Share

Chapter 3

Author: Silky Stars
"The toll-free window ends at midnight tonight. If we get off the highway before then, we can find a place to put those condoms Emmett bought to good use."

As I sat there listening to them scheme and mock me without a shred of shame, something inside me finally snapped.

I glanced at the GPS tracker on my screen. They had already entered the mountain expressway, a stretch of road that wound through snow-capped peaks at 10,000 feet.

The route ran for over 100 miles, and a blizzard warning had just been issued for the area tonight. Temperatures were plummeting.

I looked at the clock on the wall. Midnight was 20 minutes away.

"You two love freeloading that much?" I muttered to myself. "Then stay on that highway forever."

I opened the vehicle's administrator control panel and entered the master password. In the command field, I typed a set of conditions.

"Temporary authorization revoked.

"Unauthorized status will trigger anti-theft protocols in ten minutes. Full lockdown and complete power shutoff."

The system responded, "Command accepted. Countdown initiated."

I picked up the cup of cold tea sitting beside me and drained it in one go.

Ding.

The anti-theft protocols had been activated.

The dashcam feed on my screen lurched violently, and Trent's panicked voice came through a second later.

"What the hell? It just died!"

The Porsche skidded on the snowy highway, coasting on inertia for another hundred feet before coming to a complete stop on the shoulder. The engine went silent. The ambient lighting and the instrument panel blinked out at the same time.

The only thing still running was the dashcam, which operated on its own backup battery. Everything else was swallowed by total darkness.

"What happened? What did you press?" Camille's voice cut through, sharp and shrill.

"I didn't press anything! This piece of junk just lost all power out of nowhere!"

Trent pounded the steering wheel and tried to restart the car, but nothing happened.

Without the engine running, the heater died instantly. The temperature outside was well below zero, and the cold began creeping into the cabin.

"It's freezing. Trent, fix this now!"

Camille was wearing nothing but a thin nightgown and a light jacket, and she was already shaking.

"What kind of junk did Emmett buy?" Trent pulled out his phone and called me.

I was sitting in my warm study. I picked up and made sure my voice sounded concerned. "Hey, Trent. It's late. What's going on? How'd the date go?"

"Screw the date!" Trent started screaming at me. "Your piece of crap car just broke down on the highway! It had a total power failure!

"You need to get a tow truck out here right now!"

He was barking orders at me like I was his servant.

I held back a smile. "Broke down? That doesn't make sense. Did you hit the wrong button or something?

"Check under the steering wheel. There's an emergency restart switch with a red knob right next to it. Turn it as hard as you can."

"What red knob? I can't see a damn thing!" Trent shouted.

"Feel around for it. It should be just above the clutch pedal." I made the whole thing up.

Trent fumbled around in the dark, and then yanked hard on something.

The moment he did, the car's deep-security lockdown engaged completely. The mechanical locks snapped with a piercing click, and all four doors sealed shut.

What made it worse was the anti-theft ventilation failsafe. To prevent suffocation during a lockdown, all four windows dropped open by half an inch and locked in place.

Freezing wind mixed with snow tore through the gaps and flooded the cabin.

Camille let out a bloodcurdling scream. "The windows are open! Close them! Close them now!"

"Emmett, what the hell did you just make me pull?" Trent was howling into the phone.

"Oh no, did you pull the anti-theft lock by accident? That's bad. Once the system locks down, there's nothing I can do from my end."

I let out a deliberate sigh. "Hang in there, Trent. I will contact the dealership first thing in the morning."

Then I hung up.

On my screen, the roar of the blizzard had already drowned out their screaming at each other.

The show was just getting started.

Continue to read this book for free
Scan code to download App

Latest chapter

  • He Borrowed My Porsche for My Wife   Chapter 9

    The law caught up with them, and so did the consequences.With the evidence stacked against him, Trent did not even have room to argue.He was convicted on two counts of intentional assault causing severe injury and disability, and deliberate destruction of private property. The sentences were combined, and he was given eight years in prison.On the day of sentencing, Trent sat in a wheelchair with his wrists in handcuffs. Both legs had been amputated above the knee, and the severe burns had left horrific scars across his entire body. He would spend the rest of his life in a cold prison wheelchair, trapped in constant, unending pain.Camille and her family were destroyed just as thoroughly. Because Camille had been a direct beneficiary and willing accomplice in the destruction of my half-million-dollar Porsche, the court ruled her jointly liable for a massive sum in damages after I filed an aggressive civil suit.Elaine, the woman who had spent years calling me a pathetic waste of

