When the light went green, I turned, figuring I’d head back to the clubhouse, and if he was still asleep after twenty minutes in the car, I’d try to pull into the garage and hope for the best.
The streets were quieter the closer we crept to home, the clubhouse in a nice part of town, but sparsely populated with older buildings and businesses rather than homes. The clubhouse itself was an old mechanic shop, the clubhouse having been added on. There were apartments across the street and at the end of the dead-end, but our neighbors on surrounding streets were mostly businesses, small factories, workshops, and places where goods were made in-store.
Thump.
The car jerked forward, my face hitting the wheel and splitting my lip open on impact. The pain was intense, my eyes instantly watering and my foot pressing on the brake so I could pull over.
What the hell was that?
Did I hit something?
Thump.
This time it was harder, the safety belt doing its job and locking into place across my chest, but still forcing the wind out of me. I looked up, catching sight of the car in my rearview mirror, blinking past the tears as I watched it speed toward me from behind.
“Oh God,” I cursed, moving my foot from the brake and pressing hard on the accelerator, my wheels spinning as they fought to catch traction on the road.
The car pulled away, our speed increasing down the empty back street, the smell of burning rubber irritating my nose, though that was the worst of my worries.
I wasn’t leaving these people behind.
They were catching up.
They were chasing me down.
My heart was in my throat as the car pulled out, its engine revving hard as it fought to pull up beside me. It was a newer car, much faster than mine, much more powerful. The shades at the front were pulled down, and I couldn’t see who was driving. Just the hands gripping the wheel, twisting at it, white-knuckled.
My eyes flicked back to Gage, the little man still sleeping peacefully while I struggled to think of what to do. I had to keep him safe. I had to be that momma bear he needed. There were cars coming toward us, yet my chaser was still pulling up beside us. I could see his hands on the wheel, gripping it with his fists together like he was going to make a hard tur—
No.
I slammed on my brakes and veered off to the side.
He jerked the wheel toward us, just skimming the door instead of the entire force of his vehicle being pushed through mine. It saved us from being put into a spin or being flipped over, but my maneuver propelling us up onto the curb on the other side of the road.
The pole appeared in a blink.
The airbag a moment later.
And that was it.
SHOTGUN
The scene was a fucking mess.
Shake, Slate, Kid, and Mix pulled up to the curb beside me, Adrian’s car squealing to a stop not far behind. I barely caught my bike on its stand, not giving a flying fuck if it toppled over in my rush to figure out just what the fuck was going on.
It was like the world around me was suddenly out of focus, and there were only two things I could see.
The officer holding Gage’s car seat.
And the mutilated car that had had an intimate meeting with a pole thirty feet down the street. Avery’s car.
Austin rushed over to meet me. “We got here first. Someone called to say two cars were racing down this street.”
“You think she was racing?” I spat, trying to step past him.
“No, I think she was being fucking chased.”
“Adrian, get Gage,” I yelled, pointing to my son while my feet carried me toward the car, where I could see a tuft of hair fluttering from the driver’s window. “Avery!” I roared, my heavy boots pounding against the road as I rushed toward the totaled vehicle.
“You need to wait for the fire brigade,” Austin snapped, attempting to step in front of me like it was going to fucking stop me from getting to my fucking woman. I slammed my hands against his chest, sending him stumbling backward, not giving a flying fuck if he was a police officer or not. “You need to leave her, Shotgun!”
Maybe I should have prepared.
Maybe I should have stopped and readied myself for seeing her like that.
Because it was going to haunt me.
It was going to plague my fucking nightmares and eat at me forever.
“Ave,” I hissed, acutely aware of the adrenaline that was pumping through me right now, making it so I could literally feel the blood rushing and whooshing through my veins. It was telling me to grab the fucking car door and rip it off its hinges. It was screaming at me to get her the fuck out of there because I could feel each second was getting a little closer to me losing the fucking woman I love.
“Baby…” I croaked and crouched down, so my eye line met hers. There was a streak of blood coming from her nose and smeared across her face where it looked like she’d tried to wipe at it. Her lip wasn’t much better off, with a split down the middle that was swollen and raw and looked like it might even need stitches.
The front of the car was pushed in from where she’d swerved off the road and hit a pole, forcing the steering wheel and motor toward her, pinning her against her seat. Not just that, though, the driver’s door had a huge scrape down the side, almost like the car that had run her off the road had aimed for the driver.
I better fucking be wrong.
Her eyes flickered, opening just enough so she could see me through her eyelashes. The single tear that slipped down the side of her face felt like a hand around my throat, squeezing, choking the fucking life from me. I reached out to brush it away—
“Stop! Don’t touch her,” Adrian snapped, throwing open the passenger’s door and scrambling in beside her, the guy completely ignoring the two cops who were chasing after him.
“That’s my fucking woman,” I snapped, clenching my jaw and curling my fingers into a fist, fully ready to layout anyone who stopped me from being with her.
Even my fucking nanny.
His eyes scanned Avery, completely ignoring me, which had become one of those things he seemed to do best. “And right now, she’s my patient, which means you need to calm the fuck down and go and be with your son, so I can help your woman stay alive.”
“We need to get her the fuck out,” I hissed, gripping the window frame, tiny shards of glass piercing my palms. “We need to get her out and to the hospital.”
“No, you need to leave her the fuck where she is and not move her,” Adrian argued, his tone sharp, but what was fucking new. “The wheel is pressing up into her torso, and for all we know, it’s the only thing keeping her from bleeding out if she has internal injuries.”
Bleeding.
Internal injuries.
I can’t lose her.
Avery’s chest was rising and falling, but only just. Each breath seemed like a struggle. Like her lungs were becoming smaller and smaller.
“Walk away, Shotgun,” Adrian ordered sternly, his eyes meeting mine. They were fierce with determination to get me to trust him, and maybe to keep me from seeing what could possibly be my destruction.
“Get the hell out of that car,” a cop snapped suddenly, rushing over from the cordon they were putting in and reaching into the car, grabbing Adrian’s collar. The kid swung his elbow back, collecting the deputy in the jaw.
“I’m a trained EMT,” Adrian threw back, the angry officer picking himself and his bleeding lip up off the ground, looking like he was ready to kill. “You want me to check her, or do you want to stand there and watch her fucking die? Because if that happens, I’ll make sure the entire world knows it was because of you.”