The Pretender (The Soren Chase Series Book 2) by Rob Blackwell Read Free Book Online

Audrey, hitting her in the stomach. She smacked Soren on the back with the poker, but he shrugged off the blow and succeeded in shoving her to the ground. From close by, Soren heard a police siren start up. It likely meant Ken was attempting to find him. Soren tried to pin Audrey to the ground, intending to shout for help. But Audrey kicked out with her legs, knocking Soren off balance.
    Rolling away from him, she sprang to her feet and swung the poker at Soren’s head. Soren tried to duck, but didn’t make it in time. The blow caught Soren on his temple, and he fell to the ground, dazed. His vision blurred, and he waited for the next hit to come.
    Instead, Audrey threw the poker over the wooden fence and began running away again, this time toward the front yard. Soren’s eyesight was still out of focus, so she seemed to be a fuzzy blur that disappeared into the distance. By the time he’d recovered and climbed to his feet, Audrey had already fled out of sight.
    Soren ran into the front yard and spotted her two houses down, heading for a parked car. If she got into that car, he’d lose her for sure.
    Soren pushed himself even harder, desperately trying to get there in time. But as he raced, he watched Audrey yank the car door open. She spared one look in Soren’s direction, and then jumped into the vehicle and turned on the ignition.
    The car started to pull away and Soren managed an extra burst of speed before leaping into the air. He landed on the car roof with a heavy thud. He grabbed the edges as tightly as he could as the car abruptly accelerated.
    The car sped off like a rocket and Soren hung on for dear life. He couldn’t guess exactly how fast he was going because he was afraid to look up. He kept his head down and concentrated solely on maintaining his grip.
    He was just starting to feel secure when the first turn came. Without warning, the car jerked left and Soren’s entire body was pulled to the right. His grip on the edge of the car started to slip, and he barely managed to hang on.
    The vehicle accelerated again and this time Soren looked up. He knew what road they were on—Old Dominion Drive, a road that cut through the heart of McLean and lead into Great Falls National Park. The road was unusually straight, but incredibly narrow, with steep ditches on either side. Soren wasn’t sure if that helped or hurt him.
    When the car picked up even more speed, he decided it hurt him. As bad as turns were, the long, straight road allowed Audrey to floor it, letting the car reach dangerously fast speeds. They were going at least ninety miles an hour. The wind whipped around him with a force that threatened to tear him off the car. Soren looked to the side to see the trees and other scenery were little more than a blur of motion.
    As the car sped down the road, Audrey began shaking it, jerking the steering wheel slightly to make the car shudder beneath Soren. It went first to the left and then to the right, and Soren couldn’t keep his legs braced. They swung wildly from side to side. He wasn’t going to be able to hang on much longer. He needed to go on offense if he was going to survive.
    As the car continued to jostle, Soren brought his legs up so he was kneeling on top of the car.
    Audrey shook the car again, jerking it to the left so she was in the left-hand lane. The maneuver nearly knocked Soren off, but he managed to point his body at the passenger side and crawled forward, hoping to break the window and crawl inside the car.
    But the car sped up suddenly, and then braked hard. Soren could hear the squeal of tires and smell burning rubber as the car shuddered beneath him. The shift in momentum was too much for him to hang on and he lost his grip.
    He was flung into the air, spinning as he went. As he hit the pavement, rolling several times on the road, Soren felt the bones in his arms shatter and ribs crack. There were bright, searing spots of pain all over his body: his legs, his chest, his arms, and