Perilously Fun Fiction: A Bundle by Pauline Jones (best fiction novels of all time .TXT) 📕

of metal was much better than cowering in grease while waiting for a cavalry that might not come.

I had the key in the lock when I heard Willis heading back my way. The door squeaked when I opened it, sending my heart and Willis’ footsteps racing. I scrambled into the driver’s seat, pulled the door closed and locked it. I managed to get the key in the ignition and cranked it. The engine hesitated, then turned over with a satisfying roar. With a painful pretzel of my arms, I got it in reverse.

Willis’ face topped the cement curb. It was a fearsome sight. The eyes were red and swollen, the whites bulging out of puffy flesh crisscrossed by angry red scratches dripping blood.

For a terrifying moment we stared across the concrete yards that divided us. He raised his gun. I stamped on the gas. The van shot back. A bullet starred the window of the car next to me. I cranked frantically. A bullet hit the side of the van. Another glanced off the windshield. I hit the brake. The van’s tires shrieked a protest, then we slammed into the car parked behind. An alarm went off.

I turned the wheel to straighten the tires. Willis ran into my path and pointed his gun at me.

I closed my eyes and hit the gas. The van leapt forward.

Shots.

Bullets thudded into metal.

Another volley.

The van veered right, wresting control from my shackled hands.

A yell. A thump. A lurch. A skid sideways into another car. My head hit the steering wheel.

Lights out.

22

Returning light brought pain. Instead of a soft pillow, hard plastic un-gently cradled my head. On the bright side, gentle fingers touched arms, my legs. Who?

Memory wasn’t gentle. It slammed into my brain.

Willis. Gun. Death.

I started to struggle. “I have Phisohex!”

“Is that what you did to the poor guy?” The voice sounded like Kel’s.

“I told you I wasn’t safe in the hospital,” I muttered. Death could have me now that I knew he’d live the rest of his life tortured by guilt. I sagged back and waited. No light beckoned me into the next world, so I opened my eyes. It hurt. I didn’t want to do that again, so I left them open and tried out my arms and legs. I didn’t think I could be more uncomfortable.

I was wrong.

“You shouldn’t move,” Kel began.

“No kidding.” I tried them again, but slower. They still hurt, but bones didn’t grind together. “Can you help me out of here?”

“You should wait for the EMT,” Kel said, but he took my cuffed hands and helped me scramble clear of “Wild Thing.” Kel looked at the cuffs, gave a low voiced order to a man standing by him, then said. “That explains your driving, but not why you tried to run over Willis.”

I gave him a haughty look. “He was going to kill me.”

The man dug through the prone Willis, then tossed Kel some keys. Kel started to fit them in the lock, then stopped.

“I think I’ll apologize before I unlock you. Phisohex doesn’t agree with me either.”

I don’t know how he did it. Every bone and muscle in my body hurt, including my heart, but my lips still gave this little twitch, like they wanted to smile. The sharp-eyed spy saw this sign of weakness and compounded his crimes with an illegal use of his unregistered smile.

He undid one side, then the other, his face turning grim when he saw their rubbed raw state. “You know, I’ve lost ten years off my life for every day I’ve known you.”

“And someone has tried to kill me every one of those days,” I said it with only a little wobble in my voice. “Maybe someone is trying to tell us something.”

He was standing close enough to singe, but my flesh didn’t seem to care. Every cell strained toward him. It took what was left of my willpower not to let the cells have their wicked way.

“That we’re,” he didn’t touch me, he didn’t need to, “good together?”

“I’m sure that must be it.” I felt my mouth stretch in a stupidly happy grin. I was insane. I liked it. I liked basking in the glow of being lusted after by the spy I wanted to lust after me. I’d figured it out. I’d finally found the right intersection of male wanting and female need. So much of my life had been missed cues and screwed up timing, surely I deserved to bask a little? Right then, I could have kissed Mrs. Macpherson for getting the flu. Course, I’d rather have kissed Kel—if all the extraneous cops would just go away.

They didn’t. Instead, more came. Some firemen. Another EMT gave me a once-over. I ignored him and looked at Kel with a goofy expression on my face while he tried to act official and ask me some questions. I told him everything I remembered about my abduction and what Willis had said. He looked thoughtful, but didn’t say if any of it meant anything. I didn’t care if it meant anything. I was so tired I was seeing triple. My body had had enough.

“I want to go home.”

He promised to see what he could do, which turned out to be enough. The hospital couldn’t make a case for keeping me since I hadn’t prospered in their care. The double dose of SWAT team was ruining their healer image, so, after giving me instructions that I didn’t listen to, and making me sign a thousand forms, I was released into the custody of my mother and the CIA—in the form of Kel’s suits. Kel had a Tuesday deadline for the disaster and had to go do some spy stuff.

I was sure that everyone who could possibly want me dead, was either in custody or deceased themselves, but Kel didn't intend to make the same mistake twice. After a few more questions, my mother and I were ferried home by some new CIA suits.

My mother took the news her