Royal Line by Carrie Ryan (lightweight ebook reader .txt) 📗

took the back streets, staying off the main roads. I made a turn at Avenue Foch and took in the sights of the city, trying to figure out how to bring my adrenaline down. It always took too long, and I certainly didn’t like taking sleeping pills. They made me too groggy. And then there were the nightmares that I couldn’t wake up from.

After I made the turn on Avenue Foch, I took a sharp left down one of the quieter streets and headed out of the city. Maybe if I could just get a drive in, open the car up a little, I’d feel more like myself.

I took the next right and drove without much thought to where I was going. It was early fall, so there was a nip in the air. I rolled down the window, letting the chill cool my body. I made a left and a right, getting onto the expressway, and then took an exit I wasn’t familiar with.

It led to a suburb, which surprised me. I knew I would definitely need my GPS heading back to the hotel. I frowned as I came along a deserted tree-covered road between two neighborhoods. The quiet solitude should have calmed me, but instead, my adrenaline spiked. A dewy mist rolled along the edges of the trees, giving them an eerie quality, making my hair stand on end.

Jesus Christ, Kannon, get it together. Nothing was urgent. I didn’t need to focus on anything. There were no bad guys tonight, and I could deal with that.

The road curved to the left, and that’s when I saw headlights up ahead. They illuminated the road, but they weren’t coming from the road. I approached slowly and then parked about fifty feet from where I saw the headlights.

The car had slid into a ditch. Fucking hell. I parked and then ran around to the back of my car to grab a rope and my rappelling equipment.

Not knowing how far down the driver was, the equipment might come in handy.

I ran to the edge of the road. “Hello? Anyone down there?”

There was a soft voice. “Yes, over here.”

A woman. God. My heart hammered in my chest, and I clenched my teeth. Calm down. It isn’t Phoebe. What the fuck was the woman doing out here? Was she drunk? How did she fall in here?

You can ask questions when you get her out.

At the broken guard rail, I attached the grappling hook before knotting the rope around my waist. Then I eased down into the ditch. It was steep. Climbable if you had the right shoes, but mine were slippery, so the rope would help us climb back up if needed. And if I had to secure her, it would definitely come in handy.

“I’m coming down.”

“It’s rocky. Be careful.”

When I reached the car, it was on the one flat spot of the steep embankment. There were some grassy patches, but the incline wasn’t easy.

A woman was leaning out of the passenger side of the car. “You didn’t have to come down here. You could have just called the police.”

“You want me to go back up? I can leave you if you want,” I muttered sardonically. Who declined help when they were in a ditch?

I couldn’t see her that well, but I could sense the frown in her tone. “Oh, an American, fantastic. Aren’t you hilarious?”

She had an accent. I wasn’t sure what. It sounded vaguely British, but I couldn’t be sure. “What’s your name?”

“I’m London.”

“What? Like the city?”

“Oh my God, you have all the original lines.”

This was going fucking fantastic. “Well, I guess I’m lucky you didn’t meet me in a bar then. I’d be bombing.”

“Yes. Yes, you would,” she said with a chuckle.

“I don’t know about that,” I said as I edged over to her, testing the strength of the rope so we wouldn’t slide farther down the ravine. “You haven’t really seen what I look like yet. My face is hard to turn away from.” I didn’t know why I was saying these things, but hell, if it helped her not panic, I’d keep going.

“Oh, lucky me, you’re modest too.”

“Well, you are lucky. I am here to save you.”

She licked her lips. “And if I don’t need saving?”

I chuckled. “Of course, you don’t need saving. You’re just down in a ravine, with the possibility of sliding down even farther. Plus, it’s rocky and practically impossible to climb without a rope. But you’re fine.”

“I’ll have you know I am fine. If I hadn’t twisted my stupid ankle, I would be out of this ravine already.”

I frowned then. “You’re hurt?”

“Mostly bumps and bruises. I don’t think anything is broken, but my ankle hurts a little. I don’t think it’s a proper sprain. It’s just twisted.”

When I reached her side, I could see her better in the moonlight. She did have some cuts and bruises. I knelt in front of her. “I’m Kannon. Kannon Adams.”

“Oh, names again? You know mine.”

“Well, at least I’m not going to offer to buy you a drink—yet. But from the looks of it, you could probably use one.”

“You’d be right. Of course this would happen on a night like tonight.”

I assessed her foot. Slim. Delicate. Well arched. A dancer’s foot. Except, they were too smooth for her to be a dancer. I lifted her ankle and found it was mildly swollen.

She winced. “Careful.”

“Easy does it.” When I looked up, her gaze on me was intent. Her blue eyes bore into mine, and that kicked my heart rate up even higher.

What the fuck?

Her hair was in a tangled mess around her face, spilling onto her shoulders. I had to focus to ask her the necessary questions. “Okay, London, how did you get down here?”

She swallowed hard. “I think some idiot ran me off the road.”

My brows snapped down, senses going on alert. “What do you mean, ran you off the road?”

“I was driving on my way to a friend’s house, and out of nowhere, a car came up and banged