Page 69 of Carved Obsession

I flash my lights like a white fucking flag, hoping she’ll get the memo and slow down. But it’s no use. The only time she actually hits the brakes is when there’s something on the dirt road, and each time, I notice the slight skid of her wheels. This rain has come too fast. The road is drenched, puddles already formed.

Fuck it, I’ll stop and turn around. At least then she’ll calm down. Because at this point, I’m worried she’s gonna fucking kill herself trying to escape me.

I slow down gently, trying to avoid that fate myself, when Scarlet brakes and turns, drifting in a surprisingly masterful way to the right and disappearing through the trees. When I pass that point, her headlights disappear down that narrow track.

Braking to a stop, I drop my head back, expelling a heavy breath I’ve been forcing down. The rain doesn’t fall. It pours. Buckets bash my car like it owes it something.

This doesn’t change anything—I’ll still confront her, demand an explanation.Punish her.

But I can drive back to her house and wait for her there. Maybe kidnap her, tie her up in my church. Force her to reveal all her dirty secrets.

Like why she’s breaking into criminals’ houses and stealing precious items in the dead of night. Why she’s nowhere to be found online and has almost no virtual footprint. What was she doing when she came into the fetish club to take those photos of me? And...why exactly she isn’t yet divorced from that asshole of a man.

I haven’t figured out why I want to ask that last question. It brings nothing to the current predicament, but for whatever reason, I find it important to know.

Deeply lost in thought, I hear the car coming at me from behind before I see it. Its headlights are off.

I press my foot on the gas when I realize she has no intention of stopping, but my damn wheels skid into the mud, taking too long to get a fucking move on.

The rain is too thick, the road too slippery with mud and gravel, and I barely catch some speed when Scarlet’s car slams into me from behind, propelling me forward.

“Fuck me, woman!”

Damn, she’s mad.

She doesn’t relent. Her headlights flash, blinding me in the rearview mirror, and I have the pleasure of watching them approach at speed just before she rams into me once more. I clench the steering wheel, attempting to keep the car steady as it skids left and right.

Really mad.

But I’m fucking annoyed now too. I brace against the steering wheel and slam my foot on the brake. Metal shrieks against metal as she crashes into me, and pain blooms in my neck from the strain.

My dashboard lights glitch dangerously, but the car still moves when I press the gas, so I ignore it. I look over my shoulder, trying to catch a glimpse of her.

Is she okay?

Tightness grips my chest in a cold vise. Only one of her headlights works, and at the same time I notice movement in my mirror, she accelerates once again.

For some odd reason, I feel a tug at the corner of my lips as that vise eases behind my ribs, and I accelerate more as she nears me.

All those flashing lights definitely mean something, because even though I catch some speed, it’s not nearly enough to put distance between us. At the same time, lightning strikes in front of us, closer than I’ve ever witnessed it before, and the tree it hits falls in a flaming heap onto the dirt road.

I slam the brake, hoping my foot can find another magic length to this damn pedal before I crash into that broken tree. I pull the steering wheel to the left to avoid a head-on collision. My wheels catch on something hard, and my ass hurts as I bump the seat, the seat belt cutting into my shoulder.

In a blinding light, with a deafening crash against my side, my world spins off of its axis. Over and over. The car tightens around me, changing shape as pain stings through my neck and white fabric blows around me, cushioning my body.

“Holy...fuck.” I blow out a loud, thick breath like I’m using it to figure out if my lungs still work and my heart is beating.

It’s definitely still beating because I can hear it in my fucking ears and feel its thump in the backs of my eyes.

I’m upside down.

Lovely.

Where’s Scarlet?

The thought rams into me harder than anything else tonight, and I rush to crush down the airbags surrounding me, fumbling for my seatbelt. But the fucking thing either isn’t responding, or my movements are too frantic.

I try to brace my feet to push myself up and release the tension on it.