Erratic heartbeats and sweaty palms assaulted her as she waited for something to happen.
A nocturnal bird cooed somewhere in the trees, it's sound loud and melancholic amidst the vastness. The moon continued to glow and bathe the entire area in the moonlight. Her pulse skittered like the wings of a frantic bird.
What the hell?
Never removing her eyes from the rear-view mirror, making a mental note to get her windows tinted, she started counting in her breaths, trying to slow her heart down. At this rate, she'd get a stroke.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three.
Nothing happened. The door never opened. The lights never came on. Her eyes never wavered from the rear-view.
And then, on the heels of the nothingness, another thought flashed across her mind.
Was that even him in the vehicle?
A glance at the number plate told her it was the same car, but who was behind the wheels? It could be possible that he'd taken the SUV back to the club and someone had taken it out for a spin.
If that was true, and whoever it was had known where she would be, she wasn't sure if starting the car was a good idea. While she could floor it and try to make it back to the house, the other vehicle was bigger, bulkier and faster. And it could skewer her car within minutes. She didn't want to prompt any hostile motions suddenly.
The feeling in her gut churned, making it sink lower and lower as she breathed, quietly opening her clutch and mentally thanking Amara for not removing the gun when she took out the keys. Readying it with a quick motion, she locked all the doors, grateful for the bulletproof glass and bit her lip, not knowing what to do.
Something in her told her it wasn't him. While he hated her, he was in her face about it. This wasn't like him. She didn't linger on when exactly she'd gotten to know the bastard. She just focused on the now.
It was someone else, just a few feet away, and someone willing to harm her. Her eyes glanced at the phone before coming back on the rear-view. She could call her security detail, but that would mean alerting her father to her meeting with the Outfit and the reasons for it, which just could not happen. The understanding between the two families was precarious at best. It could not be tested. Not like this. Not because of her own stupidity.
God, she should have let Amara drive her back.
She straightened her spine. No. No regrets. She'd done what she'd done and that was it.
Morana swallowed, taking a deep breath, her fingers hovering over the key in the ignition, and with a final look at the unmoving vehicle, she turned the ignition on.
The moment she did, the SUV whirred.
Heart in her throat, Morana gripped the steering wheel, and changed the gear, pulling out onto the road. The SUV pulled behind her, keeping a few feet between them, the threat of its speed evident. Goosebumps broke out over her skin, shivers crawling over her as she tried to speed up and slow down and drive haphazardly. She didn't lose the tail. At all.
Adrenaline buzzed through her body as her mind worked, trying to find a way out, her heart pounding frantically now. She would not be chased like a wild animal and murdered. No.
Gritting her teeth, she almost hit the accelerator again when a loud noise broke through the blood rushing in her ears. Morana glanced at the rearview mirror again, to see a bike careen on the road dangerously as the rider throttled. Morana pulled to the side, giving him the space to pass, to not involve an innocent stranger in whatever madness this was, and saw the SUV pull behind her too.
The bike got closer and closer to them, and the moment Morana thought it would pass, the most bizarre thing happened.
The bike swerved and inserted itself in the space between her car and the SUV.
What the hell?
She should just dub this entire night 'what the hell'.
Was the rider insane? This could be a catastrophe!
Morana pulled to the edge of the road again, just a few miles out of her property, and turned around to look at the disaster about to happen.
Except it didn't.
The rider pulled out a gun from his back with one hand while maintaining both the speed and balance with the other impressively. He did a total one-eighty completely on the empty road, facing the oncoming SUV. He raised his gun as Morana watched, enthralled, heart thundering, and pointed it to the front tire.