Royal Opposites by Lori Crawford Page B

on them. Worse yet, it was riding down the center line of the two lane highway. Even if they did turn around, they’d never get past them.
    “There’s a town or something a ways off. Let’s see.” She fiddled with the phone for a bit then nodded. “We can do a loop. If they follow us, we’ll be able to go back the way we came and get to the freeway.”
    “How far is ‘a ways off’?” Tom asked.
    He felt her look at him and knew he wasn’t going to like the answer. “Eight to ten miles.”
    Tom gritted his teeth and kept the accelerator pressed to the floor. Dark shapes he guessed were trees raced by them. The speedometer crept past eighty and still the other car gained on them. It inched alongside their rear bumper. One thump would send them into a spin. Tom wouldn’t risk that.
    “Hold on.”
    Joan nodded and braced herself. Tom jammed both feet on the brakes. The other car shot by them. When they slowed, Tom spun the wheel hard to the left sending them around in a crazy loop that encompassed both shoulders. They bounced over something like a large rock before he got them back on the road and in control. He sped back the other way.
    Joan checked the other car. “They’re turning around.”
    Tom checked the rearview and watched their pursuers rejoin the chase. There was much more distance between them this time.
    He pressed on the accelerator with all he had. The car responded, bringing them closer to the freeway and an escape route. If they could just make it.
    A loud pop sounded, the car jerked up before tilting in a crazy dip toward the right front. The sudden shift sent them spinning around to the right. Tom had no control while they careened off the road. The rear of the car slammed into the bridge and sent it spinning back the other way. He glanced at Joan to see her clinging to the seat belt while the world around them whirled out of control.

Chapter Ten
    The car seemed to spin around for an eternity. All Tom could think about was how sorry he was to have gotten Joan into this. All of a sudden, the back of the car dropped. She grabbed his hand and he clung to her when they began a free fall. The vehicle jolted to a stop. It took him a minute to realize that even though he was still seated, he was on his back. Still clinging to Joan, he gawked at her. She was looking back at him eyes wide with terror.
    He imagined he shared the expression.
    “We need to get out of here.”
    Joan just nodded. He tried to open his door but it wouldn’t budge. “I’ll try mine,” she offered. Hers opened a few feet, but slammed closed again. “It’s heavy. I need to use both hands.” She unfastened her seat belt and tried the door again. When she got it open, the car tilted back and dropped again.
    “Joan!” He screamed and reached for her. The car slammed to a stop on its roof. All the windows shattered at the impact. Tom hung upside down still belted in. He shifted his gaze up to find her lying motionless on the roof of his car surrounded by the bags of food she’d purchased. “No!”
    He braced himself with one hand and undid his belt with the other. He dropped to the roof next to her and didn’t even notice the shards of glass slicing up his palms and knees.
    “Joan, sweetheart, talk to me.” He shoved the upended bags out of the way and rolled her over to pat her cheek, but her eyes remained closed. Panic threatened to overcome him for a frantic moment. He took a deep breath to calm himself. “We’ve got to get you out of here.”
    Tom shook glass free from the blanket he kept in the back seat and draped it over the sharp, jagged fragments which were the remains of his back window. He crawled out to make sure they were on the ground this time. Seeing that they were, he looked up.
    He could just make out the bridge. They’d dropped almost seventy meters from where they’d been on the roadway. He fought back a shudder and returned his attention to getting Joan out of the wreckage.
    As gentle as he