The Protector

Speeding toward the dark trees at the end of the meadow, Cavanaugh felt no confidence from knowing that Prescott had almost emptied his pistol. Prescott still had Grace's weapon and her companion's.

Looking in the rearview mirror, Cavanaugh saw the remaining headlight on Grace's car bob into motion, the Sable pursuing.

The son of a bitch, Cavanaugh thought, fumbling to secure his seat belt. I promised to protect him!

The Taurus's headlights entered the trees, revealing a sudden downward turn that Cavanaugh's impaired reflexes barely anticipated.

I gave him my word I wouldn't hurt him!

Trees scraping the car, Cavanaugh struggled with the steering wheel and entered another sudden turn. Looking in his rearview mirror again, he saw the occasional flash of a headlight through gaps in the trees. The car sped closer.

With Jamie wounded and the hormone shocking his nervous system, Cavanaugh knew that Prescott had the advantage. As if to prove the point, a sharp downward turn almost toppled Jamie off the seat. Cavanaugh had to reduce speed again so he could take his right hand off the steering wheel, grab Jamie, and secure her safety belt.

The murky trees vanished, the Taurus's headlights illuminating another meadow. In the rearview mirror, the single headlight rushed closer. Cavanaugh heard the impacts of more bullets hitting the steel plate in the trunk.

Racing across the gloomy meadow, he fumbled for the toggle switch that he'd clipped to the bottom of the dashboard. Instantly, he squinted from a glare in his rearview mirror, the fog lamps that Jamie had installed in back blazing toward Prescott's car. One-hundred-watt quartz halogens, they were tilted up to blind a pursuing driver, a candlepower of 480,000 hitting Prescott's windshield.

Cavanaugh sped farther across the meadow. Checking his rearview mirror, he saw the fog lamps gleaming so brightly toward Prescott's car that its remaining headlight wasn't visible. He imagined Prescott raising a hand to shield his eyes, reducing speed, trying to regain his sight.

I lost him, Cavanaugh thought. I need to get Jamie to a hospital.

She moaned.

Dear God, please don't let her die.

Another section of trees loomed. At once, the Taurus shook as Prescott's car slammed it from behind. The force was so great and surprising that Cavanaugh was thrust forward, jerking against his safety belt. Jamie's head jolted back and forth. No!

Instead of easing back because he couldn't see, Prescott had used the blazing fog lamps as a target. His eyes almost useless, able to see only the fog lamps at the back of the Taurus, Prescott had rushed toward them. Colliding with the back of the Taurus, he was now so close that the fog lamps reflected off the front of Prescott's car. Their light filled the inside of the Taurus, gleaming off the rearview mirror, blinding Cavanaugh.

Cavanaugh flicked up the rearview mirror, deflecting the glare. Fighting to control the steering wheel, he felt Prescott's car again strike the back of the Taurus. Prescott evidently hadn't learned anything from the chase away from the warehouse. The vehicle Cavanaugh had stolen had been struck repeatedly from behind-with little effect. Bumpers got damaged. Passengers got jolted. But the car remained capable of moving.

Again, Prescott's car struck the Taurus, its closeness neutralizing the glare of the fog lamps. Or maybe he's trying to smash the lamps, Cavanaugh thought. Needing to reduce his speed to enter the looming dark trees, Cavanaugh felt the constant pressure of Prescott's car against his and realized what Prescott was doing. Jesus, he's trying to push me so I can't control my steering. He's trying to shove me into the woods.

Despite the risk, Cavanaugh had no choice except to increase speed. While he did, the reduced glare behind him indicated that Prescott had, in fact, managed to destroy one of the fog lamps. Then Cavanaugh had time to think only about braking and steering through the trees. Skidding around the first turn, he banged a fender. A bullet blasted through a window. Others struck the steel in the trunk. Then one hit the remaining fog lamp, and the glare behind the Taurus vanished. The only illumination back there was Prescott's single headlight.

Abruptly, the trees opened, and Cavanaugh swerved to the right, entering the darkness of the Pacific Coast Highway. His tires squealed as he pressed a trembling foot on the accelerator and sped north toward Carmel.

Jamie moaned again.

"Stay alive," he begged.

Behind him, Prescott skidded onto the narrow highway. To Cavanaugh's left, moonlight glowed off the ocean. To his right, tree-covered hills receded into the distance. No lights of cars or houses beckoned. He raced around a curve and had trouble coming out of it. The steering felt mushy, as if something was broken. Then Cavanaugh feared that the problem was his tires. If Prescott had managed to shoot one of them, it wouldn't have exploded, but it would have started leaking air, going soft.

Already, Prescott was gaining distance on him. When Cavanaugh entered another curve, the faulty steering forced him to go slower. Rushing behind him, Prescott rammed the Taurus's back end, sending a shudder through Jamie, making her gasp. Cavanaugh didn't dare think about her. All he could allow himself to focus on was trying to drive.

The mushy steering got worse. Passing the lights of houses, Cavanaugh hoped he had a chance. On a straightaway, he floored the accelerator, attempting to gain distance, but the softening tire kept the Taurus from responding.

Headlights appeared. As a minivan sped past, Prescott again rammed Cavanaugh, backed off, sped closer as if to ram him again, then veered unexpectedly into the left lane, about to come abreast of the Taurus.

No! Cavanaugh thought.

As he'd learned from Cavanaugh, Prescott tapped his right front fender against Cavanaugh's left rear fender. Aided by Cavanaugh's faulty steering, the so-called precision immobilization technique caused the Taurus to spin to the left. While Prescott's car rushed safely onward, Cavanaugh found himself gaping in the direction from which he'd just come. Headlights flashing, the Taurus hit a guardrail next to a low bridge, broke through, listed down a slope, turned onto its side, its roof, its other side, and righted itself as it dropped. Cavanaugh felt a sickening shock as the car struck water.

4

"Jamie!"

She'd been jerked against her seat when the car flipped and fell. Now she groaned beside him.

Stu

Cold water soaked his shoes as he undipped the Emerson knife from inside his pants pocket and slammed its butt against the safety glass on the driver's side, shattering the middle of the window into pellets. He pounded the knife's butt against the rest of the window, trying to clear its edges, when a dark shape made him stop. Moonlight, in combination with the Taurus's fading headlights, revealed that the dark shape was a boulder.

Turning toward the passenger window, Cavanaugh saw a boulder on that side also. The Taurus had landed upright in the water in a trough between shelves of rock. On each side, there was no way to get out through a broken window, no matter if in front or back.

Kick through the front windshield, Cavanaugh thought. Instantly he became aware that when the car had rolled, its roof had been pushed down, crushing the windshield and the window over the trunk, making the space too narrow for him to squeeze Jamie through.