Filed To Story: Pretty Poisoned Novel by Elle Mitchell
“I’m aces,” he says. “And you’re the baby.”
“You’re my baby now,” I tell him.
I look to the front as Declan climbs in, pulling the door closed behind him. And that’s when I finally notice the driver, catching a glint of the gold mask in the rearview mirror.
One of my friends. Funny.
He must notice me staring because the mother fucker salutes me before starting the vehicle.
Is that Bone Saw? Surely not.
“Hey there,” I say. “How was the drive up?”
Of course, he doesn’t answer.
“Don’t try to talk to him, Teag,” Declan says as we start down that old service road. “Just relax.”
At least the Jeep has the time on the dash. I watch the minutes tick away in silent darkness. It was 1:37 AM when he started driving. It’s 2:50 AM now as he pulls onto a paved two-lane highway. There are no houses, no intersections, no street signs. I can’t tell which direction we’re headed, but wherever it is, we’re going there fast. The odometer puts us at just around 105 mph now as the mountains give way to open plains.
Luca snores softly against the window. I don’t know if I could sleep even if I didn’t just sleep all day.
I want to crawl into the front seat with Declan, but I don’t want to catch Bone Saw or whoever it is by surprise and get knocked the fuck out.
“Declan?” Even though I call his name quietly, it’s been silent for so long that it feels alarmingly loud. I lean forward and rest my head against his bicep. “Can I sit with you?”
“Yeah, come here, kitten.”
I climb over the center console and into his lap, molding my body into his. I rest my head in that space just under his chin, facing the driver’s side of the vehicle.
“You really are a good girl, Teagan,” Declan says.
The masked man turns to us, cocks his head to the side, and points at me before making a stabbing motion with his hand.
I guess maybe it is him.
“Yeah, but look how sweet she is now,” Declan tells him. “We’re almost there, Teagan.”
“Almost where?” I ask.
“Small airstripout of service,” he says. “There’s a plane waiting there.”
“What happened?” I ask.
“They got a search warrant for the property in Idahoquietly, we weren’t expecting it. They brought cadaver dogs. It might take a minute to clean this up.”
I slip my hand under his shirt, resting it over the bandage on his chest. “I love you, Declan,” I tell him.
“I love you, too,” he says, earning me another side-eye glare from Bone Saw.
I go back to watching the minutes tick away until I spot red and blue lights in my periphery. In the rearview mirror, a police car follows the second Jeep.
“Declan?”
“I see it,” he says. “Get in the back and buckle your seatbelt; wake Luca up.”
“Is it because we’re speeding?” I ask.
But the driver pulls a high-powered rifle from under his seat, and Declan grabs a handgun from the glove box. I already know the answer.
“No, Teagan. There wouldn’t be anyone out here looking for that.”
“Luca?” I say shaking him, my panic palpable. “Wake up. There’s a problem.”
He sits up and looks at his brother. “Oh, shit.”
“It’s fine,” Declan says. “We’re almost there.”
But gunshots ring out from the second vehicle. I glance back and see another masked man shooting from the sunroof of the other Jeep while Rhett drives.
“Get down, Teagan!” Luca shouts, pushing me flat on the bench seat and covering me with his body. I hear metal and glass crunching before the sirens stop, the lights no longer reflecting from the rearview.
“ETA?” Declan asks.
To my surprise, Bone Saw actually speaks, though his voice is muffled by the mask. “Three or four minutes.”
“I’ll tell them to start the engines,” Declan says, fumbling with his satellite phone with the gun still in the other hand.
My heart thuds in my chest. Those three or four minutes feel like both a millisecond and an eternity. I’m afraid to stay in this car. I’m afraid to get out. But a sharp turn onto an old, barely graveled road tells me it’s about time before the car halts, skidding to a stop with the second Jeep right behind it.
And more sirens in the distance.
“Declan ”
He quickly jumps out of the vehicle, then pulls my door open. “Get out and run,” he says. I freezeI don’t mean to but I can’t help it. I just stare back at him while the sirens get closer. I tell my legs to move, but they refuse. “Now, Teagan!” he yells. “For fuck’s sake, get”
But he doesn’t finish his sentence before Luca pulls me out the other door. “Let’s go, wifey.”
I don’t even get my bag, but I run, looking over my shoulder when I hear tires on the gravel.
Brady and Rhett are behind me, flanked by the other masked driver carrying a rifle.
We round the corner of an old hangar, and I see itthe small private jet waiting on the runway with its engines roaring. I barely hear shouting over speakers for all of us to stop. I don’t hear the bullets before Brady hits the ground beside me. Bone Saw is already on the plane, firing at the police from the airliner’s open door. And Luca and I are close maybe about fifteen yards away before he hits his knees, clutching his stomach, and something levels me to the ground beside him.
“Luca!” I scream.
“It’s going to be okay,” Declan says from on top of me. “I love you, Teagan. I love you so much. I will never let you go, and you’ll never be alone. Do you trust me?”
“Yes!” I shout over the gunfire.
“I need to help my brother now,” he says. “I need you to be safe, so I need you to stay down, okay? Don’t move.”
“Okay.”
He kisses me hard on the lips. “Close your eyes, sweetheart. Count to thirty.”
I squeeze them closed, and once his body weight leaves me, through my sobs, I begin counting. “One two three four five ”
I hear Luca groan as gunfire rings out at close range. And I can’t help it. I can’t stop myself from opening my eyes and looking up.
And I do it just in time to see Declan dragging Luca onto the plane. Luca’s eyes meet mine, and I feel momentary relief, knowing that, in this moment, at least, he’s alive.
But he’s shot. From the looks of it, more than once.
Whatever relief I feel vanishes when the second gun-wielding masked man jumps onto the aircraft and Bone Saw pulls the door shut behind him. Bullets pepper the side of the plane as it starts down the runway.
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.