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“Laney!”
Along with Hunter’s voice, I could hear the faint pounding of footsteps on the asphalt and the high-pitched shrieks of other students. Even though they were all close by, it sounded like the noise was reaching me through thickglass.
I kept staring at the flaming wreckage that used to be my car, and I finally managed to take a deep, shuddering breath as icy claws of realization sank into mychest.
Someone had tried to killme.
15
Hunter
Ilookedout of the hospital café window. The weather had turned grim outside. Pale mist hung over the distant trees, turning them into ghostly figures, and the sky was a dark, angry shade of gray, perfectly complementing my shittymood.
I turned back to the table and looked over at Ava Collins. She was sitting to my right, brows pinched with worry as she twisted her hands on herlap.
“She’ll be out soon,” I said, leaning over to lay a hand on her shoulder. “They said she looked fine. It’s just acheckup.”
“I know,” she murmured. “I just can’t believe thishappened.”
“Me neither,” Trina piped up from the opposite side of thetable.
Adam was next to her, looking pale and weary. He opened his mouth to say something to Ava as well, but then his brows rose, and he straightened his shoulders. “There sheis.”
We turned to see a doctor escorting Laney into the room. I jumped up and ran over to her, putting my arm under one of hers to hold hersteady.
“She’s going to be fine,” the doctor said with a polite smile when we reached the table. “There’s a few scrapes and cuts on her hands and knees from where she hit the pavement, and there might be some ringing in her ears for a while, but it’s nothing permanent. It should all clear up within a fewdays.”
“Oh, thank god,” Ava said, leaping up to wrap her arms around her daughter. “I was soworried.”’
“We all were,” Trinaadded.
“Can I sit down?” Laney said weakly, brushing her hair out of hereyes.
I pulled out a chair for her and helped her intoit.
“How are you feeling?” Adam asked, leaningforward.
Laney lifted one shoulder in a sluggish movement. “I’m okay, I guess,” she said. “Actually… I’m absolutelystarving.”
“I’ll get you some sandwiches and a drink,” Trina said, rising to herfeet.
I kept looking at Laney, stomach churning with worry. She was trying to be brave, but I could tell she wasn’t okay like she claimed. Her face was as white as the mist outside, and her legs were shaking under thetable.
I couldn’t blame her for being terrified. After all, some fucking asshole had just tried to murderher.
The explosion only happened a couple of hours ago, so we didn’t know much about it yet, but the police had told us some preliminary information while we waited for Laney to see the doctor. They could tell that someone had put a homemade bomb under her car; one with a time delay that was triggered when the driver’s side door opened. They could also tell us that it had been put there within the last twenty-four hours, because Laney had driven her car yesterday with zeroissues.
From what I remembered, approximately a minute passed between her opening the door and jogging back across the parking lot, meaning that the time delay on the bomb was around sixty seconds. A delay like that meant the person who set it up wanted to ensure that Laney was definitely in the car during theexplosion.
We were just lucky that she’d forgotten to grab her stuff from me. If I hadn’t called her back over, she would’ve sat down in the driver’s seat and been blown to shreds only secondslater.
The thought of the narrow miss made bile rise in my throat. I’d come so close to losing her forever, and I couldn’t even imagine what I’d do if it reallyhappened.
“I want you to come home with me,” Ava said, reaching over to rub Laney’s arm. “It’s not safe for youhere.”
I cleared my throat and cut in. “Actually, Ava, I was going to ask if it would be okay for her to stay with us,” I said. “That way she’ll never be alone. I’ll be with her every second, and I can also hire security staff to keep an eye on everything and make sure no one else tries to hurther.”
“It’s also much closer to school,” Adam added. “So you won’t have to drive her back and forth from Silvercreek everyday.”
