We rest together in his truck for a while, enjoying the glow of our orgasms. I’m in no rush to get dressed again, but eventually I slide off him and pull my panties and my jeans back on.

He smiles at me. “I wish you wouldn’t do that.”

“Do what?”

“Get dressed.”

I laugh. “It’s freezing outside. And your gas won’t last forever.”

He frowns like he’s just realizing that. “Good point.”

“Did you really think we’d just stay here in your truck?”

“It’s a nice truck,” he says.

“Where would we... you know?” I answer, laughing.

“Fuck? Right here, obviously.”

“No, I mean, use the bathroom.”

“Oh. In the bed.”

I laugh, shaking my head. “No way.”

“Sure. Back seat can be the kitchen slash living room. Up front is the bedroom. The bed is the bathroom. It’s perfect.”

“Okay,” I say, shaking my head. He’s surprisingly funny and silly sometimes, which I really like. “Take me home, you crazy person. I’m hungry.”

“Okay, since you asked so nicely.” He grins at me then puts the truck into gear.

I watch the scenery as he carefully turns the vehicle around. The view really is majestic and incredible out here. I totally understand why he’d want to live out in the mountains, away from the city, especially with views like this just fifteen minutes away.

As I stare out into the wilderness, for a second I miss some of the people I knew back home. It’s strange that I haven’t really thought about anyone but my father since leaving, but I did have some friends, some closer than others. I wonder for a second what they’re all doing, especially Maureen. She was my closest friend in LA, though I didn’t get to see her all that often. I was usually too busy with work and my father to do anything social. I had some boyfriends, but never anything serious and never anything that lasted long.

That’s why I ran away, at least partly. I want to have a life, and I know I’ll never get that back home. Already I’ve lived more and done more in the last few days in Alaska than I did my entire life in my LA neighborhood. Maybe I just got lucky, but I think it has a lot to do with being free of my father.

We head back down the dirt road toward the main paved road that winds back toward Carson’s house. As we pull out into the main road, a black car suddenly pulls out from the shoulder and starts to follow us.

Carson keeps glancing into the rearview mirror, and for some reason I feel nervous. I don’t know why, exactly. There’s nothing wrong with the car behind us. But as soon as we drive maybe half a mile, another car pulls onto the road, this time cutting us off and forcing Carson to slow down.

“Shit,” he says softly.

I frown at him. “What’s wrong?”

“Put your seatbelt on.”

I pause then do as I’m told. He does the same, buckling himself in.

“What’s happening?” I ask.

“I recognize those—“

Suddenly something slams into Carson’s bumper, causing the whole truck to fishtail. The sound of screaming tires fills the cab and Carson curses, but manages to get the truck back under control.

“Hold on!” he yells and suddenly guns the accelerator. The truck jumps forward and he swings out into the other lane, pulling up flush with the car in front of us.

It swerves and then slams into the side of the truck. I scream, surprisingly myself, and Carson hits the gas again, pulling forward. We come up to a sharp turn in the road but Carson doesn’t slow down. The truck screams and is almost on two tires, but it swings around and makes it, pulling ahead and free of the other car.

Carson doesn’t take it easy. The two cars behind us speed up and are right on his bumper.

“Hold on!” he yells again as the one car smashes into our rear, jolting us forward. Carson gets control of the vehicle. He reaches across the seat to hold me back with his arm as he hits another sharp turn going fast. He keeps the truck under control while one of the cars behind us skids out, slamming into a tree.

Only one car remains as we speed onto another main road. There’s no traffic here, not out this far in the mountains. What was a beautiful and exciting drive earlier is suddenly death-defying terror as we go screaming down a road that’s meant to be driven slow. There are sheer cliff drops to our left as we come up to a series of switchbacks.

The car behind us takes the first turn fast and manages to catch up with Carson. It slams into the back of the truck again, causing it to fishtail. I scream as the truck spins, turning all the way around, but it doesn’t flip. The truck comes to a stop in the middle of the road.

“You okay?” he asks me.

“I’m okay,” I say.

“Hold on.” He guns it again and turns the wheel, throwing the truck around as the car comes back at us in reverse.

We narrowly miss the car as Carson gets our truck back on track. We fly past it and hit the next switchback, sliding down the mountainside. The car starts back up and gives chase, but we have some space between us finally.

Carson takes us through the switchbacks with the car gaining ever so slightly each turn. We hit a normal street down below and Carson guns it again.

“We’re close,” he says. “Hold on tight.”

I grip the dash as he drives fast. Weaving in and out of turns, the car giving chase behind us. It’s so close that I swear I could turn around and see the driver looking back at me. I can barely move though as terror flings through my body.

“There,” Carson calls out, pointing. It’s the turn to his house, the dirt road that leads up to his property. “Here we go!”

He hits the brakes and turns the wheel, flinging us onto the path. The truck screams in protest and we slam up against a tree, knocking against the side of the truck, but it doesn’t stop. We keep going down the path.

The car behind us pulls up to the entrance to the path but stops. It sits there for a second before slowly driving away.

“Fuck,” Carson says, still driving too fast.

“Slow down,” I say. “It’s okay. It’s okay, Carson.”

“Fucking bastard,” he yells, but he slows the truck down.

We pull into the garage area and he kills the truck engine. He’s livid and my heart is pounding in my chest.

They almost killed us back there. We could have so easily gone over a cliff and lost control of the truck. One wrong move and we would have died.

In fact, that’s what it felt like. It seemed like they were trying to kill us.

“Go inside,” he says to me, anger visible on his face. “I need to talk to Nick.”

I nod, frowning. “You saved us back there,” I say in a small voice.

That seems to bring him back to the moment. He sighs and walks over to me, wrapping his arms around me and pulling me against him. He hugs me tight like that.

“It’ll be okay,” he whispers. “I’ll fix this.”

“They tried to kill us,” I say, feeling numb.

“It won’t happen again.”

I nod against his chest, but I’m not so sure.

He finally releases me, and I walk into the house without another word. I go right up to the couch, grab a blanket, and wrap myself in it as if I’m trying to hide away from the world.

Three times now I’ve almost died. Twice because of the cold, and once because of some crazy fucking drivers. I’m living, but I’m also risking my life. I don’t know what the hell is going on or what I’m doing, but I know it’s terrifying, and I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do.

Maybe Carson is right. Maybe I do need to back out and get away. I don’t want to die here, I have so much more to live for, but this is absolutely insane.

I don’t know what to do. I want to run away screaming, but I trust Carson, despite everything so far. I trust that he’ll protect me.

I stay there, torn between two worlds, with the blanket wrapped right around my head.