CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Jake paced the boardwalk, bored out of his mind. Given the roller coaster’s excellent design, the Monster ride was its opposite. Poor quality tracks, shoddy seats in cars without much room, and the potential for electrical outages on every glowing light on the machine’s eight arms that raised people up in the air and twirled them around until nausea arrived.

He checked his phone. Five in the afternoon, and his stomach growled to back up the time. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a granola bar. He’d tried to get Amanda to take a lunch break earlier, but she’d refused and insisted she be left alone. Not that he blamed her, but maybe she would finish in time for dinner.

Slumping against the old soda counter, he sat down. Settled in and started to play games on his phone. He’d become immersed in a game of solitaire when Amanda tapped his foot with hers.

“Hey, stranger,” she said.

“Hey, beautiful.” He stood up and smiled at her. “You get everything you need, or is this you taking a break?”

She cradled the notebook in her arms. “I have everything I need to start typing. There’s still the matter of the thirty-page paper.”

He frowned, hoping they could have left before nightfall to return to Georgia. Guess that wasn’t an option.

“C’mon, spending one more night in Abandon won’t kill you,” Amanda said. “I’ll type and submit my paper tonight. Tomorrow morning, we’ll have breakfast, plenty of coffee, tell Pearl good-bye, get your car, and head back to Georgia with plenty of daylight to spare.”

“You’re right.” He leaned in and kissed her cheek. “You’re going to ace that apprenticeship. I know it.”

She released the grip on her notebook, pulled him closer, and planted a long kiss on his lips. Wow. Giving her the hours of time she needed certainly had paid off.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s head back to the inn. I want you, and not in an abandoned park.”

After relocking the Zephyr Land gate and starting the car, Jake glanced up through the windshield. Was the sky getting darker? The translucent white clouds turned dark blue in a matter of seconds. The sun had dipped behind a cluster of cypress trees, outmaneuvered by the impending storm.

“We’d better get back fast, or we’ll get caught in a downpour,” Jake said.

Amanda pressed the buttons to ensure their windows were up. Just then, the sky cracked open and torrential rains fell. “Good timing,” she said. “Should we wait until the storm passes?”

He checked his phone’s weather app. “Look at the squall line. A big band of yellow and red passing through lower Alabama. Waiting won’t help. Let’s just get back to the inn.”

She glanced out her passenger window and then settled back in her seat. “Drive careful.”

“I plan to.”

Going slow, Jake eased the car out of the lot and onto the long, narrow exit road leading away from Zephyr Land. Even with the windshield wipers on the highest setting, he still couldn’t see five feet in front of them, but no one else should be on this exit road.

After several minutes of creeping along, he approached the main state road that led back to the inn. Glancing both ways, he didn’t see any headlights. Made sense. No one would be out in this mess unless they had to be. Thank goodness Amanda had finished her research. They were done with Zephyr Land.

He pulled the car right, staying in the center of his lane. The headlights on the rental Chevy Malibu illuminated the white dashed lane lines on the road, even though he could only see one at a time in this monsoon madness.

A few yards later, with the Abandon Inn’s silhouette in sight, his pulse raced. Had he seen something in his rearview? He checked again. Darted his gaze from mirror to road. Nothing except pounding water. Maybe he’d spotted a possum in his peripheral vision?

Wham!

Metal crunched as something hit them from behind. “What the hell?”

Amanda’s head flung forward, then jerked back with the seat belt’s restraint. The car bobbed and weaved on the shoulder, shaken off the road.

“Jake!”

“Hold on!” In the corner of his eye, he noticed another vehicle. No headlights. Dark blue.

Pulse racing, Jake gripped the wheel. It bobbed to the right, lunged to the left. Deep breath. Stabilize the car before they crashed into something. He slammed on the brakes. No good. The car screeched off the asphalt road and into the mud. Right foot, stomp on brakes again. With this storm turning the ground into instant mud, the brakes offered little traction.

If he didn’t stop the car soon, they’d hit a patch of trees up ahead. Think. Quick. Maybe speeding up and steering left would put them back on the road? Why had the car rental agency given them a car without traction control? In Alabama, for crying out loud!

“Brace yourself!” Jake yelled.

Amanda gripped the passenger handle.

He yanked the steering wheel to the right. Immediately back to the left, floored the gas. Clunky at first. Sputtered and scraped against the ground, but the car moved.

“It’s working,” Amanda said. “Do it again.”

“Ahead of you.” Jake repeated the steps. Yanked the car away from the mud and pressed down on the gas. After a little more sputtering and coughing, the car inched its way back onto the road.

They both let out collective sighs of relief. Jake kept his foot on the gas. He wasn’t risking the car stalling out again or losing its balance on the road.

“What the hell happened?” Amanda asked.

“I saw something strange in my rearview before it vanished. Seconds later, something rammed into us.”

“Another car?”

“I never saw headlights, but it looked like a blue Honda.”

“We should call the cops. Maybe the same person who slashed the tires followed us?”

Amanda’s words were exactly what he’d been thinking, but he hadn’t wanted to say them out loud. This was the primary reason he’d wanted to leave Abandon for good and not stay another minute.

“I’ll call the police when we reach the inn. You work on your report so we can get the hell out of this town tomorrow morning.”

“Just get us back to the inn,” she said.

Her tone suggested she didn’t seem as eager to leave Abandon as he was. No matter. He would convince her. He had to keep her safe.

“The trunk sounds like it’s come loose,” he said. “But I’m not about to get out of the car and check. We aren’t stopping until we reach the Abandon Inn. No sense serving us up as sitting ducks.”

He pressed on the gas, driving them into the dark, wet night. Who would be after them? And how did anyone know they would’ve been at the park today? Except that Abandon was a small town, and word got around in rural areas.

Jake shook his head, trying to make sense out of everything. Maybe whoever slashed the tires had followed them. What if some deranged psychopath was still after them? First the slashed tires and then being run off the road. No need to let “third time’s a charm” come true for this maniac.

Only one thought permeated Jake’s mind—he needed to get Amanda and himself the hell out of Abandon, Alabama. And never return.