Page 88 of All for Love

KODY

Disoriented as hell, I woke up sitting in the driver’s seat of my Maserati. The airbag had clearly gone off and my ears were ringing. My mouth tasted of metal and I felt something hot trickling to my top lip from my nose.

Blood. I turned it over on my tongue, grimacing. Yep.That’s blood.

What had happened to put it there, I didn’t know. The world slowly came back into focus and pain seared through my side when I tried to move to get out of the car. I must’ve had an accident. Still blinking hard, little things started coming into focus.

Shattered glass on my lap. A broken window beside me. Snow on the ground ahead. My seatbelt digging into me.

I gave my head a light shake in an attempt to clear it and stop my ears from ringing. It pounded in protest, my brain feeling like it was pulsating against my skull. Holy shit.

The disorientation was slowly starting to ease up and my vision was finally coming back into full focus, though. At least that was good.

Before I tried to make another move, I did a quick mental check. I could feel all my extremities, which was excellent. My toes wiggled on command and my hands ached but moved. Gingerly raising them, I brushed some of the glass off my lap and tried to get out of the car again. Slower this time.

I hooked my hurting fingers around the door handle and pulled, but other than another burst of pain shooting through me, nothing happened. It didn’t budge. Fuck, it’s stuck.

Gritting my teeth against the pain that shot through my abdomen when I moved, I tried again, harder this time, but I still didn’t have any luck. The door didn’t even move a little bit.

Leaning over, I tried the other door, but it was then that I realized it was smashed up against the concrete barrier on the right side of the road. With snow starting to drift down again outside, I realized I was going to have to use my legs.

Crap. This is going to hurt.

I wrapped an arm around my ribs and turned slowly before I leaned back and drew my knees up. Curse words spilled from my lips at the resulting pain, but I had to harden the fuck up.

The first kick hurt so much, I gasped, but then I exhaled slowly, gritted my teeth, and tried again. After a couple more kicks, the door creaked as it came free from the bent frame of the car. Freezing cold air rushed at me, making me shiver.

I pushed myself back into a sitting position. It took a few tries to get out of the car. My limbs weren’t quite obeying my commands and my fingers quickly went numb from the cold. Eventually, I managed to heave myself out of its mangled body and stumbled to my feet. I rested my hands on my knees and gulped in breaths of icy air.

Once I finally straightened up, I looked around. I still didn’t know how this had happened, but I wasn’t far from the estate. There was nobody else around, and as I panned my gaze along the deserted road, I realized I must’ve hit black ice, skidded out, and crashed into the barrier.

With my head still pounding and no memory of the actual event, I shuddered. My brain felt foggy and muddled, and though my vision had mostly cleared up, it was still a little fuzzy around the edges.

I did another mental check of my body now that I was standing up, but other than thinking I had a few broken bones in my hand from the airbag going off, I didn’t think it was too bad. All things considered, I was alright and that was a miracle.

As I stared at the bend around which my father’s house lay, I wondered if they’d even let me in if I walked back there. I didn’t know where my phone was, but I patted my jacket and the pockets of my pants.

No telltale square appeared under my hands, so I figured I must’ve lost it. I groaned. Great. This is just really fucking great.

I was going to have to go back to the car, see if I could find my phone so I could call someone. If all else failed, I would have to go back to Wagner Estate and beg for entry. Entry I would likely be denied, but maybe my dad would at least call for an ambulance. Who knows?

I sighed, about to turn to go look for my phone. A car appeared from around the bend. Relief flooded through me, making me feel dizzier than I had been before. It was a car—and it didn’t belong to my dad. I didn’t know which I felt more relieved about.

I stepped closer to the side of the road but didn’t go onto it, considering what I suspected about the ice. I raised my arm and waved, wincing from the pain, and I prayed that whoever it was wouldn’t just speed past.

Thankfully, they didn’t.

The car started slowing when it was still some distance away, then pulled up right behind the wrecked remains of my own, so close to me that I felt the heat pouring out of the cab when the door opened. A young guy climbed out, a kid of maybe no more than nineteen, and as soon as I saw the wildness in his eyes, I realized that said kid was way out of his depth.

“I’ll do my best to help, sir. I just don’t know what to do,” he said as he shut his own car’s door behind him. He looked at the Maserati, flinching like its loss hurt him as much as it did me. He slid his phone out of his pocket. “Have you called 911?”

“Not yet,” I said. “Lost my phone in all that. Can I borrow yours?”

He nodded, unlocking it before he glanced at my car again. “I’ll call them. You should come sit in my car while we wait. I’ve got the heat on.”

“Thanks.”

Gratefully taking him up on the offer, I stumbled to his car and let myself in the passenger side while he made the call. When he climbed back in, he rubbed his hands together and blew on them.