Page 27 of Risk It All
After a quick glance at his profile showed that she likely wouldn’t have much luck getting him to expand on that single-word answer, Cara moved on to a different subject. “If the necklace has nothing to do with this, why’d they grab me? You and I are…barely acquaintances.” That was the truth, even though it often felt as though she’d known him forever.
“They were given bad intel.” His features hardened as he glared ferociously through the cracked windshield, making Cara glad she wasn’t the cause of his anger.
As she considered his answer, she glanced out her window again and immediately wished she hadn’t when the open expanse made her dizzy. The sunny morning was beautiful, giving the cliff faces a golden sheen and lighting up the bright-yellow aspen leaves. The river snaked beneath them—waybeneath them—a dark-blue stripe against the lighter rock. The car followed another sharp curve at Kavenski-level speed, and Cara’s right hand instinctively grabbed the door handle. It was silly, she knew that, and a handhold wouldn’t help her if the entire car plummeted off the side of the mountain, but it still felt a little reassuring to have a grip on something.
Forcing her attention off the view from her window and back onto Kavenski, she focused on the puzzle at hand. It was hard to understand why anyone would think the two of them were even casual friends, much less that she was important enough to be used as leverage against him. Perhaps Abbott had seen them sitting at the booth together that night, or witnessed him saving her from being run down just after. But even that didn’t seem like enough to make anyone think she wasimportantto Kavenski, unless…
She groaned out loud when the answer hit her, so bright and obvious and ridiculous that it made her want to punch someone. “Stuart Powers. That little…” No epithet seemed horrible enough for the sneaky little worm who’d gotten her into this mess in more ways than one. Barney had warned her that Abbott liked to use college students as his minions, and it was no surprise that Stuart had been willing to sell his soul for a little bit of money. A glance at Kavenski told her that he’d arrived at the same conclusion. “He saw us together on campus and told Abbott that we were a thing.” It seemed monumentally unfair that she had to deal with all the bad parts of being in a relationship with an unnaturally attractive felon but didn’t get to experience any of the good bits.
Kavenski gave a slight tilt of his chin that she interpreted as a nod.
“So Stuart’s involved in this?” Since she already knew the answer, she kept talking. “The little weasel gets around. IsAbbottafter the necklace, then?”
“Not specifically.” Rounding another curve too quickly for Cara’s comfort, Kavenski sped up even more as a straight section of road opened up before them. “If it fell in his lap, I don’t think he’d mind, but he’s more preoccupied with taking out his main rival right now.”
She checked the phone screen, but theNo Servicemessage stayed stubbornly in place. “What does Abbott—” She broke off as Kavenski tensed and the car jumped forward, pressing her back against her seat. Seeing his tight-jawed stare move to the rearview mirror for a fraction of a second, she whipped around in her seat. A black SUV had appeared behind them. It was still a quarter mile away, but it was gaining quickly.
A hopeful part of her wondered if it might be someone else behind them—a family out for a scenic drive, possibly. After all, there had to be loads of black SUVs in Colorado. Then a second, matching SUV came around the final turn into view, and that tiny hope was squashed.
“I’m pretty sure that’s Abbott’s people,” she said, barely able to hear herself over the wind screaming through their car and her heart pounding in her ears.
Although Kavenski didn’t respond, the tension in his grip on the steering wheel and his intent focus told her that he agreed. She didn’t know where to look, since every view was scarier than the last, so she focused on the phone in her lap, trying to will it to find reception. Even a single bar would help, but it remained disconnected to any hint of a signal.
Needing to do something besides sit there like a lump as they hurtled along on the cliff edge and the SUVs drew closer and closer to their rear bumper, Cara tapped out a text to Molly. Her fingers shook, making her clumsy, and it took three tries before she was able to enter her sister’s phone number correctly.Alive for now. Traveling through Field Cty. No signal. Will update when I know location. Love you!
Even though the text sat uselessly on Kavenski’s phone now, it would hopefully keep attempting to send and would go through as soon as there was a signal—if they managed to get out of this mountainous, receptionless wasteland. It wouldn’t give Molly much information, but it would at least let her know that Cara was alive and hopefully keep her sisters away from the guarded cabin.
