It rang twice before he picked up. “Hey. Want me to come meet you?”
“Someone’s trying to run me off the road.”
“What? Where?”
I could hear him standing, footsteps echoing, and then Hayes asking something in the background.
“I’m on 132, the mountain pass.” The truck rammed my bumper again. “Shit!”
“What’s going on?”
“They hit me again. They have to be crazy. They’re going to kill us both.”
Calder barked something at Hayes, and I heard an engine start up.
Before I could increase my speed, the truck hit my bumper once more. As it did, a face came into view. A familiar one, full of rage.
“Calder, it’s Jackie. I can see her in my rearview mirror.” The truck slammed into my SUV, sending my tires spinning. I barely got control in time to make the next turn. I forced myself to suck in air because the burn in my lungs told me I hadn’t been breathing.
“Hayes called in reinforcements. We’re on our way. Where are you on the road?”
His voice was calm, even, but I could hear the fury bubbling just beneath the surface.
“I don’t know. I’m just trying to stay on the road.”
My gaze locked with the turn ahead. I had to slow down, or I’d go over the side. I knew the ravine there. Several jagged drop-offs layered the side of the mountain.
I eased off the accelerator the slightest bit. It was too much. Jackie went full-throttle, sailing into my SUV with a sickening crunch. I slammed on my brakes, but they did nothing. My wheels only spun in the gravel on the road.
I felt as if I were flying. But there was no freedom in it like when I cascaded down a mountain on my bike. No lightness. There was only fear, my blood roaring in my ears, Calder’s voice yelling in the distant background.
Then, there was nothing at all.
43
Calder
“Hadley!”
I heard a brief scream and then a sickening crunch.
“Hadley, talk to me.” My hand shook as I held the phone to my ear. All I could hear was a sort of hissing sound and groaning metal. “Hads,” I whispered, my voice hoarse.
“You need to go faster,” I shot at Hayes.
His fingers tightened around the wheel. “I’m going as fast as I can. It won’t help Hadley if I crash, too.”
I kept the phone pressed to my ear, listening for any signs of life. As if by keeping that line of communication open, I could keep Hadley with me.
Hayes turned off the highway and onto the two-lane road that wove through the mountains. How many times had Hadley and I come up this pass? Too many to count. We’d hiked trails and biked the paths. We’d talked about things that weighed us down and, other times, we said nothing at all.
I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment. I held her face in my mind. Those blue eyes that could freeze me to the spot. The way her mouth quirked when she was up to something mischievous. Hadley had to be okay.
“There,” Hayes said.
My eyes flew open, taking in the missing guardrail up ahead. I couldn’t breathe. The drop-offs around here were deadly. I’d seen half a dozen accidents on this road over my career, and very few had a happy outcome.
Hayes screeched to a stop in the middle of the road. I was already out of the vehicle before he had it in park, running to the embankment. My breath stalled in my lungs as I looked over the side.