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Back Break Us Save as PDF
Chapters (43)
  1. DEDICATION
  2. PROLOGUE
  3. 1
  4. 2
  5. 3
  6. 4
  7. 5
  8. 6
  9. 7
  10. 8
  11. 9
  12. 10
  13. 11
  14. 12
  15. 13
  16. 14
  17. 15
  18. 16
  19. 17
  20. 18
  21. 19
  22. 20
  23. 21
  24. 22
  25. 23
  26. 24
  27. 25
  28. 26
  29. 27
  30. 28
  31. 29
  32. 30
  33. 31
  34. 32
  35. 33
  36. 34
  37. EPILOGUE
  38. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  39. BACK AD
  40. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
  41. BOOKS BY JENNIFER BROWN
  42. CREDITS
  43. ABOUT THE PUBLISHER

The car behind us sped up too, but it wasn’t as fast as Chris’s car. Plus, Chris was a better driver. He darted in and out and around cars by what seemed like feel alone. There were honks and shouts and cars plunking off onto the shoulders, but Chris never stopped. Never touched another car with his. Just kept his eyes on the road, his foot planted all the way to the floor and his mouth pressed into a scowl.

I looked. The car was still there. It was back a little bit more now, but it was still there.

“Keep going,” I said, even though I knew it was useless for me to even speak. He would have kept going whether I had been in the car or not.

We hit a stretch of open boulevard and Chris zoomed ahead, the speed starting to make me feel woozy.

“He’s still there,” I reported.

“Hold on,” he said for a second time, as matter-of-factly as if he were telling me to hold his drink while he went to the bathroom.

I squeezed the handhold tighter, and he took a corner so fast we fishtailed. But he hardly slowed down as he took another corner and then a third. There was a bowling alley straight ahead and we bounced over the curb into its parking lot, my teeth clacking together from the jarring bump. I bit my tongue; I tasted blood. Chris immediately turned off his headlights and whipped the car into a parking space, blending us in with the other fifty cars that were in the lot.

“Duck,” he said. I didn’t move at first, so he put his hand on my head and pushed until I moved down in my seat. He moved down in his, too. It was only then, in the sudden silence, that I noticed he was breathing heavily. “Stay down.”

But I couldn’t help myself. I sat up just an inch or two so I could see through the back window. There were headlights coming down the street we’d just come from. I held my breath, ready to tell Chris to gun it again.

But instead of turning into the lot as we had, the car turned the other way and drove slowly away from us.

I watched as it passed under a streetlamp.

It was black, with the words Monte Carlo coming out at me in silver.

27

IT WAS ALMOST impossible to sleep after our little high-speed tour of the city. Chris had taken me back to my car and had followed me all the way home. I suspected that he even sat outside my house for an hour or so, just watching.