head and turned away from it, refusing to fall prey to fear.
“Just go slow,” I said determinedly.
He nodded, inching forward and pressing his feet to the seat beneath him as I gripped his shirt so hard my knuckles turned white, praying to any deity who was listening to give me the strength to lift him if the car fell.
A loud snap sounded as the trunk started to give way and I screamed as the whole car lurched away from us to the right and Kyan was thrown that way too. I held onto him, falling into the back seat too which was now almost vertical, my hand going to the zip tie on his wrists and slicing through it. Keep moving, don’t stop. If you freeze, it’s over.
The car continued to slide and jolt and the loud snapping in my ears made me certain we only had seconds to get out.
“Hold onto me,” I commanded and Kyan twisted around, wrapping one arm around me while using his other to heave us back up toward the open door above.
The whole vehicle shuddered and we gave up on trying to move slow, scrambling faster to get out. We had seconds to make it, I was sure of it. And any we wasted could equal our deaths.
Sharp nails suddenly gripped onto my leg and I looked down with a gasp of fury, finding Deepthroat holding onto both of us, her eyes wild.
“You can’t leave me!” she shrieked. “If I fall, he falls with me.” She lunged up, hooking onto Kyan’s waist with both arms and he snarled, unable to strike at her without letting go of the edge of the door or me.
The vehicle started falling and Kyan lost his grip on the door as she clambered up his body, sinking her teeth into my arm to try and make me let go. I cried out, the belt around my waist going taut as we fell, the bitch trying to take us to the grave. Deepthroat’s gaze locked with mine as she tried to hold onto my man and I saw red, anger scolding my veins.
I threw my fist out with a yell of rage for everything she’d done to him, for what she’d tried to take from him, for the scars she’d left on him. My fist connected with her nose which shattered under the impact and she squealed in horror as Kyan’s hand came down on her shoulder, the two of us knocking her off into the car just as it plummeted. The shell of the car dropped around us, the whole world seeming to fall as we were forced to place our faith in the rope I’d made.
Kyan held me tight and we clutched each other with all our strength as the Land Rover tumbled away into the canyon. We were left hanging on the side of the cliff, spinning on the belts, miraculously unharmed.
My back hit the dirt and Kyan’s weight crushed me to it, driving the breath from my lungs, but I didn’t care. I was half laughing, half crying my relief as he held onto me, one hand moving to grip the belt above my head to support his weight.
Deepthroat’s screams were cut off as the car hit the bottom of the ravine with a deafening boom that echoed on for miles into the forest. Birds took flight from the trees, arcing across the sky then silence fell and only our breaths and the wind could be heard in the wake of the carnage.
“Good fucking riddance,” Kyan muttered and I had to agree.
“Just don’t let go,” I warned him, painfully aware that if his grip faltered, there was nothing to stop him from tumbling down there after her.
My heart was thrashing wildly with more adrenaline than I knew what to do with and my muscles shook as I started heaving myself back up the steep incline.
Kyan stayed right with me, his grip tight and his jaw set with determination that promised he wasn’t going to die today and I tried to take comfort in that as we climbed.
My foot slipped once and I almost lost my grip on the belt, but as Kyan reached back to grab my wrist, I quickly regained my footing and the two of us hauled our way to the peak together.
We were soon rolling over the ledge at the top of the cliff and I fell on top of Kyan, kissing him as he clutched my face in his hands and growled