Page 19 of Along for the Ride

The sound is almost lost beneath her scream. Her chest rises and falls with each ragged breath as fear grips her body in a chokehold. Karson’s laughter grows louder and gains an edge that sets my hair on end.

Her eyes narrow and she whips the car to the side of the road, nearly sending me into the front seat when the tires grind to a stop. “Get out,” she says. When we don’t move, she raises her voice. “Get thefuckout!”

Her tone is potent enough to choke off Karson’s laughter, and his mouth falls open from shock. No woman has yelled at us like that. Well, none that are still alive to talk about it.

Now I’m the one laughing. It’s a low rumble of sound that I can’t contain thanks to the sheer audacity of this girl. Her balls might be bigger than mine.

“You know what?” She snatches the keys from the ignition and throws them toward me. “Take the car. It’s not even mine. Have a good life, Brothers Grimm.” Her hand goes for the door handle.

I raise the pistol in my hand—the one that is very much loaded—and put it to the back of her soft blonde hair. “The Brothers Grimm were fucking scholars, so thanks.” I push the barrel until her golden locks envelop the metal tip. “Now get your hand off the handle.”

“Just kill her and get it over with,” Karson says.

Her chest falls as the bravado fizzles out at the feel of my gun. The fear creeps back into her at my brother’s words.

“I’d rather not,” I say, “and if little miss here can behave herself, I won’t have to.”

“Fuck off,” she mumbles, but I can still hear the bite in her voice. She’s afraid, but she’s also pissed. The hostility takes a detour to my dick.

I get out of the car, looping around the back and coming to a stop at the driver’s side door. I whip it open and pull her from the seat. She writhes and tries to break free from my grasp, but I hold her against me until she’s still.

“Watch your mouth,” I growl in her ear. “Unless you’re going to open your mouth and do something more useful with it, I’m kindly asking you to shut the fuck up and stop making this more complicated than it has to be.”

The sweet scent of her panic rises to my nose, and I want nothing more than to press her against the side of the SUV and make something louder than some muttered curses flow from her full lips. I turn her and pin her against the metal. My hand goes toward her throat, and she flinches at my touch. Holding her like this sends sunlight against the bruises on her neck. Bruises that look like a shadow crawling along her skin. The shadow of a hand. She doesn’t need to tell me what she’s running from now. I have a pretty good idea.

I drop my hand to her arm and open the back door, flicking the child locks before putting her onto the back seat and locking her inside. I’m disgusted by the way my stomach twists with a hint of sympathy for what she’s been through. Assholes like me don’t feel bad for others. We look out for ourselves, and that’s it. I remind myself of that and swallow with gritted teeth, squashing the feelings like the meaningless bugs they are.

“I’m not in the mood for either of you,” I growl as I sit in the driver’s seat and throw the car in drive. We really don’t have time for this bullshit.

Karson leans forward and turns on the radio. Music blares through the shitty speakers and for the fifth time, I reach over and silence them.

“The radio was literally invented for road trips,” Karson snaps as he throws his back against the seat.

“This isn’t a road trip, Karson. Road trips take you somewhere fun. It’s business.”

“You’d rather just listen to silence? That’s fun for you?”

I shake my head before letting my gaze rise to the rearview mirror. Leana’s blue eyes stare out the window, the rest of the car seemingly unworthy of her stark glare. Her hair clings to the thin sheen of sweat on her cheek. She doesn’t need to sit there looking so bitchy. We’ve been more than fair with her. We took her car—correction, not evenhercar—and that’s it. Well, we took her too, but we haven’t hurt her. I’ve enjoyed our little distraction for the most part, and I plan to keep her with us until we get closer to a place I never thought I’d visit. Hollywood. Puke. A real rich place for two men who despise rich people.

I grip the steering wheel and sigh. “We need to find another car soon. We’ve been driving this one for a few days, and the cops are probably looking for it.”

“Way ahead of you,” Karson says with a satisfied smirk. “I found a matching SUV in the last hotel parking lot and swapped the plates. If any tag readers lock on, it won’t show as stolen. This is a common car in a common color, so as long as we do that every few days, we’ll stay ahead of them. I guarantee the cops aren’t hunting too hard for this hunk of junk anyway.”

“What part of California are you heading to?” Leana asks, her eyes snapping to mine in the mirror.

Karson’s head whips in my direction. “You told her where we’re going? Are you fucking stupid, Gentry?”

“Hollywood,” I tell her, ignoring Karson. “Where were you going? You were filthy and a thief, so you weren’t heading home to visit Mommy and Daddy.”

She scoffs. “Out of New York.”

“What’re you running from?” I ask again. I already know the answer, but I want to hear her say it.

“Nothing,” she snaps, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Who the fuckcares, G?” Karson fiddles with his window, rolling it up and down in quick succession. Each time the glass leaves the seal at the top of the window, a roar of air vibrates the inside of the car. I use the controls beside me to raise his window and lock it. He mashes the button, getting more aggressive with every push. That incessantclick, click, clickbegins to drive me nuts, and he knows it. He does shit just to make noise, I swear.

“Can you just fucking stop doing things?” I snap.

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