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“Please take me back.” She heard the anxious edge in her own voice. She had to tone it down. Calm her nerves.
She angled the screen so Raphael couldn’t read the texts. Could she really have misjudged him so drastically? The more she fought against the inevitable conclusion, the more sense it all made. Why he missed the trial. Why he was able to find her so easily in Glennallen. Why Drisklay had come to warn her.
She took in shallow breaths, afraid Raphael could hear how nervous she was. Good thing she had taken so many acting classes. Good thing she had spent four whole years living as another human being. If anyone could keep up a charade to survive, she could. She looked around. Was there anything she could use as a weapon? What if he tried to throw her out the car? On one side of them jutting straight up was the mountain, cruel and unyielding. On the other side a two-hundred-yard drop. She glanced at him without turning her head. Couldn’t arouse his suspicion.
Kurtis, where are you?
“It could have been perfect between us, Lace,” Raphael mused. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to play along or not. “It’s like some gut-wrenching tragedy, where life just gets in the way.”
“Please, I want to go home.” What did she have in her purse? A cell phone. A wallet with her fake ID. What could she do, shove it down his throat?
“You have no idea how much I loved you.”
Either he was just a good an actor as she, or he was planning something desperate. Her lungs worked in fractions. Labored jerks. So much for that deep diaphragm breathing her acting teachers always advocated.
“I just want you to turn around.” Maybe she was wrong. Maybe Drisklay’s visit had hurled her over the edge. Made her paranoid. Tonight she and Raphael would sit across from each other at an Anchorage restaurant and laugh.
Please, God?
Facts didn’t lie. Dates didn’t lie. She had to refocus her energy. Stop trying to deny the truth and find a way to get herself out of this mess alive.
“Turn around.” She spoke each word succinctly. Strongly.
He glanced in the rear-view mirror. “Why?”
“Take me home, or I swear I’m calling the cops.”
“What’s going on, Lace?” he asked. The way he spoke her name made her stomach churn.
She couldn’t do this. Couldn’t pretend anymore. Couldn’t pretend she was calm and collected. Couldn’t pretend she wasn’t scared. So scared she was either going to pee or throw up. Maybe both.
“The date’s wrong.” The accusation tumbled out of her mouth. “The one on your car rental papers. It says you got here yesterday.”
Raphael let out his breath in a loud huff. “That’s because I got tired and decided to drive to Anchorage instead of riding my bike back like I first planned. Geeze, Lace, is this an interrogation?”
She didn’t speak.
He let out a sigh. “After everything we’ve been through together, the least you could do is trust me.”
Could she?
Shame heated her cheeks. She stared at her lap.
He cleared his throat. Threw his glance in the rear-view mirror once more. “It happens to me, too. All the time. Like I think I see someone following me. Or I hear someone trying to break in at night.” His chuckle was discordant. Unconvincing. He patted her knee. “This whole ordeal turned me into a nervous wreck.” He let out his breath.
Her hand still clenched the door handle.
“If you want the whole truth, I’m not up here just to cross Alaska off my bucket list. I was running away.”
Her whole body was tense. The road twisted ahead of them and disappeared around the mountain bend.
“I went to a public art show at the Commons last month and thought I saw someone there. One of the men I’d gotten involved with before the accident.”
She shut her eyes. Could you disappear by sheer force of will?
“A few days later, I thought someone was following me. So I headed out here until I could figure out what to do.”
She didn’t know if she believed him or not. All she knew was she wanted to go home.
“That green Dodge that we passed earlier,” he went on. “I didn’t get a good look, but for a second I thought it was the same guy.” He let out a sad-sounding chuckle. “I told you, this whole way of living will make anybody paranoid.”
A horn blared behind them. Lacy’s eyes shot to her side mirror. It was the same Dodge they had seen. It must have turned around, because now it was directly behind them. Speeding straight toward them.
Raphael swerved into the left lane. They were so close to the drop-off Lacy could feel the front wheel tilt before the car corrected itself.
The Dodge whizzed by and slammed on its brakes in the middle of the road. Raphael tried to pass on the right, but there wasn’t enough room to clear the mountain. The passenger mirror flew off. The whole side of the car scraped against the rocks, the screeching sound grating in her ears even louder than her scream.
The Dodge pressed against them. Was it trying to squeeze them into the mountainside? Raphael slammed on his brakes. Lacy’s body flew forward. The seatbelt jolted against her collarbone. “Who is that?” she demanded.
“It must be someone who knows about us.”
“Us?”
“I’m sorry, Lace. I never wanted you to get caught up in any of this.”
The Dodge had switched to reverse and was about to ram its bumper into them. “Move!” Lacy reached for the steering wheel, but Raphael had already jerked it to the side. The Dodge plowed into the back seat instead of straight on, but the momentum was almost enough to push them off the road. Lacy’s head was light, a helium balloon ready to float off into the clouds.
The Dodge pulled ahead.
