Chapter 20 #2
“Four hours.” It was amazing how that might once have seemed like so little, but after having Seraphina, four hours was a huge chunk. “I’ll take a nap later. I want to get her and go to the store.”
“Not alone.”
“My parents will come along.”
“Why don’t you wait and I’ll go for you later?”
“I don’t mind. Besides, we’re almost out of formula.”
“’Kay. As long as your dad goes too.”
“He will.”
Part of the reason I wanted to go alone to get Seraphina was because I wanted to tell them that Leo and I were engaged. Dad hadn’t warmed to Leo and the last thing I wanted was for him to react badly and piss Leo off.
“I’ll walk you out.” He shoved out of the bed, shuffling to the walk-in closet.
I took a long look at the globes of his ass before he disappeared, returning moments later in a pair of unbuttoned jeans. “I don’t have gas. Can I take your truck?”
He nodded and led me to the front door, handing over his keys. “Drive safe.”
“I will.” I kissed him and stepped outside into the beautiful morning, waving as he stood in the doorway.
He watched until I was in his truck and reversing out of the driveway.
The tinted windows didn’t seem this dark when I was riding in the passenger seat, but behind the wheel, I sat ramrod straight, not quite comfortable in such a large vehicle. Leo wouldn’t be angry if I ruined his truck, but he wouldn’t exactly be happy either.
By the time I’d navigated the neighborhood and made it to the highway, I’d relaxed some in the seat. I pushed the blinker and turned onto the road, pressing the gas pedal until the fields beside the road streaked by in a green blur.
A white sedan came up behind me, going much faster. I glanced at it as it zoomed around me, then rolled my eyes. “In a hurry much?”
I expected it to continue on its race to town, but the brake lights glowed red as they slowed way down. So slow that I had to hit my own brakes as I glanced at the speedometer, dropping fast.
“Seriously? It’s sixty-five, not thirty-five. What the hell? Why pass me?”
I held back, waiting to see if he or she would accelerate. I tried to look past the car, to see if they saw something I didn’t, like a police car or an animal on the road ahead. But there was nothing.
Finally, deciding this driver was a lunatic and I wanted nothing to do with them, I checked for oncoming traffic and moved to pass.
With both hands clutching the wheel, I zoomed up beside the car, only risking a quick glance.
Like mine, the car’s windows were tinted dark.
Plus with the height difference, I couldn’t see inside to the driver’s face.
I hit the gas, wanting to get around this guy, but the front of their car lurched forward.
They sped up as I sped up.
“Asshole.”
My heartrate quickened as I slammed my foot on the gas, the needle on the dash diving toward sixty and sending me back into the seat. Sixty became seventy. Then eighty. For every boost I gave my engine, the sedan kept pace, not letting me pass.
My hands were sticky and I didn’t breathe.
A car appeared in the opposite direction. My foot instantly came off the gas and toward the brake, tapping lightly.
I should have been able to ease into my lane, behind the white sedan. He should have zoomed away, the sick jerk. But as I slowed, he slowed.
“Stop.” I clutched the wheel, slamming harder on the brake and ready to swerve into the right lane. There was just enough room to do it. Almost.
The car slammed on its brakes too, blocking me.
And the other car was coming down the highway fast.
What did I do? I hit the brake again, trying to swerve. The white car blocked me again, trapping me in the wrong lane.
“Stop!” Another swerve and another block.
I swallowed hard, realizing that I was going to have to run him off the road. I readjusted my grip, not sure I had the guts to slam into another car. But it was me or him. I wasn’t getting in a head-on collision today.
I sucked in a breath, held it, ready to yank the truck toward his lane. I was braced for an impact that came from the wrong way. Maybe he’d known what I’d been about to do because he beat me to it.
The white car slammed into the truck’s side, keeping me on the wrong side of the dotted lines.
“No!” I screamed, holding the wheel as tight as I could. “Stop!”
The white car slammed into me again, our tires screeching on the asphalt.
The oncoming car flashed its lights at me. The sound of a horn blared in the distance. But the white car wasn’t letting me get over. So I did the only thing I could think of.
I yanked the wheel while slamming my foot into the gas and careened off the highway in the other direction.
The oncoming car’s grill missed me by what seemed only inches. The truck dropped with a hard, jolting lurch into the ditch that lined the highway. A loud crunch filled the air, followed a split-second later by the pop of the airbags exploding.
The one that blew out of the steering wheel caught my face and shoulders, pinning me into the seat.
I gasped for air, trapped and terrified. My hands fumbled for the door handle, skimming along the window until I found it and shoved hard to escape. My entire body trembled as I squeezed out of the truck, falling too far to the ground. I collapsed onto my knees, close to the hissing engine.
Oh, God. I sucked in some air, my head spinning. Oh my God.
