Page 29 of Risk It All
“Yeah.” His voice matched his grim, determined expression as he jerked the wheel sharply. The car obeyed somewhat, but the flat tire didn’t allow him to maneuver well enough to miss a large pine tree altogether. The car flew closer, the right rear corner smacking against the tree. It bounced off, sending them sliding in a diagonal trajectory that Cara was pretty sure wasn’t even close to where Kavenski had originally planned to take them.
The car lurched and jerked, ricocheting off larger rocks and gnarled trees as if they were in a giant pinball game. Kavenski twisted the wheel to muscle the car back into a nose-first position, but it was too late. Momentum had taken over, sending them on an uncontrollable dive down the slope.
Cara grabbed on to the door handle with one hand and reached out with the other, needing the comfort of human contact during what could be the last moments of her life. Releasing the wheel, Kavenski grabbed her hand, tightly enfolding it in his huge mitt.
The car rotated until it was completely sideways, skidding down the mountain driver’s side first. Smaller pieces of earth and rock bounced along with them, a tiny landslide knocked loose by their careening vehicle. A larger boulder protruded out of the side of the hill, and Cara stared at it through the driver’s window. As they got closer, she held her breath, hoping that they would slide right by, but they weren’t that lucky. With a loud crunching sound, the front of the car slammed into the huge rock.
The force of the hit spun the vehicle again, turning it so that the trunk was heading downhill first. Cara swallowed a scream and clung to Kavenski’s hand. Somehow, it was even more terrifying to flybackwardsdown a mountain. She didn’t have to worry about that long, however. As it smacked into trees and rocks, the car flipped around in nausea-inducing changes of direction until a sharp ridge of rock brought it to a sliding stop.
She didn’t even have enough time to take a relieved breath before the car was moving again, this time flipping onto its side. The metal groaned, and small rocks and bits of safety glass rained over them through the smashed windows. Unable to hold back her shriek of terror, she released Kavenski to grab her door handle with both hands, clinging for dear life as the car slid for what felt like forever before toppling over again, this time landing upside down. The air left her lungs in a rush, not giving her enough oxygen to scream. Instead she clung to her handholds, mentally shrieking as the car was tossed around like a toy.
All the blood rushed to Cara’s head as she reached up—no, down—to brace her hands on the ceiling. Her body was squashed and confused, gravity pulling her down while her seat belt held her strapped to her seat.
The car continued to slide, picking up speed, bouncing over rocks and dirt like a three-thousand-pound saucer sled. The upside-down view through the broken windows was blurred and surreal, and Cara couldn’t catch her breath as they flew down the slope. Sharp bits of wood and stone pinged against her skin, and thick dust made it even harder to breathe. It felt like they’d been hurtling down the mountain forever. Cara squeezed her eyes closed, mentally chantingAt least we’re still alive. At least we’re still alive.
The car jolted with a protesting creak of metal and plastic, slipping twice more before coming to a shuddering stop. Cara froze, her eyes still locked shut, unable to believe that they’d truly come to a halt. She held very still, waiting for the car to start moving again, to plunge them off a final cliff. As they’d crashed down, flipping from side to top, she hadn’t really believed they’d survive. Now that the car wasn’t moving, she didn’t dare believe the nightmare was over.
It was unbearably quiet—even the engine must have been killed at some point—with only the light patter of pebbles that had followed them down the slope landing on the body of the car and the slight whine of the wind disturbing the utter peace. A tiny bubble of hope rose in her, expanding until her entire chest was filled with elation.
They’d done it. They’d survived.
A rough voice cut through the silence. “Cara? You with me?”
It felt strange to speak, as if the trip down the mountain had taken fifty years and she’d forgotten in the meantime how to form words. When she first tried, a cough escaped instead, forcing the coating of dust and dirt from her throat. Her second attempt was more successful. “I think I still have all my pieces.” It was hard to tell, though. She tried to do a mental inventory, but her upside-down position was messing with her senses. “I need to get down.”
“Hang on.”
