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“It’s gonna be alright.” He’s speaking to me but keeps his focus on the view before us.
I brace myself on the dash, a death grip on the seatbelt, as he whips the car away from yet another collision. I peek at the rearview and don’t feel any better. The tail is still so close to the back of the car, I swear I feel it bump us. It’s been joined by a shitty van to our left as more cars try to pack in front of us.
“Get your head down!” Rex shouts, one hand leaving the steering wheel to grasp the back of my neck and push me forward too fast. My seatbelt catches. I choke and swing before I can think things through. My fist makes contact with something hard and I yank back as pain barely settles into my adrenaline-filled brain.
Oh my god, I’m gonna die here.
My knuckles scream when I slip the belt and end up nearly inside the panel of my door. I cradle my injured hand to my chest and duck under Rex’s hold.
“Stop pushing me!”
What did I hit?!
My mind racing, my body slinked down into the seat, I try to take in the shit around me, but I feel like I’m seeing stars. Lights flash across my vision from the slam into the seatbelt and the pain in my hand.
Was it really that hard? Fuck …
I slide further down the seat and try to block the lights with my hand. The pressure of my palm against my face makes me feel better, the lights in my eyes fading to colored spots almost immediately. I breathe for a moment, the sound of the roaring engine lulling me back to earth.
“Aria,are you ok?” The intensity in his voice snaps me back, it’s filled with concern, his hand on my shoulder. “Oh, shit.” The car jerks again and I slide into the door with a little more force than I’d prefer. The move jolts me, the panel of the door jamming into my bicep and bruising another part of my body.
“Jesus, Rex!” I try to push up from the seat, only to be stopped again.
“Aria, you have to stay down, babe.” I shoot him a look he doesn’t see because his focus is back on the road again, shifting from the rearview to the front every few seconds. Then back again.
“And you have to tell me what the fuck is going on!” I yell, mustering my best attitude despite the amount of overwhelming fear that’s coursing through my veins. It comes out sounding better than I thought despite the numbness taking up space in my fingertips and the fear threatening to stop my heart.
Rex grunts his response more than he speaks and the air between us deadens.
“I can’t.”
“The fuck you mean you can’t?” I snap. There’s more venom in my voice, more intensity. I sit up tall, despite his grabby hands attempting to keep me down.
I’m in a vehicle, with a man I just met, breaking all kinds of traffic laws.
“I mean I can’t babe.”
Oh, hell no.
8
REX
The words bounce around in my skull as I speed past another pap van in an attempt to shake them. They haven’t stopped for miles, tailing and leaning out of the vehicles to get a money shot.
Especially since I have someone in the damn car with me.
I swerve the car in and out of traffic, taking sharp turns and slamming Aria around like a fucking ragdoll. I hate that she has to brace herself anytime I grip the wheel. I hate even more that she’s stopped demanding shit from me and in turn has chosen to remain silent.
I’m also worried what the fuck to tell her when she looks at me like I just killed her mother. I see the betrayal in her eyes as she shoots daggers through her gaze, pinning me to the seat while the car burns in a fiery crash around me. She doesn’t even have to tell me the vision.
She repeats herself again, each word a knife through my heart.
“What the fuck is going on?” It’s quiet, so quiet.
She can’t know the truth.
Nerves have sweat beading on my brow, my hands aching from the death grip I keep on the wheel.
