Shameless - Sybil Bartel Page 0,26

not going to let that happen.” Giving the SUV still more gas, I undid my seat belt.

She freaked out. “Oh my God, what are you doing? Are you going out there? Don’t do that, you’ll fall down the mountain. The road isn’t wide enough for both you and the SUV.”

Ignoring her, keeping it slow and steady, I pressed my foot down.

“What’s happening? What’s that noise? Oh, God, are the tires spinning?”

I didn’t answer her.

The tires caught, and we lurched forward.

She let out a cry of fear.

“We’re good, we’re good.” Correcting the steering, keeping my foot steady, I checked the side and rearview mirrors to make sure we were staying on the road.

“Oh God, it’s steeper ahead. We’re not going to make it up that.”

The tires gripping, the Escalade moved. “We’ll make it.” At least part of the way, which was fucking fine with me at this point. Any progress the SUV made meant a shorter hike for us.

“Please,” she begged. “Don’t let us die. I don’t want to die out here. We’ll freeze to death, and no one will find us.”

Fucking Christ. “Woman,” I snapped. “I’m a Force Recon Marine. If I can survive five tours, I can get us up a goddamn mountain.” The SUV made the sharp turn in the switchback. “You’re not gonna die. Sit back, take a fucking breath, and keep that hand on your seat belt release ready.”

“Okay, fine,” she snapped, before inhaling deep and letting it out. “But that doesn’t sound good. That sounds like I need to be ready to release it in case we start to go over the cliff.”

That was exactly why, but I didn’t tell her that. If we started to roll, I was either going to pull her out or shove her out. Fractions of a second mattered, and she needed to be ready. “It’s only precautionary. We’re not going over the edge.” Hoping like fuck I wasn’t lying, I got us through the next turn.

“Okay.” She inhaled deep, then her voice came out calmer. “How much further?”

“As a crow flies, less than a mile.” The Escalade acting like a damn plow at this point, we made it another half klick.

“And as a swerving, tire-spinning SUV, how much further then?”

It wasn’t lost on me that she’d pulled herself out of her panic, or at least was pretending to, which was more than I could say for a few Marines I’d encountered on my first deployments.

“Fifteen, twenty minutes.” If I could keep us moving forward.

She gripped her seat belt harder. “Just keep us on the road.”

“That’s the plan,” I answered absently, checking the side mirrors as I took the next turn.

Her knee started to bounce. “So, is this your place we’re going to?”

“Yeah.” No fucking traction, we started to slip again.

“Does it snow a lot up here?”

The tires spun. “Every winter.” Halfway through the turn, I didn’t ease off the pedal.

She glanced around nervously. “You like that? The snow, I mean?”

Come the fuck on, Escalade, pull your weight, motherfucker. “Yeah.”

“What do you like about it?”

“You talk when you’re nervous, princess?” Watching the drop-off, I hit the second-to-last switchback before my place.

“I’m not nervous. I’m fucking terrified,” she admitted.

“Fair enough.” We hit a pothole covered by ten inches of snow, and the right side the vehicle dipped.

“Oh my God,” Summer gasped. “What was that?”

“Pothole I need to fix come spring.” I made a mental note.

“You pave your own road up to your cabin?”

“We’re on a dirt road now. We left the paved roads after the first switchback.”

“Switchback?” she asked, looking behind us.

“A hundred and eighty degree turn in a road. Goes one direction, then cuts back almost on top of itself in the other direction. Switchbacks are common up here in the mountains when it’s too steep to have a straight road.”

“If it’s too steep for a road, then maybe there shouldn’t be a house up here.”

I chuckled. “Where’s the fun in that?”

“Fun is civilization. Beaches, flat roads, restaurants, shops—that’s fun.”

“Spoken like a true Floridian.” We slid through the next turn.

“Shade!” She grabbed the handle above her door.

“We’re good, princess.” We weren’t good. I was losing traction by the second. “One more turn.” Then I was seriously considering abandoning ship before we slid off the fucking road and hit a tree.

“You said fifteen more minutes. It’s been like five.”

Coming up on the next turn, I took a calculated risk and overcompensated. “We’re getting there,” I evaded as the Escalade made it around the next turn, but this time slid toward the

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