beside me.
A desperate cold came with her, so intense that I wheezed with it. “You have to get away,” she said, her hollow eyes all icy burning. “Get away and help Alexis.”
“I will,” I swore, as solemnly as I’d sworn the oath to Maguire.
Behind her—no, through her—I could see the last thug, the guy in the hat, pick something up from the grass. Mrs. Hardwicke’s pearl necklace.
Carson started the car. Then the door banged me in the hip as he leaned over and opened it from inside. “Get in!” he snapped. “There’s no time for a tea party with Grandma!”
Mrs. Hardwicke’s glow brightened with gratitude. “Thank—”
Then she vanished. Not from sight, from existence.
How was that possible? I cranked up the psychic infrared to search for her, forgetting everything else.
“Daisy Goodnight!” Carson’s voice shook me to bedrock level. “Get in this car right now!”
I dove into the car and slammed the door as Carson gunned the engine and peeled onto the pavement. “Buckle up!” he yelled as the Taurus fishtailed and clipped a tree trunk close to the narrow lane.
I twisted to look behind us. Thug One and Thug Two ran for another car parked nearby. But their buddy stood in the middle of the road, both hands raised, palms up, Mrs. Hardwicke’s pearls catching the light as they dangled from his fingers. I didn’t know what he was about to drop on us, but it wasn’t going to be puppies and Christmas.
“Duck!” I yelled, and did. Carson stomped on the gas and hunkered down behind the wheel as the rear window exploded inward. I wrapped my arms over my head as the car was filled with chunks of safety glass, frigid air, and the scent of Chanel No. 5.
12
“WHAT THE HELL just happened?” I had to shout over the noise, since we were speeding down a country road in a car that was totally missing its rear window. All that was left was a frame of pixelated safety glass. I craned my neck to look into the backseat but saw nothing that could have caused the damage.
Carson clenched the steering wheel at ten and two, a smattering of cuts on his white knuckles. There was one on his cheek, too, blood seeping in a slow trickle. “Just hang on, will you?”
“I will not just hang on,” I said, frustration and freak-out making me shrill. “Someone just Lord Voldemorted the back end of our car! I want to know what was that flash of light and where did Mrs. Hardwicke go and, seriously, does everyone in Minnesota have superpowers?”
He ignored that and adjusted his grip on the wheel. “I mean buckle your seat belt, Sunshine. We’ve got someone tailing us.”
Sweet Saint Frances of Rome. I yanked the strap across my lap and fumbled it into the clasp just as Carson gunned the car through a yellow light to take a hard left turn from the right-hand lane. The engine whined and the tires squealed, and I may have made a couple of those sounds myself as I grabbed the door handle and braced for who knew what.
We straightened out and shot down a deserted state highway. I risked letting go long enough to look back, where a pair of headlights made the same turn we had, ignoring the red light and gaining on the straightaway.
“Are they still there?” asked Carson.
“Yep.” The wind through the missing window whipped my hair around my face and I gathered it the best I could. “Why are you heading into town?” I asked, alarmed to see the lights of the outskirts of Spring Creek.
“Quickest way to the interstate,” he said, never taking his eyes off the road. “I’m going to try to shake them on the way. Hang on.”
No argument from me this time. I sank into my seat as he punched the engine. It was just like a movie, except I couldn’t picture James Bond in a Ford Taurus. Carson took a turn without braking, miraculously not hitting the car illegally parked within twenty feet of the intersection. Another immediate left and we were in a dark warren of side streets. I hoped he knew where he was going, because I was totally lost.
And I was getting carsick, which never seemed to happen in heist movies, either.
“Will you lose all respect for me if I hurl?” I said.
He didn’t spare me a glance. “Roll down the window, because we’re not stopping.”
I didn’t dare move that far. Plus, if we flipped, I wanted all my parts