Chapter 23 #3
I kept moving though pumping my arms like I was on the track field.
I didn’t know where I was going. My keys were buried beneath broken glass upstairs.
My phone lay somewhere on the apartment floor.
All I knew was that I needed distance between myself and Marv.
An engine roared behind me and I turned.
Marv’s car jerked away from the curb, with one tire dropping from the grass onto the pavement.
He leaned over the steering wheel, and his face was barely visible through the windshield as he cut across the lot.
For one terrified second, I thought he was coming toward me.
Instead, he swung wide and nearly struck a parked SUV before racing toward the exit.
People shouted as he passed, and someone threw both hands into the air as if that might slow him down.
I turned away and searched the parking lot for somebody safe.
That was when a black truck came speeding from the far end of the complex and I noticed it was Lev.
Relief hit me so hard my knees nearly gave way.
His truck cut around a row of parked cars far faster than anyone should have driven through the lot.
“Lev!” I waved both arms to make sure he saw me.
Through the windshield, I could see him leaning forward with his attention fixed on me.
The truck accelerated, closing the distance.
I started toward him then tires screamed somewhere to my left.
The sound was so sudden and violent that I turned without understanding why.
An old Impala flew over the speed bump instead of slowing down.
Its front end bounced hard, and sparks flashed beneath it as the undercarriage scraped the pavement.
For the smallest fraction of a second, I thought the driver had lost control, but the car wasn’t swerving it was aiming.
The voices around me seemed to stretch and fade.
I saw the grille rushing closer, saw the sunlight reflecting across the windshield, and then saw the silhouette behind the wheel and knew it was Rome.
His face looked nothing like the man I had once loved. His eyes were wide and dark, fixed on me with a hatred so deep it distorted everything familiar about him. Both hands were locked around the steering wheel, his body pitched forward as if he could force the car to go faster by leaning into it.
I tried to run but my bare foot slipped against the pavement.
The car struck me before I could take another full step.
The impact lifted my body from the ground.
Pain ripped through my hip and lower body, hotter and sharper than anything I had ever experienced.
My back slammed against the side of a parked car, and Rome’s front bumper crushed me between the two vehicles.
A scream ripped through the parking lot.
I couldn’t tell whether it came from me or from one of the people watching.
Metal groaned behind my back and pressure crushed my legs until it felt as though every bone below my waist had shattered at once.
I tried to move, but my body no longer obeyed me.
My palms struck uselessly against the hood while I fought for air.
Through the windshield, I saw Rome staring directly at me.
There was no shock in his face and no regret.
He meant to do it. The realization hurt in a place the car couldn’t reach.
Gunshots erupted and the first tore into the windshield near Rome’s head, spreading a web of white cracks across the glass.
Two more followed before he ducked. More bullets punched through the car as he threw it into reverse.
The vehicle jerked backward, releasing me so suddenly that my body collapsed toward the pavement.
My legs folded beneath me, and I landed hard on my side.
Rome’s tires spun against the ground. Smoke rose around them as he reversed, swung the back end into another vehicle, then sped toward the exit.
Gunfire followed him across the lot as people screamed and dropped behind cars.
Somebody shouted for Lev to stop shooting, while another voice yelled that an ambulance was already coming.
I tried to lift my head, but the world tilted around me. My ears rang, and every breath scraped through my chest. I couldn’t feel one of my legs. The other burned as if something had been poured inside it and set on fire.
“Navy!” Lev’s voice reached me before his face did.
He ran into view with the gun still in one hand with rage and terror across his expression as he dropped beside me. His hands hovered over my body. “Don’t move,” he said, though his own voice shook. “Don’t try to move.”
I opened my mouth, but blood and saliva had gathered inside it. “Lev…”
“I’m here.”
He slid one hand carefully beneath my head and lifted it from the pavement, placing my shoulders against his lap without moving the rest of me.
The warmth of him surrounded me. I wanted to tell him Marv attacked me.
I wanted him to know Rome had done this on purpose.
I wanted to ask whether my legs were still there because I couldn’t understand why one of them felt so far away from the rest of my body.
None of the words made it past the pain. Lev pressed his palm against the side of my face. “Look at me.”
I tried and his features were blurred, then sharpen for half a second, then dissolved again. “Stay with me, Navy.”
Sirens wailed somewhere beyond the complex. They might have been close or miles away. I couldn’t tell anymore as my eyelids grew heavy.
Lev tightened his hold around me. “No, don’t close your eyes. Look at me.”
“I’m tired,” I whispered.
“I know, but you gotta stay awake.”
Lev’s mouth continued moving, but his voice sounded farther away with every second. “Hold on,” he told me, cradling my face as though he could keep me there through the force of his hands alone. “You hear me? Hold on. I got you.”
I wanted to believe him, but the darkness closed around me before I could answer.