Page 105 of Road Trip
It was fully dark by the time the sisters left the restaurant to walk back to the inn.
“Wow, the walk here seemed a lot shorter than the walk back,” Therese said as she trekked unsteadily along the side of the road.
“That’s because we didn’t have a full-on champagne buzz on the way there,” Maeve pointed out.
“Whoops! You might have a point there. Maeve, if you don’t marry into that family and make that rich, gorgeous Luke our brother-in-law, you are seriously loco en the cabeza.” She thumped the side of her own head to emphasize her point.
Maeve rolled her eyes but kept walking.
Therese raised her arms up toward the sky. “What a night! Look at all these stars. I never notice the sky like this back home.”
“That’s because…”
Maeve didn’t finish her sentence because suddenly a car was bearing down on them with blindingly bright high beams. It was the first car they’d seen since leaving the restaurant, and now it was swerving across the center line, headed straight at the two of them.
Without warning, Therese, who’d been walking just ahead, turned and shoved Maeve off the shoulder, diving onto the gravel embankment herself as the car sped past, missing them by inches.
The two of them rolled down the embankment.
“Maeve? Are you okay?” Therese crawled over to her sister, who was sprawled facedown in the grass.
“Yeah. I think.” Maeve’s voice was shaky as she slowly rolled over.
“Sit up. Let me see you.” Therese used the flashlight on her phone to examine her.
The sleeve of Maeve’s blouse was torn. Her hands were scraped and bleeding.
“Bend your legs. Now your arms,” Therese ordered, and Maeve complied.
“I’m okay. Nothing’s broken.” She touched Therese’s cheek, which was scraped and bloody. “What about you? Are you okay?”
“Yeah. What the hell was that? I think that car deliberately tried to hit us.”
“If you hadn’t shoved me out of the way he would have,” Maeve said. “Could you see what kind of car it was?”
“No. All I saw was the high beams, coming right at us.”
Therese stood and pulled Maeve back to her feet.
“Oww. I think I broke my butt,” Maeve groaned.
“Can you make it back to the inn?”
“As long as you don’t expect me to run. Hey, do you really think that car deliberately tried to mow us down?” Maeve asked.
“Maybe? I mean, we’re dressed in dark clothes, and it is pitch black out here, but I don’t see how that driver couldn’t have spotted us, especially with his high beams.”
Maeve glanced up and down the road, but there was no other traffic coming. “First the tires on the rental car are slashed, now someone tries to run us down. Am I being paranoid, or could someone be out to get us?”
“Like who? And why? We’re just a couple of American tourists.”
“You don’t think Esme would do something like that, right?” Maeve said. “She’s made it pretty clear how annoyed she is with us.”
“Not annoyed enough to do this kind of stuff. Anyway, I think we’ve actually kind of buried the hatchet now that she’s come clean about her involvement with the IRA raid.”
“Okay. Maybe it’s just a couple of weird coincidences,” Maeve said. “But I’m still gonna call that cop we reported the tire slashing to.”
“Just don’t hold your breath that he’s gonna do much. The guy didn’t seem all that motivated to do anything the first time you called.”
