Page 29 of Sweet Deception

“What were you looking for?” The urgency in his growl gnaws at me, but I keep my mouth shut while he assaults me with another question. “What were you going to do with the information you stole?”

The wall ahead appears to be flying straight at us as we hurtle toward it at hyper speed.

I throw my eyes over to his unreadable face. Though I’m shaking on the inside, and though time is running out, I keep my voice level. “Why’d you bother saving me if you were just going to kill us like this?”

Something flashes in Darren’s eyes.

I know I just sealed my fate, so I press my eyes closed in a silent prayer, but the bone-crushing impact never comes.

Darren breaks right at the end of the road, averting our deaths, and tears off into the dark night. My heart rate doesn’t slow for several minutes, my body still on high alert.

My breathing is uncoordinated and unsteady, as if my lungs are malfunctioning. I can’t even think, my nerves are so shot.

And Darren’s exchanged his questions for dead silence.

There’s nothing but the roar of the road under these wheels. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d burned the tread right off them after that Formula One audition…

Outwardly, I manage to retain my composure.

I decide this is like ballet. I just need to stay focused on the music.

On the goal. Find Lucy. Save Lucy.

Remaining calm increases the likelihood that I’ll survive this. That’s the lie I’ll keep repeating until I find a way out of this situation.

For a while, the three of us coexist in horrible silence as Darren drives down interstates and then remote back roads.The city noise and streetlights fade until the world narrows to the small sliver of road illuminated by our headlights and the stars glittering their cold beauty from above.

Trees, tall and green, begin to canopy us…until they fall away entirely when Darren navigates onto a dirt path and revs down a strip of dust and gravel that cuts through a great big open field of nothingness.

Somehow, I find this part of our adventure far scarier than when he thrust us into an impromptu game of chicken with traffic and brick walls.

A huge, lonely, lightless thing that is four times the size of a barn looms in the darkness. It’s got to be a…warehouse of some kind?

Motion-sensor floodlights flick on as Darren glides closer. For a split second, I’m sure we’ll crash, but then the wall separates in the center. We drive straight in, the doors shutting behind us.

Darren stamps on the brake pedal, shoves the car into park, and cuts the engine.

My eyes scan the dark, dingy place surrounding me. Metal worktables covered in tools and supplies that seem illegal in nature. Spare, random pieces of furniture. The husks of what were once functioning automobiles parked at random intervals. Chains hang from the ceiling alongside garish caged lights.

By all accounts, it’s Darren’s private office.

Or his torture chamber.

In any case, I’m certain I’m about to die.

He gets out of the driver’s seat and stalks around to my side, those long legs narrowing the distance in seconds.

He’s in a hurry.

That’s my impression when he throws the passenger door open, grabs my right bicep, and drags me out of the vehicle while I cradle Piro to my chest.

My legs wobble. Wow.

My motor skills are still coming back online after that ride from hell.

Darren directs me through this cavernous space. Oddly, he’s not shoving me like I expected he would. Still, his palpable heat and power radiate into my back as he inexorably forces me forward.

My eyes dart around, scanning for exits, but I know it’s futile. This warehouse is set way back on a large property, and I’m not sprinting anywhere on these legs. Not anytime soon.