by Diane Capri
Then the SUV surged forward.
“Oh my god. This car in front of me. I’m sorry. I was wondering if maybe, when I get back to the station, if I could do a report connecting the story about the bottles on the ship to the bottle I stepped on at the lake.”
“I’m not sure you should report on a story that involves you so closely,” Richard said.
The black SUV swerved to the left lane, slowed, then cut in close behind her and tailgated her again.
Her palms were so sweaty she couldn’t grip the steering wheel. She wiped them again.
“Um, now this SUV is beside me again. He’s driving like a maniac. Speeding up and slowing down on every side of me. I better go.”
“Call me when you get back to the station, okay? Be safe out there.”
Jordan had gripped hard and long. Her biceps and triceps ached. Her hands felt like cramped claws.
She dropped her phone onto the passenger seat and punched Hermes’ accelerator. Her little car jumped ahead.
The SUV closed the gap easily. Its grille filled Hermes’ rearview mirror. It kept coming. Closer. Closer.
Wham!
The SUV hit Hermes’ rear bumper.
Jordan screamed.
The SUV slowed and backed off.
Jordan kept her head above the wheel as she felt around for her phone on the passenger seat.
She grasped it, dried each hand off on her pant legs, and got a steady grip on the wheel again before clicking on Recent Calls to dial Ryser.
She put the call on speaker and grabbed the wheel with both hands again.
The SUV closed the distance again. This time, the SUV slammed into Hermes’ bumper. Hermes bucked and jerked.
Ryser picked up on the first ring.
“I’m in trouble. A black SUV is trying to run me off the road—”
She barely had the last word out when the SUV accelerated and plowed into Hermes once more.
Jordan’s body whiplashed hard against the seatbelt. Her head banged into the headrest.
She lost her grip on the wheel.
* * *
Keep Reading! Jordan’s thrilling adventures continue in
FALSE TRUTH 11
A Jordan Fox Mystery
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Excerpt from
CHAPTER 1
Sunday, 6:10 p.m.
Jordan’s harrowing drive sped north from Bear Creek Lake along the interstate. Her nerves were stretched to the snapping point. She could smell her own fear.
She was walled in on all sides. Each of the four northbound lanes was occupied by a vehicle much larger than Hermes, her little blue Honda Fit. All of them traveled well above the seventy-mile-an-hour limit. She kept up with traffic because she had no choice but to do the same.
“Keep it together, Jordan.” Her voice sounded panicked in her own ears, but there was no one else in the car to hear it. “You can do this.”
She stretched to keep her head above the wheel as she felt around for her phone on the passenger seat.
She grasped it, dried each hand on her pants, and gripped the wheel again before pressing Recent Calls to dial FBI Special Agent Terry Ryser.
She put the call on speaker and grabbed the wheel with both hands again.
The huge, black SUV closed the distance behind her for the third time. This time, it didn’t back off.
The SUV slammed into Hermes’ bumper. Hermes bucked and jerked, but somehow Jordan managed to hold the Honda in her lane. The pickup truck on her right and the mini-van on her left sped up to get out of the way.
A brief slice of daylight opened up on either side of Hermes before it filled again with more vehicles. She couldn’t see anything to her left because the blinding sun was low in the sky. Off to the right, she glimpsed open farmland.
Ryser picked up on the first ring, but the wait had seemed much longer.
Jordan’s palms slicked the steering wheel, and a bead of sweat trickled down her back. She shouted to be heard over the strain of Hermes’ engine. “I’m in trouble. A black SUV is trying to run me off the road—”
She barely had the last word out when the SUV accelerated and plowed into Hermes once more.
Jordan’s body whiplashed hard against the seatbelt. Her head banged into the headrest.
She lost her grip on the wheel. Hermes drifted right. A horn blared. Solid, deafening noise from the right hand lane.
Jordan slapped both hands on the wheel and clawed tight. The pickup truck’s horn blasted steadily as it accelerated past to get out of Hermes’ way. A sedan moved into the pickup’s place.
The black SUV glided from directly behind her to directly beside her in the left lane like an ice skater in one swift motion. The beastly SUV maintained speed without effort while Hermes strained and the three vehicles traveled abreast.
