My God, he’s beautiful, I thought. It took longer than I’d wanted to stop staring, and he caught me. But he didn’t seem to mind.
“Brown University, please,” Jared said in his deep, smooth voice. “Two stops.”
“You got it,” the driver squawked.
The wind whipped outside, blowing the collecting flakes across the road like white snakes slithering ahead. I shivered at the image and pulled my coat tighter around me.
Jared turned in his seat to look behind us as if he’d heard something, but all I could hear was the engine, the heater blowing through the vents, and the tires buzzing against the road.
“Did you forget something?” I asked.
“No,” he said with a chuckle, facing forward. “Are you, uh … are you alright? I noticed back there you were upset?”
“Oh,” I said, embarrassed.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s okay,” I said quickly. “It’s complicated.”
“I’m not going anywhere if you need to vent,” he said with a small smile.
“Oh, um. Well, I just started college, and my family just put more on my plate. I overwhelmed. Guess I was just having a moment back there. It’s pretty overwhelming to think about.”
He waited for me to continue, so I did. “My father owns Titan Shipping. His business and personal lives just … I don’t know how else to say it … merged, I guess? Now, his focus is elsewhere, so he’s asked me to step up. I don’t … I don’t know I’m going to do it all. I don’t know if I can do it all.”
I waited for the expected pity in his eyes, but there was none. My relief caused me to smile, which in turn made a grin lift one side of his mouth. He had a nice face. I was sure I’d seen him in a magazine ad at some point.
He stopped grinning, instead seeming confused.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
His eyes widened, and he lunged for me. He yanked me toward him, held me to his chest, and turned. In one move, we switched places, and then headlights smashed through the passenger’s side, barreling toward us.
The cab’s fiber glass and metal crumpled, throwing us into the park adjacent to the intersection we’d just tried to pass. The tires hit the curb, launching into cartwheels over the wet ground. The back window shattered, simultaneously spraying me with glass and leaving me on the grass and snow, to go on to roll several more times before coming to a stop in the darkness beyond the streetlamps. The world around me, time, and reality blurred, but I knew I was still curled into a ball, surrounded by Jared’s warm body.
“Nina?” he grunted, beginning to loosen his grip. “You’re breathing, thank God.”
He let go of me and jerked twice, the motion sending pain shooting through my body. Two loud gunshots went off just a foot or two away, and the cry from whomever was at the receiving end of those bullets was drowned out by the ringing in my ears.
I cried out, letting the agony leave my body, even if the relief only lasted an instant.
Jared carefully adjusted me as I whimpered, making sure not to unfold my broken parts. He stared down at me, frowning.
“Nina?” he said, scanning my body. “Stay with me. Keep your eyes open.”
His blue-gray eyes were so beautiful against the night sky and falling snow, but soon the pain spread throughout my body, robbing me of any other thought.
I groaned as Jared used his cell phone to make a call. Even that made my broken parts scream, so I stayed silent. It hurt to breathe, it hurt to open my eyes or focus on anything but my shattered body.
“Claire? Ran into trouble. I need medical. Now. We’re near uh…” he looked around, “First Baptist Church on Waterman.”
He put the phone away and held me gently, looking me over. “Stay with me.”
“Holy shit, are you okay?” a man said, running up with his friends. “Tucker, call 9-1-1! Is she okay?” he asked Jared.
“She will be,” he said with a faltering breath. “She will be.”
“Is that Nina Grey?” someone from the friend group asked. “Kim! Kim!”
Kim scrambled to my side. She fell to her knees, pulling off her ridiculous hunter’s cap. “Nina?” she looked to Jared. “What happened?”
“We were T-boned,” he said, his voice breaking. He nodded in the direction of the crushed cab.
“Oh, shit! Oh, shit!” Tucker yelled. “There’s a guy! I think he’s dead! Josh! C’mere!”
Another of the boys left us to view the carnage.
“Ryan?” Kim asked. “Did Tucker call?”
“Yeah,” Ryan said, staring down at me, his eyes full of worry. He took his jacket off and covered my legs. “Is she going to be okay?”
“How bad is it?” Kim asked Jared. “Can you tell specifically?”
“Broken ribs. Broken pelvis. Broken femur and ankle. She has internal bleeding. Her spleen will have to be removed.”
“How do you know that?” Ryan asked. “Are you a doctor? Kim, do you know this guy?”
Kim and Jared traded glances, and she nodded. “Yeah. I know him.”
Sirens wailed in the distance, interrupted every few seconds by the panicked exclamations of Kim’s friends—all but Ryan, who sat near, quietly holding my hand.
“She doesn’t look good,” Ryan said. “Shouldn’t we do something?”
“You’re going to okay, Nina,” Kim said. “Hold on. They’re almost here.”
Jared leaned down to kiss my forehead, his lips as warm as his hands. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I knew something wasn’t right. I should’ve caught it… I should’ve known they…”
“They who?” Ryan asked.
My eyes felt too heavy to keep open, and I realized they were swelling shut. It became too painful to take a breath. Every muscle felt like it was spasming, every bone in pieces. I’d never been in so much pain in my life.
I was supposed to hold on, but I needed to rest. The only thing that felt good was being in the strong, warm arms of the man I’d just met. Even though my friends were begging me to stay, I fluttered my heavy eyes twice and then let them close.
Chapter Twenty
Jared
Claire watched me pace back and forth in the waiting room. Nina had been in surgery for half an hour, and I could feel every incision, every needle, every clamp, every suture. My shirt and jacket was still damp with her blood when her parents arrived, quickly followed by mine.
Cynthia Grey’s heels clicked down the hall, much more fearsome than the anger in Jack’s voice. Had she not subtly signaled for him to keep calm, he might’ve taken a swing at me.
“How is she?” my mother asked. My life depended on Nina’s survival, and although my mother loved Nina like one of her own, she undoubtedly worried she would lose us both.