56. Montana

My plan was extremely risky. We could all die, even Anya, but I didn’t see any other way out. Going on probabilities alone, Anya was probably in the best position to come out of my plan alive, but what were her chances if I didn’t carry out my plan? What happened to her after they had got what they wanted from Luca? It was hard to think of him as Luca, but that was his name. Luca wouldn’t have run from them and built that room for Anya if he thought they would spare her.

As for me I definitely had a very low survival chance. I was nothing to them. I had no value at all. For sure, they were not going to keep me alive, and if the bearded guy’s reactions were anything to go by, he would have no qualms about raping me and disposing of my body somewhere no one would ever find it.

I looked in the rearview mirror at Bianca and confirmed that she had her seatbelt on. She did. I stared at myself in the mirror, and it took a while, but eventually, I made the decision. I was precious as well. I loved Cole and Anya, I realized now, deeply, and so I had to make the brave choice for both myself and them. Sure, we might fail, but if I remained docile, we were all guaranteed to fail.

I stepped on the gas pedal and the car began to pick up speed.

“Why the speed?” the man next to me asked as he looked at my rising speedometer.

“We’re out of town now,” I said casually. “What”s the point of going slow? Or should I slow down? You’d prefer we crawl?”

He stared at me, ticked at the insult. “You sure do have a mouth on you, don”t you? Let’s see how well you’ll be able to talk when my dick is in your mouth.”

I turned away without showing any reaction. This was the second threat of the same manner within the space of a few hours. What was it with idiots wanting to clog my throat with their cocks? I went faster and faster down the road. I could tell he was becoming nervous by how he sat up and stared ahead. The seconds were drawing closer, and all I could do was count them down in my mind. Nearly there. All I needed to do was swerve to go off into the bushes, but my arms felt like they wouldn’t work. Suddenly, he began to panic.

“Hey, slow down,” he said.

Of course, I didn’t listen.

The guy at the back was leaning forward. “What the fuck?”

The phone of the guy next to me started ringing. I knew it was the guys in the SUV behind that were panic-calling. They wanted to know what the hell was going on.

“Slow the fuck down!” the guy next to me yelled furiously. He was sitting up straight. Desperately, he pointed his gun at me, and that was the moment I swerved. The car plunged off the road into the bushes and he was thrown back against the door. There was no going back now. We raced through bushes, foliage, and rocks towards the woods. I was being bounced around like a rubber ball, but I tightened my hold on the steering wheel and stomped my foot on the gas pedal even harder. The car hurtled and crashed through the undergrowth at greater and greater speed.

I went straight for the biggest tree ahead.

This was going to hurt like hell, but I had my airbag and seatbelt … and he didn’t.

“Hold on, sweetheart!” I shouted to Anya, and then we crashed.

My airbag burst open as I heard the guy next to me yell, his voice so full of terror that it rang in my ears, just before he slammed into the windscreen and became completely silent. The guy sitting at the back flew over his head through the windscreen, shattering it. Anya was screaming with horror.

The car was twisted around the tree and my neck felt as though it was broken, but the guy next to me was clearly dead and the other guy was lying a few feet away on the ground. There was no movement at all from him.

“Are you okay?” I asked Anya.

She was awake, sluggish, and terrified, but she was safe. The belt had kept her in place.

Immediately, I located the gun that was on the floor of the car and kicked the car door open. I tried the back door but was unable to pull it open. I pulled her out through the window just as I began to hear shouts.

I knew that the other men were behind us.

I had to get us out of there and to the bunker. I would”ve loved to hold her in my arms and comfort her, but it would slow us down too much.

“We have to go, Anya,” I pleaded with her.

She started to move, but she could only move slowly.

“Please, Anya. Hurry,” I cried.

“Okay,” she said, and we ran for our lives.

We ran in the woods for at least ten minutes straight, and with each passing moment, it felt like my legs were going to give away with pain. I realized I must have hurt myself in the accident. My heart was pounding hard and I was out of breath, but still, I couldn’t stop. This was the vital moment, and everything depended on this.

Our very lives depended on it, and so no matter how much pain I was in, we couldn’t stop. Anya eventually stumbled on a rock and fell. I nearly fell myself, and so I had to stop for a moment to catch my breath.

I looked ahead then and saw the stream I was searching for was only a few yards away.

“Just over there, sweetheart,” I told her. “We’ll be safe as soon as we get over to that side. They won”t be able to find their way then.”

This, however, I soon found to be untrue when I heard the men coming behind us.

I was shocked. I had taken too many turns. They shouldn’t have been able to follow us unless … suddenly I looked at the little girl and quickly began to search her person. It didn’t take long to find it. I retrieved the device from the pocket of her jacket. Incredibly upset, I ran in the opposite direction from where we were going and flung it into some bushes.

“I thought we had a head start, sweetie, but we don”t,” I told her. “We need to hurry even more now, so get up please, Anya.”

After taking a few more deep breaths, she rose to her feet, locked her hand in mine, and once again, we were on our way, scurrying through the dense, dark woods.