Page 46 of The Elementalist
“That thing doesn’t have the shocks for a rough trail like this. Hopefully it’ll buy us enough time to get out to the pavement and haul ass for town.”
My new succubi friend looked over at me. “Max… don’t take this into town or they’ll get the police involved.”
“So? Wouldn’t we kinda want them involved?”
“The cops are under their control. They’ll arrest us both and make up whatever story they want.”
“That’s a bit much. The vampires aren’t controllingeverycop. And if they could do that, why didn’t they grab you the day you confronted Justine about the shoddy investigation into Dana’s death?”
“I’m quite difficult to kidnap, and they know that. At least, with anything the police have access to. They wouldn’t have been able to hold me long enough for the Farringtons to pick me up.”
“True. But wouldn’t whoever set this up expect killing Dana would get you involved, bring you out of Ironside?”
She rolled her eyes. “That’sexactlywhat they wanted. I’m sure they killed her primarily to lure me away from Ironside. They knew I’d come back here at least for her funeral. It’s far more difficult for them to do anything over there. In short, they could set up a trap here.”
“Any idea why they want you dead or captured?”
“No idea, other than I don’t play by their rules... and I know most of their secrets.”
“Your sister probably rejected their ways, too.”
“Hard to say. I think she mostly went along, until...”
“Until she heard of the Farringtons’ plans to execute you.”
“Or imprison me, but yeah.”
“Okay. Well, it’s a good thing I don’t have a cat.”
“Say again?”
I grinned. “Don’t have to worry about not feeding him if I don’t make it back home tonight. To Ironside it is. But, if you want to avoid town, we’ll need to take the long way around.”
“Take whatever way around you want,” said Crystal, eyeing the side mirror. “Just do it faster… they’re gaining on us.”
Sure enough, a black Cadillac Sedan and a red Dodge pickup emerged from the trees behind us, racing around a bend in the road.
“Crap. Hold on.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Obligatory
I accelerated up to sixty… not the wisest thing to do on a backwoods road riddled with holes, rocks, and curves.
Whoever drove the Cadillac handled the car pretty damn well for the terrain, managing to keep up with us. The truck lagged a little ways behind... and for the time being, the bumpiness of the road kept the guys in the open bed clinging for their lives rather than trying to get a shot at us. One or two raised their rifles, but either the trees got in the way on a bend or their truck bounced over something hard enough that they worried more about not going flying than trying to fire at us.
“They’re chasing us,” said Crystal, oddly calm.
“Yeah, it’s in the rules. Just like the pretty girl who gets involved with a PI ends up kidnapped? There’s gotta be a car chase.”
She flashed this cute smile at me that made my heart do bad things. Well, good things, but palpitations in the midst of a car chase are kinda bad.
“Wonder how much they’re paying those idiots,” I muttered while nearly losing control on a sliding left turn.
“They could be vampires… falling out of a truck at this speed would be more annoying than deadly.” She peered out at the sky. “It’ll be dark in less than an hour. This could get messy if we don’t make it to Ironside.”
I debated going faster, but didn’t trust the truck’s ability to stay on the road or avoid rolling. Doing sixty-five here already well exceeded my comfort level. “Why are you so convinced they’ll leave us alone if we make it there?”
