"My car is the last one in the driveway," Edward announced, turning for the door. "I'll
get my keys."
Recalling how slow he drove, Elvi glanced worriedly toward the digital clock on the
dresser. It was only then she remembered that the clock downstairs ran ten minutes
slow. And they'd wasted five minutes up here staring at her coffin.
"The store closes in fifteen minutes. We'll never make it in time," she said with despair.
"We will make it," Victor assured her, taking her arm to hurry her out of the room.
"Not if Edward is driving," she moaned.
The British man stopped and turned back indignantly. "I beg your pardon?"
"I'm sorry," she said apologetically. "But you drive like an old man."
"I am an old man," Edward said dryly. "We all are."
Elvi bit her lip, at a loss as to what to say now. It was Victor who broke the silence
saying, "Alessandro can drive. His car is at the back of the second lane."
"57. I drive fast, and I have my keys," Alessandro announced triumphantly. He started
for the stairs and the rest of them followed, but paused again when Harper pointed
out, "Alessandro's car only rides two."
"No," the Italian assured them, leading them forward once more. "Is more comfortable
for two, but four can fit."
"There are five of us," Edward reminded him and everyone screeched to a halt.
Elvi closed her eyes, feeling the seconds tick away. They weren't going to make it. They
may as well—
"Elvi can sit on my lap," Victor announced and the group immediately started forward
again, including Elvi, but she was only moving because Victor had her by the arm. Her
feet were definitely dragging. Sit on his lap? No way. She hardly knew him. Besides,
that was illegal she was sure. And what about seat belts? She was not sitting on his lap.
Chapter Ten
Elvi heard the muttered question from Victor. She even felt his breath brush against
her lobe as he asked, but she didn't stop clutching him and lean back to answer. She
stayed where she was, plastered against his chest, head burrowed near his neck, face
turned toward the driver's side of the front seat as she stared with a horrified
fascination at the car's speedometer.
Glancing sideways, Alessandro caught her eye and beamed. "I drive fast, no?"
Elvi heard what might have been a whimper issue from her lips and returned her eyes
to the control panel. The man didn't drive fast, he drove at light speed. She could see
the speedometer from where she sat hunched on Victor's lap in the front passenger
seat. It was in miles per hour, not the kilometers she was used to. The speedometer
went as high as 155 mph and could actually go that fast. She knew this because this
was what Alessandro was doing. She'd never before seen telephone poles go by so fast
they became a blur.
Elvi turned her face into Victor's shoulder, her hands clutching a little more frantically
as they hit a curve in the road and Alessandro took it without slowing. With her mouth
pressed into Victor's shoulder, she could now see the two men crammed into the
backseat. The car had a backseat of sorts, obviously not intended and certainly not by
two such large men. Edward and Harper didn't look very comfortable back there, but
Harper did manage a weak smile as he grabbed for anything he could get his hands on
to keep from being thrown into Edward's lap by the centrifugal force.
As for Edward, he sat, expression grim, furious eyes burning holes into the back of
Alessandro's head.
A flashing light drew her attention to the back window, and Elvi's eyes widened in
alarm. "Police!"
She glanced toward Alessandro to see him glancing with unconcern in the rearview
mirror. He eased up on the gas, allowing the car to slow and the police car to catch up,
then smiled her way.
"No worry. I handle him quick," he assured her, then turned his attention back to the
rearview mirror, his gaze becoming concentrated.
Confusion clouding her mind, Elvi glanced back to the road in time to see the police
lights suddenly go out and the car turn and head back the way it had come. Alessandro
immediately sped up again.
"What did you do?" she asked, turning on him with amazement.
"I just put suggestion in his head, he maybe wanna go find doughnuts," Alessandro
said with a shrug. "Police, they like doughnuts here, no?"
"You—!" Elvi began with dismay, but the berating she would have given him for
controlling a member of the police department died in her throat, replaced by a
whimper as they hit another curve and she was thrown backward. She would have
slammed into the passenger door if Victor hadn't caught her and pulled her swiftly