Page 80 of The Deeper Game
I felt shaky, breath ragged, a cornered animal tasting her own death.
“Checkmate,” he added smugly.
Again I eyed the grass patch.
“Now, all I want to do is take a little walk with you,” he continued. “Do I drag your bloody corpse, or do you walk with me?”
“Drag my bloody corpse, jackhole!”
The vehicle rocked, and I knew he was getting on top of it.
I scrambled underneath, moving on pure fear.Survive just one more minute,I told myself. One more minute. Add one minute to another. Add that minute to another.
The truck bounced above me again. Was he on the move? Which side would he come at me from? I scrambled toward the front and something caught my dress, scraping my back. I kept on—the front was the least likely side he’d come at me from, I’d decided. Sometimes you have to go forward until you can’t. Sometimes that’s the only option you get.
It was then that I heard the rumble of a nearby engine and the spit of rocks under tires. Somebody else was here. Would they die, too? I just kept crawling under the car toward the front.Maybe he’d already jumped off. Maybe he was crouching on the ground, aiming at me.
Brakes squealed. Doors opened.
And somebody—or something—yelled.Roared. The sound was very nearly inhuman.
Yet there was something wonderfully familiar about it. My heart pounded.
Something crunched the gravel—or more like tore it up. I peered out under the bumper and caught sight of big black boots pounding past in the direction of the rock pile…I scooted closer and saw that it was Zeus, chasing Manning to the rock pile. Odin appeared, chasing after them. They were both still in their black bank-robbing clothes.
A voice nearby called out. “Isis?”
Thor.
“I’m under here,” I sobbed. “Thor!”
Tennis shoes appeared.
“I got her!” Thor yelled. “She’s with me!”
His knees and then his face appeared, shaggy blond hair hanging sideways like the most beautiful thing in the world. “Goddess,” he said, stretching his arm under the truck toward me. “You’re okay. We’re here.”
“He’s out there,” I whispered.
“Not for long.” He got down on his belly to be face-to-face with me. “You’re okay,” he said softly. He came under with me, right next to me, and wrapped his arms around me. “We gotcha.”
I burst out crying, big ugly sobs into his shoulder. “He was going to throw me into the pit! And you were in traffic—”
“Shhh.” He tightened his arms around me, pulling me close in the cramped, dark, oil-smelling space. “Shhh.” He held me there on the sharp stones.
“I thought you wouldn’t come,” I whispered.
“Of course we came. Are you hurt anywhere?”
“I don’t know! Kind of. But not really.”
“Come on out, goddess.”
I just held onto him, not wanting to move.
“Will you come out, goddess?”
I didn’t get how traumatized I was until that second. I knew that with Odin and Zeus after him, Manning wouldn’t come for me, but I still felt frightened.You’re okay,I told myself, making myself scramble out with him. Thor helped me up. An angry shadow crossed his eyes as he got a good look at my chin where Manning hit me, then he pulled me into his arms.
