Page 170 of Lock Up the Darkness

She grinned. “Of course, I am.”

I grinned back at her, then finished out the tight bend in the road, and made the sharp left turn heading east, which led onto a long stretch of road, a bridge in the distance half a mile away.

And that was when I caught sight of movement through my rearview mirror.

I peered closer and, sure enough, there was a black van on our tail.

In moments, two more followed in its stead.

“Tail,” I called to Jonah and Aurora.

Jonah shifted in his seat. “I see the masks. It’s those same Heretics again.”

“Shit,” Aurora muttered.

“Coming in hot!” Jonah called.

As I picked up speed, Aurora pulled her gun, then rolled down her window.

In the next moment, she was firing behind us.

I heard the pop of a tire a moment later.

She was good.

At this speed with this poor visibility, to be able to make that shot was incredible.

A crash sounded and I shot a look in my mirrors to see she’d taken out the windshield and hit the driver. The van careened wildly across the road, before coming to a rough, jarring stop.

“Nice, Princess,” Jonah called. “One down, two to go.”

Before she could do anything else, shots rang out, forcing her and Jonah to duck.

They continued on, but missed us, just hitting the car.

Purposely?

They’d said they’d wanted us in a cage, rather than dead.

There was no time to analyze that as one of the vans slammed into the back of the car, jolting us violently.

The second shot up on my side and slammed into the driver’s side.

I jerked the steering wheel in the opposite direction, fighting to keep control of the car, which the slick roads really weren’t helping with.

As Jonah pulled his gun and he and Aurora moved to work in concert to take the vans out, I’d almost made it to the bridge up ahead, only to see two more vans tearing around the corner of the cross road from the other side of it and hurtling down it toward us. Fuck. They were trying to box us in.

Before I could react to even pull my gun while trying to keep the car steady through the slick roads and the onslaught, a shot fired from one of the vans coming toward us and hit the front left tire, blowing the fucking thing out. The car lurched and I spun the steering wheel to the right to try to offset it.

“Seatbelts!” I yelled to Aurora and Jonah.

I was vaguely aware of them hurrying to do just that, the sounds of them clicking into place.

And then another pop sounded, the enemy taking out another tire.

The bridge was just a few feet out, coming up fast. I grimaced at the sight of the steep drop of the gorge either side. I had to keep the car steady or we’d be taking a one-way trip down there.

This time, as I tried to compensate for the destabilization, the friction of the slick roads failed me. The car skidded, heading straight for the guardrail of the bridge.

With two tires compromised, there was shit all I could do to drive steadily, so I slammed on the brakes.

The car skidded in spite of it, muddied water slicking the windows, and we hurtled toward it in a blurring rush.

Screams and tires screeching filled my ears.

It ended in a brutal slam as we hit the rail with a violent, bone-rattling jar.

My head smashed into the steering wheel.

And then there was just blackness.