Page 38 of Hard Rain

Rain hammered the windshield hard enough that the wipers barely kept up.

Axel shot a glance at Whip.

“You’re driving like somebody’s grandma.”

“Visibility’s garbage.”

“You’re still driving slow.”

“You’re impatient.”

He wasn’t wrong.

Axel finished the last bite of his burger and leaned his head back against the seat. “I’m tired.”

“That too.”

The SUV bounced again.

Axel grabbed the oh-shit handle above the door.

Fuckin’ reflex is all that was.

Whip’s grin flashed quick and mean in the dashboard glow.

“Thought the roads were the problem.”

“Shut up.”

Lightning flashed hard enough to turn the trees white, and a deep crack echoed somewhere ahead of them.

Whip’s grin vanished instantly.

“Shit.”

Whip slammed on the brakes when a massive pine tore loose from the hillside and crashed across County Twelve barely thirty feet ahead of them.

The SUV fishtailed sideways in mud.

Branches exploded across the road with a sound like gunfire while the entire vehicle rocked violently before stopping crooked across the shoulder, the back end in the ditch.

Silence hit for half a second.

Then the world came roaring back.

Whip killed the headlights automatically.

“Everybody good?” Whip asked.

“You ask that like there’s more than two people in here.”

Adrenaline still punched hard beneath Axel’s ribs while he stared at the pine sprawled across the road.

“That’s a big tree,” Whip murmured.

“No shit.”

Whip grabbed a flashlight from the console.