Page 22 of Ruthless Blade

Suddenly the air in the backseat vanished. The walls of the car were closing in around me, as my heart felt like it might leap from my chest.

My hand went to my neck, almost as a reaction to choking, but I wasn’t. I was trying to bring the air back into my lungs.

Jake’s eyes went from narrowed to big, his pupils dilating. "Dad," his voice cracked, the anger instantly bleeding out of it, replaced by something sharp. "Something’s wrong."

"Alexis?" Dad’s eyes flicked to the rearview mirror, wide and frantic. "Breathe with me. Count to three."

I couldn't count or see them. The edges of my vision were bleeding into a heavy black void of nothingness. My heart hammered against my ribs, a wild, frantic rhythm that vibrated all the way to my teeth. I reached for the door handle, my fingers trembling so violently I couldn't get a grip. The child locks were on. The windows were rolled up. I was trapped in a moving metal cage going sixty miles an hour down the highway.

I can’t do this. I can’t do this.

“Try and calm her down; help her focus on her breathing. I can’t pull over right now.”

“Breathe, Lex. Everything is going to be okay. Focus on your breathing.” I met his gaze, but I couldn’t speak. It was as if my ability to talk had vanished as well.

“Dad, she’s turning pale!”

My lips started to tremble, goosebumps spreading across my arms. I couldn’t control it. At the current moment, my body was not my own.

"Dad, you have to pull over! She can't breathe!" Jake yelled, his hands flying back to grab my shoulder. His grip felt miles away.

"I'm trying to get to the shoulder...." The turn signal started clicking. Tick. Tick. Tick. It sounded like a countdown.

I clamped my eyes shut, desperate to stop the car from spinning.

CRUNCH.

I never saw the truck. There was a violent, deafening roar of tearing metal that shattered the air right out of my lungs. The world tilted violently. My body was ripped to the left, the seatbelt cutting into my collarbone so hard the bone creaked. Glass exploded, raining down like a freezing, hard dynamic force against my skin.

Next came a blinding flash of white canvas as the side airbags deployed which sounded like a gunshot.

Then, nothing.

The panic attack was forcefully gone, shocked out of my system by sheer trauma. In its place was a heavy, suffocating smell of baby powder and burning rubber. My ears were ringing with a high, hollow whine. I opened my eyes into a haze of white smoke, my tilted vision staring at Jake’s motionless arm dangling between the front seats.

There were screams and fierce yells that penetrated through my ears, vibrating my body and mind.

“Lex! Snap out of it!” My shoulders were being shaken, my vision coming to. I blinked rapidly, and Kayden’s eyes locked on mine, burning with an intensity that held me completely still.

“What...what happened?” I asked, breaking eye contact and looking around. Several pairs of eyes were on me, making me want to go crawl in a hole and not come out. We were right outside of Spades on the strip, and I was lying down on the sidewalk.

“You fainted. Fuck, I’m not even sure what happened. One minute you were walking away from me, the next you were on the ground.”

The sun’s rays were a little too bright for my eyes, so I tried to sit up, but that made my head hurt worse. “Ow.” I placed my hand on the back of my head. I must’ve fallen to the ground hard.

“Come on, let’s get you some water.” Why was he being so nice to me? Was this all a ploy? Why was I walking away from him? What did he do now?

He placed my arm around his neck, and his arm went around my waist. Sparks raced up my spine, another reminder of how irritating he was.

There were a few tables out front, some for Spades and an ice cream shop that was right next to it. Kayden helped me get to one of those tables, pulled out a chair and had me sit down.

“Oh my god, Lex! Are you okay?” Hazel came running up to us, and the whole situation got even more confusing.

“I’m fine. I thought you were inside?”

She put her hands on her hips, “Yeah, well, I was until there was quite a bit of commotion out front. Everyone in the bar stopped what they were doing to figure out what was going on. We thought there was some type of fight.”

I sighed, knowing this was going to be plastered all over the university’s gossip page. Especially with Kayden ‌around, they were sure to put something of interest down for their readers. So much for flying under the radar.