36. Chapter 36
Chapter thirty-six
JUDE GRAVES
Snow blurs across the windshield as I force the SUV around another sharp turn, tires skidding against ice before catching again with a sickening jerk. It’s a wonder we haven’t fucking died yet. The engine roars beneath me while headlights slash through the darkness behind us.
Everything inside the vehicle smells like blood.
Micah’s, it’s…it’s everywhere.
Nico’s hands are covered in it. Kieran is trying to keep pressure against the wound while Micah drifts in and out across the backseat, his breathing wet and uneven enough that every sound coming out of him makes my stomach twist harder.
“Stay with me,” Heather keeps pleading shakily from the speaker of Nico’s phone, her voice cracking apart through static because she’s still connected to us. “Micah, listen to me. Stay awake.”
“I’m awake,” he mumbles weakly.
He absolutely fucking isn’t.
Rafe is barely in better shape beside me. Blood keeps slipping between Adela’s fingers where she presses against the gunshot wound near his shoulder and neck while she straddles him. She braces herself on his lap every time I take another dangerous turn.
“Eyes on the road,” Rafe grits out.
“I have eyes on the road,” I snap back automatically.
But my attention keeps splitting anyway between the road, the mirrors, the headlights behind us, the phone, and the road again. The second my cell starts vibrating in the cupholder, I grab it without hesitation.
Emma answers immediately. “Jude.”
Relief punches through me. “Where the fuck are you? I don’t see your car, and our call dropped.”
Her breathing is uneven, rushed by adrenaline. “We’re okay. Adriana stopped the SUV and pushed Heather and I into the woods.”
My grip on the steering wheel tightens. “What?”
“She said we’d be safer hidden.” Snow crunches loudly beneath her footsteps through the phone. “Jude, she just drove away.”
A cold feeling crawls up my spine. “What do you mean she drove away?”
“I don’t know,” Emma admits, panic beginning to edge into her voice now. “She just...she looked at the cars following you and made us get out.”
Behind me, Micah groans loudly in pain.
Nico curses. “He’s bleeding through everything.”
“Fuck,” Kieran breathes.
I shove harder on the gas. The mansion. We just have to get back to the fucking mansion. Then another call suddenly flashes across the dashboard screen.
Adriana.
Every muscle in my body locks.
Emma picks up on the silence instantly. “What is it?”
“I’ll call you right back, baby. Please, stay hidden. I love you,” I say, answering the new call. “Adriana, what the fuck are you doing?”
For a moment, all I hear is shaky breathing. Then her voice finally comes through, quieter than this moment calls for. “I dropped them in the treeline before the little bridge,” she says. “They’re safe.”
The words don’t help because she’s pissed me off.
Headlights flare behind us again as the two SUVs tear down the snowy road, close enough now that I can see armed silhouettes moving inside them.
“What are you doing?” I repeat, harsher this time as I struggle to stay on the road. “Why the fuck did you leave my girl outside? If they get to her and hurt her, I’ll fucking kill you.”
Micah suddenly chokes on a breath behind me, pain ripping through the sound.
Heather’s horrified voice crackles through the phone speaker from Emma’s side. “Micah?”
“We need to get him back,” Adriana says quickly, like she’s running out of time. “You need to save him.”
A terrible feeling settles into my chest. “Where are you?”
Adela slowly lifts her head from Rafe’s shoulder, her expression shifting as she listens.
“I’m sorry,” Adriana whispers.
Snow lashes harder against the windshield while I grip the wheel so tightly my knuckles ache. “For what?”
“For everything.” The words come out broken now. “For all of it. For not stopping sooner.”
I freeze, the realization beginning to crawl up my throat, my pulse hammering beneath my ribs.
“I don’t expect you to forgive me,” she continues shakily, almost like she can’t even hear me anymore. “I can’t forgive myself either.”
The road bends sharply ahead, and then headlights appear in the distance.
Fast.
Coming directly toward us.
My stomach drops so hard I could vomit. “Adriana,” I say slowly.
No answer. But the headlights grow larger, brighter, faster.
“Is that you?”
Adela suddenly twists around toward the windshield, horror spreading across her face as realization slams into her, too. “Oh, my god.”
Rafe’s head snaps upward despite the blood loss.
“Hey!” I bark. “Don’t do this.”
Her breathing catches softly through the phone. “Death’s been demanding my soul for years now, Jude.”
Ice floods my veins.
“You need to save Micah. Don’t you dare let him die, okay?
” She’s sobbing now, each word breaking apart.
