Chapter 15
T ears blurred the road in front of Polly, but she blinked them away.
Dammit, she didn’t want to cry. She wanted to be angry—angry at herself for breaking her own rules, angry that the first man she’d let in had hurt her, angry that she’d made herself vulnerable, only to have her heart stomped on.
A tear slipped down her cheek and she scrubbed it away.
The gray sky darkened above and raindrops hit her windshield. She didn’t know where she was going, just…away. Away from him and his house and the devastation that was pressing on her chest.
Stupid. She felt so incredibly stupid . Her entire life, her mother’s example had trained her, drilled into her, that nothing good came from trusting a man. And even less came from falling for them.
Yet here she was, heart ripped from her chest because for a fleeting moment, she’d done everything she knew she shouldn’t.
She punched the wheel as if violence could fix this. Dull the pain or at least make it lessen. It didn’t.
Her phone vibrated from the middle console. She told herself not to look. She screamed it in her head. But she did anyway.
His name flashed across the screen. And even now, even after she’d just learned he had a damn fiancée, she still wanted to hear his voice.
What was wrong with her? Was it genetic? As a Mack, was she just destined to love and then hurt?
She tightened her fingers around the wheel to stop from answering the call. When it finally stopped ringing, she wasn’t sure if she was happy or not. Did she want to hear his side? Did she want to know why he hadn’t told her he was engaged?
The phone rang again.
And this time, she didn’t have the strength to stop herself. She hit the Bluetooth key on her car. “Why?”
“Polly—”
“Why date me? Why let me love you if you were engaged?”
Love. Shit . She loved him. And she’d just released that confession into the world.
More tears built in her eyes.
“Sunshine—”
“Don’t call me that!”
“We’re not engaged.”
She laughed, the sound loud and wild. Because she’d met other men who did this. Those who’d been caught in their own web of lies and, even then, couldn’t summon the truth. “Was it your grandmother’s ring she was wearing?”
“Yes, but?—”
“And she believes you’ve been engaged since you were kids.”
“Yes, she believed that?—”
“And she was in your house . Was she the call you canceled the other day at your work? The one I asked you about and you didn’t tell me?”
He hesitated.
“She was,” Polly breathed, the words hissing from between her teeth.
Headlights appeared behind her.
“My mother gave her that ring, not me,” Joel pushed. “Where are you? I’ll come to you. I don’t want to have this conversation over the phone.”
“Well, until now, you didn’t want to have it in person either. You should have told me.”
“I should have.”
High beams suddenly blinded her from behind. She cursed, instinctively speeding up to escape the light.
“What’s wrong?” Joel asked.
The car behind her sped up too. Then the driver obviously pressed their hand to the horn and left it there.
What the hell was their problem?
“Polly?” Joel’s voice was barely audible over the blaring horn. “Are you okay?”
“I—”
The high beams started to flash on and off. That, in combination with the horn, disorientated her.
“Joel…I think someone’s trying to run me off the road.” Her chest started to heave with panting breaths, and she sped up again. She’d lost track of where she was and didn’t even know how fast she was driving.
Joel said something, but she couldn’t hear him over the horn behind her, the driver now too close.
The car suddenly veered to the left, sped up, and tapped her left rear bumper.
Her car spun. The tree appeared in front of her. Instinctively, she swung the wheel, heart hammering against her ribs. Her car jerked sideways, tires squealing.
Then the world tilted as the car flipped, a sickening weightlessness rolling through her belly.
The seat belt bit into her shoulder and the world spun, a blur of lights flashing through her vision.
Her head crashed against something hard and pain cut through her skull. For a second, everything was loud and moving, then, in the blink of an eye, it all went black.
“Polly? Talk to me! Are you there?”
Silence.
Fear choked Joel. Because he knew exactly what he’d just heard—a car crash.
Polly’s car had crashed.
Fuck!
He hung up and pushed his foot to the floor, speeding down the road as he called Ryan.
The team leader answered on the first ring. “Joel?—”
“I need the entire team on the road, looking for Polly.”
Movement sounded over the line. “Why? What happened?”
“Someone ran her off the road, and now she’s not talking.”
“Contacting the team now.”
He hung up. Where would she have been headed? Back to her house? No. She didn’t like being alone when she was upset. She said it was too quiet and empty.
Her mother’s house?
She wouldn’t have gone there either. She and her mother didn’t have that kind of relationship.
But Polly and Maggie did.
He spun the truck around and hit Maggie’s number on his cell.
She answered right away. “Hey, Joel. Is everything okay?”
“Has Polly contacted you?”
“When?”
“Just now.” He took a right.
“No. Why?”
“I think she was heading toward you before she was run off the road.”
Maggie gasped. “I’ll go and look?—”
“Wait. Is Ethan with you?”
“No.”
“Then stay home. Don’t go alone.” If something happened to Maggie, it would destroy Ethan.
“But I can help.”
“No. Just stay there. We’ll keep you updated.”
He hung up and pressed his foot harder to the gas, because dammit, what if this was the killer? What if they’d caused her to crash her car as a means to take her? Would she end up like the other women? The ones they’d found in the river? Or the women in the old mansion?
His gut squeezed so fucking tight, pain rippled through his body.
No. She wouldn’t end up like them. He wouldn’t lose her. He couldn’t.
He drove so fast, he doubled the speed limit.
Suddenly he spotted her Subaru. It was upside down near the tree line, smoke coming from the hood.
Polly …
He couldn’t breathe. For a moment, he couldn’t suck in a single breath. He wanted to be sick, and punch something, and slam his foot on the brake to run to her all at once.
Was she in there? Was she hurt? Or had she been taken?
The last short stretch of road felt like miles.
His truck had barely stopped when he was out and running, closing the small distance between him and the car before skidding to his knees.
She was there. Polly was in the car. But she was upside down and her eyes were closed.
He spoke to her through the shattered glass. “Can you hear me, Sunshine?”
Her eyelids fluttered but didn’t open. She was alive. Thank God.
He forced his SEAL training to take over. Not tactics or procedures, but the discipline to stay calm. To think and assess without panic.
He tried the driver’s-side door, but it was jammed. Instead, he slipped into the broken window, ignoring the shards of glass cutting into him.
The seat belt was the only thing keeping her suspended.
“I’m getting you out of here, Polly.” He eased an arm around her back, slowly taking the weight of her body as it settled against him. Only when he was sure he had her secure did he hit the latch. It clicked open, and she slumped into his arms.
She didn’t fall or drop—he had full control, easing her onto the roof of the vehicle.
A breathy whimper slipped from her throat.
“I’ve got you,” he whispered.
Tires squealed somewhere behind them, like someone was pulling up.
Carefully, he shifted out of the window, shielding her body from the sharp shards. It was awkward and slow going in the small space, but he’d gotten people out of even smaller areas.
The second they cleared the vehicle, he lifted her, cradling her to his chest.
“You got her?” Ethan asked as he rushed over, studying Polly.
“Yeah. I’m getting her to the hospital.”
“I’ll drive.” Ethan hurried back to his truck. “You sit with her in the back.”
Polly’s breath whispered against his collarbone as he raced to Ethan’s truck.
The drive to the hospital felt too long. Every second felt like ten, the minutes like hours.
As soon as they stepped through the doors, nurses rushed toward them. He lay Polly on a gurney and had to watch helplessly as she was rushed into the ER.
His feet itched to move. To go with her. Because how the hell was he supposed to wait here? How was he supposed to just hope that she was okay when he’d almost lost her?