Free Leaving Las Vegas (Entangled Ignite) by Aleah Barley Page B

take her a while to process that information, but the sight of the SUV had her moving quickly. She dashed for the passenger’s side as Luke headed for the opposite side of the car, swearing. They had to get the hell out of there before Tiffanette’s guys saw them.
    “How did they find us?” she snapped out, fumbling with the door handle.
    “Like I said, they might be cruising the highways. Or they could have tracked us through my cell phone. Maybe traced the signal. The battery was dead last night, but I plugged it in a few minutes ago. Other than that, no clue,” Luke said, his voice a low growl. “Just in case…” He threw the phone to the ground in front of the car’s wheel.
    Glory’s hands shook as she opened the passenger-side door. Quickly, she climbed into the passenger seat. One deep breath after another, struggling to control the panic rising in front of her. The night before had been wild. Wacky. But with daylight streaming through the windshield, she couldn’t imagine facing real gunfire again.
    Ever.
    No, thank you.
    She wasn’t that kind of woman. The foolhardy gambler who put everything on the table. She was a small-town girl, from the tips of her battered tennis shoes to the top of her naturally curly hair. She owned a twenty-seat diner where she knew everyone’s order. Davie Summers was a roast beef sandwich. Mr. Carlisle—who’d owned the five-and-dime since before anyone could remember—got two eggs, bacon, and a side of rye toast, no matter what time of day he came in.
    Luke started the car, throwing it into reverse. Through the open window she could hear the crunch of his cell phone getting smashed into a billion tiny pieces. He shifted into first, and the only noise was the rev of the engine and the pounding in her ears as he got back on the frontage road, ready to hook a left to get on State Route 64, headed to the Grand Canyon.
    She sure as heck hoped the guys in the SUV hadn’t noticed them parked on the side of the road. “I thought we’d lost them last night.” She shifted in the passenger seat to look behind them as Luke drove under the overpass. The SUV had already passed over them, but who knew how many were out there?
    She swore under her breath. “This is crazy, and I know from crazy. Just ask Cara May down at the general store. She’ll tell you all the Allens are madder than a hornet’s nest in July.”
    “I’m sure that’s not true.” Luke’s voice was perfectly controlled. The jerk.
    “Oh, it’s true.”
    Maybe she wasn’t the crazy one. Just listening to him, she’d never guess that they were being chased by goons with guns. She continued. “My daddy wasn’t so bad. The man was a preacher. Mama though…her family…the DuSangs are famous all over the state. They’re fine, upstanding members of the community, except for when they occasionally go off their rockers and cause destruction of an absurd nature.”
    “How absurd?”
    “Practically apocalyptic.”
    Behind them, she noticed another black SUV. This one had gotten off on the same exit they had, and was gaining, rapidly. Damn. They hadn’t lost the goons. “Can’t this thing go any faster? I thought you said it could move.”
    “I go any faster and it’ll get dangerous.”
    “Uh-huh.” Glory kept one eye trained on the side-view mirror, holding her breath in case something happened. “I still think we should go faster. There’s one behind us already.”
    Luke slammed on the brakes, then flipped a quick U-turn. “I’m heading back to the town we passed last night. I’ll try to lose them there.”
    “Hurry!”
    “You weren’t this nervous last night.”
    “Last night?” Right. This wasn’t their first car chase in twenty-four hours. “Last night adrenaline was racing. I—” She felt nervous, as though she was going to hyperventilate. Yesterday she’d been someone else, a reckless gambler willing to do anything, say anything, but now common sense was reasserting itself. “I own a