“Jordan? Are you still there?” To Ryser’s credit, she didn’t say Jordan was a fool for leaving Bear Creek Lake without an escort. No reason to state the obvious.
Not thirty minutes ago, Ryser had warned her. The FBI had confirmed Alden Walker’s intention to kill her. The boss of the El Pulpo international crime cartel wouldn’t waste any time.
Jordan’s breath came faster as she barreled onward, traveling between the sedan and the SUV and rapidly approaching a complicated overpass.
She knew this spot. Concrete ribbons soared into the air, one above another, curving, rising and dipping again. Below the pavement’s elaborate giftwrap lay empty land and a wide but shallow channel connecting inland lakes to the Gulf of Mexico.
Five hundred yards away. Now four-fifty. Now three hundred. What scared her was what would happen at the top.
Her nails dug into the vinyl steering wheel. The SUV hugged the white line dividing their lanes. Holding steady alongside Jordan. Blocking daylight. Haunting her peripheral vision.
“The freaking SUV is bullying me,” Jordan directed her voice toward Hermes’ microphone receiver near the rearview mirror. Her phone made the connection automatically whenever she dialed inside the car. “I’m afraid he’s gonna try to run me over the concrete barrier when we’re on the overpass.”
It wasn’t a crazy idea. And totally possible. She’d seen it happen twice before, once with a semi-tractor trailer and another time with a minivan full of cheerleaders. No survivors then and likely to be none now. Hermes would flatten like a pancake if he fell from that height.
“Take it easy. Everything will be fine. We’re on the way.” Ryser spoke calmly, as if Jordan was about to jump off a building. “The best thing you can do is keep your wits about you right now. Control your movements. Nothing drastic.”
“I’m not suicidal, Ryser. Far from it—oh my god.” The SUV slowed and cut the five inches between its passenger door and Hermes’ driver’s side door in half.
Jordan’s skin spiked with electric energy.
Then, metal screeched as the SUV ran along Hermes’ left side from the rear quarter panel past the door, past the front quarter panel and all the way to the front bumper. Jordan held firm in the center of her lane only by pushing Hermes toward the SUV’s brutal kiss.
At Hermes’ front bumper, the SUV slowed a bit, put daylight between the two vehicles and waited briefly for Hermes to catch up.
“They just hit my car again, Ryser.” Her voice sounded breathless and more panicked than before.
“We’ve pinpointed your location. We can’t get to you until you cross the overpass.”
“I’m good enough, for now.” Jordan’s hands held the wheel steady, and her foot maintained constant, even pressure on the gas. “He scraped the side of my car with his. My car’s still driving.”
She glued her gaze focused on the incline ahead. “I’m going strong and steady. So is he. There’s a sedan on my right side. I don’t know what to do.”
“Can you pull ahead?”
When Hermes nosed ahead, the SUV did the same. When Jordan let up on the gas, the SUV fell back. “No. It makes no difference whether I go sixty or eighty. H
e’s matching my speed.”
“You’re doing great. Focus only on driving. Do what you have to do to get to safety.” Now Ryser sounded like a coach on the sidelines when the home team was losing. “We’ll intervene when you clear the overpass. Your phone’s on speaker, right?”
“Right.”
“Don’t hang up.”
“Right.” Like she would pry one finger off the wheel to press a button, even if she could.
The SUV was still in her peripheral vision. Jordan glanced to get a look at the driver. But instead, all she saw was black paint closing in on her again.
Another push to the side of her car jerked her body to the right. Her stiff seatbelt yanked her back to center. She pushed the wheel left to keep Hermes in his lane and practically adhered to the SUV again.
She noticed an enormous tractor-trailer. Two trailers attached and running a straight tail behind the monstrous tractor. Each trailer carrying six cars. Approaching from behind in the far lane to the SUV’s left. The lane where trucks were forbidden to travel.
She sucked squeaky air into her throat.
What the hell was he doing there?
She accelerated. Again the SUV matched her speed.
They rushed up the incline now onto the multi-level overpass.
Nonsensically, she laughed. If El Pulpo was trying to kill her by pushing her over the guard rail and sending her plummeting down to her death below, well, that might be a very good strategy. Effective, dramatic…totally El Pulpo’s style.
