Page 28 of Sweet Deception

It’s so unsettling that I can’t help but glance at him in the same way I’d zero in on a shadow slithering in the darkness when I think I’m home alone.

A crooked, wicked smile holds up his face. He sneers at me before facing forward and dropping his foot on the gas.

My head slams against the headrest as he floors it toward the end of this alley, which lets out onto a busy street. Ahead of us, cars zoom by.

We’re going to crash.

“What are you doing?” The words are out, but they only sound ten percent as panicked as they should.

“You’re not the only one who likes to play chicken.” The engine revs as we barrel down this narrow corridor, the back doors of several businesses flying by us.

My eyes snap to the speedometer.Oh god, he’s doing sixty.

If any unfortunate soul were to step out the rear exit of one of these buildings, they’d be mowed down by this race car with us inside.

“Something tells me there’s a more talkativeside of you justdyingto get out.” Darren’s cruel, sickening grin widens as we soar from the mouth of a short alleyway and onto the main road.

I swallow a scream, clamp my eyes shut, and squeeze Piro against my belly as car horns blare. Darren whips the car around so fast, the centrifugal force shoves me into the passenger door.

The car roars beneath us, growling like a wild beast in heat as we tear down the road. Every time I think it’s safe to open my eyes, Darren jerks left, then right, bobbing through traffic. Horns scream at us in constant intervals.

“Keep your eyes closed if you want to, Veronika.” He taunts me with that evil-laced voice. My name on his tongue unsettles me more than I could’ve expected. “It’s not going to save you.”

Those words pry my eyes open.

I stare at him, at that psycho smile plastered to his face as he wheels the sports car with one hand. We’re accelerating with such speed that I think my heart’s going to crack my ribs in two, but still, I find the strength to tell him one truth.

“I don’t fear death.”

His gaze flies to my face. Now he’s drag racing and not even watching the road. “Neither do I.”

“Shocking.”

My sarcasm pushes his mouth down into a hard line, and he yanks the steering wheel around unexpectedly, thrusting us into a hairpin turn down yet another busy boulevard. I grip the dashboard with one hand as Darren swerves and changes lines like we’ll be caught by lava if he doesn’t.

The power generated by this vehicle moving at maximum speed vibrates through my palm and up my arm. The sensation is terrifying, like my fingertips are touching the face of death…

But I don’t react.

Yes, the possibility that this man will kill us all is very real, but other than failing to keep my promise to Maya and Lucy and my concern over Piro’s well-being, there’s nothing about dying today that would disappoint me.

The danger forces my body to react in ways I can’t control, but there’s a calmness about death that calls to me. Maybe it’s because I sometimes wish death had taken me with my parents, with my grandmother. Not that now is a good time to think aboutthat.

Clearly frustrated, Darren pulls another one-handed, death-defying twist, positioning us at the end of a road. Or should I say the beginning? A mile of street stretches between us and a low wall next to a pedestrian walking path. On the other side of the wall is Jamaica Bay.

My stomach does a backflip.

“You’re not afraid to die and neither am I, so why don’t we make today the day, huh?” Darren gives me a crazy, toothy smile, flashing those killer white teeth.

“Meaning what?” He can’t be serious.

His long fingers tighten around the leather of the steering wheel. “Answer my questions or not, your choice. But if you don’t, we all die. Ready?”

Before another syllable passes my lips, Darren flattens his foot to the floor. The car rockets forward, blasting off down the street.

“What did you want with my phone?” He enunciates over the roar of the engine as my heart rate climbs again and my eyes narrow on that low wall.

We’re either going straight through it into Jamaica Bay, or we’re going to die trying.