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Something still feels so off-kilter, and my gut is nose-diving to an abyss. But it couldn’t be…?
“That’s not Boom Box,” Luna says and screams, “Donnelly!”
Horror slams into me. “STAY IN THE CAR!” I yell, but I already know what’s gonna happen a second before it does. The sound of shattering, crunching glass booms over the line and slices into me.
“Mom!” Luna shrieks.
“Get out of the fucking car!” That’s a man. South Philly accent. Don’t know who.
“LILY!” Lo screams into the phone, his gaze bloodshot and rattled. Traffic is starting to clear a bit, and he steps on the gas. He’s gripping that phone like it’s the sole lifeline to his wife and daughter.
I click my mic, sick to my stomach, but I’m speaking. “Someone call 9-1-1. Frog has the location. Lily and Luna are being attacked. Can’t talk. I’m with Lo.” Bodyguards flood the comms channel, but I tune them out and shout, “Lo, watch it!”
He hits the brakes as traffic slows.
I ask, “Can you driv—?”
“I’m fine!” he shouts, clearly not fine. Neither of us are, but someone needs to drive—and he’s already behind the wheel.
He impatiently waits for a lane to clear, and he speeds over to the fastest one. We listen to Luna and Lily’s grunts and breaths, and my eyes burn alive.
A man groans in pain. “Fucking bitch!”
Lily screeches like she’s fighting him.
Lo puts a fist to his mouth, his face ashen.
“Get off the exit,” I tell him.
He cuts the wheel. We’re still ten minutes away.
“NO!” Lily shrieks. “Don’t touch her!!”
Blood rushes to my brain, dizzying the shit outta me. Someone’s touching Luna. Lo nearly careens back into his seat, his eyes red and looking as tortured as I feel.
Luna screams and wails, and I scrape a hand down my face, bile rising in my searing throat. I’m coming. I’m almost there.
If they fucking hurt her…
They are hurting her, and rage and anguish are pulverizing me. It’s taking everything not to scream, and to just call out directions to Lo. I’m not even sure if he can see the road through his filmy, pained gaze.
“MOM!” The sheer terror in Luna’s voice is killing me bit by bit.
My eyes blur, but I blink and flick the wipers to a higher speed.
“LUNA!” Lily wails. “DON’T HURT HER, PLEASE! PLEASE!” I’m being stabbed repeatedly, and if a knife is plunging into me, then a bulldozer is running over Lo’s whole being. He’s sheet-white, and when we reach a red light, he opens the car door. And vomits onto the cement.
Shutting the door, he wipes his mouth, and the light turns green. He hits the gas.
“Your phone,” he chokes out. “Pull it out.”
I dig out my phone.
“Mom!” Luna’s voice is fading. She’s likely out of the car, away from the phone.
They pulled her out of the car. Pain is nailing my eardrums. I pinch my eyes, but then force my hand off my face. I keep blinking to stay focused. To see what’s in front of me.
“Text my brother,” Lo tells me in a single breath.
I assume I’m supposed to tell Ryke Meadows to meet us. So I briefly shoot him a message about the situation. I keep it short but urgent.
Lo has a hand rooted over his mouth, the other on the wheel.
“LUNA!” Lily yells in despair. “Luna!” Until her voice drifts into an echo too.
He rubs at his wet eyes. “Fuck!” He slams a hand on the wheel, accidentally hitting the horn. It causes other cars to honk back.
“Leave her alone!” Lily screams in the distance.
“I can’t…” Lo is choked. He presses the heel of his palm to his forehead.
“We’re almost there.” I breathe through my nose. A wreck is up ahead, causing more stop-and-go traffic, so I tell him to weave over and take the closest right turn. After another right, we’re clear, and he steps on the gas.
“Noooo! Mom!” Luna screams bloody murder. My chest collapses.
“What the fuck is happening?” Lo’s voice breaks in raw agony.
I can’t look at him.
“DAD!” Luna yells desperately for him.
“LUNA!” he shouts back at the phone. “WE’RE ALMOST THERE—” He cuts himself off. Because the call just dropped.
“No,” he nearly cries into a scream. “No. Goddammit.” He tries to call back, but it doesn’t ring through. A tortured, angered, wounded noise wrestles out of Lo in all his pained fury.
A ball is lodged in my throat, my muscles just strict bands of anguish and determination and sheer utter pain. It’s taking every…fucking…thing inside me not to break down. I’m clinging to my nerve with my fingernails, and I so badly just want to let go and scream for her.
But I can’t…I can’t. I’m security first. Her friend second. Her boyfriend not at all.
Five minutes out, Lo volleys between rage and grief, like he could slaughter the world and then fall to his knees. Then his bloodshot eyes nail on to me.
