The mountain road wound like a devil’s spine, and Cassie’s engine sputtered one last time before giving up completely.
“Come on. No, no, no…”
The car wheezed, jerked, and rolled to a full stop in the middle of nowhere. No signal. No GPS. No passing cars for hours. The sun was dipping behind the trees and she was stuck halfway through a reckless solo road trip that was supposed to be empowering.
Instead, she was stranded. In the woods. Alone. With a trunk full of useless emotional baggage and one dying phone battery.
Cassie popped the hood and stared at the smoking mess inside. Then she laughed, dry and bitter. “I should’ve just stayed dumped.”
A flicker of movement caught her eye up the road. A rust-red tow truck was rumbling down the hill, engine loud, lights off. It pulled up beside