She laughed weakly at that and then wondered how she was able to find amusement in the current situation. “No choice but to hang on, really.” Her voice cracked on the last word, and she coughed again.
A click from the driver’s side was quickly followed by a heavy thud, and Cara forced her eyes open. The light was strange in the remains of the car, too bright in places and completely dark in others. She focused on Kavenski, who was untangling himself out of the heap he’d landed in after letting himself out of his seatbelt.
Seeing him freed made her feelings of claustrophobia worse, and she fumbled with her own seat-belt latch, forgetting his request to hang on. The car shifted slightly, tortured metal groaning, and she gripped her seat belt with both hands and froze, her fear of being trapped overwhelmed by a more immediate fear of imminent death. A strangled whimper escaped her throat as she turned to look through what remained of her window.
There was only empty space.
A single tree trunk kept them from falling into the chasm. It wasn’t like the fairly steep but survivable slope that they’d just traversed. This drop would be straight down to the river below. There was no way they could live through that.
The car creaked again, and Cara very carefully turned her head toward Kavenski to see him inching toward her across the car ceiling that had been turned into an unsteady floor. Her terror must’ve been obvious, because he started talking in a tone more soothing than she’d thought him capable of.
“It’s going to be okay, Cara.” In a crouch, he shifted another inch closer, and the car rocked ever so slightly, as if they were in a sailboat on a still lake…right at the top of a waterfall. She gripped her seat belt tighter and concentrated on not losing her mind with fear. “Just stay calm. I’m almost there. We’ll get you free and then both get out of here.”
She wanted to tell him to knock it off, that his gentle tone was too weird to handle, and that it was freaking her out, but she didn’t know if she was capable of saying anything at the moment. Instead, she concentrated on his face, on the eternally calm expression that was marred by dirt and a few streaks of blood.
“Good job,” he said, as if she’d done anything except hang there frozen and stare at his face. “I’m just about there.” He was close enough to touch her shoulder, and he pressed her up slightly, taking a little pressure off the areas where the seat belt kept her secured. Shifting over again, he reached for the latch, the maneuver forcing them to press so tightly together that her cheek was flat against his thigh.
The car creaked as something snapped, making the passenger side dip. Cara’s stomach swooped at the movement, and she released her grip on the seat belt to clutch at the man in front of her. He’d gone still, which scared her almost more than the rocking car.
“Okay.” His voice was rougher than it had been a few seconds earlier. She actually preferred that to his unnaturally gentle tone. “Going slowly isn’t working. We’re going to get out. Get ready to move fast in three…two…one.”
As soon as he got toone, she heard the click of the seat belt and then the pressure across her chest and waist released. Before she could drop onto her head, however, he was yanking her back into the space above the driver’s seat, both of them tangled in a mess of limbs. There was a thump and then the sound of breaking glass, and the car rocked more violently than it had since they’d stopped sliding.
Cara’s breath caught, turning from what would’ve been a frightened noise to a choked cough. She stared at the squashed and twisted doors, and she knew that they’d be impossible to open.
“It’s okay.” He sounded a little winded as he shoved her headfirst through the opening where the driver’s side window had been. As soon as she realized what he was doing, she tried to help, grabbing at the rocky ground outside to haul herself out of the car. The trip down the mountain had flattened the car, leaving the window openings narrow and misshapen, but she was able to fit through with some wiggling. As soon as her feet cleared the window, she turned around and saw that Kavenski had his arms out and was working to get his broad shoulders through. Grabbing handfuls of the back of his coat, she pulled on him, her stomach twisting as the breadth of his chest filled the entire opening.
She set her jaw. They’d made it this far—through bullets and a cliff dive and agrenade, for Pete’s sake. She wasn’t about to lose him because he was too much of a muscled tank to fit though the smashed window. Getting a better grip at the base of his biceps, she used all the strength she had to haul him out.
His body moved, but it was in inches. The car shifted again, and the crack of wood breaking echoed across the slope, amplifying the sound so it was even more terrifying. Cara redoubled her efforts.
