Page 89 of Maddening Fixation

Romeo Flynn.

My future husband.

The words still felt absurd.

Then came Yarina’s face.

The fury. The tears.

The threat.

I tightened my grip on the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white.

Streetlights blurred across the windshield as I followed the familiar route to the park where the picnic was being held.

Then—

A deafening truck horn tore through the evening.

My head snapped toward the intersection.

A massive tractor-trailer was hurtling through the red light.

It wasn’t slowing down.

The trailer suddenly jackknifed, folding sharply behind the cab before skidding sideways across the rain-slick asphalt. The screech of twisting metal split the air.

For one frozen heartbeat, all I could see was a towering wall of steel racing straight toward me.

Instinct took over.

I yanked the steering wheel hard to the left.

My tires screamed across the pavement as the car lurched sideways. The trailer swept so close to my passenger side that the violent rush of air rocked the entire vehicle.

Somehow...

It missed me.

My sedan shot over the curb instead, bounced across the grassy verge, and slammed into a low concrete barrier. Metal shrieked against stone as a shower of sparks exploded outside my window.

The steering wheel bucked violently beneath my hands.

I fought to keep control.

The car skidded another several yards before shuddering to a bone-rattling stop only a few feet from a cast-iron lamppost.

For several seconds, I couldn’t move.

My heart pounded so violently I could hear it in my ears.

My hands remained locked around the steering wheel, trembling uncontrollably.

A single second.

One delayed reaction.

That trailer would have folded my car in half.