She was silent again.
Irritated, I clenched the wheel with both hands and finally started to see some of the city lights. Good, no tails — yet.
I turned the corner and then looked in the rearview mirror again.
Well, damn it all to hell.
Trace moved in her seat to look. I slammed her back against the seat with my arm. “Don’t look.”
“Nixon,” Her lower lip quivered. “What aren’t you telling me?”
Oh you know… just about everything.
I took a hard right, trying to lose the tail. “Nothing you need to know… yet.”
Hell. They were still following us.
“Um, Nixon. Nixon… the car behind us? They have guns. Nixon, they have guns.”
No shit. They also had a few semi-automatic weapons, but to name every piece of ammunition they had just seemed pointless.
“Shit.” I reached for my gun. “Trace, I need you to lay low. Can you do that? Just lean down in your seat. Alright, sweetheart?” I was starting to sweat. She leaned down in her seat as I took another right and then pointed the gun out the window and started shooting.
The guy behind me shot directly for my hand, missing me and hitting the window, thank God.
I brought my arm back in and stole a glance to my right. “Trace, how are ya holding up? Talk to me, Trace,” I said in a smooth and calculated voice. I wasn’t afraid for me — but for her.
“I’m… fantastic,” she said through clenched teeth. The SUV hit a bump, and she let out a scream. The car behind us was trying to run us off the road.
“Are they trying to kill us?” she shouted.
Hell yes. “Possibly. I’m guessing they just want to see who I’m with and why I’d go to such lengths to hide you.” Because she was everything — the key to my salvation. They key to my soul. They weren’t touching her. I’d die before I let anything happen.
My mind was going a hundred miles a minute. We weren’t far from campus. It may come to a gunfight. I’d lose. It was just me. The guys wouldn’t get there in time, which meant I’d have to pull into an open lot and tell her to run while I held them off.
Five minutes, maybe six.
And I’d be dead.
She’d have to make good time. I hoped to God she was a runner, if it came to that — it’s the only thing that would keep her alive.
The car behind me swerved. They must have had an idiot driving. I smiled in triumph.
“Why are you smiling?” Trace’s voice was bordering on hysteria.
My smile grew. One mile to the school. “Because we’re almost to campus. They know we’re on our way and no chance in hell are those guys coming within a hundred feet of the place. We’re almost there, sweetheart.” We may just make it through after all.
The car jolted again. My poor Range Rover was going to be scratched to hell.
Trace let out another scream.
I kind of liked it.
As in, if we were in a totally different situation and she was screaming — you know because I was making her scream, I could come to really like that sound coming out of her mouth.
“Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh!” Her eyes squeezed shut, and then she shouted. “I’m going to die a virgin!”
“What?” I roared. Holy shit. She was a virgin? I’d guessed, but hearing her say it out loud? I should have been horrified — instead I was amused, pleased as hell, feeling a bit prideful that it would be me. Nobody else would touch her for that first time. She didn’t want to die a virgin? Hell, I’d help with that. Sign me up.
“I’m going to die a virgin!” she repeated, her voice rising higher and higher. “I’m going to die without ever going overseas! I’ve never even been naked in front of a man before.”
I shifted uncomfortably in my seat.
“Oh my gosh! I’m never going to have kids! What if I want kids! What if—”
“Trace,” I interrupted.
“Nixon!” She smacked me in the arm. “You have to promise me that if we live through this — and that’s a giant if, considering we’re literally trapped between two death machines — you have to take my virginity. Take it!”
“Trace, I don’t think this is the time to—”
“Promise!”
“Trace—”
“Promise me, damn it!”
Never in my life have I made a promise so fast — scratch that, it was a freaking vow. I’d take her virginity, and when I was done, I was going to take her overseas. Then I was going to possess her over and over again until she forgot all about guns and car chases.
“Crap, crap, crap!” She covered her face and started rocking back and forth.