Page 96 of The Villain
Four huge, armed men to take me back to the house, like there was any chance I might escape this car. Like he thought maybe I’d leap over one of their laps and somehow get the door, that automatically locked as soon as the engine started, opened and leap to my death on the fucking highway.
I hate Cassian Trevino with all my heart.
The highway is busy in both directions, fully stopped heading into Atlantic City, but we’re moving at a snail’s pace here, too. I’m not sure it matters. I’m either going to be locked in here or cuffed to Cassian’s bed until he gets there and then what? What’s he going to do to me then? Either way, I lose.
I close my eyes, lean my head back and press the heels of my hands into them.
Shit. I should have told him about the phone. He’d have let me keep it. Why wouldn’t he have let me keep it? We were starting to trust each other at least a little. The drive to AC, the custard stop, I don’t know, all of it, me talking about my parents, him talking about his and telling me about Vivi, we were getting somewhere. Now I’m back to square one. A prisoner. Collateral.
“I’ll take the surface road,” the driver says.
“Stay on the highway,” Enzo orders, but the driver is already shifting lanes. “I said stay on the fucking highway,” Enzo commands.
Enzo takes out a gun, cocks it and points it to the driver’s temple.
I gasp. Am I fucking seeing this?
“I said we stay on the fucking highway,” Enzo repeats, tone low and deadly.
The driver doesn’t even blink or turn his head, though. What’s Enzo going to do, shoot the driver? He can’t. We’ll crash if he does.
But another gun is cocked before a split-second passes. It’s the soldier on my right and he’s holding the pistol to the back of Enzo’s skull.
I glimpse Enzo’s expression in the side mirror. He’s not going to put the weapon down. Shit. Is he really going to shoot the driver?
“Enzo, give me the weapon,” the man to my right says.
The driver has by now exited the highway and he’s driving down a surface road. The soldier to my left textsa message to someone and I get the feeling it’s not Cassian.
“I said give me the weapon, Enzo. I will kill you if I have to. Don’t make me have to.”
“Traitor,” Enzo says and draws his weapon from the driver’s temple. I think he’s going to give it to the man at my right. He reaches his arm to pass the weapon back. The man to my right lowers his pistol. The instant he does, Enzo shifts his grip, aims using the side mirror and fires.
The man’s head jerks backward. Well, what’s left of it does.
I scream as blood and brains splatter the window, the back windshield, all over me. My face, my already ruined dress.
“Mother fucker,” Enzo says, taking aim at the one to my left who has just gotten his weapon in hand. I guess he didn’t expect trouble because he’s slow and Enzo has no trouble taking him out.
More blood. Another slumped body. Me screaming.
The driver mutters a curse as Enzo leaps across to take the wheel.
“I told you to stay on the fucking highway!” He jerks it, pushing the button to release the driver’s seatbelt before reaching over to open his door.
I grab hold of the seat in front of me as the car swerves sharply off the road, bouncing over the barrier as the driver is ejected, his scream sharp, the sound of his body hitting the asphalt muted by my own scream.
Enzo maneuvers himself into the driver’s seat, theSUV bounding the door still open. He slows the vehicle, glancing at me in the rear-view mirror.
“You all right?”
I nod. When I lick my lips, I taste blood I’m pretty sure isn’t mine. His phone rings then, but it must be on the floor of the passenger seat. He ignores it and it stops ringing then starts again right away. Enzo is focused on getting the car back on the road, but as soon as he does, as soon as we’re back on, I know this isn’t over. I know something is very wrong. Because three sets of headlights turn on out of nowhere ahead of us and three more come up behind.
“It’s a fucking ambush,” Enzo mutters. “Hold on!” He hits the gas, and I slam against the back seat, but I know there’s nowhere to go. I know they have six vehicles, and we have one on a road where we’re trapped. However Enzo managed what he just managed, we’re not getting out of this.
As if to prove me right, one of the cars behind us slams into us.
I scream again and Enzo curses, yells at me to hold on. But I know this is as fast as our SUV will go. The driver of the other vehicle does it again and this time, one of the others pulls up right alongside us and when I look over, I think I recognize the man in the driver’s seat. I think it’s Rami. As if to confirm, he turns to give me a wide, gold-toothed grin, just before slamming into the side of our SUV. Fucking bastard.
