Michael’s eyes thinned, regarding me. “What was the point?” he asked, but I could tell he was just thinking out loud.
“Hey?” Michael called out. “She wants to know what the point was.”
I heard laughter and turned to Kai, who had his arm steel-rod straight on the wheel as we sped down the road.
He glanced at me, waggling his eyebrows, but then he jerked the wheel to the right, and I yelped as all of us jostled in our seats. I shot out my hands, holding the support bar with both of them as we swayed side to side, the car derailing onto a small, narrow gravel road.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I didn’t know what to say. What the hell was he doing?
Before I knew it, he’d stopped the car, killed the engine, and turned off the headlights. The inside of the car fell completely silent.
“What the hell?” I burst out. “What are you doing?”
“What are we doing?” Michael corrected.
Kai turned his head to me, pressing his finger to his lips.
I was afraid to breathe.
We sat there for several seconds, and I was so confused, but I didn’t want to annoy them with more questions. What were we doing here, in the dark, hidden on a gravel road? And I still didn’t understand why I was on Michael’s lap.
And then my ears perked up, hearing it.
Sirens.
Everyone in the car turned their heads to look out the back window, and within seconds, flashes of red, blue, and white flew past on the bit of highway we could still see. Two fire trucks and five police cruisers.
Will started laughing, his deep, boisterous bellow like it was Christmas morning.
The vehicles passed by, continuing down the highway, and the forest turned dark and quiet again.
I turned my eyes on Kai. “You called them? That’s what you were doing on the phone.”
He grinned, nodding. “Of course they think there’s about five fires going on up there instead of just one.”
Five? Why would he have lied when he called it in?
Michael must’ve seen the puzzled look on my face. “We needed as many police out there as possible.”
“Why?”
But he just rolled his eyes at me, turning to Kai. “Show her.”
Kai started the engine, and I grasped the support bar again as he backed out of the narrow inlet at top speed. I bounced around in Michael’s lap until he wrapped his arm around my waist again, holding me still.
Kai shot the car into first gear and laid on the gas, speeding down the dark road as Nonpoint’s Bullet With a Name filled the car.
He punched into third, fourth, and then fifth gear, and within seconds, I spotted four massive headlights ahead. I inched closer to the windshield, seeing that they were trucks.
Two of them. Dump trunks.
Will’s excited noises s
ounded from the back, while Michael and Kai both put down their windows. I cast a nervous glance at Michael, and I couldn’t explain what I saw in his eyes. Heat. Thrill. Anticipation.
His gaze fell to my lips, and his grip tightened on my waist.
“Hold on,” he said softly.