***This book is like "make me longer, make me longer"! And I'm like, "BRUH, YOU'RE ALREADY ALMOST 30,000 WORDS!" Now, most of my books are 40,000-50,000 words (minus INK, WPWT, and Compatible, which are 70,000, 140,000, and 25,000, respectively), but this one really wasn't supposed to be so long LOL***

***(Nya's POV)***

"How did you get here?" I swallow against fear.

He gives a low chuckle. "I've kept tabs on you the past two years. Climb in the driver's seat, please."

I swallow hard, doing as the Ignacian police chief says. I mean, I really don't want to end up dead here.

Once I complete the task he gave me, he says in a disturbingly low tone, "Turn on the vehicle, pull out of the parking lot, and make a left."

"If you knew where I've been for the past two years," I force out through the dry feeling in my throat, "why didn't you come after me earlier?" I take deep breaths, willing myself not to jump out of the car and run. That'd be a stupid move right now if I want to avoid being shot.

It'd also be a stupid move to drive out of the parking lot like the police chief just told me to. I'm sure he intends to kill me or something.

He laughs slightly. "Are you joking? Why would I have gone after you if you were right where I wanted you – too afraid of me to talk to anyone and reveal the truth about my deeds? You weren't a threat until today, just a loose end that had tied herself up. Unfortunately, the knot wasn't quite perfect. Now I have to deal with you all over again." He sighs. "Start the car, please." He presses the gun into my neck harder.

I chew my bottom lip. "No. Shoot me now." I clench my eyes shut. Oh, gosh, that took a lot of courage to say. If the police find a dead body in Jay's car, though, they'll definitely know something was up.

My eyes drift to the rearview mirror to reveal that the police chief is dressed in all black, complete with gloves and a ski mask. His eyes, though, are visible through his mask, and they make my blood run cold.

"Your eyes," I choke out, voice cracking. "You have his eyes." I...didn't know. I vaguely recognize the police chief from my interaction with him two years ago, but I was so unfocused and jittery from the Dark Matter back then, I guess it was hard for me to pay attention to his appearance. My memory from that time is just a blur.

His icy gray depths harden in the mirror. "I have no idea what you're talking about." He cocks the gun behind my head. "Get moving."

I inhale deeply. "You can't shoot me in this car. Someone would have that much more evidence as to your wrongdoings – Jay would. You're not going to shoot me."

He bites out a curse, and for a moment I think his trigger finger will tense and send a bullet into the back of my head. However, he keeps his hold on his weapon entirely controlled. "Then I'll shoot that guy with you – Jay, you called him – if you don't cooperate. I'll make the world believe you shot him."

My blood runs cold. "I don't own a weapon to shoot anyone with. I couldn't get my concealed carry or any sort of a license after I ran because I didn't want that much interaction with the authorities. Your gun could be linked back to you, and that's another loose end." I'm trying to argue coherently with this guy, but I have a feeling all that's coming out of my mouth is distressed babbling.

"Maybe you owned a gun illegally," the chief suggests. "There are all kinds of ways to write this story. Now drive, or I'll shoot Jay before he even has time to know I'm in here."

I scoff. "You can't just go around killing innocent people!" I thought Jay was crazy, but this guy?!

"He got in the way," the chief says nonchalantly. "It's a shame that he ever got involved with you, really."

The door to the gas station opens, revealing Jay with a receipt in his hands. He studies it as he walks toward the car, obviously lost in thought.

I feel the chief place the cool metal of the gun right up beside my neck as he aims it at Jay. Panic rises in me.

"Getting closer," taunts the quiet voice in the back of the vehicle.

My fingers fumble for the keys to the car, and I quickly twist them in the ignition. "I'll...do it," I swallow. "I'll leave."

Jay looks up when he hears the engine rumble to life, and she shoots me a clueless, nervous smile. I'm sure he thinks he'll have to turn off the car again before he puts in gas.

But the car won't be here for him to put in gas, in the first place.

I slam my foot on the brake and put the vehicle in gear, my eyes communicating with Jay that something's wrong. I tear out of the parking lot, making the left as the police chief instructed me earlier.

"Good choice," he chuckles. Keeping the gun aimed at my skull, he readjusts himself in the back of the car so I can see him more clearly.

A million thoughts run through my mind, and I grasp for words, trying to formulate what to say first.

"What – what do you intend to do with me?" I finally say. "You're an idiot if you think I'm just going to let you drive me to some remote location and murder me."

"Of course not," he chuckles. "You're driving yourself there. And I'm not going to kill you. I'll leave that to the law."

"What do you mean?" I swallow, my sweaty palms gripping the steering wheel.

"I'm going to have you indicted for murder. It's very possible you'll face the death penalty in response." He says the words coolly.

