Indestructible (25 page)

“Ria. Nice to see you,” Alan said. “I just told Adrian I’d be coming to visit you and I meant it.”

“I can’t get rid of you, can I?” I laughed. “Of course you can come. Just give me a heads up before you come so I can hire someone to clean up the house.”

“I have something for Adrian and you.” He looked at Adrian. “Something you might want back.” As he extended his hand, I saw a pair of keys. A pair of car keys. Familiar ones, at that.

Adrian gaped at him. “You have my Lamborghini?”

Alan nodded and Adrian took the keys.

The last time I’d seen that car was back in Rosentown. “I thought my father had destroyed it or something,” I said.

“No, he didn’t do anything with it. He called the cops and they impounded it. I got it back. It’s in the parking lot. I don’t think you’ll be able to miss it.” He flashed Adrian a smile. “It was the last thing I did as your guardian. You’re free of me now.”

I could have sworn I saw the tears pool in Adrian’s eyes as he and Alan embraced, patting each other on the back.

“You know, Alan, I’m starting to think you’re trying to kill us,” I said after they parted.

“How so?” He gave me a quizzical look.

“Well, the roads on the island are horrible and have a lot of curves and cliffs.”

Alan burst into laughter. “You’re never going to trust me, are you?”

“Nope.” I shook my head, but I was grinning from ear to ear.

“Drive safely,” Alan said, giving us both a warning look. “Adrian, I know how much you love that car, but don’t wreck it.”

“You don’t have to worry about that,” Adrian said.

When Alan was gone, Lily leaned on the doorframe, and behind her stood my brother. He offered me a wide smile. “Hello, sis.”

“Did you come to say goodbye too?” I asked.

“Not really. We’ll be seeing each other a lot,” he said, his brown eyes filled with amusement. “My job is to be a link between the city and the island.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “What are you going to do? Provide us with the Internet access?”

“Very funny, sis.” He walked over to me, his hands in the pockets of his dark blue jeans. “But don’t worry about the Internet because you’ll have it. And I’ll try to ensure you have everything you need. If you have any opinions about the government, the island, the housing or anything, you can tell me and I will make sure Lily knows about it.”

“It’s not that simple, Oli.” Lily laughed, coming to stand behind my brother and putting her arms around his neck. “But yeah, he’ll be like my messenger and make sure things go smoothly on the island.”

“But you’ll come to see us too, right?” I said. “I mean, you’re the one who negotiated everything. You should be able to see your work for yourself.”

“I will,” she said. “I don’t know when, though. I’ll be busy. There are a lot of things I need to take care of.”

“Good luck with that,” I said, unable to imagine how hard Lily’s job must be. Actually, I’d never want to be in her place.

“Thanks. I’ll need it.” She plastered a kiss on my brother’s cheek, but instead of pushing her away or getting upset, Oliver actually smiled, his dark eyes turning soft. What had she done to my brother? Swapped him for someone else? I’d never seen him act like that. Granted, I hadn’t been seeing him much over the years, but I could see the change in him. Maybe there was still hope for him. And me.

I heard the slamming of the door, accompanied by some yelling. Paula came rushing into the room, followed by Ryan, who looked flustered.

“Thank God you’re still here,” she panted, glaring at Ryan. “I swear you drive like my grandma.” Her pregnancy was already showing and she was as beautiful as ever.

“Sorry, but I couldn’t fly down the streets,” Ryan said, shaking his blond head.

“Aww.” Paula threw herself in my arms. “I can’t believe you have to go. I’ll miss you so, so much.”

“Oh, come on! It’s not like we won’t be seeing each other ever again.” I traced soothing circles down her back. “Just take care of yourself, okay?”

She nodded, wiping away tears. “You have to call me. And send pictures. I want to know everything; what your house looks like, what you do,…”

“I can do that.” I sniffled, and we hugged once again.

“Adrian,” Paula said, her blue-green eyes serious. “You take care of her. Promise me.”

Adrian gave her a brief nod.

“Oh, for God’s sake, what do you think he’s going to do? Kill her once they get to the island?” Ryan said, a smile breaking out on his lips.

“Don’t joke about this.” She smacked him on the arm and he yelped.

