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All right. We ll go as far as Atlanta and find a place to stay until
The SUV came out of nowhere, slamming into their back bumper. They both jolted forward hard
against their seat belts. Vaughn swore as the car started to swerve and fought for control of the wheel,
but the SUV rammed them again. The car slid into a spin, the outside world whipping by in a smear of
trees, too-bright headlights, and yawning darkness.
Hang on! Vaughn shouted.
She braced herself for impact, but it still tore the air out of her lungs when the car nose-dived into a
short ravine beside the road and came to an abrupt halt, nose down, body wedged in a small cluster of
trees. Her seatbelt tightened painfully, jerking her back when she would have flown through the
windshield. Beside her, Vaughn grunted in pain, then went frighteningly silent.
She sat there, glued in place by an overwhelming fear, and tried to catch her breath as the car
creaked and groaned around her. The beam of a flashlight played over the dashboard, and she thought
she heard voices from the road overhead.
They were looking for her.
She couldn t let them find her.
Panic sizzled away the fear. She had to go. Had to run, but her door was jammed shut.
Still dazed, she unhooked her belt, and gravity pulled her out of the seat and toward the dashboard.
She propped herself against the dash and used her feet to break through the large crack snaking across
the windshield. It took a few tries, but the whole thing finally exploded outward.
She climbed out onto the soft, leaf-covered earth and only then did she notice how much farther
they could have fallen. It wasn t a small ravine at all, but a long, steeply sloped hill into a fast-
moving river, and the only thing keeping the car from crashing down there was the two sturdy pine
trees it had lodged between.
A second flashlight joined the first. Two men stood by the road, staring at the wreck. Their voices
floated down, but she couldn t make out any distinct words, just a general tone of annoyance from one
and apology from the other. Neither of the men seemed inclined to climb down and check for
survivors, and she didn t think they saw her, hidden in front of the car as she was. She could easily
continue unnoticed down the slope to the edge of the river and then follow that to town. She started
sliding downhill, slowly, quietly. She could disappear again. Now was her chance to escape and
What about Vaughn?
She stopped moving and gazed up at the car. Maybe she should check and make sure&
No. Hell no. What was she thinking? Going back for him was a bad idea. He wanted to throw her in
jail. Marcus knew her real identity, so it was only a matter of time before Vaughn did, too. If she
valued her life and she did, as sucky as it was then she needed to keep moving and not look back.
He d be fine. He was the big, badass SEAL. Besides, she still had his phone, so it wasn t like she
had to leave him completely without help. She could call 911 for him as soon as she was safely
hidden.
Right. That was exactly what she d do.
Sage continued another few steps down the hill, but one thought stopped her: Vaughn hadn t turned
her over to the cop. A golden opportunity to complete his mission, and he passed it up like the thought
hadn t even crossed his mind. And if she called 911, that cop who had obviously lead their
attackers right to them would be the first responder. Would he hurt Vaughn? Or worse, kill him to
get rid of the witness?
Dammit.
She crouched behind a fallen log and waited until the flashlights disappeared and the voices faded.
She d been right they had no interest in checking the car. She gave it another minute, let the forest
settle around her into the usual rhythm of the night, then tiptoed toward the driver s side. His door
wasn t jammed like hers had been, but when she opened it, the car slipped downhill a few inches.
She jumped back, held her breath.
Please don t fall. Please don t fall.
The car groaned to a halt and she crept forward again. Vaughn was unconscious, held in place by
his seatbelt. A nasty gash on his forehead dripped blood down his face. She had no idea how she was
going to pull the big guy out of that seat without hurting him more, but the car wasn t secure.
She had to try.
&
Vaughn woke to a pounding headache and the taste of powder and warm copper in his mouth. There
was a bar across his chest, restricting his breathing, and something was tugging on his arm as
insistently as a dog with a rope toy. It hurt. Actually, his whole fucking body hurt.
Had he been blown up again?
Felt that way but, seriously, how unlucky could a guy get to be blown up twice in one lifetime?
He blinked open gritty eyes and squinted into the darkness, made out the shape of a steering wheel
and dashboard. He was in a vehicle, but he wasn t on a road. The car was tilted nose down, the
headlights illuminating nothing but dirt and dead leaves and a steep drop. What he thought was a bar
across his chest was in fact the strap of his seatbelt holding him in.
In a rush, memories flooded back. The strange reappearance of the cop, then the SUV materializing
like fucking magic and ramming them. Losing control of the wheel, spinning off the road into the
ravine&
Sage.
Was she okay?
Wincing, he turned his head to search for her. The passenger seat was empty, and the windshield
was broken. She had probably seen he was unconscious and taken advantage of the situation. At least,
he hoped she had. He much preferred to think she d pulled another Houdini rather than imagine her
thrown through the windshield, lying somewhere downhill, broken and bleeding. Or dead.
Jesus, no.
She was alive and okay. She d just rabbited again, and he had to go catch her& as soon as he
figured out how to pull his busted ass out of this car.
And what the hell was with the insistent tugging?
He shifted his arm away from the annoyance, and finally, it stopped. A soft hand patted his cheek.
Vaughn? Are you awake? The patting turned into a light smack. C mon, you asshole! Wake the
fuck up! If this car goes into the river, I m not jumping in after you.
Sage.
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