Chapter 1 #3
“I’ll be back that way in half an hour. I promise. Unless somethin’s wrong,” I told him, glancing at my sister. The last thing I wanted was to cut this short because Travis was on edge. I’d placated him enough these past few months.
His tone was a tad calmer when he said, “It’s important. We’re with Brantley, Reese, and Sheriff Endsley.”
Okay, so that got my attention. “What happened? Are the kids—”
“No. No, the kids are fine. Everyone’s fine.”
Knowing that insisting he let me have a few more minutes would only set his panic train loose on the rails, I decided it was in everyone’s best interest if I gave in.
“Okay. We’ll start that way. Give me just a few minutes to get there.”
“All right. We’ll stay here.”
The call disconnected, and I exhaled, trying to keep my cool. I was used to Travis’s panic, and while most of the time I shrugged it off, I would admit that I was grateful that he was paying so much attention. For that brief time Kate had been gone…
I hated thinking about that day. The fear had been a consistent throb in my chest. Not knowing where my daughter was, if she was okay… That pain had been more than I could bear.
So, yeah. I was going to give in to my husband’s worry and head that way, give him the peace he was seeking.
After clearing our table, I followed Jess out into the gloomy mid-afternoon.
Despite the lack of sunshine, there were people everywhere.
Some lingering near the few stores that ran the length of Main Street, others hanging out in Walker Park.
The good news was, there were a lot of familiar faces, ones who would be keeping an eye on my kids and everyone else’s, ensuring that what happened to Kate wouldn’t happen to anyone else. Not today, anyway.
“I’m good if you are,” Jess said, gesturing toward the park.
“I’d be good if I could spend a couple of hours at the spa,” I told her as I stepped down off the curb.
“Oh, God. The spa. That would be—”
The throaty roar of an engine drowned out the rest of my sister’s sentence. It sounded far too loud, definitely too close.
I didn’t even have a chance to step back, to return to the safety of the sidewalk, before I was hit by a wall of metal.
My brain scrambled to make sense of what was going on while pain raged like an inferno inside my body.
Surprise kept me focused on the car that hit me, the one that had me pinned against a small SUV.
I tried to breathe as I stared into the eyes of the devil.
I knew instantly who she was. I even knew why she’d hit me.
Hell, I could see the retribution in her eyes as a morbid smile formed on her mouth.
It wasn’t until Juliet Prince put the car in reverse, unpinning me from the SUV, that my vision began to fade at the edges.
At that point, I was overwhelmed by fear and noise.
People were shouting, some screaming. It was all I could do to focus on them and not the blistering agony that tore through my body.
“Call 911!”
“Oh, my God! It hit her! The car! It hit her!”
And then Jessie’s tormented scream. “Help! Please! Someone help my sister!”
I tried to breathe, but the pain was consuming me, taking over, obliterating all efforts my brain attempted to make. I’d never felt anything like it. It was excruciating, and I couldn’t pinpoint where it was coming from. My entire body hurt.
“It went that way!”
“Travis!” I heard my sister sobbing. “Oh, God, Travis! She … she’s…”
And then Travis was there. In my mind, I reached for him, but that was the extent of it. I couldn’t move, and my chest felt tight.
“Kylie. Kylie, baby.”
Please God, don’t take me yet. I’m not ready to go. I don’t want to leave them.
“Oh, God.” The torment in his voice told me everything I didn’t want to know. “It’s gonna be all right. Open your eyes, Kylie. Open ’em for me, darlin’.”
Where’s Gage? I need…
“Oh, shit! No!”
My heart squeezed at the anguish I heard in his voice. It had to be bad. Gage wasn’t known to overreact. And that meant…
“It came outta nowhere,” Jessie said, her voice hysterical. “Kylie stepped out … then it was there… Help her,” she pleaded. “Please … please help her.”
Yes. Help me. I don’t want to die today. I want more time with my babies, my husbands. I can’t leave them now. I’ll miss them too much. Please, God. Please don’t take me yet.
“The ambulance is on its way,” someone called out. “Is there a doctor here? A nurse?”
“Kylie,” Travis rasped. “Open your eyes, baby.”
I tried, but I couldn’t. I wanted to see his face, wanted…
“She’s got a pulse, but it’s weak.”
“We’ve got to clear this road for the ambulance. ETA is two minutes.”
A strange sense of peace fell over me, and while I didn’t want to leave them, I suddenly realized it was no longer my choice.
The pain was fading. In its place, a soothing sense of nothingness.
And I knew, sure as I knew that I loved my husbands and my kids, that I was dying.
I couldn’t even muster the strength to open my eyes and say goodbye.
“It’s okay, baby,” Gage whispered. “Hang on, Kylie. Help’s comin’.”
Maybe. But it wasn’t going to get here in time.