Claimed (For Her 3)

I nod imperceptibly, but she sees it and nods back at me before she stares out the window. I don’t know what she’s got planned, but I want to be ready.

“I think I’m going to be sick,” I say, and put my head in my hands.

“We’re not pulling over, so you can just throw up back here,” Spencer says, shoving me off his lap. “Just don’t get it on me.”

God, if I had known that was all it took I would have said that from the beginning.

“We’re almost there,” Michael says from the front, and Summer looks back to me.

I reach over, grabbing the belt and putting it on. If Spencer notices anything, he doesn’t say.

Michael turns down a dirt road, overgrown with trees and shrubs. I can hardly see the driveway from the road, even in broad daylight. On one side is a steep drop-off into a ravine. On the other is a path that leads down to a small cabin. There’s a lake behind it, and if this were any other situation I would say how beautiful it was. But that cabin has the hair on the back of my neck standing up, and I know if we go in there, we’re not coming out.

It’s then that I look up and catch Summer’s eyes again. She’s thinking the same thing. I tighten my hand on the seat belt just as she nods to me.

It all happens in a split second, and though I see it coming, it still scares the shit out of me.

Summer reaches over with both hands and yanks hard on the steering wheel. Michael is taken by surprise as the Jeep spins out of control to the right and goes off the edge of the ravine. I brace myself as the Jeep flips and my ears start ringing. I don’t know how many times we roll, but at one point the back door comes open and Spencer is ejected from the vehicle.

Summer screams, and the sound of metal crunching and glass breaking has me more terrified than ever before.

Suddenly the Jeep comes to a stop, and I gasp for air as both my hands are gripped tight around the roll bar. This type of vehicle was made to survive a fall like that, but not if you weren’t harnessed in.

“Summer!” I shout, and she rolls her head back, moaning. I fumble with the buckle, ignoring all the pain I feel in my body, and reach for her. “Summer, talk to me.”

“I’m okay,” she says, and then coughs.

I look over at Michael, who is half hanging out of the Jeep. At some point he was almost thrown from the car, and he isn’t moving.

“You okay?” Summer asks as she unbuckles.

Adrenaline courses through my veins, making it hard to determine exactly what is hurt on me. There’s a pain in my left leg, but it doesn’t feel broken. I look down and see my left wrist is at a funny angle and it’s throbbing.

“I think my wrist is broken.” I look around and up the ravine. “We need to get out of here.”

Summer has to climb into the back with me because her door is crushed closed. When we wiggle out of the window on my side, we see that Michael is missing the top half of his body. I cringe at the sight, and Summer leans over and gags. I look around for the gun for half a second and then give up. There’s no telling where it ended up, and I don’t want to be next to the car in case it decides to blow up.

“Should we check the cabin to see if there’s a phone?” Summer asks as we near the top.

“I don’t know. Maybe? I’m scared to go in there,” I admit, but the pain in my wrist is getting stronger.

“You’ve got a really nasty cut on your head. I don’t know how much blood you’ve lost,” Summer says as she rips off a sleeve of her shirt and holds it up to my scalp.

I hold the cloth to my head with my good hand and walk slowly. It takes a while, but Summer helps me most of the way. Just as we get to the top, movement out of the corner of my eye catches my attention. I feel Summer grab ahold of me to steady my feet as Martin Stein steps off the porch and walks right up to us.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Jordan

“And you’re sure that’s him?” I ask Miles as I scroll through security footage.

“Yes,” he says through gritted teeth. “How the fuck did we not catch this before?”

I pulled up the name Spencer on Jay’s computer and got a ton of hits for the same person. Then I went through the camera feed on the dates he was scheduled on her calendar. During one of his meetings with Miles, he excuses himself from the boardroom. But instead of going to the restroom, he goes over to Jay’s unattended desk and sticks something to it.