“This pregnancy is turning her into a monster,” he whispered to me, then his smile faded. “And here I am, making stupid jokes because I don’t know how to deal with it.”

“You know what?” I patted him on the shoulder. “I think you’re going to be a good father.”

His blue eyes widened slightly. “You really mean that, don’t you?”

“Yep, I do. I know you’ll take good care of my best friend. If you don’t, I’m going to hunt you down.” I grinned.

“Duly noted.” He put his hands in the air.

“Paula.” I swallowed past the lump forming in my throat. “I wish I could be here for you and for your baby. If there’s anything I can do, just say it. If you need someone to talk to, I’ll be waiting.”

“I know,” she croaked out. “And I wish you could be here for my wedding and that we could go shopping for the things for my baby.”

“You can send me pictures,” I said. “And maybe one day, I’ll get to meet your child.”

“I hope so.”

And I hoped too.

Chapter 36

It took us a couple of trips back and forth to get everything we needed to the island. The house we’d bought was in the more private area of the island, and it was a true mansion with a swimming pool, part of the beach only for us, multiple bedrooms and a couple of large balconies. After living at the universities and various other places, this was a huge improvement. Even Adrian’s Lamborghini had its place in the garage. My mom had let me take my old Audi, so at least we had a smaller car that we could use to explore the island.

“Why didn’t we just go with my car?” Adrian said for the umpteenth time, looking bored.

“Because I wanted to drive, okay?” I rolled my eyes. “My car is better for this. We don’t know the island well enough.”

“Are you saying I don’t know how to drive?” He glared at me.

“No, I don’t want you to scratch your car. You’d lose your mind if that happened.” And I really wanted to drive again. Now that elements didn’t bother me, I could do anything I wanted. Adrian pressed his lips together, but didn’t say anything. He must have realized how silly he sounded.

“Oh my God. It’s beautiful,” I said, taking a quick look through the window. The ocean was glistening in the sun and crashing against the steep cliffs.

“Yes, it is,” Adrian said, just as my phone rang.

“Can you get that for me?” The phone kept ringing, but I didn’t know where I’d put it.

“I don’t think so,” Adrian said. “I believe the phone’s in your left pocket.”

“Right.” I found a spot to pull over and dug out my phone. “It’s Lily.” I frowned.

“Hey, Ria! I want to warn you that Margaret Hansel is on the island. I don’t know whether she’s after you or after someone else, but watch out for her. The island’s special police is trying to catch her,” Lily said in one breath. “Have to go now. Call you later.”

“What the hell is Margaret doing?” I said, slipping my phone back into my pocket. “How did she even get here?”

“No idea,” Adrian said. “She probably slipped through the security because they were looking for non-carriers. No one would think a wanted person would try to get to a place from which there’s no escape.”

“Well, unless she plans to hide in the woods forever, I don’t…” I paused and looked at Adrian. “Wait, what if she’s here on her last mission? We know she can no longer control her disease. Maybe she’s on a suicide mission.”

Adrian’s eyes went wide. “If she’s after you…”

“But she doesn’t even know where to find me. I mean, the island is huge.” Surely the cops weren’t
that
slow and dumb not to catch her before she got to me.

“Maybe the disease messed up her mind. She’s killed a lot of people already.” Adrian shrugged. “We can’t know what she’s thinking.”

“True.” I’d never even gotten to the part where I could control myself good enough to think clearly, but I wasn’t a regular carrier.

A car whizzed past us, slowing down as it approached a curve. A huge sticker across the rear windshield caught my eye. “Oh my God.”

“What?” Adrian gave me a worried look.

“It’s her.” I watched the car disappear from view, and I immediately brought the engine to life. We were on the main road of the island. No wonder she had to pass through here if she wanted to get somewhere.

Adrian’s dark eyebrows shot up. “Oh. You mean the car…?”

I stepped on the gas pedal, intent to follow Margaret. “Yes. She has that stupid symbol on the car.”

“I knew it looked familiar. But why are you going after her?” he said. “If she still has that symbol on her car, then she’s after you.”

I made a frustrated noise low in my throat, my hands tightening on the wheel. I could see the car right in front of me, but it was going too fast. “Well, I don’t see the cops, do you? What if she has a hiding place somewhere?”

