Road Tripping (2 page)

Then there was
a gunshot. Or what sounded like a gunshot.

When she turned
her head, she saw that one of Ethan’s truck tires had been blown.

After another second,
Ethan ordered, “Get in.” He hauled her to her feet, grabbed her arm, and dragged
her into Miss Horner’s truck, pushing her over into the passenger side and
taking the driver’s side himself. Ashley didn’t pull away. Not that she had
much choice. She could never have freed herself from Ethan’s powerful grip.

She was
terrified, although she did spare a quick thought for her purse, which was still
on the hood of the truck.

When she heard
more gunshots, she shrieked and ducked her head to her lap.

One bullet blew
off the driver’s side mirror.

Ethan had
already shifted into gear. “Stay down,” he said and floored the gas pedal.

The truck roared
to life and veered out onto the road. Ashley fumbled to put on her seat belt,
figuring it was only common sense to wear it during a car chase—which she was
apparently now in the middle of. “They’re shooting at you!” she gasped,
relieved when she heard her seatbelt click into place.

Ethan turned
left without warning onto a county road, barely missing an oncoming van. “Brilliant
observation,” he said, although he didn’t take his eyes off the road.

“Why are they
shooting at you?” Ashley asked, not at all intimidated by his sarcasm. She
peeked out the back and saw that they were being pursued by a black sedan.
Thankfully, no one was hanging out the side pointing guns at her, as she half
expected.

“I don’t know,”
Ethan replied, making another perilous turn and picking up his
speed—unfortunately for Ashley’s sense of safety, doing them both at the same
time. “I’ve got to make a call and figure out what’s going on. Take my phone
out of my shirt pocket. The steering on this piece of junk is non-existent so I
can’t let go of the wheel.”

Glad he still
had both hands on the steering wheel, Ashley reached over and pulled his phone
out of his pocket, accidentally brushing against his firm chest as she did.

 “Press the
last number that came in and hand it to me.” He took another turn at such a
high speed that Ashley was sure the truck was going to flip.

It didn’t, and
in another moment, Ethan was speeding up the on-ramp to the highway. At least
now he wouldn’t be turning. And he could go a lot faster. Which was a good
thing, since the black sedan was right on their tail.

She passed the
phone to him, and he barked out a series of questions to whomever he was
talking to. Ashley didn’t follow everything he was saying, but the point seemed
to be finding out about why whatever he’d been up to for the last week hadn’t
worked, and who Buster might have called in to come after him.

When he disconnected,
Ashley had managed to catch her breath, the whole thing so surreal it didn’t
seem to even be happening. “Well, you can just leave me at the next exit. Thank
you for the excitement, and I wish you well in escaping your pursuers.”

“You have to stay
with me for now,” Ethan said. Before Ashley could do anything more than drop
her jaw, he continued. “At least until I figure out what’s going on. If you
weren’t in danger, I would have just left you at the gas station. But they’ve
seen you with me, so they might use you to get to me.”

“But this is Miss
Horner’s truck." She gulped, imagining possible scenarios. The last thing
she wanted was to get poor Miss Horner in trouble. “What if they track her
down, thinking she’s me? I can’t believe you got me into this mess.”

“It sure wasn’t
by choice,” he muttered, glancing over at her in obvious frustration. “Do you
think I want to be dragging you around with me?” Taking advantage of the fact
that she was too furious to respond, he went on, “Miss Horner will be fine. One
look at her, and they’ll know she wasn’t involved. I hate it as much as you do,
but you’re safest with me.”

Ashley was
about to let loose a long, impassioned tirade, but the scene in front of her
distracted her attention. Ethan had gotten trapped behind a tour bus. The bus
was in the passing lane trying to get by a semi-truck. Neither was moving very
fast, and so the pickup was effectively caught with no way to pass either
vehicle. The sedan was pulling up beside them. They were trapped.

Or should have
been.

Ethan stepped
on the gas and edged between the bus and semi-truck—right in between them—where
there was clearly no lane in which to drive.