Leo. I needed Leo. My phone was on the floor of the truck. I shoved to my feet and stretched for it before crawling out of the ditch, my hands and knees dirty.
Other cars had stopped now. A man was jogging toward me while another flagged traffic to slow.
“Miss.” He rushed to me, taking me by the elbow to help me to my feet.
I kept my back to the truck. I couldn’t look at it. I couldn’t see the damage. “He didn’t let me pass.”
“What?”
I cleared my throat. “The white car. He didn’t let me pass.”
“What white car?”
I glanced around, still not risking a glance at the truck, but out of all the cars parked on the side of the road, there was no white car.
“Call an ambulance,” the man shouted.
A woman across the street beside a minivan nodded and pressed her phone to her ear.
I raised a shaking hand to my mouth, holding it there for a moment. Then I pressed my own phone to my ear and called Leo.
“Babe.”
“I was in an accident.” My voice cracked.
“What? Where are you?” There was a rustling sound, probably him crawling out of bed.
“On the highway.”
“Don’t move.”
He made it to me a minute after the ambulance had arrived. The EMTs had just escorted me to the back of the ambulance when I heard the roar of his bike.
I spun away from the EMTs and ran down the shoulder of the road. I ran as fast as my weak legs could carry me, tears breaking free and falling down my face.
Leo parked and was off his bike in a flash, striding toward me with his arms outstretched. The second I hit his chest, he wrapped me up tighter than he’d ever held me before.
And I cried.
The adrenaline. The fear. It hit me like a tidal wave and if not for his arms, I would have fallen.
“Breathe.”
I tried but it only worked another sob loose.
“You’re okay.”
Was he telling me? Or himself?
“You’re okay.” His hand stroked the back of my head. He kept it there, holding me to him like he did with Seraphina at times.
“Oh, God. Seraphina.” She could have been with me. She could have been in her car seat.
“She’s safe.”
“I was going to get her,” I cried.
“She’s safe. So are you. Breathe, Cass. You need to breathe so you can tell me what happened.”
I nodded and dragged in a breath. It took five of them until I could speak. Even then, my recount of what had happened came with hitches. By the time I’d explained it all, most of the cars that had pulled off the road were starting to disappear, people going on about their Sunday.
Two police cars were parked beside the truck where it rested in the ditch. The ambulance’s lights were flashing and the EMTs hovered a few feet away.
“Did you get checked out?”
I shook my head. “No, but I’m fine.”
“I’d like to hear that from one of them.” Leo clasped my hand and led me to the ambulance. He helped me inside the back, where an EMT checked me over and, when she’d determined that I was fine, let me go to speak to the police officers.
I told them my story again, adding in details like the make and model of the car when asked and how fast we’d been going.
“You didn’t catch the license plate, did you?”
“No.” I shook my head. “Sorry. I just tried to pass him and then he blocked me. Or she. I don’t know. I couldn’t see inside the car. They had tinted windows too.”
“And you’re sure they passed you first?”
“Yes. I’m sure. They passed me first.”
The officer made a few more notes, then promised to call me if they found the white car. He didn’t give me a ticket, though I suspected that was because Leo had made sure to drop Luke’s name when the officers had introduced themselves. Maybe a reckless driving ticket would show up in the mail.
I didn’t know how these things worked—I’d never gotten a ticket before.
We were done with our questions when the tow truck arrived, and as they winched the truck out of the ditch, I had no choice but to stand beside Leo and watch.
“It’s totaled,” I whispered, a new sheen of tears in my eyes. His brand-new truck, ruined.
“Not totaled.” He clasped my hand. “It can be fixed. What matters is that you’re okay.”
The front was dented everywhere. The side where the white car had slammed into me was scraped and buckled.
“I’m sorry.”
“Hey.” He turned me into his arms. “I don’t give a damn about that truck. You are all that matters. This wasn’t your fault.”
“No, it was that bastard’s fault.” I swiped my face, refusing to let any more tears fall. I clung to my rage instead, letting it keep me strong.
Leo nodded, his eyes narrowing on the truck.
“What?”
“This is too many accidents.” He shook his head, running a hand over his goatee. “First, my brakes. Then that bitch at the bar who drugged me. Then the jack at the garage and—”
“Wait. What jack at the garage?”
“Fuck,” he muttered. “I was going to tell you. It happened a couple of weeks ago.”
My stomach dropped. “What happened?”
“There was an accident at the garage. A jack broke. I was under the car but got out in time.”
All of the blood drained from my head and my knees gave out.
“Whoa.” Leo caught me before I could fall. “Breathe, babe. Breathe.”
So much for my anger keeping me upright.
I closed my eyes and breathed. When I felt steady again, I opened my eyes and swallowed hard, repeating what he’d just said.
“This is too many accidents.”