Page 104 of Secrets of the Brother
Despite my staying back, she entered the final turn at a dangerous rate of speed. The car understeered and drifted too far to the outside of the turn. The back end of the car would have pivoted and continued to drift, pulling her over the edge, if she hadn’t swerved directly into a tree.
There was the deafening crunch of metal against wood as the back passenger side of the Ferrari connected with the thick, gnarled, ancient trunk of a beech tree. The metal groaned and crunched as Bianca revved the engine, sending the car lurching forward, dislodging it from the trunk’s grip.
Sweat broke out on my brow as I watched her roll back onto the road as if she hadn’t just cheated death.
When I got my hands on her, I would see to it she never, ever got behind a wheel ever again for the rest of her life. I would have it written into our marriage vows.
She also wasn’t going to be able to sit for a week when I got done whipping her ass with my belt.
Finally, the clearing appeared ahead.
It was beyond time to put a stop to this.
I shifted to the left lane and slammed down on the accelerator. Pulling up alongside the back quarter panel on the driver’s side of the Ferrari I banked right. Sharply turning the steering wheel, I slammed the front of my car into the side of hers.
The force of my strike sent her car spinning toward the left and back in a full one eighty until she was facing the wrong way. I turned my car into the force of her turn, until our cars were side by side, spinning in a yin-yang circle.
Bianca stared at me in shock through the driver’s window as she unsuccessfully tried to break the spiral.
Our cars spun around and around in a macabre dance, crashing off the road and through some underbrush until they finally came to a stop only a few feet from one another at the base of the Etruscan ruin.
Wrenching open my car door, I stormed over to her car.
I pulled on the door handle.
Locked.
She stared at me through the window. Eyes wide with terror.
I pounded my fist on the window. “Open this door,” I raged.
My blood boiled in my veins. How dare she fucking risk her life like this.
Even seeing her safely stopped was not enough for me.
I needed to have her in my arms.
I needed to touch the warmth of her skin, to feel her heartbeat, to hear her breath to reassure my fevered brain that she was alive and safe. I had never been so fucking scared in my entire life. I didn't think I would ever recover from the sight of her car skidding off the road and almost sliding off the edge of the cliff. I would see that image in my nightmares for years to come.
She shook her head and twisted the key in the ignition. The engine turned over several times, sputtered and then stalled. As I knew it would. She turned the key again. This time the car didn’t even turn over.
I pulled on the door handle again. “I’m warning you. Open the fucking door, Bianca.”
Her lips thinned. She crossed her arms and stared straight ahead.
I searched the ground, kicking at the dried, fallen leaves. Finding what I was looking for, I picked up the sharp rock, crossed to the car and raised my arm high.
I heard Bianca’s muffled scream as she threw her arm over her head, covered her face, and hunched over the center console.
I smashed the window.
It splintered into a green translucent spiderweb of fractured cracks radiating from the hole caused by the jagged point of the rock. Knowing the uneven glass fragments would have blunt edges for safety, I reached my arm through the space caused by the point of impact and unlocked the door. I wrenched it open and reached for her.
Bianca screamed as I pulled her out of the car by the lapels of her coat.
She straightened her arms and pushed at my chest as she leaned back and swung her head from left to right. “No! Let me go!”
I fisted her hair at the back of her skull and pulled her upright at the same time I pivoted to the left, slamming her against the side of the car, pinning her there with the force of my body.
