Page 13

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Lost in my thoughts, I drove down the bumpy logging road, winding toward the mushroom building. I wanted nothing more than to get back out on the highway and head home. Or should I visit Mom tonight? It was getting late, but I had promised Lorenzo I would talk to her.

Worried about her and Duncan, I wasn’t paying attention to my senses or surroundings as I drove. Jasmine was the one to grip the dashboard and say, “Wait. Someone’s up there.”

She pointed toward the silhouette of the mushroom building.

Under the cloudy night sky, it stood in the dark, and I didn’t see anyone near it. Radomir’s vehicles had passed by long enough ago that the motion-sensing lights had gone out. But, now that Jasmine brought my awareness to it, I could sense magical beings. Not raccoons. Men. A couple of those thugs we’d just encountered?

Had their drivers dropped them off at the building? To lie in wait for us?

The front door remained shut, the windows bricked in, so it wasn’t as if they could fire at us from inside. It was, however, possible they were lying on the roof with their rifles pointed at us.

“We’ll go by quickly.” I hit the accelerator.

If I’d thought there was another way back to the highway, I would have turned around and taken it, but these logging roads tended to head deeper and deeper into the mountains, not the other way around.

“Hang on,” I added.

We hit a bump, and, even with her seatbelt on, Jasmine’s head thumped against the ceiling of the cab. “You think?”

She gripped the oh-shit handle.

“Sorry,” I said but didn’t slow down.

I sank low in the seat in case guns fired and I needed to duck below the windows.

“My wolf keeps almost coming out.” Jasmine also sank low.

“You think it can help with potholes?”

I eyed the building as we drew even with it. If there were people on the roof, I still couldn’t see them.

“It could nibble on the hands of the person driving us into the potholes.”

“That’s not a good way to get a reference for a résumé. I wouldn’t be able to write kind things about you without my fingers.”

“There’s voice dictation.”

I started to smile, but as we passed the building, an engine roared to life. Headlights came on, almost blinding me.

Startled, I nearly veered off the road. It was the damn tank vehicle. The men had been hiding in it behind the building, not on the roof.

Even as we tilted and wobbled on the uneven road, driving far too fast for all the bumps and bends, the tank-SUV roared after us. Something told me that vehicle was made for off-roading and would have a lot less trouble than my old truck .

As we whipped around a bend, a branch smacking the windshield and making Jasmine curse, the passenger-side window rolled down on the tank-SUV. A gunman leaned out, his rifle poised to fire.

“Shit.” I drove faster.

If we could make it to the highway…

The tank-SUV hit a bump hard enough to gain air. It came down right behind me, and I pressed the accelerator harder, worried about them shooting up my truck or outright ramming it. They might well shoot us too. I stayed low, even as the bumps and rocks in the road threatened to toss me into the ceiling.

A rifle fired, but I didn’t hear it hit. Hopefully, the road made it hard for them to aim, though it was possible the bullet had pierced my tire.

I growled, tempted to halt, jump out, change into a wolf, and attack them. But if I stopped, that armored bully of an SUV might hit my truck in the rear and launch it into the next county.

“Is there anything I can do?” Jasmine peered over the seat’s headrest and out the back window.

“Got anything you can throw at them?”

Visible in the rearview mirror, the rifleman hanging out the window was trying to steady himself enough to shoot again.

“Uh, Doritos?”

“Unless they have points like throwing stars, those aren’t going to help.”

“In this climate? Are you kidding? They get soggy five seconds after you open the bag.” Jasmine opened the glove compartment as the truck bumped through another pothole, tilting alarmingly.

Something thunked out onto the floor. My first thought was that it was Duncan’s magnet, but I’d put that under the seat, not in the glovebox.

“What the hell?” Jasmine bent, clunking her head as we whipped around a bend, the tire catching momentarily in a rut before the truck jerked free. She picked something up. “Is this… It looks like a grenade.”

“I don’t have anything like that in the glovebox.”

“Are you sure?” Jasmine poked her hand into it. “Because there are three more in here.”

“They’re not grenades.”

“Luna, they have pins and look like the military ones in the movies.” Jasmine held one up, the lights from the tank-SUV flooding our cab to make it easy to see.

Shit, that did look like a grenade.

“Duncan had to have put them in there at the same time as the magnet.” I shook my head. “But he said he was out of them. That’s why he was using underwater demolitions at Augustus’s place.”

Maybe he’d picked some up on the way out there. We’d taken our separate vehicles, so it was possible. And then he’d tucked them into my glovebox at the same time he left the magnet gift?

