28 Suzy #2
“Hang on!”
Sean disappeared for half a second, and then he was back. “Here.”
He put his hands under her arms and yanked her up. She had to put all her weight on one leg to stand. When he turned her around, she saw the passenger-side door of the Porsche hanging open.
“It was unlocked. He always leaves the keys in it.”
Thank God, Suzy thought. “Get the dog.”
Sean grabbed the carrier, and they hobbled over to the SUV.
Suzy crashed into the passenger seat and yanked her legs—ow, sonofa—inside.
Sean had already tossed the bags in the back seat and now placed Wintour in there along with them.
Once behind the wheel he let out a sighing groan and shook himself like a golden retriever.
He hit the button to start the car, and they both looked out the windshield at the Armageddon before them.
“So we’re stealing Lincoln’s car?” Suzy said, catching her breath.
“Borrowing.”
“Sounds good to me.” She leaned forward and started picking tiny pebbles out of her raw skin.
“I can’t see anything,” Sean said.
Suzy reached over and clicked on the windshield wipers. They barely made a dent.
“We have to try,” she said.
She already felt a bit calmer, being in their own space and out of the murder house.
Lincoln, of course, had tissues in his glove compartment, so she was able to dab off the blood and see that the wound was not that bad.
Sean eased the car forward. He almost hit the stone wall that surrounded the fountain anchoring the circular drive.
Suzy gritted her teeth, and he corrected his path.
Inch by inch, they made it out to the one-lane road that connected the Villa to the main thoroughfare.
Now surrounded by towering trees and underbrush, Suzy felt as if they were driving through a tunnel.
Branches dropped from the sky and pinged off the car, each one making Sean wince.
“What if one of these trees falls on the car?” Suzy asked, angling forward to try to see up out the windshield.
“Then we’ll be crushed,” Sean said in a tone that reminded her that this whole thing was her idea.
“I’ll feel better once we get to the main road. Can’t you speed up a bit?” she asked.
Sean pressed down on the gas pedal, and they lurched over a lump on the ground. The car bumped so hard, Suzy’s ass lifted up off the seat. Her knee gave an angry pang.
“What was that?” she cried.
“I don’t know!” he shouted back. “Can I just drive?”
“I don’t know, can you?”
“It’s the end of the world out there, Suzy! What do you want me to do? Drive blind?”
“I want you to show a little manly protective instinct and get me home!”
At that moment, something huge and dark loomed out of the gloom, and Suzy screamed. “Sean!”
He slammed on the brakes, but it was too late. The car had already collided with a massive felled tree. Suzy’s body rammed against the taut seatbelt, knocking the wind out of her. She pressed her fingertips into the dashboard and heaved in a pained breath. Wintour was barking again.
“Sean!? Are you all right?” Suzy demanded.
He was slumped over the wheel. She grabbed his shoulder and shook him.
“Lincoln is going to kill me,” he mumbled.
But he sat up and was fine. The airbags hadn’t even gone off.
Suzy turned around to see that Wintour’s crate had slid forward and was tilted down, resting against the back of her seat.
She fixed it so that Wintour was back on solid ground and then sat down again, letting out a breath.
“I think . . . I think something stopped us from hitting it too hard,” Suzy said.
Before Sean could even process the fact that she’d spoken, she’d jumped out of the car to assess their situation.
The tree was massive. It covered the entire road, branches sticking out in all directions and flapping in the wind.
She could see the huge root ball that had been yanked out of the ground on one side of the road.
The tree’s trunk stretched so far into the underbrush on the other side, she couldn’t even see the top.
“Fuuuuuck,” she groaned.
They would have to go back to the house.
Then she noticed that the back right wheel was buried deep in a pothole that was full of water and mud. That might have been what had slowed them down. Suzy knocked hard on the window. The rain and wind battered her to the point that it was difficult to breathe. Sean rolled the window down.
“Can you back up?” she asked.
He put the car in gear, and she stepped back a bit. The wheels spun and spit mud everywhere, but the SUV didn’t budge.
“I guess not,” Sean said.
Suzy threw her hands up and went around to the back of the SUV. She kicked her foot under the back to pop the trunk. It went up lazily, smoothly, like it had all the time in the world. Sean got out of the car and joined her.
“What’re you doing?” he shouted.
“Looking for a jack. What does it look like I’m doing?”
There were two black cases in the trunk. They’d have to move them to get to a jack and a spare if they needed one.
“Suzy, we’re not going to be able to jack up the car in this,” Sean said. “We’re just gonna have to walk back.”