Ashley almost
screamed, but bit her lip to stifle it. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for
the inevitable crunch as the pickup was squished in between the two much larger
vehicles.

It never came.
The truck swerved over onto the shoulder. Both drivers were laying on their
horns. But Ethan had pulled past them and now had a clear road in front of him.

The sedan didn’t
have time to do a similar maneuver, so, after the truck moved back into its
lane, the bad guys were still stuck behind the bus.

Even though she
was supposed to be a good girl and not take pleasure in dare-devil stunts, Ashley
gave a little squeal of excitement. Ethan met her eyes, and they grinned at
each other warmly before she remembered that she hated him.

She scowled
when she recalled everything he’d done, and Ethan turned back to the road,
accelerating until he was going well over the speed limit.

She was
surprised Miss Horner’s truck could even reach that speed.

“So why are
they chasing us again?" Ashley asked after a few minutes of silence.

“They’re
chasing
me
. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And now
you’re stuck.” Ethan took the next exit. The sedan still wasn’t in sight, but he
was clearly nervous. He checked the rearview mirror every thirty seconds or so.

Ashley sighed.
“They aren’t behind us now. Can’t you just drop me off at a gas station or
something?”

“Too risky,” Ethan
said, shaking his head. “Your purse flew off the hood when we drove away, so
they’d be able to find your license, even if they don’t see you get out of the
truck. If these guys are who I think they might be, they’re dangerous. I’m not
going to leave you to their mercy. This is my fault.”

“That’s for
sure,” Ashley mumbled, not quite under her breath. “It’s like a damned Jason
Statham movie.”

“Just stick
with me for a little while until I can figure this out. Do you despise me so
much it’s worth risking your life for?”

It wasn’t as
easy a decision as it sounded. Risking her life was not a good option, but
neither was spending time with Ethan Moore. The funny thing was she still
trusted him—despite everything. It was instinctive. He’d been like part of her
family all her life, and she just didn’t believe he’d be lying to her now or
putting her in danger by any choice of his own.

When she was
twelve years old, a boy in the class above her had followed her home, teasing
her brutally about the pimple on her nose.

She’d been
close to tears and trying desperately not to show it when Ethan had appeared
out of nowhere.

Ethan had
always teased her a lot himself, but he’d never made her cry back then.

The other boy
was a year younger than Ethan, but he was a hulking bully, while Ethan had been
a scrawny kid. He was considerably smaller than the other boy.

It hadn’t
mattered. Ethan hadn’t said a word. Just planted himself between the boy and
Ashley and hadn’t moved.

The other boy
tried to pick a fight, but Ethan still refused to budge. When the boy got
frustrated and swung, Ethan just ducked and laughed.

Finally, the
boy had cussed out Ethan and left Ashley alone.

Ethan had
walked her home.

He hadn’t been particularly
cute at thirteen—certainly not as cute as he was now—but he’d still been her
hero. For years, he’d been her hero.

She kept the
memory and the resulting emotion to herself, however, and was silent the rest
of the way to his place.

His family’s
land was mostly wooded, and the river marked one of the borders. There was a
big rambling house, an unattached garage, a huge workshop, and a boat dock.

“What are we
doing? Won’t they look for you here?”

“Yeah, but I
need to take care of something. We’ll just stay for two minutes.” He pulled the
truck behind the workshop, near the dock, and said, “If you see anyone coming,
just drive away.”

She was too
surprised to say anything when he jumped out of the truck and ran down the dock
and into the boat.

Then she got
out of the truck and walked over toward the boat herself. She didn’t think she
was stupid, but she was confused and scared, and she didn’t want to be left
alone. Plus, she’d managed to get a good look at the boat moored at the dock for
the first time.

It was small,
but she knew enough about boats to know that it must have cost a fortune.

Ethan almost
plowed into her as he came out of the boat and raced down the dock, right when
she was approaching.

“What the fuck
are you doing?” he demanded, grabbing her shoulders by both hands as he jerked
to a stop. “I told you to stay in the truck.”

“I don’t care
what you told me.”

He turned her
around toward the truck. “We need to get out of here.”

