Rachel and I exchanged a nervous glance. Though our hearts were hammering in our chests, we obediently handed our phones to the man.
He slammed the car door shut with a loud thud, then turned around. His eyes swept over us, and the gun in his hand moved with a casualness that terrified me.
“Both of you, stay put,” he warned. “This car is rigged with a bomb. You make one wrong move, and we all go up in smoke.”
With that, he tossed our phones into the glove compartment and started the engine again.
Rachel was huddled in the corner, trembling. I gathered my courage and looked at the man. “Can you tell us why you’re doing this? Is it for money, or is this revenge?”
I silently reasoned that while I could be short-tempered, I hadn’t made any real enemies. This was probably about money.
The man glanced in the rearview mirror, his expression contemptuous. “You don’t know who you’ve pissed off?”
So it was revenge.
My heart sank. If this was about revenge, buying our way out would be much harder.
“Can you at least tell us who?” I pressed.
Before the man could answer, Rachel’s icy voice cut in from beside me. “I knew it. Nothing good ever comes from being around a jinx like you. And now look, we’ve been kidnapped because of you.”
Her words stunned me.
Just before we got in the car, wasn’t she the one saying she trusted me and that Verna was a liar? Why the complete reversal?
“Rachel, what are you talking about?”
She looked at the driver, her tone firm. “You’re here for Zephyra, right? Then let me go. Zephyra and I stopped being friends a long time ago.”

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