Chapter 1

She nearly killed an innocent man.
 
Creighton “Charley” Bondurant drove carefully because his life depended onit. Latigo Canyon¹ was mile after mile ofneck-wrenching, hairpin² twists. Charley had no use for government meddlers but the 15 mph signs posted along the road were smart.
He lived ten miles up from Kanan Dume Road, on a four-acre remnant of the ranch³ hisgrandfather had owned during Coolidge’s time. All those Arabians and Tennessee walkers and the mules⁴ Grandpa kept around because he liked the creatures' spirit. Charleyhad grown up with families like his. No-nonsense ranchers, a few rich folk whowere still okay when they came up to ride on weekends. Now all you had wererich pretenders.
Diabetic and rheumatoid and depressed⁵, Charley lived in a two-room cabinwith a view of oak-covered crests⁷ and the ocean beyond. Sixty-eight, nevermarried. Poor excuse for a man, he'd scold himself on nights when the medicinesmixed with the beer and his mood sank low.
On happier days, he pretended to be an old cowboy.
This morning, he was somewhere between those extremes. His bunions hurt likehell. Two horses had died last winter and he was down to three skinny whitemares and a half-blind sheepdog. Feed and hay bills ate up most of his SocialSecurity. But the nights had been warm for October, and he hadn’t dreamed badand his bones felt okay.
It was hay that got him up at seven that morning, rolling out of bed,gulping coffee, chewing on a stale sweet roll, to hell with his blood sugar. Alittle time-out to get the internal plumbing⁸ going and by eight he was dressedand starting up the pickup⁹.
Coasting in neutral down the dirt road that fed to Latigo, he looked bothways a couple of times, cleared the crust from his eyes, shifted into first,and rolled down. The Topanga Feed Bin⁶ was a twenty-minute ride south and hefigured to stop along the way at the Malibu Stop & Shop for a fewsix-packs, a tin of Skoal, and some Pringles.
Nice morning, a big old blue sky with just a few clouds from the east, sweetair blowing up from the Pacific. Switching on his eight-track, he listened toRay Price and drove slow enough to stop for deer. Not too many of the pestsbefore dark but you never knew what to expect up in the mountains.
The naked girl jumped out at him a lot faster than any deer.
Eyes full of terror, mouth stretched so wide Charley swore he could see hertonsils.
She ran across the road, straight in the path of his truck, hair blowingwild, waving her arms.
Stomping¹⁰ the brake pedal hard, Charley felt the pickup lurch¹¹, wobble, andsway. Then the sharp skid¹² to the left, straight at the battered¹³ guardrail thatseparated him from a thousand foot of nothing.
Hurtling toward blue sky.
He kept hitting the brake. Kept flying. Said his prayers and opened the doorand prepared to bail¹⁴.
His damn shirt stuck on the door handle. Eternity¹⁵ looked real close. What astupid way to go!
Hands ripping at his shirt fabric¹⁶, mouth working in a combination of cursesand benedictions¹⁷, Charley’s gnarled body tightened¹⁸, his legs turned to ironbars, and his sore foot pressed that brake pedal down to the damn floorboard.
The truck kept going, fishtailed, slid, spattered gravel¹⁹.
Shuddered²⁰. Rolled. Bumped the guard.
Charley could hear the rail groan²¹.
The truck stopped.
Charley freed his shirt and got out. His chest was tight and he couldn’tsuck any breath into his lungs. Wouldn’t that be the shits: spared a free fallto oblivion only to drop dead of a damned heart attack.
He gasped²² and swallowed air, felt his field of vision grow black and bracedhimself against the truck. The chassis²³ creaked and Charley jumped back, felthimself going down again.
A scream pierced the morning. Charley opened his eyes and straightened andsaw the girl. Red marks around her wrists and ankles. Bruises²⁴ around her neck.
Beautiful young body, those healthy knockers bobbing as she came runningtoward him—sinful to think like that, she was scared, but with knockers likethat what else was there to notice?
She kept coming, arms wide, like she wanted Charley to hold her.
But screaming, those wild eyes, he wasn’t sure what to do.
First time in a long time he’d been this close to bare female flesh.
He forgot about the knockers, nothing sexy about this. She was a kid, youngenough to be his daughter. Granddaughter.
Those marks on her wrists and ankles, around her neck.
She screamed again.
“Ohgodohgoohgod.”
She was right up to him, now, yellow hair whipping his face. He could smellthe fear on her. See the goose bumps on her pretty tan shoulders.
“Help me!”
Poor kid was shivering.
Charley held her.

