Page 42 of Poisoned Promise
“Toph! Please tell me you’re with Felix.”
“Dove?” Utter confusion laces Toph’s voice as he replies.
“Toph, please!”
There’s a shuffle across the speaker and then Felix’s deep tones vibrate through my car. “Dove?”
“Felix! I’m sorry, I didn’t know who the fuck else to call. Thank god Toph didn’t shut this number down.”
“What number?”
“Chase Keefe? The sugar salesman, remember?”
“Oh shit.” Felix snorts. “Good old times.”
“Yeah yeah.” Keeping our relationship hidden meant finding ways to call one another that couldn’t be traced by my overzealous father and my sweet tooth was the perfect cover. “Listen, I really need your—shit!”
This crash sends me against the steering wheel once again and the twisted metal ends up catching as their bumper locks onto mine.
All control of my vehicle vanishes while I wrestle to stay on the road and dislodge myself from the car behind.
“Dove!” Felix’s calm tone hardens in an instant. “What’s going on?”
“Some cunt is trying to run me off the road and I’ve got nothing, okay? I’m unarmed, I’ve got nothing. I wouldn’t call if I could find a way out of this but I can’t. Please, I need— fuck!”
A final wrench of the steering wheel and I’m finally able to dislodge from the car behind.
Frowning, I grit my teeth and wrestle my car back into a straight line while the pursuing vehicle falls back, fighting their own battle to stay on the road.
“I’m coming,” Felix replies. “Toph—.” His voice fades slightly and only a deep, low murmur drifts through.
I take the next turn, skidding around the corner while my car shudders. Never has she gone this fast before, poor thing.
“Okay we’ve got you. What are you doing all the way out there?”
“What do you mean? I’m out here all the time.”
“Really?”
“Look, are you going to help me or not?” I snap. “I’m desperate here, okay? I don’t know what this is but just so you know, if this is related to you then I’m going to kill you. And if not, then I guess my presence incited some road rage in some fucking random rat on the road.”
“We’re tracking you,” Felix replies. “I see where you are. Can you meet me somewhere?”
“Tell me where.”
Felix reels off an address that I quickly put into my GPS and the route calculates just as the car behind begins creeping up once more.
“Head there,” Felix instructs. “We’ll intercept.”
“Sure. Okay.”
“Dove. You’re going to be okay. Just keep on the road, keep your distance.”
“Don’t you think I’m trying? I’m not driving some amazing sports car y’know. I have a nice, unassuming little box and it’s a good box. It’s not meant for speeds like this!” My last word rips out of me as the car slams into me once again, sending me lurching forward.
“Shit,” I gasp.
“I’m coming,” Felix says, his voice deep and firm. “I’m coming for you, Dove.”
