Page 54 of Conquered Betrayal
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I turned around, but saw nothing behind us. “How do you know?”
“They have their lights off.”
It didn’t answer my question, but I wouldn’t discount his words. If I didn’t trust my teammates, then I shouldn’t have gone on a mission with them.
And I did trust Landon, didn’t I? After everything, he’d been nothing but solid today. I understood his earlier anger. That he’d been able to overlook what I’d done,thatwas the real mindfuck.
“We need to lose them,” he said, putting more pressure on the gas pedal.
I nodded, glancing behind me, still not seeing what he was seeing.
“Any ideas?” he asked.
I faced forward, scrambling for what to do. There weren’t any cars ahead of us. “We can’t lead them back home.” I turned in my seat again, but it was only blackness, highlighted red by the glow of our taillights. “I don’t want to drive into any populated areas if they’re going to start shooting at us.”
“Won’t they be more likely to shoot at us if we’re in a less populated area?”
“It’s a chance we’ll have to take.” I wouldn’t add to the innocent blood I had on my hands.
The car jolted forward as Landon pressed the accelerator. I looked through the rear window again, but couldn’t see anything, not even when a car going in the other direction lit up the highway. I glanced at him, wondering how he saw the tail. And earlier, when he’d scooped me up and ran to the tree line at the factory, he’d ran quicker than I’d ever thought possible. It may have been my adrenaline or his, but everything had seemed to move in fast-forward for a few seconds.
Another car appeared in front of us down the highway. Landon switched to his low beams but the other car didn’t. It kept coming closer, the glare of its headlights blinding in the dark.
“Landon,” I said between clenched teeth, a word of caution, alarm bells blaring in my head.
“Yeah.” His hands tight on the steering wheel, he slowed our speed. Muscles flexed as he leaned forward like he was trying to see the vehicle better.
My instincts were spot-on. At the last moment, the car veered into our lane, a head-on collision imminent. A scream escaped my throat as Landon swerved to miss them. At our speed, the whole truck shuddered, rubber tires resisting the sharp turn.
Bang.The other vehicle hit, the force snapping me backward. Stars shot behind my eyelids, my temples throbbing. The world flipped. A crunch of metal, a spray of glass, then pain spiked through my shoulder and side. The airbags didn’t go off—I’d already cut them away once.
The scent of burnt rubber surrounded me. That scraping sound continued, asphalt beside my face, through the window, the truck on its side as it skidded down the road.
Anotherbangcame from all around us. Another hit. I thought I heard Marley in my ear, but couldn’t be sure. The comm fell out as the car somersaulted. Weightlessness consumed me for a moment. Then my head and body pounded to the sound of more scraping and glass, followed by silence. The truck had settled upside down, my neck pressed against the ceiling, my body bent in half.
Twack twack twack twack.The noise of an automatic weapon being emptied into the front of the truck echoed inside the cab. It sounded like they aimed for the engine. Were they trying to blow us up?
The glare of another vehicle’s headlights illuminated the cab. Disoriented, I searched for Landon, then realized my feet pressed against his chest.
“Fuck.” I tried to move away from him, give him space. He didn’t stir. “Landon?”
Twack twack twack.I jerked on instinct, trying to secure a safer position. My buckle wouldn’t budge. I reached for the knife tucked in my utility belt and felt the comforting coolness of the polymer handle. My right side stung, but I couldn’t worry about the injury right now. In my scrunched, upside-down position, I nicked the skin of my lower back as I pulled the knife free. I cut myself loose.
Oof.I fell sideways, and blood trickled into my eye. “Landon?” The hail of bullets slowed as I felt for his face. “Landon,” I whispered again, close to his ear.
A hot breath warmed my skin before I settled my palm against his cheek. My hands shook with relief that he was still alive. I tried to support my weight on my knees, didn’t want to hurt him, but the confines of the upside-down vehicle didn’t help.
Shouting resonated from outside, echoing strangely in the space of the cab.Where’s my fucking gun?Both the M4 and my Glock were missing. If I could find one, I could fight instead of feeling like a wounded fish in a barrel trying to protect another wounded fish.
I need to be a fish with a gun.A hysterical giggle escaped my lips.Get it together, Jolyn, get it together.Great, now I was talking to myself. Not good. I must have hit my head harder than I thought.
In my search to find my weapon, my hand sank into something hot and wet. “Shit. Landon.”
Panic crawled up my throat, the band tightening around my chest until I could hardly take a breath. His legs were crushed between the seat and steering wheel column, blood seeping from somewhere. I resisted the urge to shake his shoulders to wake him, in case he had a spinal injury and I’d end up exacerbating it. But I wanted him to open his eyes, talk to me, to tell me he was okay.
Knife in hand, I cut Landon’s seatbelt. He didn’t fall like I did, his legs too stuck.