“Hang on,” Kavenski gritted out. Shoving the phone into her hoodie pocket, Cara grabbed the door handle with one hand and braced her other against the dash.
How did my quiet, normal life turn into the scariest scene in an action movie?Glancing at Kavenski’s determined profile, she was glad that if she had to be in a high-speed chase on terrifying mountain roads, at least she was with him. “You know, hanging on isn’t going to help when the car goes over the cliff.”
He laughed—actually laughed—and she stared at him.
“Having a getaway driver who literally laughs in the face of death is not reassuring!” Her voice rose to a shriek at the end as he whipped around a turn. The tires squealed in complaint, and she couldn’t blame them. He’d just managed to straighten the car when the next turn loomed, and he swung the wheel to the right, the muscles in his forearms bulging as if he were keeping them on the road through sheer might.
Cara clenched her jaw, holding in a scream and a torrential mix of cursing and praying and unsolicited driving advice that wanted to pour out of her at the highest decibel possible. She knew it wouldn’t be useful and would only distract Kavenski when he was doing his best to keep them both alive. The scenery whipped past her window in a nausea-inducing blur, and she tightened her grip on the handle until her fingers went numb.
They swung into another turn, tires skipping sideways over the pavement, making Cara squeeze her eyes closed and swallow another scream. It was worse not knowing what was coming, though, so her eyes popped open again. Not daring to loosen her grip on the dash and door handle, she looked in the side-view mirror rather than turn around. Immediately, she wished she hadn’t given in to the impulse.
One SUV was right behind them, so close that she couldn’t see its left headlight. “How’d they catch up to us?” she yelled over the shrieking wind. Even that cacophony wasn’t enough to cover the rumbling of the SUV’s engine. Her skin crawled at their closeness, knowing that they could easily shoot her from this distance.
“Only the best and fastest for Geoffrey Princeton Abbott.” Kavenski sounded almost eerily calm, but Cara could see the strain in the tension of his body and the hard-held lines of his face.
“I’d like to point out that it’s really unfair I’ve been kidnapped and am being chased down by a guy I barely know, all because they think we’re dating, which we’re n—ot!” The last word turned into a startled yelp as they rounded a curve and the back of a station wagon appeared right in front of them. They flew up behind the other vehicle, rocketing toward the back of the slow-moving station wagon, and Cara clutched her handholds even harder. “Car! Car!”
Kavenski whipped the wheel to the left, and they swung into the other lane. Cara barely had a chance to suck in a gasp of relief before they’d shot past the car and darted back into their lane.
The SUVs followed closely, barely losing any ground as they passed the station wagon and closed in on Kavenski’s car again. Cara could only hope that the driver of the slower vehicle called the cops to complain about their unsafe driving.
They flew along the curved road cutting through the top of the pass, and a national forest information sign whipped past before Cara could read it. The back of their car slid toward the center line, the tires struggling to hang on to the asphalt in the sharp curve. Kavenski gripped the wheel with grim determination, the lines of his face sharp and hard with tension. Suddenly, there was a crashing sound, and the car lurched forward. Cara was thrown back against her seat from the force of the hit, her head jerking painfully.
“Did they just ram us?” she asked in shock.
“Yes.” Kavenski’s voice was grim as he pushed the car even faster. It shuddered with effort as they approached another sharp turn, but it wasn’t enough. They pitched forward as the SUV bumped their back end again.
Cara bit her cheek to keep her scream inside and braced herself for the next hit. The car slid sideways as Kavenski jerked the wheel sharply, forcing them into the next hairpin turn. As the engine shrieked, the smell of burning rubber filled Cara’s nose. The wall of rock outside her window got bigger and bigger, and she shoved herself sideways toward Kavenski, sure that they were about to smash into the cliff.
The back end of the car spun out, smacking into the rock in a glancing blow that jolted Cara hard enough to knock her head against the side window. The pain didn’t register, as fear took precedence in her brain.
