Keeping the Cowboy's Baby novel · Chapter 10 of 24

Chapter 10: The Road

The black pickup stayed behind us for twenty miles.

Boone drove with both hands on the wheel and his eyes on the mirror.

"Call the sheriff," I said.

"And tell him what? A man drove behind me on a public highway."

"Boone."

"I know."

At the county road he slowed and signaled, and the black pickup turned with us.

The sun was down behind the ridge, and the road ran gray between the pines.

"Get your belt tight," Boone said quietly.

"It's tight."

"Tighter."

I pulled the strap until it hurt my collarbone.

He took one hand off the wheel and laid it flat across my stomach for a second.

Then Dalton's truck came up fast in the mirror and hit us from behind.

The whole world snapped forward.

My head jerked, the belt cut across my chest, and Boone swore and fought the wheel.

The truck slid on the gravel.

Dalton hit us again, harder, on the back corner.

We spun a half circle and went off the shoulder.

The ditch came up in the headlights, a black mouth of weeds.

We landed on the slope with a hard bang and stopped.

The engine ticked.

A pine branch scraped slowly along the roof.

"Cassie," Boone said.

His voice cracked on it.

"I'm okay."

"Your stomach."

"I'm okay, Boone. The belt held. I'm okay."

He had my face in both hands, turning it to the dashboard light, checking my eyes.

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