Page 55 of Evil Queen

Nikita

Fortunately, I quickly pulled out two blades as someone snatched me while I was getting into my car. Unfortunately, it didn’t matter because whoever had their arms around me seemed to know I’d be armed. They wrapped around my arms and held me until I was too coiled to move. Then they dragged me backward until we were slipping into the shadows on the side of my garage. A hand cupped my mouth so that I couldn’t scream, but I knew what to do. I relaxed a bit to make my captor think that I was going to comply with what they had planned, and as soon as I felt that slight bit of release on the hand around my mouth, I craned my mouth and bit down on the hand.

The body behind me grunted, but they seemed to be trying to keep their voice down. The hand cupped further around my mouth despite the bite. Eventually, they tried to switch their arms, briefly releasing my arms and hoping that the hold they had on my mouth was enough to keep me still. That miscalculation cost them. I rolled out of their hold, bringing up my blades, and flipped around to bring them up to my captor’s neck.

Jaxon backed against the garage wall, wincing at my blades held to his throat. I opened my mouth to ask him what the fuck he was doing, but he slapped his hand over my mouth, and I could taste the blood from my bite where it trickled out. He tilted his head toward the street, and I looked around just in time to see a gray minivan sliding down the street at a slow pace. I leaned further into the shadow and kept my eyes on it as it pulled slightly up the street and parked in front of a house a few down from mine.

“That’s them,” Jaxon hissed to me. “Sorry for the snatch and grab, but I saw them park down from your house and get out, and I was terrified that they were gonna try to get you. I think they’re looking for you now.”

“I nearly cut you in half,” I groaned and then hugged him. “Thank you.” I slipped my blades back into the hidden holsters in my jacket sleeves and then peered around the corner of the house. The car was slowly inching its way forward, and I could see the driver looking back in our direction. “They’re definitely looking for me.”

“They’re gonna turn around and come back,” Jaxon said. “I gave them the slip the other day, and that’s what they did.”

Sure enough, the car inched a little more forward until it was out of the view of my house, then drove back out onto the street and out of sight.

“Come on. Get in my car. We’re going after them.”

“What?” Jaxon asked.

“What if they have Brayden? Or what if they try to snatch someone else?” I asked.

Jaxon shook his head. “I get the strange feeling that they’re only after you and Cherri.” I looked at him, and he nodded. “Yeah, I’ve had a busy weekend. They keep tabs on all of us so that they know when we’re not together, but they’ve only gotten out of their cars when they could potentially nab one of the two of you.”

That had my heart racing, but it also made me angry. “Then we’re definitely going after them. If these guys think they’re gonna snatch me up, they have another thing coming.”

I bolted out from the shadows on the side of my garage and raced over to my car. I hopped in, and my heart jumped with relief when Jaxon got in next to me. After bracing my hand on the gear to shift as soon as I got in, I stared through my rearview mirror. Jaxon did the same, and we sat in total silence while we waited to see if the van would come back. Around ten minutes passed, and I was beginning to think they weren’t coming back, but then the van appeared, creeping down the street. Jaxon and I both slid down so that our heads didn’t appear above the seats. As soon as the van was past my driveway, I threw my car into reverse and backed out of the driveway.

The van didn’t immediately pull away, but I boldly pulled up behind it, and then it took off, flying down the road at top speed. I followed after it, not letting it get too far from me but also not speeding so much that I inspired a call to the police. Once they’d pulled out of my neighborhood and onto the main roads, I opened up my car’s speed and started to close the distance. They may have been going fast, but they were in a minivan. Not in a million years were they going to stay ahead of my sports car.

They must have figured this was the case because as I started to close the distance, they began to weave in and out of traffic, using the other cars on the road to keep us separated. At one point, I managed to get alongside them. Whether they were going to use it or not, the guy in the passenger’s seat pulled up a gun and pointed it out the window. I let my foot off the gas so that my car would fall behind with my heart pounding in my chest.

“What’s the plan here, Nikki?” Jaxon asked. “I mean, say we drive around until we both run out of gas. Then what?”

“I’d be lying if I said I had a plan,” I responded. “I don’t necessarily want to catch them. I just want to know where they’re going.”

“Uh, then a subtler approach may have been better,” he replied.

“You’re not wrong, but I’m kind of just figuring it out as we go.”

“Do you honestly think they’ll go back to their home base or their boss or whatever with us following them?” he asked. “We have to make them think we aren’t following them anymore.”

Again, he wasn’t wrong. They probably weren’t about to let my car fall out of their field of view, but I didn’t trust myself to get out of their sight without losing them. So, yes, following them until we both ran out of gas was the current plan.

I did slow down, though, and tried to keep a few car lengths between us. They eventually made their way to the highway and got on, so I let a few cars go first and got on behind them. They changed lanes as if they still saw me following, but I didn’t mimic the action. As long as I stayed in the far-right lane and didn’t let them get too far in front of me, they wouldn’t be able to get off the freeway without my knowing.

Whether because they didn’t want to attract the attention of the police or because they thought I’d left them alone, their van slowed to a normal pace and started going with the flow of traffic. They passed by all of the exits out of South Postings headed northbound, which was an odd thing, considering all of their targets were in the southside of town, or so we thought.

“Are they headed to North Postings or just trying to run us out?” Jaxon asked.

“I don’t know. I’m sure they know I’m still back here,” I replied.

But then they carried past a lot of the South Postings exits as if they were headed straight out of the city. It wasn’t the worst thing. If they were leaving town, then the rest of The Royal Court was safe for the time being. Once cars tapered out as we left the city behind, I’d have a harder time staying hidden, but I planned to cross that bridge when I came to it.

“Oh, shit,” Jaxon said suddenly. “Left exit.”

“What?”

Jaxon pointed frantically. “That’s their plan. 28th is a left exit!”

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