Jasmine rolled down the window. “I’m going to?—”

The tank-SUV rammed into us with a wrenching of metal and a great jolt that knocked the wheel out of my hands. The truck lurched wildly. We veered straight toward a tree.

Cursing, I grabbed the wheel and turned us back into the road.

“Those bastards !”

Rage flooded my veins with adrenaline. Adrenaline and magic. The wolf in me wanted to roar forth, to attack those who were threatening us.

But I couldn’t drive in wolf form. And were those headlights visible through the trees ahead? We were close to the highway. I had to hold it together. If we made it to the flat pavement, I’d stop and then we could turn wolf and attack these assholes.

“I’ve got this, Luna.” Jasmine yanked the pin out of the grenade, leaned out the window, and lifted it. “Wait, do you have to count before throwing?”

“No,” I blurted, sure she’d already waited too long. “Throw it! ”

She did before my words got out. Her aim was accurate, and the grenade struck the windshield of our pursuer.

I was afraid it would bounce off, but it exploded right after hitting. White light flared, far brighter than their headlamps, and I squinted, barely keeping from driving off the road. As close as our two vehicles were, the shockwave struck us, my truck shuddering violently.

Broken branches pelted us. Something clattered and flew away, hitting a tree. Part of their vehicle? Part of mine?

Since theirs was armored, I feared the latter, but the truck kept running, taking us down the road. More headlights flashed through the trees. Yes, that was the highway.

“That was fun,” Jasmine announced and grabbed another grenade.

Blinking and trying to clear my eyes, I peered into the rearview mirror. The brilliant light had faded, but their headlamps were still visible. The driver had slowed down after the explosion, and I hadn’t, so there was more space between us, but they were still coming. If their windshield was cracked, I couldn’t tell.

“Who the hell has an armored SUV?” I demanded.

“Bad guys, Luna. Duh.”

“Can they order that out of a catalog ?”

“The bad guy catalog.”

I gave her an exasperated look, but she was leaning out the window again, another grenade in hand.

“Don’t,” I warned. “That hurt us more than it hurt them.”

If we could just make it to the highway…

“They’re picking up speed again,” Jasmine said. “I have to?—”

We passed a huge cedar, moss blanketing its bark, and an idea popped into my mind.

“Aim for some of those big trees. Or even the ground. To make a pit they won’t be able to drive out of.”

Jasmine issued a skeptical noise—understandable, since that beast of an SUV could probably navigate out of a ten-foot-deep crater—but she did throw the second grenade toward the trees.

Fingers tight on the wheel, I was ready this time and squinted to protect my eyesight. Fortunately, the grenade landed farther back, and the shockwave didn’t affect the truck as badly. A thunderous crack came from behind, followed by a chain of snaps, then a thud that made the earth tremble.

Before going around a bend, I glanced in the rearview mirror. A huge tree had fallen across the road, branches and trunk blocking the way.

The tank-SUV came to a halt, and a broken branch from above landed on its hood. It didn’t damage the armored vehicle any more than the first grenade had, but it didn’t matter. For the moment, the driver couldn’t continue down the road. It would take some time for them to navigate around the downed tree.

The rifleman in the passenger seat leaned out the window again. He fired at us, but we were already tearing around the bend.

Ahead, the dark pavement of the highway came into view. Bullets slammed into trees behind us. I accelerated, peeling onto the highway and heading south toward home.

Something clattered behind us. My fender falling off?

I sighed, glad we’d escaped but lamenting the repair bill for my truck.

“That was handy,” Jasmine said.

“What’s that?”

“You’re my only relative who keeps grenades in the glove compartment.”

“Are you sure that’s true? You’re a werewolf, and we have a big pack full of belligerent members.” I wouldn’t have been surprised if Augustus had kept explosives in his vehicle. After all, he’d had a suit of armor holding a poisoned sword in his living room.

“Some of them have guns. You’re the only one with grenades. I’m positive.” Jasmine beamed an approving smile at me .

I didn’t mention that Duncan must have stashed them there for me. As a gift. Normally, I would prefer fine dark chocolate, but, in this case, the explosives had been handy.

I looked back at the dark highway in the rearview mirror, wishing he had come with us. It was not, I told myself firmly, a betrayal that he hadn’t. He was being magically compelled to work for Radomir.

Even so, it was hard not to feel a hurt tangle of emotions because I was driving south, and he’d headed off, seemingly of his own accord, in the other direction with those thugs.