“I’ll text Lily so she can trace our signal. The cops could wait for Margaret at the end of the road.” He pulled out his phone, his fingers furiously moving across the keyboard.

“Yeah, but we have to follow her. How are we supposed to know if there’s some road that isn’t on the map?” No matter how much I tried to speed up, I couldn’t catch Margaret. She was crazy to drive so fast. One wrong move and the car could end up in the sea.

Adrian’s phone vibrated. “Lily says that there is only one small passage through which a car could pass and get off the main road, but she doesn’t think the cops will make it in time. They’re waiting for Margaret at the end of the road.”

“How far is it from here?” I took a sharp turn to the right. Margaret’s black Mercedes came into view again.

“Umm…” Adrian did some more typing on his phone. “According to the map, it should be here somewhere.”

“So if she doesn’t get a chance to get off the road, the cops will get her, right?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Although I don’t understand how getting off the road would help her.”

“She could hide somewhere and kill who knows how many cops before they get her.” I wasn’t about to let that happen. If Margaret had come here because of me, she should find me and not someone else.

“The passage should be somewhere to our right,” Adrian said, staring at his phone.

“Well, obviously.” There was nothing to our left except for the cliffs and I doubted the passage led into the sea. I sped up, glad that we were on the part of the road which was more or less straight. “I’ll catch up with her.”

“We need to get her attention,” he said.

“Yeah, we do.” I honked, but Margaret’s car didn’t stop. It seemed to go faster. Damn it! I increased the speed, sending dirt flying. The car jumped over the bumps in the road, but now I was almost close enough to Margaret’s car to bump into it.

She slowed down, but I didn’t know whether she had noticed me or she wanted to find the passage. “Adrian, get the gun ready. Just in case.”

“What are you going to do?” He opened the glove compartment to retrieve the gun.

“This,” I said, as I steered the car to the right. The gravel crunched under the tires, but I pressed harder on the gas. Our car was parallel with Margaret’s and I could see her looking at me through the window, her lips twisting into a smile. Now all I had to do was make sure she didn’t push me off the road before the passage came up.

Pain erupted in my shoulder as Margaret’s car slammed into us, but I held on. My arm was more or less fine after the wounds in my back and shoulder healed, but any strain or a light hit would reawaken the pain.

“We’re almost there,” Adrian yelled.

Margaret slowed down, but I slowed down too. I kept expecting her to open the window and try to shoot me, but she didn’t do it. Maybe she wasn’t here because of me.

“Watch out!” Adrian said as her car slammed into us so hard that the window broke, sending bits of glass all over me. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” I lost my grip on the wheel, but only for a moment. To our right was the passage that Lily had mentioned. It was a gravel road that led into the trees. “Do you have the gun ready? If she decides to go back…”

“Yeah.” Adrian waved the gun. “Do you think she’ll stop and try to shoot us or turn around?”

“I don’t know.” I glanced at Margaret and saw the frustration on her face, but she didn’t even bother looking at me. She was looking at the curve in front of us. “Umm, Adrian? If we go this fast, we could…”

“End up in the sea? Yeah, I see.”

Margaret kept speeding up. What the hell was she doing? My heart thudded in my chest. What now? Margaret’s car kept grazing ours, but if she sped up or stopped… We could as well fly off the cliffs.

I looked at Adrian, then back at Margaret. “Screw that bitch,” I said and made a decision.

Chapter 37

I stepped on the brakes, the car skidding to a halt. My breath left my chest and my hands shook on the wheel. We were in the middle of the road, but Margaret didn’t even slow down to look back at us. “Oh my God.” I pressed a hand against my aching shoulder and turned to Adrian. “You didn’t know what I was going to do, did you? Yet you still trusted me.”

“Of course I trusted you.” He smiled and put away the gun.

“You know, I looked at you and I decided dying because of that bitch was so not worth it.” I wiped bits of glass off my legs. “Let the cops get her.”

“They better get her,” he said, leaning back in his seat.

“I don’t think she’s after me.” If she was, she’d stop the car or try to kill me. “I’m not even sure about the passage.”

“She did slow down, so maybe she just didn’t want us to think she planned to go there.”