Page 170 of Maddox
“Hold on,” she grunts, and I scramble for the seatbelt, shouting when I glance in the rearview mirror, “Move!”
It’s nonsensical but Draven seems to understand, and we swerve across the road before taking a sharp right turn.
We end up on another back road with the motorcycles spinning out in the dirt but remaining steady behind us.
This one is not maintained, and we fishtail on the icy sludge when she presses her foot on the gas.
“Where are we going?” I ask.
“Somewhere they can’t,” she says, and I eye her sideways.
I hope she knows what she’s doing. Otherwise, we’re driving ourselves into a trap.
The assholes behind us take a few potshots but otherwise wait us out. This doesn’t inspire confidence while we buck and bounce over the rough terrain.
When I turn, I see the bikers aren’t having an easy time of it though. The front runner slips into a dip, flies into the air and bounces down into a hole that his tire doesn’t survive.
One down five to go.
Two start to slow and I hold my breath when Draven rounds a boulder, shifts the truck into another gear and races toward a river that appears out of the darkness.
“Uh…” It’s all I can say as we hit it going way too fast.
Immediately the tires struggle under the loose rock and I grab my chest when the vehicle stalls.
“Fuck!” Draven screams, slamming her hand against the wheel but she doesn’t give up and eventually, the truck lurches forward, albeit slower than before.
To my relief, we reach the other side, no worse for wear and I silently thank the universe that the river turned out to be more of a stream.
If it had been any deeper, I don’t think we would have made it across.
After trading huge ass smiles, I look out the back window and meet the icy stare of Ice.
Unfortunately, his pale blue eyes remind me of Kidd, who died so that we can live, and I bite back a whimper while he recedes into the distance.
Chapter 39
Delaney
We drop back to silence as Draven navigates through the rocky terrain. I’m pretty sure we cross areas not meant for vehicles but to her credit she doesn’t falter.
The entire way, those horrible screams bounce around in my head, interspersed with the crunch of the man’s skull that I crushed.
By the time we pull to a stop, I’m in a trance of sorts and blinking, I look up at the compound as a dozen bikers emerge from inside the fence.
Beside me, Draven unlatches her belt and jumps from the truck before rushing into Joker’s arms.
“What happened?” he shouts while I fumble with my own door, ignoring his questioning glance.
When Maddox appears at my side, his wide eyes drop to the gun that I’m still clutching before he touches my hand, but my fingers are frozen around the metal, and I can’t unclench them.
Finally, he brushes a finger across my cheek and says, “Let go, princess.”
As if he said the magic words, I drop the gun, and he swipes it up before handing it to someone behind him.
When he turns back to me, I meet his pretty dark gaze and blink when he asks, “You okay, princess?”
His words don’t truly penetrate though, and I rub my aching eyes as he says, “Sh, it’s okay.”
