Page 60 of Ruined By a Devil

“Malachi...” I choke out, my voice barely a whisper in the silent, smoking ruin of the car.

Above me, the driver is motionless, there is blood dripping from his arm and he doesn’t seem to be moving.

I try to shift my legs, but the front seat has been pushed back by the force of the crash, pinning the lower half of my wedding gown underneath a twisted chunk of the center console.

“Fuck,” I grab the heavy lace fabric, pulling with all my strength, ripping the delicate material and managing to drag my right leg free.

I push myself up, my elbows sliding on broken glass. Pain shoots through my right shoulder, but I push through it, climbing over the rear seat toward the shattered back window.

Outside, the heavy thud of footsteps approaches the car causing me to freeze in place, my hand resting on the twisted metal frame of the rear door as I try to come up with a way to escape.

I blink a few times, trying to adjust to the light, while my head continues to pound. Through the blur I notice a figure coming into view. He’s a black shadow of a man and I don’t recognize any of his traces.

I swallow as he stops at the driver's side door, looks inside at the dead driver, and then turns his attention to the rear cabin. He grabs the damaged rear door handle and when it doesn't yield, he raises his foot and kicks the shattered glass window inward.

The glass cascades over my lap as his large hand reaches through the open frame, grabbing a handful of my dark hair.

“Found you, little bird,” A rough, strange voice growls through the smoke. “Nolan’s been waiting a long time for this.” He pulls hard, trying to drag my upper body out through the jagged window frame.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Malachi

“Turn the car around,” I say, noticing that the highway is empty and the black SUV carrying Jade is nowhere to be seen.

On top of that, the escort vehicles are gone too. That can’t possibly be a good sign and there is no explanation to it that wouldn’t mean the worst. Nolan got to her and I’ll be damned if I let him lay his dirty fingers on her.

“Turn the fucking car around!” I repeat, low on patience.

“Boss, we can’t turn here,” Josh tries explaining but I cut him off.

“If you don’t want me to turn your neck to your ass, you will turn the fucking car around!”

Josh sighs, but he doesn’t insist. He does a quick and skilled U-turn in the middle of the highway, a few cars pressing their breaks hard when they come near us, and hits the acceleration.

“Boss, I don’t mean to disrespect you,” Milo speaks, his hand reaching for the dashboard grip. “But what are we doing exactly?”

I reach under my coat, pull my gun from the leather holster, and rack the slide with a loud sound. “She’s not behind us.”

I run the route through my head, the off-ramp, the access road, the rusted industrial dead zones along the riverbank… The thought of Jade being in danger, makes it difficult for me to think straight. I hold onto the gun tighter, trying to focus on my breathing and find the calm that always accompanies me in intense situations, but all I can think about is how badly I want to make Nolan pay.

If he thinks he can reach into my world and pull her out of my hands, he doesn't know what I'm willing to tear down to get her back.

We clear the bend under the rail overpass.

Thick smoke rises from the ditch near a concrete pillar. Metal scrap and shattered glass carpet the road. As I spot the turned over SUV on the side of the road, my mind goes blank and I throw my door open and jump from the car before it even comes to a stop.

Jade.

Near the crumpled shell of the overturned SUV, a man in a black leather coat leans through the smashed rear window. His heavy fist is twisted into long dark hair, pulling Jade out over the crushed window frame. She’s fighting him desperately, her nails dragging lines down the door panel, her wedding dress tearing against the bent steel as she refuses to let go.

“Fuck no!” I don’t even know how long it takes me to get there, but the man hears my footsteps and turns his head, his free hand dropping fast toward his belt.

He doesn't reach it before I grab the back of his collar, yank him backward, and slam his face flat into the car. Something, hopefully his bone, snaps under the impact and before he can bounce back, I shove the barrel of my gun straight under his jaw.

Bang.

His body drops into the dirt like dead weight, but I don’t pay any attention to him. I step over his blood, grab the bent edge of the SUV door, and rip it open.