Total pages in book: 90
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 85569 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 428(@200wpm)___ 342(@250wpm)___ 285(@300wpm)
For a few tense seconds, it looked like she wasn’t going to listen to me, probably sapped of energy, but then she complied. She strapped her seatbelt on.
Something about her being in the car, and my car for that matter, made me realize that I might have new options that I didn’t before. When the man got into the back next to her and shut the door, I was able to calm down enough to start the car. It was my car, old but familiar, and I had driven it for years. My ties were gone. I had more options. It felt like an out-of-body experience pulling it out and onto the road. I checked the rearview mirror and could see that there were two men in an SUV behind, and they were closely following us.
Their car could easily outrun my old and rickety one, so there was no hope in trying to do a Hollywood-style car chase. Besides, the man beside me ensured that would never happen. He held his gun pointed directly at me, with his hand on the trigger.
"Any funny business and you will be dead in a second," he said. "Don't test me."
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“Where’s the GPS in this fucking car?”
“It’s an old car. It doesn’t have GPS.”
"Leave the town altogether," he said. "You know the way, right?"
“Yes. We can take the shortcut.”
He relaxed slightly in his seat, and I did as I was told. I looked behind at Anya, and she met my gaze. She had calmed down now, but her eyes were swollen and puffy, and I wanted nothing more than to pull her into my arms for a hug.
It took me a little while to build up the courage, but I was eventually able to ask, "She's not going to cry or scream any longer. Can you please take her gag off? It makes her terrified."
The guy ignored me, but I was stupid enough to ask again.
"If you say one more word, I am going to shoot you dead."
I got the message then, loud and clear, and kept my mouth shut.
I focused on driving and followed the very familiar roads that I had taken countless times in the last few days to exit the town. Every time I had left, it had never felt final, just a temporary exit, but now I couldn’t help but wonder if this would be the last time I would be leaving my beautiful town. I told myself not to be so dramatic.
Especially, when a plan was forming in my head. A plan to escape.
There could be a chance of that right outside the exit of the town. Next to the road was a stretch of woods that led to a bunker my grandfather had built a long time ago. At the time, I couldn’t have imagined how or why it would ever come in handy, but now that I was at the crossroads with only minutes to spare to make the decision of whether I was going to go out of line once again and risk our lives, I understood why.
It was a bunker that he had made for the students. Anyone who got lost or ill while out in the woods could hide out for a couple of days and recover or wait for someone from the school to rescue them.
It was well hidden so that it wouldn’t be raided by random campers for its canned food and other supplies, but it was visible enough to anyone who knew what they were looking for. That was where I had in mind to take Anya. However, in order to do that, first and foremost, I had to find a way to get rid of the men in the car and the others at our heels. The disadvantage was they had guns, and so I had to find a way to stop so near the woods that Anya and I would have a quick head start the moment we slipped into it. Once in the woods, I knew them so well that we would finally have a fighting chance of losing them and then hiding in the bunker until the danger was past.
Chapter 55
Cole
It took forever to reach the city, or at least, that was what it felt like, but when I checked the time, I realized that I had driven so fast it had taken me just over half the time it usually took. I must have truly been flying through the roads, focused and furious. I probably triggered some traffic speed camera, but thankfully the cops hadn’t stopped. But now that I was inside the metropolitan area, I was forced to reduce my speed in order.
I arrived at Paganini’s address. The place was filled with guards, but I wasn’t stopped at the door. I could feel the anger, though, especially from a few familiar faces. They were disciplined enough not to outrightly confront me for killing one of their own, or perhaps they were waiting for whatever Paganini had planned for me.