CHAPTER 3
ADDY
Eli started the car, and I winced at how loud the sound of it was around us. The guards Eli had mentioned earlier, the men patrolling outside, had to have heard that, didn’t they? Thankfully, Eli floored the car right away and we smashed right through the flimsy, wooden garage doors. The impact ricocheted through me as I fought to hold on, but Eli didn’t hesitate. He just continued to floor the gas as we sped down a gravel drive. Guards appeared and ran towards us with huge guns in hand.
“Eli!” I screamed as they started to shoot at the car.
“Get Down!” Eli yelled and I ducked just as a bullet took out the window on my side. I dared to peek out of the windshield just as we came to the gates at the front of the property, but the speed Eli was going, we blew right through them, taking one right off of it’s hinges. I watched as the huge wrought iron gate flew through the air and landed on the ground beside us as we sped by.
“Fuck! Are you okay, Addy?” Eli demanded as he continued speeding down a narrow graveled road. Shots were still being fired behind us, but none were hitting the car now.
“Are we out?” I asked as I lifted my head all of the way and looked around us.
“We’re out,” he confirmed as we came to the end of the narrow road, and turned onto a small highway. “Are you hurt?”
“N-no. I…I don’t think so,” I gasped, my breaths short and panicked and my whole body shaking with adrenaline. “What about you?”
“I’m good,” Eli panted as he reached across and took my hand in his. He was still speeding down the road and I realized why when I looked behind us and saw a black Escalade following not far behind.
“Is that them?”
“Yep. We need to lose them, which would definitely be easier if I had the first fucking clue where we are,” he told me, sounding half amused and half terrified. “Is there a cell phone in here anywhere?”
I started to search all around me, opening the glovebox and another box between the seats, but there was no cell phone.
“Nothing!” I cried as I sat up and looked behind us again. Eli had managed to maintain a distance between us and the other car, but they were definitely getting closer. “What do we do?” I panicked.
“It’s okay. I’m going to get us out of this. Just breathe for me, Addy,” Eli told me more calmly. I sat back and tried to concentrate on calming the heck down. The situation was bad, but I needed to keep it together. My panic and fear would have to wait until it was all over and we were both safe. That was the time to have a meltdown. Not in the midst of a damned car chase.
When I felt able to actually get air into my lungs I opened my eyes and turned to look behind us again. We were driving way too fast and I just prayed nothing would come down the narrow road towards us.
“They’re getting closer!” I gasped when I saw the black car had gained on us fast. “You have to speed up!”
“I’m going as fast as I can,” Eli ground out. He had both hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly his knuckles had turned white, and his whole body was taut as he glanced between the rearview mirror and the road.
“They’re going to hit us if we can’t go faster,” I panicked.
“I know. I’m going to have to try something else.”
“What? You’re not exactly a stunt driver, Eli!”
“No, but I am a good driver,” he told me confidently as he glanced to me for a second, then back to the rearview mirror. “Make sure your seatbelt’s tight and brace yourself as much as you can.”
“No, Eli. This is a really bad idea. I don’t want you getting hurt,” I pleaded as I looked behind me again and saw the black car almost upon us now.
“I don’t want that either, but if those men catch us, I have a feeling they’ll hurt us way worse. Just do as I said, and hold the fuck on,” he told me, doing a way better job than me of hiding the panic from his voice.
I sat straight in my seat and pulled my seatbelt as tight as it would go. I checked Eli had his on too, even though I already knew he did, then I braced my hands against the dashboard, just in the nick of time too.
Eli turned the steering wheel to the right at the same time he slammed on the brakes. The car turned in the road and came to a screeching stop so fast I could barely stop my head from smashing into the dash of the car. We ended up stopped right across the road, and the black Escalade which had been about to ram us had no time to stop. Instead the driver turned the wheel and veered off to the left at a crazy speed. They drove right over the verge and the car flipped onto its roof on the sandy, baron land they landed on. There was a deafening bang and the twisting screech of metal as the roof gave under the weight of the rest of the car, leaving it looking like it had been partly crushed by one of those machines they used in the wrecking yards.
“Oh God!” I panted as I slammed my hand over my pounding heart and looked to Eli. “Eli?” He was staring at the other car where it lay on it’s roof, and he wasn’t moving an inch. “ELI!” I yelled louder and I was relieved when he turned to me.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yes. We have to go. Those men will be armed if they crawl out of that wreck,” I pointed out.
“Do you think they’re still alive?” he asked, and I realized he was feeling guilt at what he had done.
“Eli, they were trying to run us off the road too. God knows what they’d have done if they’d gotten their hands on us. You had no choice. You saved our lives,” I explained, trying to inject some calm into my panicked, terrified body, in an attempt to soothe him.
Movement from the other car had me turning and I saw a huge guy, dressed all in black, crawling out through one of the back windows, a gun in his bloodied hand.
“Eli! We have to go right now!” I yelled at him. Thankfully, he saw what I did and he actually listened this time. He started the car and we sped away, but I knew Eli wasn’t going to last long. He was breathing way too hard and his hands were shaking now. I could see the tremor even as he held the steering wheel.
“We need to get to a phone. We have to call Ash,” he told me shakily.
“I know. Just keep driving. There has to be a gas station or something on this road,” I replied, praying said station would appear sooner rather than later. My head was throbbing and I was barely containing the nausea I felt. Neither of us were doing well at holding it together either. All I wanted was my big brother and my guys to surround us, so I could crumble, knowing we were both safe. An image of Adam smiling down at me as he opened his arms to hold me filled my mind and I had to fight to push it aside. I couldn’t think about Adam. If I did I’d break and I couldn’t afford to do that yet.
