Chapter 98
EMMA
Iresist the compulsion to look back, instead leaning forward, urging Smoke faster through the trees. Branches whip at my face and shoulders.
The headlights strobe across the forest around me—bright, relentless, closing the distance.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I grip Smoke’s mane, hunkering into him. “Come on, boy. Faster.”
My heart is a fist pounding against my ribs. Smoke is fast, but he's not faster than a truck, even on a narrow dirt road. I need trees.
I need Jake.
The headlights get brighter.
Closer.
I push Smoke harder, and he responds—a magnificent, desperate surge of speed. We fly, crashing through undergrowth, the ridge opening up ahead of me. The trees thin. The ground becomes rocky.
The headlights swing wide, trying to cut me off.
But then—
A silhouette. Dark. Massive. Parked perpendicular to the road ahead.
A truck.
Jake’s truck.
Relief floods through me so violently I almost fall off the horse.
“Jake!”