28. Reyna
CHAPTER 28
My pulse has skyrocketed, and it’s all I can do to keep the car on the road. Liam is in the passenger seat, his gun pointed directly at me. Palms sweaty, I grip the steering wheel, my thoughts running a million miles a minute.
Will Jaxson survive?
Silas?
What will Michael do when he discovers I’m gone?
“It was you, wasn’t it? The one that called and breathed on the phone?” I ask.
“I had to hear your voice once more after our date. I needed it.”
“Why are you doing this?”
“I’ve already told you. I’m saving your life.”
“By kidnapping me?”
“You don’t understand, Reyna. My brother is a killer. He ripped me out of my freshman year of college and forced me to join his business. He threatened me with the lives of my friends if I didn’t cooperate. And when he was busted for drugging that girl’s drink—” Liam trails off. “I thought I was finally free. That I could put the past behind me…but then Zeke came and he ruined everything!” He yells the words, the calm, sweet man I’d come to know no longer present.
It's like a switch flipped in his brain and suppressed the normalcy I’d seen. “You could do what’s right, though. You could testify against Zeke and then go back to your life.” I risk glancing over at him.
He’s eyeing me with frustration, as though there are pieces of the puzzle I’m failing to put together. “You don’t understand. You don’t get it. How could you?”
“Then explain it to me. Make me understand.”
“The things I’ve done would land me in prison for the rest of my life. There would be no second chance for me. There is no second chance for me.”
“But there is. Everyone gets a second chance.”
“I’m not religious, so you can save that particular speech.”
“Liam—”
“That’s not my name. You don’t call me that anymore.”
“Then what is your name?” Keep him talking until you have a better plan. I try to run through my options. I could crash the car, but the highway out of town is notoriously quiet. It could be thirty minutes before someone finds us, and by then—who knows if he’ll let me live.
“Wesley,” he replies. “My name is Wesley. That’s what you’ll call me from now on.” He reaches over and strokes the side of my cheek. “You captivated me from the first time we met. So kind. So wholesome. You’ve never done anything bad in your life, have you?” Withdrawing his hand, he looks back out the window, though he keeps the firearm trained on me. “I was drawn to your goodness, Reyna. Because I think it might be able to hide my darkness.”
I could almost feel bad for him. Almost. “You shot my friend.”
“He was in the way.”
“Is that what you’re going to do to me? If I don’t listen to you?”
“No,” He appears genuinely horrified. “I would never hurt you, Reyna. You have to believe that.”
“But you let the others hurt me,” I tell him, my stomach churning. Bile rises in my throat as I consider all the things he could do to me if we arrive wherever we’re headed. “You didn’t warn me that they were coming.”
“I tried to protect you! I told Zeke you didn’t know anything! It would have been okay. We could have left sooner, but Michael got in the way.” He shakes his head. “He put you in danger.”
“Michael saved me.”
“Michael kept you from me. Because of that, I couldn’t warn you. Not without raising his suspicions.”
“Liam—”
“Wesley!” he interrupts.
“Wesley. We can do the right thing. Please. Put the gun away, and let’s go back to Hope Springs. We can meet with the sheriff, and you can tell him everything.”
“No. It’s too late.”
“What do you mean?”
“Zeke is going to send people to Hope Springs to kill you and that team that’s been protecting you.”
Gone is the nausea, replaced with bone-chilling fear. Lance. Eliza. Elijah. Andie. Jaxson. Silas and his daughter. Michael… Are they truly all at risk? “Please let me go back.” Tears blur my vision. “Please let me warn them.”
“I’ll let you make one call when we get to where we’re going,” he says. “If it’s not too late, then you can give them a heads up.”
A truck comes over the ridge overhead and hope burns inside of me. I could scream out the window. Wave. Do something that causes the driver to realize something is wrong. My gaze lands on the lever that turns on the high beams.
I glance over at Wesley, who’s staring out the window.
I inch my hand closer to the lever and pull it. Multiple times. Over and over again. And then they get closer, passing by and giving me a view of the driver.
Michael.
