Ablaze

Chapter -12

Not edited

Maria’s POV

My heart first dropped into my stomach then jumped into my throat with it. That’s what I was feeling when Antonio asked me to take the wheel in a moving car which was moving at high speed. I looked at him with wide eyes, thinking if he’d gone crazy or something. But looking at his tight hold on steering and frown on his head, I realised he was serious as heart attack.

“MARIA!” I jumped when he shouted my name and came to my senses.

“Okay. Tell me what to do.”  I asked looking at him expectantly.

“Come here and control the steering.” He said and looked in the rear view mirror.

I unsnapped the seat belt and very uncomfortably shifted over the console onto his lap while he controlled the steering with one hand. After I was in place his arms were around me and his hands were over mine when got the steering in control. I could feel his heart pounding like mine, his harsh breath in my ear.

Okay! FOCUS MARIA!

“Now place your feet over mine.” I did the same, placed my feet over his which were on accelerator. Very slowly he removed his feet from under mine. I focused on what was in my front with controlling the accelerator among other things like… my anxiety. I saw a car at my right from my peripheral vision, I pushed on the gas and we both jerked back on the seat.

“Careful cara!” Antonio said in my ear and I shivered as his hot breath hit my ear.

“I am going to move now, just keep the steering in control.” He said and slid out, the movement jarred me out a little, car slid towards right then left but when he was in passenger seat, and I was able to control the car. I was so engrossed in keeping us from crashing or flipping the car that I didn’t see Antonio hanging out of the window of passenger seat. It was when the sound of gunshot jerking back from the driver seat window that made me jump; an involuntary yelp came out of my mouth as my heart raced.

“You okay?” he asked while ducking back into the car.

“What the hell were you doing? Half hanging out of the window like that?” I more of yelled on him while looking from the side mirror at the car which was now out of control.

“That.” He said pointing to that car. I rolled my eyes as I took in his smug expression.

“That was it? Or more are coming?” I asked when I spotted another car that was similar to the one which we left behind. And I think that was one of them because the road was deserted. So I automatically stepped on gas.

“You are learning.” Antonio said as he pinched my cheek, I swatted his hand away. And he got busy in his phone.

Learning? I hummed in mind and my thoughts flew into some other direction.  Maybe I should learn to shoot and some hand to hand combat? That would definitely be a really big help to me because of the dangers surrounding us.

“Any idea? Who were they?” I asked and glanced at him, he was still on phone.

“I don’t know yet, but Tristan is on it.” He said, distracted.

“What the hell are you even doing on the phone?” I asked irritated that he was not serious about the situation. I got more agitated when he did not reply.

Ughh!!

I decided to calm down a bit because my adrenalin was crashing now, I could feel my legs and arms shaking.

“Okay, I think we should stop here” I muttered as I threw a mere glance at the rear view mirror and stopped the car on the roadside. Taking a deep breath, I stretched my arms in front of me, my knuckles were white because of holding the steering so tightly. I bowed my head and tried to breathe through my mouth because I was feeling queasy. Cold sweat broke out on my forehead as saliva started pooling in my mouth.

“Maria?” Antonio called my name and touched my arm. I shrugged it off and opened the door and threw up but nothing came out I was just dry heaving. He rubbed my back which was making me feel a little bit better. Some tears left my eyes, as I leaned back on the seat and covered my eyes with my right arm. I sniffled as I tried to swallow the bitter taste in my mouth.

After few seconds I felt the mouth of water bottle near my lips and I happily took it from his hand, first rinsed my mouth and then took some sips of cold water. My hands were shaking, I glanced at Antonio, and he was just looking at me with concerned expression but not saying anything. And I was okay with that.

So much had happened today that I couldn’t handle it anymore. I wanted to cry, wanted to break something, smash something and kill someone or just sleep and never wake up.

“Maria…” He started. I turned my head towards him and my eyes watered, my lower lip trembled.  He got out of the car from his side, jogged around the car to come to my side. He took my arm and gently pulled me out, my legs were shaking, if he wasn’t holding me I would’ve gone down. He crashed me to his chest and went willingly. I held onto his waits as I cried, I got it all out. I stiffened when I heard a car pulling up near us.

“It’s just Tristan.” He whispered in my hair and I nodded in his chest. I felt him shaking his head and then we walked towards the car. I got into the backseat of car and slid to other side so he could enter. Then I was back in that position again. My head to his chest and his arms around me. I felt the car moving and then I felt nothing.

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Sorry for late update! But I was busy with my work and other stuff! :)

I will try to upload next one soon.

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-Tani