“Hold on,” Raphael told her. “He’s coming at us again.” The green car jerked to a stop, shooting a small pebble onto the windshield of the rental, creating a small chink in the glass. Lacy winced. Raphael had time to angle the car and pull up a few feet before the Dodge rammed them again in reverse.
“Are you ok?” Lacy could only take in the choppiest of breaths.
“I’m gonna turn us around.” Raphael maneuvered the car on the narrow pass while the Dodge pulled ahead. Lacy gripped the door handle, holding her breath and praying he wouldn’t misjudge and send them flying off the road. As soon as Raphael straightened his car, the Dodge flipped itself around in a three-point turn. The sound of her own pulse flooded Lacy’s ears.
“Careful,” she begged, her heart fluttering all the way up by her throat.
Raphael sped ahead. They were back on their way to Glennallen, but the Dodge was right behind them. And now they were driving on the other side of the road, the cliff’s edge about a foot and a half away from Lacy’s shoulder. She sucked in her breath, dizzy with fear, terrified that an extra ounce of weight might tilt the car off balance and send them careening to their deaths.
“I’m sorry,” Raphael panted.
She didn’t care. It didn’t matter what he was apologizing for. It didn’t matter what alias he used, or whether he rented his car yesterday or three weeks ago. All that mattered was they were speeding back in the direction of home. Toward Kurtis. Toward safety.
Her phone beeped. New voicemail. Did that mean there was coverage here? She pulled it out and dialed 911.
“Hold on!” Raphael shot his arm out across her chest right as the Dodge hit them from behind. Their car lurched forward to the sound of metal crumpling. Lacy’s head whipped forward and then snapped back with so much force she couldn’t see anything but black for a second. She wanted to ask Raphael what was happening, but she didn’t have the breath to make herself heard.
“Can’t this thing go any faster?” Raphael grumbled.
Her phone beeped again and flashed its ominous message. Call failed. Why had she ever moved to Alaska? She hated living here. She certainly didn’t want to die here.
Raphael maneuvered around a hairpin curve without slowing down. She sucked in her breath, certain they were about to free-fall off the cliff. The speedometer raced past seventy. She clutched the door handle. Let me out, she wanted to beg, but she couldn’t find her voice.
The car made it around the bend, and Lacy had a clear view of a straight stretch of road ahead with a red truck coming their way. “Is that ...” she started to ask but stopped, afraid to hold onto hope until she knew for sure. She waited for Raphael to get closer, begging God for deliverance. The Dodge had slowed down around the curve but was gaining momentum behind them.
The truck sped toward them. “That’s Kurtis!” Lacy shouted. She recognized Drisklay in the passenger seat but didn’t even wonder what he was doing there. It didn’t matter. Kurtis was here. He would find a way to help. He was a trooper. He was trained. He’d know what to do.
Everything was going to be just ... Hope froze in Lacy’s veins. What if Kurtis had Madeline in the truck with him? What if something happened to her?
Kurtis slowed down to let Raphael pass and gave what Lacy thought was a brief nod. She turned around to watch what would happen next. Kurtis’s truck was in the middle of the road now. Was he trying to keep the Dodge from passing? What if he got hit? She scrunched down in her seat, trying to brace for the sound of the two vehicles crashing, praying Madeline was somewhere far away from all this.
The Dodge swerved, barely squeezing between Kurtis’s truck and the rocky mountainside.
“Let me out. Let me get in with Kurtis.”
“I can’t do that,” Raphael answered in a monotone.
No amount of Dramamine would cure this kind of sickness. Kurtis had turned his truck around and was coming up behind them.
“Let me out,” she repeated.
“You have to trust me.”
She stared over her shoulder. Was it possible the Dodge was falling back? Kurtis’s truck came roaring up around the bend behind them. She squinted to avoid seeing the crash that never came.
“I know I’ve done some horrible things in my life,” Raphael said. “But I’m telling the truth when I say I never wanted you to get messed up in all this. Just like I’m telling the truth when I say I’ve always ...”
He sped around another curve, and Lacy gripped her seatbelt as the car wavered, struggling to keep its center of balance. She let out her breath when it straightened out, relieved for a short second.
“Look out!” Her warning was accompanied by a blaring horn from an RV camper directly in front of them. Raphael had swerved into the oncoming lane. There was no way they could avoid it. Lacy shot out her hands to brace for the impact.
But instead of crashing, they gained speed. She peeked at Raphael, who was frantically trying to gain control of the steering wheel. A shadow whizzed past her window. Tree branches scraped at the sides of the car.
They were rushing down the cliff.
She was deafened by the sound of her own scream. She grabbed the bottom of her seat and shut her eyes. Faster. A bump, and they were airborne. They landed again, and the bottom of the car scraped the rocky edge, but they hadn’t reached the valley yet. They weren’t slowing down, either. She opened her eyes. The view from the window turned and spiraled. They were spinning. She stopped screaming long enough to catch her breath and then began again. She had no idea how much longer they’d plunge until they hit the bottom, but she doubted she’d still be alive when they did.