Owned (Office Intrigue Book 8) by Nicole Edwards (year 2 reading books TXT) 📗

matter how fast I went—which was considerably slower than I preferred, taking into account the aforementioned black ice—the assholes were still hot on my tail and gaining. It was all I could do to steer, doing my best to put as much distance between me and Braelyn as I could, although what I wanted to do was grab my sister and make a run for it.

That was where my plan had gone tits up.

I should’ve told Talon tomorrow wasn’t soon enough. Something in my gut had told me my time had run out, but I had ignored it. It was only a matter of time before they caught me. And at the pace we were going, that matter of time equated to roughly five minutes. Ten tops.

I was almost positive they had some souped-up engine beneath the hood of that nondescript sedan.

The fuckers.

To make matters worse, there were more vehicles on the road tonight because of New Year’s. Not to mention, the people. They seemed to be every-fucking-where.

“Fuck you, assholes,” I shouted at the car behind me, taking another vicious turn too fast, the backend fishtailing.

Thankfully, I managed to get the car under control, and I was picking up speed on the straightaway when my cell phone rang. I grabbed for it but fumbled, the damn thing falling into the floorboard.

This wasn’t how this night was supposed to go.

I’d gone to TJ’s party to say my goodbyes to my closest friends before I fell off the face of the earth and they believed me to be dead. Call it closure or whatever. I’d needed it. Unfortunately, my plan was thwarted when I got a notification from the security system I’d installed outside Braelyn’s apartment door. It had taken all of a second to recognize the man who’d stepped into the hallway. But that second was all I had before the camera had been decommissioned.

As I ran out of TJ Arlington’s house like my ass was on fire, I’d attempted to call Braelyn, hoping to warn her to make a dash for it, to no avail. My heart had been pounding in my chest even as I floored it toward her apartment. I hadn’t been on the road a solid minute when I noticed the tail. At that point, the only thing I could do was drive in the opposite direction and pray that my sister would get out of that damn apartment before Jimmy got in.

Now, as I meandered through a neighborhood, going faster than I cared to, my cell phone rang again, the damn thing completely useless beneath the brake pedal. My creative driving did nothing to dislodge it even as it beeped, notifying me of a voicemail.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

With my focus on the road, I saw the next curve up ahead, then glanced in my rearview mirror. The dark blue sedan was close enough to kiss my bumper, so I kept my foot on the floor, sending up a prayer to a God I didn’t believe in, asking Him to let me live through this. For Braelyn.

The curve came faster than I anticipated, so I jerked the wheel, hugging the edge of the narrow road, the backend sliding on, yes, what I assumed was black ice. I tried to adjust but overcorrected, sending the car into a spin. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, my car out of control—spinning ninety degrees, one-eighty, then finally three-sixty. At that point, the tires caught traction. As luck would have it, I was once again righted, the car propelled forward with a violent lurch.

I breathed a sigh of relief, trying to dislodge my stomach from somewhere in my throat.

That was too damn close for comfort.

Unfortunately, the sigh was a bit premature, because the next thing I knew, I was careening off the road, bouncing down an embankment. The terrain was rocky, the car jarred and jolted. I nailed my foot to the brake pedal, but the car was having none of it. I flew past a few scraggly trees, grateful they weren’t—

The enormous tree rising proudly from the dead grass and ice-covered dirt was the last thing I saw before the car came to a jarring stop, my body maintaining the momentum despite the lack of movement. The airbag blew, but not before the front of the car accordioned, pinning me to the seat.

Pain bloomed hot and bright, ignited into a firestorm of agony, and the blackness took over.

“Ransom!”

I was vaguely aware of the rough, gravelly voice, hating that it had drawn me back to the brink, back to this godforsaken, pain-filled reality.

“Can you hear me, Ransom?”

It came from somewhere outside the car, muffled by the dull roar that filled my ears.

“Ransom! You gotta wake up, man. Come on.”

I managed to lift my head, coughing from the smoke filling the inside of the car. For a second, I thought it was because the airbag deployed, but I felt the heat, saw flickers of orange and red.

Not from the airbag.

Nope. Not that damn lucky.

The fucking car was on fire, and I was trapped, my legs twisted at an odd angle, the steering wheel lodged into my sternum, making it nearly impossible to take a deep breath.

Instinct had me twisting in a desperate attempt to free myself. Pain had my head fogging once more, my eyesight dimming.

“I’m gonna break out the back glass!”

Yeah, you do that. Whoever you are.

I barely had time to process it as a warning before I heard something hard slam from behind me. A few more tries and then it shattered. I jerked my head away as the shards began raining down into the car thanks to a big booted foot kicking it out of the way. It was then I realized the car was tilted at an angle, one door pinned by the ground, the other trapped by what looked to be a wall of trees. Not quite on its side but not upright, either, hence the reason this guy was making a path through the