Already Dead by Jaye Ford Read Free Book Online Page A

wouldn’t stay down.
    â€˜Tell me more about Scotty,’ she said quickly.
    Brendan dipped his head, looked up through the windscreen.
    â€˜Seven is a lovely age,’ she urged.
    Maybe it was the topic or maybe the world in his head had just burst into life again, but he twisted abruptly, his whole body jerking around, eyes aimed at the rear window. From the corner of her vision, Jax saw his gun hand snap out. Felt a brief, hard swipe across her shoulder before cold metal brushed her cheek.
    She flinched, ducked, cringed. It was a single movement accompanied by a desperate breathy sound that caughtin her throat. She swerved. A horn blared. Her right-side tyres were in the next lane, a car too close at her side. Grappling with the steering, pressing herself into the door and away from the weapon, she swung the wheel back again. A sharp, panicky jolt tossed them both sideways – her temple bumped the driver’s window, his gun in her face. Close enough to see scratches on the silver around the black eye of its muzzle.
    She should look at the road. She should watch where they were going. But all she could see was gun – and Zoe’s life flashing before her eyes.

6
    The moment hung in the air. Timeless, suspended, locked in place. As though life or fate or God was reluctant to move on to the next scene. The one where Miranda Jack’s face was blown apart by a bullet.
    Then it was over and whatever made the big decisions had changed its mind and Brendan was shoving away from her, using his gun hand and the console to thrust all the way back into his seat, gawking at her like she was the one who’d gone insane.
    â€˜Jesus Christ, Jax. Stay in your lane or you’ll kill us both.’
    â€˜ Me? You’re the one with the fucking gun.’
    He took a second to look at it. ‘Yeah. We’ve both got control of lethal weapons.’
    Was he kidding? Neither of them had any control.
    â€˜You need to calm down, Jax. Just concentrate on the road and keep your cool.’ Something different in his voice: wise instructor to nervous beginner. How many personas were inside him? ‘You’re doing great, Jax.’
    She shot him a glare, made no attempt to contain the words that spilled out. ‘On what goddamn scaleam I doing great, Brendan? The terrified hostage scale or the taxi to a crime scene scale? And how exactly is almost crashing at high speed in any way great?’ They were questions, a whole bunch of them that he wouldn’t like – but fear and anger and adrenaline had been set loose inside her, and rephrasing or building rapport was way beyond her.
    He chuckled. Not some crazy, throaty cackle, like the kind Jax thought might come out from her own mouth. It was straight out amusement. ‘You’re wrong, you know,’ he said. ‘You are funny. What goddamn scale? That’s a good one. And I wasn’t bullshitting, you’re doing great. Just try to stay in your lane.’
    Stay in your lane, he says. Keep your cool, he says. Concentrate on the fucking road while I point this gun at you. Oh, and try not to kill me with your lethal fucking car. A small, involuntary laugh huffed out of her. Not quite a crazy cackle but close.
    He raised an eyebrow, nodded: the wise instructor impressed with her powers of recovery. Oh, man, she needed to scream. Needed to shout and swear at him. To throttle the steering wheel. Open the door and bawl at the drivers who were just speeding right past. To get out and run and run. She needed to … do something.
    â€˜My daughter plays a game.’ She said it fast, teeth clamped over the fearful, frustrated, incensed swell of stuff inside her. ‘We’ll be in the car or out shopping or sitting at the beach and she’ll say, “Would you prefer to be eaten by a shark or a lion?” Two shit choices. Chased by a crocodile or a dinosaur? Stung by a thousand bees or dropped off a cliff? I should just pick