“You may not realize it, but you two kept me alive longer than I deserved. I wish I could take it all back. Every horrible thing I did to you. Every time I hurt you because I was hurting.” A strangled sound leaves her throat. “God, Jude, I’m so sorry.”
The approaching headlights are almost on us now, flying down the snowy road with terrifying speed while the SUVs behind us continue pursuing, too focused on our vehicle to understand what’s happening.
“She’s going to hit them,” Adela whispers.
Tears are audible in Adriana’s voice. “When this is over, I need you to keep living, okay?” she says. “Not surviving. Living.”
My chest tightens.
“I mean it. I need you to wake up next to Emma every morning and tell her how much she means to you. I need you to make music again. I need you to have the life they tried to beat out of you.”
The words tear straight through me. “Stop the fucking car!”
“Just—listen to me.” Her voice cracks completely. “When you look at her, don’t spend the rest of your life wondering if you deserve her after everything you’ve done.”
I can’t breathe.
“Because you do.”
Silence hangs between us for a fraction of a second. Then she laughs through her tears. It’s a broken, exhausted sound.
“And, Jude? I just...” Her voice breaks apart entirely. “I just wanted you to know that I—”
She cuts herself off, like she can’t bear to finish the sentence.
But I know.
Fuck.
I know exactly what she almost said.
My throat constricts as her headlights explode toward us. Then her SUV barrels past mine.
“Adriana!” The scream rips out of me just as the world detonates behind us.
The impact is catastrophic. Metal shrieks so loudly it feels deafening as her SUV collides head-on with the first pursuing vehicle at full speed.
The explosion of force launches both SUVs sideways across the icy road, while the second vehicle slams directly into the wreckage a heartbeat later.
Fire erupts instantly. Orange flames burst upward into the darkness, swallowing twisted metal while debris scatters across the snow in burning fragments.
Adela gasps in horror.
Rafe goes dead silent.
Behind me, Micah stops making noise altogether.
Everything…slows.
In the rearview mirror, I watch the vehicles roll together toward the trees before slamming into them hard enough to shake the ground beneath us.
Then comes the explosion. The sound tears through the night like the end of the fucking world, and flames roar skyward.
Smoke pours into the snow-filled air, and Adriana Britton disappears forever inside the fire.
My chest caves inward. For one impossible second, I can’t breathe. I can’t fucking process what I just watched happen behind me.
She’s dead. Adriana’s dead.
Then Micah suddenly makes a horrible choking sound from the backseat, and reality slams back into me.
“He’s crashing!” Nico shouts.
“Jude!” Rafe snaps sharply.
I blink once. Twice. And then I force my shaking hands tighter around the wheel.
I need to save them.
My jaw locks as I wrench the SUV around the next turn toward the woods where Emma and Heather were left behind, flames still burning in the rearview mirror like a scar carved into the dark.
***
Micah is barely conscious by the time I pull the SUV to where Emma and Heather are waiting.
My girl is clutching Heather’s hand as they stumble out of the darkness between the trees, both of them shaking from cold and shock.
Relief crashes through me when I see that she’s okay.
I throw the SUV into park and shove the door open before we’ve even fully stopped.
Emma reaches me first, crashing into my chest. “What happened?” she demands breathlessly, snow clinging to her hair and lashes. “What was that explosion?”
I stare at her. My chest still hasn’t recovered from watching the fire swallow Adriana.
Behind me, Micah makes another awful choking sound from the backseat.
Heather tears past us toward him, panic replaced by clinical focus the second she sees the amount of blood soaking through Nico’s hands and Kieran’s jacket. “Oh my god,” she breathes.
Emma’s eyes snap back to me. “Jude.”
I don’t know how to say it. “She drove into them,” I finally manage, my voice rough. “Adriana drove straight into the cars behind us. She’s dead.”
Emma stills completely. Her hand rises over her mouth as the reality settles, disbelief giving way to horror. “Oh, god,” she whispers. But there isn’t time for grief, because she regains composure and rushes past me towards our best friend.
“Get in the car,” I tell her, sliding back behind the wheel. “We have to get back to the mansion.”
Heather is already climbing into the backseat beside Micah, her trembling hands moving fast as she assesses the wound. Blood coats her fingers, soaking through everything she tries to press against his side.
“Micah.” Her voice cracks hard enough to make my stomach twist. “Micah, stay awake for me. I’m here.”
His head lolls weakly toward her, eyes barely open beneath heavy lids. “Tryin’,” he mumbles.