AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The ride was silent but comfortable. After our meeting with Porter and the subsequent body dumping of our little traitor, Dominic and I had found ourselves in a sort of easy peace.
While I’d been leaving my message on Porter, I thought Dominic would run—or maybe I was just expecting him to balk. Instead, he stood right by my side the whole time. It gave me hope for a future where we might actually have a chance with each other. I didn’t know if it was foolish to want him anymore, but hope was a fickle thing. It burrowed deep at the slightest chance of redemption and clung until it had to be pried off.
I wanted Dominic to prove me wrong. I wanted him to earn me back. I just wasn’t ready to admit it.
We were nearly home when his fingers creaked against the steering wheel and he cursed under his breath, a habit I noticed he’d taken up since moving in with us.
“What is it?” I said, instantly on alert.
“We’re being followed.”
With Ash’s car in clear view, I pulled out my phone, tapping a message to Greyson to get everyone we had ready in case we brought a fight to the mansion.
He called me immediately. “We sounded the alarm. You think they’re planning a shootout or something else?”
Something like a bomb in the car. It wasn’t the type of warfare we generally allowed in the city, but Cash was unhinged. I had a feeling nothing was off-limits to him.
Dominic answered for me. “Looks like surveillance, so let’s hope not.”
All of a sudden, the growl of a shitty engine echoed through the car. As it swerved around Dominic to pull up to our side, I grabbed my gun and climbed into the back seat so I could shoot without risking my driver. Before I could even roll down the window, the car raced off. “What the fuck are they doing?”
“Maybe they realized they were caught and wanted to get out while they could.”
It was possible, but it didn’t feel right.
It wasn’t.
One second, the shitty sedan was gunning it to get ahead of us. The next, it was driving straight for Aislynn. Metal groaned and tires squealed as the sedan T-boned her, shoving her over the sidewalk and into a telephone pole.
“Holy shit.” Dominic yanked the wheel to the side as I screamed into the phone. “Ash’s been hit!”
We’d barely stopped before I threw myself out of the SUV and ran straight for her, only pausing to make sure the other driver wasn’t about to shoot me. Blood dripped down the side of his unconscious head, though he was still breathing for now. He’d likely hit his head on the window or something. Frankly, I didn’t give a shit.
Motioning for Dominic to take care of him, I moved on. The slam of a body on the ground was music to my ears.
I stood parallel to Aislynn’s door, waiting for Dominic to finish. Logically, I knew it wasn’t a good idea to wait to check on her, but I didn’t want someone using the moment my back was turned into an ambush. Besides, fear rode me hard. I didn’t want to see Ash dead, and I was very, very worried that was the case.
Please let her be alive.
Finally, Dominic rushed over to me, gun in hand and warily eyeing the area. “I tied him up and put him in the trunk. How is she?”
“Keep an eye out while I check.”
He twisted immediately and shielded my body with his. My hackles rose, but I held down the urge to tell him to move. It was his job to keep me safe, and like he’d told me about Rey, he considered it an honor. My own issues were exactly that—mine. I had to get over them. Still hated it, though.
Aislynn’s driver’s side door was destroyed from impact and unopenable, so I opted for the passenger side instead, and there she was. Slumped over in her seat with the airbag deployed and blood trickling down her face from a cut at her hairline, she looked dead. For a moment, I panicked, but the sight of her chest moving with easy breaths hit me like a sucker punch.
“She’s alive.” My voice cracked, but I didn’t care. She was alive. That was all that mattered.
“Thank fuck,” Dominic murmured, his fingers squeezing my hand once like he knew how scared I’d been. He probably did.
I pulled a knife from my pocket and deflated the airbag before I cut off the seat belt. I knew it wasn’t smart, but I couldn’t leave her here. We were sitting ducks in the middle of the street. Another damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario I didn’t want to be in, but I figured Ash would prefer to be alive with any complications that might come from my involvement over being dead.
Before I could pull her all the way out, more footsteps arrived with the sound of colorful curses and snapping voices breaking through the strange silence that had somehow befallen the area. One voice echoed above the others.
“What the fuck happened to my wife?”
Again, all that rage, all that passion. I didn’t blame him. My cousin’s protective instincts were firing on all cylinders. He crept up behind me, and I didn’t have to see his face to know he went nuclear the second he saw the blood.
