Chapter 233

Logan

“Uncuff him.”

The officer’s words took both me and the others by surprise. I blinked, wondering if I had just heard correctly.

“Sir?” one of the other officers said, shooting him a quizzical look. “Uncuff him?”

The officer nodded. “You heard me,” he said. “Let him go. For now.”

As the other officers slowly uncuffed me, I felt my heart begin to soar. I whipped around to face the man who had released me, but his face was stony. “We’ll be arresting you tonight, Mr. Barrett,” he said. “But you’ve made a compelling argument. If you think that you can rescue the Morgan girl—”

I was already backpedaling toward the garage where my trusty race car was held. My red car was useless now; honestly, I wasn’t even sure if I could repair it after what I had put it through tonight. “Do whatever you want with me later, officer,” I said. “Just let me save Ella first.”

Without another word, I whirled around and sprinted the rest of the way toward the garage. My car was waiting for me in its usual spot, and I wasted no time. I pressed the button to open the garage door and then leaped into the driver’s seat, not even taking a moment to buckle my seatbelt before I was shooting off like the beginning of a race.

Uncuffed and fueled by a desperate need to save Ella, I peeled out of the garage in a plume of smoke and rubber, the familiar growl of the engine a small comfort in this never ending storm of chaos.

Up ahead, I could just barely make out the car that had taken Ella—a sleek black vehicle, just a speck in the distance, but unmistakable against the barren desert landscape.

It was Jet’s car. So he had taken her after all. But why? And why bring her here?

“You need to catch up to them, Logan,” my wolf urged, his voice a mixture of anxiety and determination. “Ella’s life depends on it.”

“You think I don’t know that?” I chided as I flipped the switches in my car, my gaze fixed on the dark silhouette up ahead. I knew it was much further than it seemed in the flat expanse of desert, but it didn’t matter. My car was as fast as they came, and I was even faster, driven entirely by my desire to save my mate.

I slammed my foot on the accelerator, feeling the car lurch forward as I tore across the desert. The terrain was rough, uneven, a far cry from the smooth tarmac of the racetrack, but I couldn’t let that slow me down. Every second counted.

“What the fuck does Jet want with her?” I muttered to myself, squinting through the darkness to keep my gaze on the car up ahead. “Why Ella? Why him?”

“He’s gotta be working for Marina and Harry. But be careful, Logan,” my wolf warned. “You’re not on a track. One wrong move and…”

“I know,” I cut him off, my grip tightening on the steering wheel until my knuckles were a shade of paper white. The landscape blurred past me, a whirlwind of ravines and tall rock formations as I pushed the car to its limits.

Up ahead, the blue and red lights of the police car that had gone after them zoomed through the dark desert. They were going fast, but not fast enough. Jet was a viper on the track, fast and relentless.

But so was I.

I whizzed past the cop car, the sound of their siren whirling in my ears. It distorted as I sped past, and then it was gone. But up ahead, Jet just pushed faster, carrying the love of my life even deeper into the sprawling desert.

My wolf was right; he had to be working for Harry and Marina. Ella had mentioned a hitman, and at first I had thought it was just one of Marina’s tactics to get Ella under her thumb, but now it was beginning to come together.

How long had Jet been working for Marina, anyway? He had been a fixture at the racetrack as long as I had been there. Had he been watching me all this time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to take me down, or was this a new development?

Either way, there was no time for puzzling over it.

As I closed the distance, I could see the car more clearly. It was moving erratically, swerving from side to side as if wrestling with an internal struggle.

“Ella must be fighting back,” I realized, a surge of pride mixed with fear coursing through me.

“Get closer, but be ready for anything,” my wolf cautioned.

I nodded calmly, even though I felt like my chest was about to burst. The car was within reach now. I could just make out a figure in the back, struggling against the driver.

“That’s her. That’s Ella!” I yelled, my voice hoarse with desperation. “Hang on, Ella! I’m coming!” I knew she couldn’t hear me, but it didn’t matter.

The black car swerved again, more violently this time, as if reacting to my approach. I could just barely make out the silhouette of Ella’s kidnapper through the rear window. It was Jet, just as I had feared.

But he was fighting to maintain control. Ella’s form was reaching forward, holding something to his neck. Was it a knife? Her pen knife, maybe?

He must have seen me in his rearview mirror, because then he suddenly pushed the car even harder, the engine screaming in protest. I saw Ella’s form slam backwards, and then I didn’t see her anymore.

“Dammit,” I hissed through clenched teeth. “That fucker. I’ll kill him.”

I wasn’t sure how long I whizzed through the desert. Perhaps it was only a few moments, but it felt like hours. I couldn’t see Ella’s form come up again, and I began to fear the worst; maybe she had hit her head. God, I hoped she was okay.

“Logan, watch out for that cliff!” my wolf suddenly shouted.

My eyes widened as I saw the edge of a cliff looming ahead, dark and menacing in the blackness, like a yawning mouth. Jet was driving them straight towards it, either unaware or uncaring of the danger.

“I have to stop him before he gets any closer,” I muttered, my mind racing. I couldn’t just ram into them—not without risking Ella’s life.

In a last ditch effort I veered to the left, positioning my car parallel to Jet’s. The two vehicles were now racing side by side towards the cliff, a deadly race against time.

“Logan, what are you doing?” my wolf barked, his tone filled with panic.

“I’m going to force him to stop,” I replied through gritted teeth. I edged closer to Devon’s car, my car’s body mere inches from his. Jet glanced at me, his expression one of shock and confusion.

“Logan, you’re going to kill all of us!”

“I won’t,” I hissed, pushing the car closer to Jet’s. “He’ll stop before we get to that point. I’m sure of it.”

My wolf howled in protest, but I wasn’t listening. I was too focused on Jet, on putting him between the brink of life and death. He’d stop before he went over that cliff. He may have been a madman, but he wasn’t suicidal.

“Come on,” I muttered through my teeth, pushing the cars closer together until I could hear metal scraping on metal, and our cars ricocheted off of one another. “Stop the car, Jet.”

And then it happened. A dark silhouette lurched out of the back seat of Jet’s car. There was movement in the front seat, a screeching of tires, the feeling of my heart pounding through my ears and a whirlwind of noise and movement as Jet’s car slammed into mine.

And then… nothing.