"I was on Dark Matter during the bank robbery," I snap, mustering more courage than I actually have. "And besides, I didn't kill anyone that day. I gave a pedestrian a concussion. Your son-in-law's friend who tagged along is the one who injured and killed a civilian."

He waves me off. "It doesn't matter. That friend you mentioned is under my power. You, on the other hand, do not so easily submit. And Cole's turned out to be the same way." He spits the last words.

I frown, slowing my speed to give Jay or the police every chance to catch up with me. "What do you mean, Cole won't submit to you? He dumped me and started dating your daughter as soon as you started threatening us. He's married to her now. He's pretty much under your thumb."

"Until today." The chief lets out a breath. "Stupid boy wouldn't give me any help when I told him you were going to tell the authorities everything."

"Cole Brookstone is a lazy, drugged-up bum," I snarl. "It's no wonder he didn't want to get his hands dirty helping you."

"He's more useful than you give him credit for. He's been clean for over a year now." He sighs. "It doesn't really matter now, does it? Neither of you intend to help me, so I'll have to get rid of you both somehow."

My blood turns to ice. "Don't tell me you killed Cole, too." I may despise the guy, but death is serious. Death is...final.

"Not yet. You're the one who's going to do that." The chief readjusts his gun at my neck, reminding me not to try anything.

"I'm going to kill Cole?" I exclaim. "How stupid are you? I'm not just going to kill someone!"

"Well, one of you has to go. You can either kill him and face the charges you're already assumed to be guilty of, plus manslaughter, or he can kill you and face those charges in your stead. I'll find a way to make up a story for him. In any case, one of you has to go tonight, and the other will die by the law." He shrugs as though murdering people is an everyday occurrence for him.

It might be.

"Where are we going?" I ask next. That kind of seems important.

"You're headed in the right direction," he says vaguely. "I'll let you know when to turn off." He stretches out across the back seats, still pressing the gun against my neck. "You know, I think this worked out perfectly. I was a little concerned when you decided today to tell the authorities the truth, but the fact that you discarded your cell phone, paid in cash for your items, and took backroads...well, you've just made my job that much easier."

"I can make it less easy." I take a chance and swerve the car to the right, closing my eyes tightly. If that gun goes off, I'm dead.

The police chief swears as I pull us over the rumble strips and into the grass on the side of the road. He jerks his weapon away from my head, then cracks me in the side of the face with it. It's not a hard blow – I am driving a car, after all – but it still hurts.

"Get back on the road!" he orders.

I continue to roll through the grass, allowing my speed to slow naturally. "Why should I?"

"I swear I'll kill you," he seethes. "I've come too far not to!"

"If you insist." I see a place where I can make a U-turn ahead – I can get away from wherever the chief is taking me – and I direct the vehicle back onto the road. I'm sure I'll leave dirt tracks on the empty highway from my time driving off the road. That'll at least give the police something to follow.

"You knew me before I knew you," I swallow, trying to deflect some of the police chief's attention from the U-turn I'll be making soon. I carefully maneuver back onto the road.

"What do you mean?" he barks.

"You have the same eyes as the guy who – who raped me." I shake my head. That's really all I remember of the guy who did it – those cold, soulless, clear-gray eyes. When I was coming off Dark Matter, I must've been too stupid to realize the connection between him and the police chief.

"It couldn't have been you who actually drugged me," I frown. "You're the leader of Ignacia's police force. You wouldn't be caught dead at a party like that, and I think this guy was younger. Was it...?"

"My son," he huffs. "And he died of a drug overdose not long after that happened, if you're wondering."

While he's distracted, I quickly change to the left lane so I can make my U-turn. The police chief, however, sees my move and curses loudly. "Don't go that way!" He shrieks, his eyes wild in the rearview.

"I hate to disappoint, chief, but I think we need a change of direction." I slow the car so I can make the turn.

Nya Smith is not going to die today.

Continuing to mumble profanity under his breath, the chief raises his gun above my head. He cracks down on me with it just as I finish turning onto the other side of the highway.

And he comes down on my head hard.

I see stars and wince in pain as he shoves his way into the front seat, straightening the wheel and pulling me out of the driver's seat. I struggle against him, but he slams me in the head with the butt of the gun again.

I feel blackness surround my vision, and I have to fight for consciousness. My body is shoved away from the driver's seat as the police chief takes control of the car.

"Guess we'll have to do things the hard way," he growls.

My body is limp, my vision swims, and my brain scrambles to make myself move. I can't, though – just like in movies when the damsel in distress is about to be kidnapped and tied to a bomb.

The only difference is, I'm not a damsel in distress, and this is very, very real.

***We all know Nya isn't a damsel in distress, so this will be interesting...***