  • He Borrowed My Porsche for My Wife   Chapter 8

    I pushed the document across the table toward the officers, and my voice did not waver. "On the night in question, my car was taken without my authorization. After the toll-free period ended, the vehicle automatically shut down due to unauthorized operation. It was Trent Harlow himself who, without any guidance, repeatedly yanked on the emergency mechanical lock, which triggered the car's deep-security defense protocol and caused a full system lockdown."I glanced over at Trent on his stretcher and watched his pupils contract. "The system identified the situation as a violent theft and automatically lowered the windows to prevent suffocation. Every single thing that happened was a direct result of his unauthorized tampering."As the registered owner of the vehicle, I bear no fault whatsoever. If anything, I am the victim here. My car was stolen."The senior officer leafed through the certified technical report, stamped and official, and nodded.Elaine's face shifted, but she refu

  • He Borrowed My Porsche for My Wife   Chapter 7

    The dashcam finally short-circuited from the heat, and the screen dissolved into static.At seven in the morning, the first rays of sunlight broke through the clouds.A rescue convoy of highway patrol vehicles and heavy-duty snowplows finally made their way through the blocked road.Police lights flashed as paramedics dragged stretchers through the snow, carving long tracks behind them. Two bodies were loaded into separate ambulances.One was burned beyond recognition, and the other was frozen solid. The sirens screamed all the way to the emergency room at Greenfield General Hospital.After a full day and night of emergency treatment, the hospital delivered its verdict. Both of them had survived, but the cost was devastating.Trent had sustained deep burns across 40 percent of his body. The extreme cold had also caused severe frostbite in all four limbs, and both of his legs had to be amputated above the knee.Camille had been exposed to the freezing snow for so long that the bl

  • He Borrowed My Porsche for My Wife   Chapter 6

    "Trent, open the door! I'm going to die out here! Please, I'm begging you, let me back in!"Inside the car, Trent sat wrapped tightly in the cashmere blanket and ignored every word. He did not even bother to look. He just closed his eyes.Camille had been left out in the snow with nowhere to go. She cried for over ten minutes, but her pounding on the window grew slower and weaker with each passing moment. Eventually she slumped against the car door, curled herself into a ball, and the blizzard began burying her inch by inch.I sat in front of my computer screen and said nothing.The system had recorded every second of it. Trent deliberately attacking her and kicking her out of the car… Every curse, every scream, was captured in perfect clarity.The monster had finally shown his true face, but the punishment was only beginning.By five in the morning, the mountains were still buried in darkness.Outside the car, Camille had gone completely still. Half her body was covered in sn

  • He Borrowed My Porsche for My Wife   Chapter 5

    After that, I picked up a second phone and dialed the highway patrol's emergency reporting line."Hello, I need to report a stolen vehicle. I have the GPS location. The suspects are currently stranded on the expressway at 10,000 feet. There's a blizzard trapping them up there, and the situation is extremely dangerous. Please send a unit immediately."I hung up and leaned back in my chair.The officer had been clear. An avalanche had blocked the road ahead, and the snow was piled over three feet deep. Even with heavy-duty plows, the earliest they could clear a path would be tomorrow morning.In this particular game, mother nature was the most impartial executioner of all.By three in the morning, the temperature had dropped to nearly 13 below zero. The cabin had turned into an icebox.On my screen, both of their lips had gone purple. Frost clung to their eyelashes. When the news reached them that no rescue team could get through, it shattered whatever composure they had left.Sur

  • He Borrowed My Porsche for My Wife   Chapter 4

    Up on the expressway at 10,000 feet, the blizzard was getting worse by the minute. The wind pouring in through the half-inch gaps in the windows sliced through the cabin like frozen blades.In just half an hour, the premium leather seats inside the half-million-dollar Porsche had turned rock hard from the cold.Trent dialed for help over and over, but the blizzard in the remote mountains had knocked out most of the signal. It took more than a dozen calls before one finally went through, and it connected to my mother-in-law.At one in the morning, my phone screen lit up and the ringtone shattered the silence of my study.It was Elaine.I hit the speakerphone button. Before I could even get a word out, she was already tearing into me."Emmett! What kind of broken-down junk did you buy? Are you trying to get Trent killed?"Her voice was brutal. "Trent just called and said the car broke down on some mountain. The heat's gone and the windows won't shut. You need to send a rescue team

More Chapters
Explore and read good novels for free
Free access to a vast number of good novels on GoodNovel app. Download the books you like and read anywhere & anytime.
Read books for free on the app
SCAN CODE TO READ ON APP
DMCA.com Protection Status