It’s only a heartbeat as he passes by me, but our gazes lock, and the moment he’s passed, I glance up in the rearview mirror as the truck brakes hard and spins back toward us.
“What did you do?” Wesley turns to look behind us. “You’re going to make me kill them. That’s what you’re going to do.”
I have a heartbeat to make a choice.
And I decide that giving Wesley something else to focus on is worth the risk to my life.
I turn the wheel hard, veering off the road.
“Get back on the highway!” Wesley roars.
And then the car slams into a tree.
Pain shoots through me, coming from every possible inch of my body as it’s battered by the crushing of metal. I’m smacked in the face by the deploying airbags, powder filling my lungs, and I cough.
“Stupid!” Wesley roars. He slams the gun into the side of my head. “What were you thinking?”
I look over at him, turning my face and smiling as I see Michael rip his door open and yank Wesley free. He pins him to the truck and knocks the gun from his hand.
“Hey, Reyna.”
I shift my attention to my side as Lance pulls my door open. “He’s coming for all of you,” I choke out.
“Who?” he asks.
“Zeke. He’s sending men to Hope Springs. Eliza. Andie. Jaxson. Silas. They’re all at risk.” Tears blur my vision.
“They’re going to be fine,” Lance says. “We need to get you looked at.”
“Paramedics are on their way,” Elijah tells me.
“Call Andie. Have her get Eliza and Silas’s daughter up to the hospital. Sheriff Vick has deputies there with Jaxson and Silas, so they’ll be safe.”
Elijah doesn’t ask for clarification, just taps on the screen of his phone again.
“Okay. Can you hear me okay?” Lance asks.
“Yes. But I can’t move.” I try to shift out of my seat, but the dash has accordioned over my lap, pinning my legs beneath the steering wheel.
“It’s okay. We’re going to get you out.” He glances to his left, then moves out of the way, and Michael comes into view. He kneels beside me.
“Hey, baby. How are you doing?” His tone is soft, but his expression is all worry.
“I’m okay. Did you get him?” Exhaustion sneaks up on me, almost pushing the pain away from the forefront of my mind. I’m so tired. So worn out.
“I got him. That was smart. Dangerous. But smart.”
I smile softly. “I knew you would save me.”
“Always.” He tries to tug the steering wheel, but it doesn’t budge. “What hurts?”
“Nothing right now,” I say honestly because my entire body seems to have gone numb.
“Reyna, I need you to stay awake. Can you do that?” He looks over at Elijah. “How long until the ambulance?”
“Should be any minute.”
“Can you pray with me? I don’t want to die, Michael. I want to stay with you.”
“You’re not going to die.” Michael’s voice is strangled, and I glance up as Lance and Elijah both move in closer and place their hands on Michael’s shoulders. He touches what’s exposed of my arm since my hands are pinned.
Lance clears his throat. “Dear Lord, we come to You now, begging You to give Reyna the strength to pull through this. God, we thank You for getting us to her when we did. Please, Lord. Bring her through this. Amen.”
As Lance finishes the prayer, a car screeches to a stop. “Bianca is here.” Elijah turns away.
“Bianca. I like her,” I say.
Bianca’s familiar face comes into view. “Reyna, you and these near-death experiences. You gotta stop, girl. We can’t be friends if you die on me.” She shines a light on my eyes. “We can’t move her until they get here with the stretcher.”
“How did you beat the ambulance?”
“I was already in my car when Elijah called. And I can drive faster.”
“Michael, Liam is Willy’s brother.” I close my eyes for a moment, my breathing getting more and more difficult with every passing second. I try to move again, to alleviate at least some of the building pressure in my chest.
“Stay still,” Bianca tells me.
“You can tell me everything later, okay, baby? Right now we need to get you out.”
“I love you,” I tell him, my eyelids drooping. “I love you, Michael.”
“I love you, too,” he says. “Hang on just a bit longer, okay? Don’t give up on me, Reyna Acker. We’re just getting started.”
Sirens echo in the distance, and I lose the fight with consciousness, letting myself slip into blackness.