1 canyon   

n.峡谷，溪谷

参考例句：

• The Grand Canyon in the USA is 1900 metres deep.美国的大峡谷1900米深。
• The canyon is famous for producing echoes.这个峡谷以回声而闻名。

2 hairpin   

n.簪,束发夹，夹发针

参考例句：

• She stuck a small flower onto the front of her hairpin.她在发簪的前端粘了一朵小花。
• She has no hairpin because her hair is short.因为她头发短，所以没有束发夹。

3 ranch   

n.大牧场，大农场

参考例句：

• He went to work on a ranch.他去一个大农场干活。
• The ranch is in the middle of a large plateau.该牧场位于一个辽阔高原的中部。

4 mules   

骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者

参考例句：

• The cart was pulled by two mules. 两匹骡子拉这辆大车。
• She wore tight trousers and high-heeled mules. 她穿紧身裤和拖鞋式高跟鞋。

5 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

6 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

7 crests   

v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点

参考例句：

• The surfers were riding in towards the beach on the crests of the waves. 冲浪者们顺着浪头冲向岸边。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The correspondent aroused, heard the crash of the toppled crests. 记者醒了，他听见了浪头倒塌下来的轰隆轰隆声。 来自辞典例句

8 plumbing   

n.水管装置；水暖工的工作；管道工程v.用铅锤测量（plumb的现在分词）；探究

参考例句：

• She spent her life plumbing the mysteries of the human psyche. 她毕生探索人类心灵的奥秘。
• They're going to have to put in new plumbing. 他们将需要安装新的水管。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

10 stomping   

v.跺脚，践踏，重踏( stomp的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• He looked funny stomping round the dance floor. 他在舞池里跺着舞步，样子很可笑。 来自辞典例句
• Chelsea substitution Wright-Phillips for Robben. Wrighty back on his old stomping to a mixed reception. 77分–切尔西换人：赖特．菲利普斯入替罗本。小赖特在主场球迷混杂的欢迎下，重返他的老地方。 来自互联网

11 lurch   

n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行

参考例句：

• It has been suggested that the ground movements were a form of lurch movements.地震的地面运动曾被认为是一种突然倾斜的运动形式。
• He walked with a lurch.他步履蹒跚。

12 skid   

v.打滑 n.滑向一侧；滑道 ，滑轨

参考例句：

• He braked suddenly,causing the front wheels to skid.他突然剎车，使得前轮打了滑。
• The police examined the skid marks to see how fast the car had been travelling.警察检查了车轮滑行痕迹，以判断汽车当时开得有多快。

13 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

14 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

15 eternity   

n.不朽，来世；永恒，无穷

参考例句：

• The dull play seemed to last an eternity.这场乏味的剧似乎演个没完没了。
• Finally,Ying Tai and Shan Bo could be together for all of eternity.英台和山伯终能双宿双飞，永世相随。

16 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

17 benedictions   

n.祝福( benediction的名词复数 )；（礼拜结束时的）赐福祈祷；恩赐；（大写）（罗马天主教）祈求上帝赐福的仪式

参考例句：

18 tightened   

收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。

19 gravel   

n.砂跞；砂砾层；结石

参考例句：

• We bought six bags of gravel for the garden path.我们购买了六袋碎石用来铺花园的小路。
• More gravel is needed to fill the hollow in the drive.需要更多的砾石来填平车道上的坑洼。

20 shuddered   

v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动

参考例句：

• He slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车，车颤抖着停住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I shuddered at the sight of the dead body. 我一看见那尸体就战栗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

21 groan   

vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音

参考例句：

• The wounded man uttered a groan.那个受伤的人发出呻吟。
• The people groan under the burden of taxes.人民在重税下痛苦呻吟。

22 gasped   

v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要

参考例句：

• She gasped at the wonderful view. 如此美景使她惊讶得屏住了呼吸。
• People gasped with admiration at the superb skill of the gymnasts. 体操运动员的高超技艺令人赞叹。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

23 chassis   

n.汽车等之底盘；（飞机的）起落架；炮底架

参考例句：

• The new parts may include the sheet metal,the transmission,or the chassis.新部件可能包括钢壳，变速器或底盘。
• Can chassis and whole-vehicle manufacturers co-exist peacefully?底盘企业和整车企业能相安无事吗？

24 bruises   

n.瘀伤，伤痕，擦伤( bruise的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was covered with bruises after falling off his bicycle. 他从自行车上摔了下来，摔得浑身伤痕。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The pear had bruises of dark spots. 这个梨子有碰伤的黑斑。 来自《简明英汉词典》