She didn’t see
that he’d gotten anything from the boat, but maybe it was so small it fit in
his pocket. She turned back toward the river. “When did you get that boat? It
must have cost a fortune.”

“It did. Now
let’s get out of here.”

“I want some
answers now.”

“You’re safer
not knowing.”

“Apparently,
I’ll be just as dead whether I know or not.”

“Okay, fine. If
you’ll just start moving, I’ll tell you.” He managed to get her to walk toward
the truck. “I’ve been trying to see if I can get out of this…”

“This what?”

“This net.”

She understood
immediately what he meant. Evidently, he’d been trying to extricate himself
from the moonshiners, and she could have told him that wasn’t an easy thing to
do. Buster had always given her the creeps, ever since she was fourteen and
he’d winked at her when she’d seen him in the hardware store. She muttered, “You
and your criminal activities. It’s enough to make a girl scream.”

Ethan raised an
eyebrow. “You planning on screaming any time soon?”

Somehow, he had
made it sound both obnoxious and sexual. Only Ethan could accomplish such a
feat so easily. Ashley felt herself blushing, which made her even madder. “When
did you get so arrogant—”

Before she
could complete her question, the boat exploded.

They were far
enough away to not be harmed, but the sound and momentum pushed her down onto
her already skinned knees and palms. She just stayed there with her eyes
squeezed shut. She was sure she would wake up any moment. Real life didn’t
happen like this. Not when you were trying desperately to stay out of trouble. You
weren’t chased by bad guys with guns, and boats didn’t randomly explode. Any
minute now, she would wake up in her cozy bed. She wouldn’t be at the old Moore
place. She wouldn’t have skinned knees. And she wouldn’t be anywhere near Ethan
and his horrible sneer. She would be in bed.

Ethan’s hand was
on her back. “Ashley,” he said urgently. “Ashley, are you all right?”

“No,” she said
hoarsely, not opening her eyes. “I’m waiting to wake up. Go away. I’m in bed.
You don’t get to be in bed with me.”

“What the…” Ethan’s
hands were moving over her back now, then her shoulders, arms, and head. “Ashley,
are you all right? Did you hit your head?”

His touch made
it clear. She was definitely awake. She sighed and moved into a sitting
position on the ground. “I guess I’m not having a bad dream.”

She saw relief
reflected clearly in Ethan’s face as he managed to interpret her earlier comments.
“No dream,” he replied, gently pushing her hair back from her eyes. He stopped
himself with a start, apparently realizing what he was doing. Put both hands in
his lap. “This is cold, hard reality.”

“The boat blew
up,” Ashley said, looking at the flaming remains. She could hear sirens
approaching from a distance, but didn’t know if they were the result of the
explosion or the earlier gunfire and car chase.

Ethan got up
and then helped her to her feet. “It wasn’t supposed to blow quite so soon. Let’s
get out of here while we can. We don’t want to have to answer questions when
the police get here.”

That sounded
reasonable, so she hurried to climb into the truck. When he started off, she
asked, “Where are we going now?”

“I’m going to
just drive for a while, to make sure we’re not followed, and then we’ll find a
motel for the night. We can figure out what to do tomorrow.”

“I’m not
sharing a motel room with you.”

He slanted her
an annoyed look with his vivid green eyes. “Believe me, that’s the last thing
on my mind.”

So she felt
insulted again. Didn’t say much of anything until she was alone in a motel
room, just off an exit on I-81, about an hour away, with nothing but a fast
food bag full of food. She ate and took a shower. Then put her prissy clothes
back on, since she had nothing else to wear, and turned on the television.
Tried to pretend none of this had really happened.

She thought
about just calling the cops, but something stopped her from doing so.

She knew what
it was. It was some sort of lingering loyalty to Ethan—who still felt to her as
close to family. Calling the police on Ethan would be like turning in her
brother.

Or not exactly
her brother. Ethan didn’t feel like her brother. At all. But, still, despite
her resolution for the last year and a half to always do the good, smart, and
safe thing, she didn’t pick up the phone. She couldn’t bring herself to betray
Ethan.