wouldn’t top arguing.
I told you, I’m not jumping out of a speeding death machine! You want to die, go ahead, but I’m not helping you do it. Especially if someone else
verce was hoarse from shouting, her eyes glassy with adrenaline, and I swear to God, if I wasn’t losing my mind from the sheer danger of the shudtion. I might have admired her Might have kissed her just to shut her up.
a car with a goddamn bomb ticking in the console, flying at breakneck speed down a near–empty highway, with a city full of civilians just milies ahead of es
But ma
And she was stili arguing
“Elena,” growled, trying to keep my voice steady, “this isn’t about pride, or humanity, or proving something. This is about survival. Let me take the
ight? You jump first. 1 be right behind you
A couple seconds passed
napped. “You think I don’t see what you’re trying to do!”
Of course she did, it was written all over her face. The anger wasn’t even hiding the fear anymore.
I can’t let anyone else die because of me…or to save me,” she said quietly, like it physically hurt to admit.
And that’s what did it. That’s when the full weight of the situation finally snapped into focus.
wafraid of dying I’d danced that line too many times to pretend otherwise. When you’re one of the richest men in Aldridge, you get used to being a tarpeit. Hill, I’d been shot at multiple times before. Once by my own father. Poisoned. Twice. There was always someone who wanted to see me gone.
I could handle that. I built my entire life expecting it.
But Elena? She wasn’t supposed to be in the crosshairs.
supposed to be next to me in this cursed car, next to a bomb that could vaporize us both in seconds,
And I had put her here.
Someone had obviously sabotaged the car. Everything taken into consideration, time and distance included. They probably knew we were going back to Velhaven Otherwise the brakes wouldn’t have stopped working right before we entered the city.
iclenched the edge of the seat so hard my fingers ached. The guilt rose like acid in my throat. I’d dragged her into this contract marriage or not, she ldn’t signed up for this.
The bomb was probably alse timed just right. It touched it, it might go off. The only plausible solution, with the least casualties, was that one pe remained sweted the car in the opposite direction and waited for the petrol to run out, or the bomb to go off. On the highway
And Elena–bengas art as shen–probably already figured this out
person
“Switch places with
I said again, lower flow, but timer. “Let me drive. If one of us has to stay behind the wheel, it’ll be me.”
NO
1/4
13:12 Fn, 25 Jul G
Chapter 51
ng again, eyes unde and wild. “You’re not deciding that for me, you don’t get to make that choice!
wed to get out of her
there, ell
“Are you insane?” she screamed back. The car is going om 120, Nikolait Even if I jump now, I’ll die, and I’m not letting your die either!”
en bei The this. Not even when she fought back against it’s remarks or when she found out about her mother. This wasn’t just anger. This dripecation laced with something shaper Tear, maybe. Eswallowed, looking at her parted lips.
[\dave__posebly? My heart jumped:
No Not now. That wasn’t the p
point. The point was she wasn’t backing down.
was stubbom as hell.
glared at her, hoping to intimidate her into agreeing. But she just met my stare, eyes blazing
And then–suddenly–she looked away.
binked. She was leaning down, fiddling with something near her feet.
What are you doing?” asked
“Elena–what the hell are you doing?
She pressed a hand to the wheel “Hold it.““.
“Hold the wheel!”
I grabbed the steering wheel just in time to keep the car from drifting out of lane as she pushed herself down, contorting her body under the dashboard. She was doing something under the steering column.
“Elena, what the fuck–1”
She reached up, gripped the plastic cover over the fuse and wiring system, and ripped it off with both hands.
“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? yelled.
“Saving our lives, dipshit” she screamed right back. “The brakes didn’t fall on their own! Someone tampered with them! You think it’s a coincidence that the started after we crossed the border?”
My heart pounded in
They knew we’d be taking this route,” she said. “They timed the bomb. They disabled the brakes. And we’re five minutes from the city–we need to stop this car now or we’re not the only ones who are going to die!”
Of course she was right
It wasn’t just the bomb. It was the ting, Wudlucked twenty minutes ago. The break failure hadn’t started until we were past the last town. That wasn’t a malfunction. It was a message. Someone knew exactly where we were going and how to make it hurt.
2/4
16:13:12 M, 25
Chapter 51
għinced back ja tha cons
That locking device. Wirescued veins. The slow, rhythmic blink of red light, it could be a timer. Or a trigger. Or both.
i shodd’ve protected he better.
“You don’t have the tools for this
i don’t need tools,” the snapped. “I just need your eyes on the road. Keep the wheel straight, and don’t crash us into the wire fence.”
I the wires now, following each one carefully. Her fingers moved like she knew what she was doing
She was feeling around the wire
Tagain, lower. “How the hell do you know about car witing?”
She glanced up at me from under the dash. “Do you think I study about making cars just for fun?”
Before I could even process that, she went back to work, and my focus snapped to the road again.
bught my eye.
suttered.
A massive eighteen–wheeler was up ahead, crawling onto the highway from a merging lane on the right. And just beside it–another one, going the opposite direction but veering slightly too close. We were going to be sandwiched between them like a goddamn pancake
“Elena barked. “We have a problem!”
hissed.
“We need to swerve off the road now! There’s wire fencing but if we hit it at the angle-”
“I can handle the swerve, growled. “Can you handle stopping the goddamn–engine?!”
She didn’t respond.
The rap between the trucks was closing. The fencing along the side was old–maybe it’d give. Maybe not. But if we clipped the edge at full speed, we’d go fying
“Elena–now!” I shouted.
She yanked a specific wire loose, sparks flying for a split second–then another–and then with a shout, she screamed:
“NOW NIKOLAI
jerked the wheel to the left, hard, the tires screeching against asphalt as aimed for the gravel shoulder. The car fishtailed violently, but I kept control by
The engine choked
The power died.
We wergliding now. Ho fuel to acceleration
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Chapter 51
The car Modded into the dirt off the highway and (Rought the wheel like a man possessed. One of the trucks blared its horn behind us, wind and pressure
the car as we passed within feet of its maring kame.
4/4
