Page 178 of Running to You

Below that, he spied another light. A road? A store?

A hidden getaway car?

Sam slowed, peering at the woods between himself and the four-wheeler.

If he followed the cut trail, he might reach them in time to stop Keller from escaping. But he might not.

It was a bad idea.

Maybe in the daylight, maybe on a mountain he was familiar with, maybe on a gentler slope. But this…this was insane.

And the only way Sam was going to catch up.

He aimed the dirt bike toward the bottom. “Help me, Jesus. This is gonna hurt.” And he gunned it.

Down. Straight down.

Branches whacked him in the face.

A tree root jutted ahead, and he barely got around it before it launched him off the bike.

Prickly bushes scraped him through his jeans.

He hit a hole, nearly lost it, barely kept the bike upright.

His heart dropped, and maybe he’d left it back there in the bracken.

Then he hit a rise, going too fast. His wheels came off the ground. He was headed straight for a tree. His life flashed. His mom and dad, his brothers. A thousand games of pickup basketball, football. The bonfire they lit every time they went to the family’s little island off the coast.

Eliza.

Levi.

God, please…

The wheels hit.

Sam yanked the wheel to the side, barely avoided the wide trunk.

He slowed, breathing hard.

If he broke his back or killed himself, Keller would escape with Eliza.

He couldn’t let that happen.

Where was the four-wheeler? No headlights ahead, but…

A road.

Sam sped to descend the last twenty yards, made it out of the woods, down a gully and up the other side.

The four-wheeler was across the street, headed into the parking lot of a little store.

Sam considered trying to shoot a tire out, but he couldn’t risk hitting Eliza.

If his guess was correct, they weren’t going much farther anyway.

Praying he was right, he jumped off the bike, letting it fall on the asphalt, and bolted across the street. Maybe Keller hadn’t heard him coming over the roar of his own vehicle. Maybe Sam could sneak up on him.