Page 126 of Carbon

I swallowed down the vomit rising in my throat and closed my eyes. For a moment, I wished he’d just shoot me and get it over with.

“Have you worked out where we’re going yet?” Sofia asked.

Leroux swore under his breath and reached for the SatNav. That sick, sick bastard.

I stared at my lap, dreaming up all the things I wanted to do to him, starting with the removal of a certain part of his anatomy. And that meant I barely noticed when Sofia turned the wheel to the left. Only the bump as we left the road made me look up, just in time to see a low brick wall coming straight towards us. At the last second, she crossed both hands over her chest, and everything happened at once. The front of the car crumpled, the airbags went off, and Leroux’s body sailed past into the windscreen with a sickening crunch.

For a few seconds, nobody moved, then Leroux groaned from his position sprawled across the bonnet. How was he still alive? His head and shoulders had gone clean through the bloody glass! Sofia was silent, still, and every part of me hurt as I unclipped my seatbelt and kicked at the door. Where was the gun? Leroux had been holding it when we crashed. And why wasn’t Sofia moving?

The seatbelt had sliced into my shoulder, and blood seeped through my jumper as I stretched out one arm and then the other. Fire burned through my left leg, but I blocked it. Sofia. I needed to get to the driver’s side and check on Sofia.

Except as I half climbed, half fell out of the car, Leroux began to claw his way across the bonnet. Blood was matted into his hair, and a flap of skin hung from his forehead with the white of his skull peeping through the crimson mess underneath. Breakfast rose up my throat, and by the time I’d dumped it at my feet, Leroux was on his. He swayed slightly, wild eyes staring from side to side, looking for… Shit! We both spotted the gun at the same time as the sun glinted off the barrel.

I dived forwards, but he shoved me out of the way.

“Salope!”

Presumably, that was meant to be derogatory, but seeing as I didn’t speak much French, the effect got lost.

I grabbed his arm, but my fingers slipped on the blood and he barely stumbled. I tried again, digging my nails in this time, and he let out an animalistic roar as he swung a fist at me.

Oh hell, oh hell, oh hell. I wasn’t cut out for this. I wrote romance, not thrillers. My knees buckled, and Leroux’s knuckles whistled past and connected with a tree.

“Bitch!”

Okay, I understood that one. He went for the gun again, and I used the last of my strength to leap forward and kick it into a patch of stinging nettles. If he wanted it that much, at least he could suffer first. And so could I. His punch connected this time, and I fell into the dirt, trying to twist away as he wrenched my arms above my head.

“I will enjoy killing you, slut,” he hissed. “But perhaps we can have fun first, yes?”

I scrabbled amongst the soil and twigs as he straddled me, using his weight to hold me down. Blood dripped off his chin and splashed onto my breasts.

“Get off me!”

“You owe me this. Yourcopainruined everything.”

Insanity leached from his glittering eyes as he used one hand to tear at my jumper. I tried to buck my hips and get him off, but Leroux was bigger than Ben and fuelled by evil. Tears rolled down my cheeks as panic and fear warred inside me.

And then a foot connected with his head. What the…? Leroux lurched to the side, but Sofia followed and hammered a fist into his nose.

Thank goodness. Thank goodness Sofia was awake, and thank goodness she knew how to hit properly.

I wriggled out from under Leroux as Sofia rained blows down on him, and he began to crawl, spitting curses with every exhale. My heart shuddered in my ears as I scrambled away, turning just in time to see Sofia shove Leroux onto his front and kneel on his shoulders. He tried to push himself up, but she flicked one foot out and stamped on his hand.

“Don’t even think about it, you fucker.”

Her slim fingers reached around his neck, tightening, and his struggles subsided as she pressed harder. Ten seconds, twenty, and he stopped moving.

“Is he d-d-dead?”

She didn’t release the pressure. “Not yet. Compressing the carotid artery causes unconsciousness in fifteen to twenty seconds, but it takes two to four minutes for a man to die.” She glanced at her watch. “We still have at least a minute and a half left.”

Bloody hell. She really was going to kill him, wasn’t she? My breath came in ragged pants while Sofia choked a man without breaking a sweat.

And do you know what? I was grateful. Grateful that she had the strength and guts to do what I couldn’t. But I didn’t want to watch, so I screwed my eyes closed and fought against the nausea still churning in my stomach.

Please, make it quick.

The cracking of twigs from behind made my eyes pop open, and Sofia groaned as an elderly couple emerged from behind the Porsche.

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