Caroline, her father, and Moss had fled.
My heart raced. In her wake, more Wolverines climbed onto their bikes and abandoned the fight. They left their dead behind.
Brody got Jackson to his feet, and I spun to them, dizzy with panic. Jackson looked even worse for wear than he had a minute ago.
“Go after her,” he said, his breath hitching. “But watch yourself, Tex.”
CHAPTER 38
CARRIE
Irode like a Devil.
The wind ripped at the sleeves of my T-shirt. Up ahead, the taillights of Caroline’s SUV appeared and disappeared as they tried to lose me.
I grinned into the wind, thinking about how scared she must have been. She had her father bleeding out in the back seat while they fled a psycho giving chase on a motorcycle, who they probably thought was one of the Devil’s Luck.
And maybe I was. At least, I wanted to be. And as I sat in the saddle riding the yellow line in the middle of the road, I certainly felt like one.
Hell, I felt invincible. Unstoppable.
Tex was still standing. He was alive. Brody would be able to get Jackson the help he needed. None of the corpses back at the landfill belonged to any of ours. Even though Bates still had breath in his lungs, as I closed in, I truly felt like this was going to be it.
I would be the lucky one to put a bullet in his skull. It worried me only briefly that my gut instinct was to kill him, not arrest him. But only briefly.
He deserved death. He deserved to writhe in pain in the back seatwhile his daughter tried to save him. I hoped they were scrambling and full of panic. Nothing would bring me greater satisfaction than to know they were afraid.
I was surprised when they didn’t head into downtown. Instead, they headed the other direction once we left the landfill, heading for the interstate and out of town.
He was running.Coward,I thought.
I couldn’t get the bike to go any faster. I was riding at my absolute limit. If I pushed myself any harder, I might crash, and that wasn’t how I wanted this night to end. A crash wouldn’t be good for me. All I had on was a T-shirt and jeans. I’d be chewed up by the road.
The SUV disappeared around a bend. I accelerated as hard as I could, making up in advance for the time I’d lose in the corner, and took the speed off before I came into it. I couldn’t lean like I could on other bikes I’d ridden, so I had to ease my way into and out of the corner.
Up ahead, I’d gained several more yards on the Rover. We zeroed in on a straightaway and I seized my chance. I dropped a gear and opened up the throttle.
The engine roared and the bike bucked beneath me before shooting forward. I kept low in the seat, tucked my knees in, and kept my eye on the prize. I gained on them quickly and we still had plenty of road ahead of us.
This was the best chance I was going to get.
With one hand steady on the handlebars, I drew my gun, took aim, and fired. The back right tire blew out. The SUV swerved, tires squealing, brake lights flashing.
I pretended to hear Caroline screaming from inside the car.
I took another shot, but it deflected off the back bumper. Cursing, I pulled away from the yellow line and veered off to the right side of the lane. I rode the shoulder and crept up on the righthand side of the car. I took another shot, this time blowing a hole in the side of the car right where the fuel tank was. I was rewarded by a steady line of fluid staining the pavement.
Sooner or later, they’d run out of gas.
Suddenly, the passenger door of the SUV swung open.
I didn’t have time to veer away. I hadn’t left enough space between me and the back tire of the SUV. Moss, holding on to his seatbelt to stay in the car, let his whole upper half fall out of the side of the car. With his free hand, he trained a gun right on me.
Fuck.
I hit the brakes hard. Moss pulled the trigger. The bullet just missed my knee and caught something in the exposed engine of my bike. It shuddered and groaned, and within seconds, I lost stability.
The front tire began to wobble and nothing I did helped me regain control. The wobble only got worse until I was all over the road. Moss took another shot, which burst my headlight.