“Hang on, Jordan. Slow down.” Ryser must have heard the giggle. She’d resumed talking like Jordan was perched on a ledge, which she literally was. “Make it a slow-speed ride-along. We’ll meet you on the other side.”
“Got it.” She didn’t want Ryser to think she couldn’t speak at all.
Jordan slowed Hermes to the speed limit and positioned herself in the center of her lane. The SUV traveled beside her in the immediate left lane and the tandem tractor-trailer carrying six cars on each trailer rolled in the far left lane, on the SUV’s left. The sedan ran steadily in the right lane.
All four vehicles moved in concert.
Jordan ran Hermes up the initial incline at the overpass, carefully remaining horizontally centered between her escorts on either side.
Suddenly, the sedan on the right slid into the last possible exit lane and left the interstate.
The SUV moved gracefully behind Hermes and then accelerated, sliding toward the right lane’s unexpected vacancy.
At the last second, Jordan jerked her steering wheel to the right and slid into the same lane, mere inches ahead of the SUV’s front bumper.
Her quick move caught the SUV accelerating, moving too fast.
After that, everything seemed to happen at once in a flash of metal and colors and deafening noise and sunlight bouncing off steel.
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Have you read all of Diane Capri’s books? Maybe it’s time to give them a try!
For a complete list of Diane Capri Books visit:
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(Click each title to buy or download a sample)
The Heir Hunter Series:
Blood Trails
The Jess Kimball Thrillers:
Fatal Game
Fatal Edge
Fatal Fall
Fatal Error
Fatal Demand
Fatal Distraction
Fatal Enemy
The Hunt for Jack Reacher Series:
Deep Cover Jack
Jack and Joe
Jack in the Green
Get Back Jack
Don’t Know Jack
Jack in a Box
Jack and Kill
The Hunt for Justice Series:
True Justice (Judge Willa Carson)
Fair Justice (Judge Willa Carson)
False Justice (Judge Willa Carson)
Cold Justice (Judge Willa Carson)
Wasted Justice (Judge Willa Carson)
Secret Justice (Judge Willa Carson)
Twisted Justice (Judge Willa Carson)
Due Justice (Judge Willa Carson)
Mistaken Justice
Raw Justice
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the continuing Jordan Fox Mysteries, starring tenacious multimedia journalist Jordan Fox. An ambitious newcomer with a difficult past, we’re thrilled that readers have fallen in love our feisty new heroine!
I’m also excited to continue working with my colleague, Beth Dexter. Beth brings realism to Jordan Fox the way only an insider can because she’s a journalist who worked as a producer in a TV newsroom. Like Jordan, Beth began her TV career after college, at age 22. If you want to know what being on the inside of the news is really like, look no further!
We’re joining Jordan Fox almost in real time. We’re living her career and the developing stories she’s reporting, right along with her. Jordan is an MMJ (Multimedia Journalist) in one of the largest media markets in the country and very quickly finds that journalists don’t simply report the news—sometimes, they’re right in the middle of it all!
The series of Jordan Fox Mysteries intertwines with my other work, but is designed to be read independently. Jordan lives and works in Tampa and her adventures are loaded with Florida atmosphere. You’ll also find some of the characters from my other books that you already love—such as Judge Willa Carson and Attorney Jenny Lane. You can join in the discussion via Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/bethdexterbooks. For a complete listing of all Diane Capri books look here: http://dianecapri.com/books/
And be sure to sign up for our email list so we can let you know when the next book is released! Do that here: http://dianecapri.com/get-involved/get-my-newsletter/
Thank you and happy reading!
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Diane Capri is a New York Times, USA Today, and worldwide bestselling author. She’s a recovering lawyer and snowbird who divides her time between Florida and Michigan. An active member of Mystery Writers of America, Author’s Guild, International Thriller Writers, Alliance of Independent Authors, and Sisters in Crime, she loves to hear from readers and is hard at work on her next novel.
Please connect with Diane online:
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Beth Dexter is a New Adult author. She is a seventh generation Floridian who took a detour to North Carolina to receive her B.A. in English at Davidson College. She went on to pursue a career in journalism, working as a TV News Producer. She loves photography, traveling, swimming, and her family.
Please connect with Beth online:
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Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bethdexterbooks