I’m not sure how long we drove, but I do know neither of us stopped looking behind us for more cars following the entire time. The car was silent except for the sound of us both breathing way too hard and fast. It was the car stopping that jolted me from the chaos in my head and had me looking to Eli with worry.
“What is it?” I asked as I glanced all around us, but there was nothing to see for miles.
“I...I just need a second. I don’t feel so hot,” Eli told me. His voice wobbled and when I looked at him properly, I saw how pale he looked.
“What’s wrong? Does anything hurt?” I worried as I unfastened my seatbelt and rose onto my knees so I could lean over to him.
“I’ll be okay. I’m just a little lightheaded. Just…I just need a minute.” Eli opened the door and stepped out of the car. That was when I saw the blood on his seat. It had pooled beneath him on the pale gray leather and there was way too much.
“Eli!” I cried as I opened my door and threw myself from the car, barely landing on my feet before I was running around the back to get to my brother. “Eli, you’re bleeding!”
I ran to where he was leaning heavily against the car and looked him over as fast as I could. I couldn’t see anything on his body, but when I grabbed his arm to turn him, he hissed in pain. I instinctively moved my hand, never wanting to hurt him and was horrified by the blood that covered my hand.
“You’re bleeding,” Eli said weakly as he looked to my hand.
“No, I’m not. You are.” I turned him to the side and saw the entirety of his sleeve was covered with blood, and it was now running all down his arm and to the ground beneath him. “You’ve been shot!” I cried as I grabbed the sleeve of his shirt and pushed it up, revealing a bullet hole in the top of his bicep, and it was pouring with blood.
“I’ve been shot? I…I don’t feel anything,” he told me as he turned his arm to take a look himself.
“Jesus Eli! How could you not have felt this?” I growled as I set to work pulling off the leggings I wore under my dress. It was the only thing I could think to use to try and slow the bleeding.
“What are you doing?” Eli asked as he looked to me with confusion.
“Trying to keep some of your blood in your freaking body!” I snapped as I pulled off my leggings and folded them so I could tie them tightly around the top of Eli’s arm. “We have to at least try and slow down this bleeding. That’s why you feel dizzy. You’ve lost too much blood.”
“I’m okay, shortcake. We need to keep driving,” he said, but I didn’t like how weak his voice sounded. How long had he been bleeding out without me even noticing?
I ignored him as I wrapped the black leggings around his arm twice, then tied the ends in the tightest knot I could pull.
“Fuck, Addy!” Eli roared in pain as I pulled as hard as I could to get it tight.
“Sorry. It needs to be tight though,” I explained.
“I’m good. Stop freaking out,” he told me as he caught my hand in his and squeezed it.
“Stop freaking out! Are you crazy? We’re on the run from men who kidnapped us, in the middle of fucking nowhere with no money, no cell phones, and now I find out you’ve been shot! How the hell am I supposed to not freak out?!”
“Okay, fair point.” He nodded with a slight smile that made me pause and take a breath.
“You’re right though. Me losing it is not going to get us anywhere,” I told him. “Let’s check the trunk. Maybe there’s a cell phone in there. You need water too.”
Eli nodded and followed me to the trunk of the car. He seemed unsteady as he moved, but he remained upright. I opened the trunk, but it was completely empty, as were the back seats.
“We need to get moving. We’re sitting ducks here. Max could have sent more men after us.” Eli wrapped his arm around my shoulders as he spoke and I couldn’t help but turn into him and press my head to his chest, just needing a moment of comfort.
“You’re right,” I agreed when I felt able to lift my head and keep going. “We need to get off of this road, so we’ll be harder to find if more men are on our tail.”
“Except this seems to be the road that never ends,” Eli sighed, and he wasn’t wrong. I had no idea how long exactly we’d been driving that highway, but it had been too damned long, that was for sure.
“How much gas do we have?” I asked as the thought came to me.
“About half a tank. Hopefully, we can get to a phone before it runs out,” Eli answered.
“Okay. Give me your shoes.”
“What? Why do you want my shoes?” he asked with a smirk.
“I’m driving, and I can’t do that barefoot,” I explained as I looked down to my bare feet.
“How did I not realize you weren’t wearing shoes?” Eli asked as he started to slip off the paint covered sneakers he usually wore in his studio.
“We had way bigger problems,” I reminded him. He nodded, and stepped back from his shoes so I could slip my feet into them. They were way too big, but they’d be better than driving barefoot.
“Are you sure you’re okay to drive? Your head? I suspect you have a concussion.”
“I’m doing better then you right now. Hopefully, we won’t have to go much further,” I said, praying I was right.
“Okay. Let’s see how it goes,” he agreed. We both climbed into the car, and I spent several minutes adjusting the seat and mirrors, since Eli and whoever else had driven the car were taller than me.
I was nervous as I started the car. Not only had I never driven anything anywhere near as big, but it had also been a really long time since I drove at all. Add to that the pain shooting down my back, through my torn up wrists, and thudding through my skull and I knew it was going to be a trial, even on this long straight road.
But I reminded myself I was keeping my calm and not freaking out, and just got on with it. I had to get Eli some help and I needed to get us both to safety before Max, or whoever he sent after us, caught up.