in the driver’s seat. She refused to look, but she felt Nick’s gaze on her. From what little she’d observed, he seemed like the type of guy who would wait to make sure she got on the road safely.
Her hands shook as she inserted her keys into the ignition. What a day. If she stopped and reflected on it now, she might never get home. Death was something far in the future. When she read her Bible and spent time in prayer, she had peace that when it was her time, she’d be ready. Her throat tightened. But she wasn’t ready for it to be time yet. There was so much more in her life she wanted to do, wanted to be.
Fear must have had an unusual effect on her, since she’d practically gushed her life story to Nick in the course of five minutes. Thankfully she hadn’t had much experience with being scared to death before, but she was still surprised at her reaction to Nick.
It would be interesting to see if their dangerous game of hide-and-seek would make the Barings Herald. She didn’t want to tell her parents and cause them worry if it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Her mom had struggled with insomnia enough as it was since Alexis had left Seattle.
The engine struggled to turn over. She groaned, and her cheeks heated. She resisted the urge to look at Nick’s reaction. The motor gave another hearty try and hummed to life. She let out a breath, shifted into Reverse and drove out of the lot. Her finances couldn’t support a car payment at the moment.
While she was grateful that eight years of ramen noodles, part-time jobs, thrift-store clothes and little sleep had allowed her to graduate debt-free, there weren’t too many well-paid jobs available for a disbarred lawyer.
Her stomach turned at the thought. It’d been almost a year, and the shame still washed over her like it was yesterday.
She’d chosen patent law as her specialty because she’d known that she couldn’t compartmentalize enough to be a defense lawyer. Never in her wildest dreams had she suspected her client would want to unburden himself and tell her the story of how he murdered his partner. He’d practically gloated over the fact no one had found out. Everyone had assumed the partner had taken some money and left the country.
After two weeks of sleepless nights, she thought she’d found a loophole for attorney-client privilege and submitted to the police what he’d told her. The Washington State Bar Association didn’t agree with her conclusions. The confession her client had made to her was inadmissible, and the state of Washington issued the verdict that she would no longer be practicing there.
But it did no good to rehash the past continually.
Alexis clicked on the radio to drown out her thoughts. There would be no more processing of the day, or the past, or even Nick until she reached the safety of her bathtub. And she’d most definitely earned scented bubbles. Lots of them.
She focused on the road. The sun dipped below the horizon and outlined the mountains and trees with pastel colors. She pressed the brakes at the stop sign, but it took some extra force on the pedal to get it to slow down. Her car really was on its last leg. The pedal had never felt this mushy before.
She took the left turn to head back into town. Her rearview mirror showed Nick right behind her. Either he had business in town that he hadn’t mentioned, or he was following her all the way home. She smiled into the rearview mirror and hated to admit that it felt good to have someone care like that.
Relationship goals had never been part of her five-year plan, but chatting with Nick had unleashed a sudden, intense longing to have someone to share her life. It was probably past time. But what did a disbarred lawyer have to offer?
The terrain began to change. On the right, the road butted against a foothill. The side was covered with chains to help prevent rockslides. To the left, the evergreens blocked a lot of the light. The road changed into curves, taking her down to the heart of Barings.
In a short while, there would be the sharpest curve, a breathtaking viewpoint where you could look over the cliff at the entire valley. If it weren’t for Raven, she’d be tempted to pull into the small parking lot to sit and process the last few hours. The downgrade steepened, and she pressed her brakes on the curve.
The car slowed slightly before it lurched forward. Her head flew backward at the sudden momentum. The resistance on the brake pedal had completely disappeared. She shoved her foot hard on the brake three times. “Come on!”
Her grasp on the steering wheel tightened as she fought to stay within her lane and lost. Thankfully no one else was on the road. The needle on the speedometer rose to fifty. The speed limit on the curves was thirty-five. The bend straightened a bit, but the downgrade would continue for the next three miles.
In roughly two miles, the viewpoint would appear. The trees would disappear, but the rock wall and a ninety-degree turn would mean that if she couldn’t slow the car down, she would likely get the best view of all before plunging to her death.
She stomped on the brake pedal over and over. Her stomach threatened to lose her lunch. “What do I do? What do I do?” Her mind raced, frantic to find a solution.
Raven whimpered in the backseat and stuck her nose over the console between the seats. “Oh, not now, dog, please,” Alexis cried. “I’m trying to save our lives!” She needed to get her head on straight. “Lord, we need help!”
The parking brake line was separate from the other brakes. She gasped. Yes, that would stop them. She’d walk home after that, never to drive the bucket of bolts again. She shoved the car into Neutral.
The speedometer rose to sixty, matching the pace of her heart.
She yanked on the parking brake, but it flung upward without resistance. Useless. Her breathing grew erratic. It should’ve worked.
The likelihood of all the brakes going out at once was...
Her insides shook. At this rate, she’d hyperventilate. Her car had been the only one in the trail parking lot. Everyone in town knew she drove it.
This was no accident.
Another curve approached fast. Too fast. She could drive into the trees, but the only way that would slow her down was if she steered directly into a tree trunk. It’d have been a worthwhile option if the car weren’t traveling over sixty miles per hour. Her 1982 beauty didn’t come equipped with airbags, so the outcome of that scenario was certain death.
She abandoned the pedals on the floor and placed her feet on either side to use as leverage while she took the second curve. She released a guttural cry as she did so.
Please let Nick see what’s going on, Lord. She didn’t know how he could possibly help, but she didn’t think she could take even one hand off the steering wheel to reach for her cell phone.
The moment the road straightened, she looked in the rearview mirror and then ahead. Nothing in either direction but a sheer rock wall, trees and an upcoming deadly curve.
Nick cringed at the sound of branches hitting the side of his truck. He’d jogged through this area of the forest before so he could sit at his favorite bench overlooking the farmlands in the valley, but driving through the forest was another matter. He swerved and barely missed a thin aspen that seemed to come out of nowhere.
It was hard enough to motor through the foliage without the additional challenge of doing it at high speeds, downhill, as the sun dipped below the horizon. The perspiration dripped down his neck as he second-guessed the possibility his plan would work.
The stakes were high, though. At first he’d laughed when he realized how fast Alexis was going. Maybe she was an adrenaline junkie out to prove that her bucket of bolts had plenty of life left in it. But when her car swerved wildly and barely made it past the last curve, he knew she had to be in trouble.
He could’ve tried to overtake her on the road, but he was so far behind it seemed unlikely. The curve would take her far to the right before bringing her back to