AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Those same striking eyes that once pulled me from the depths when I was so lost are now a treacherous void dragging me under.
There are no beautiful surfaces without a terrible depth.
Kallum is that terrible depth.
And I’ve been sinking into him since our first encounter.
I hold Kallum’s knowing gaze until the second I’m forced to shift my focus to the back windshield, to where the vehicle behind us is gaining speed.
It happens suddenly. The sound of crushing metal, the shattering glass. The screams. The soundtrack to my nightmare.
11
DOOMED
KALLUM
Homer wrote:Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed.
We never know if the next moment may be our last. In a matter of a blink, all that we’ve loved, every breath we’ve taken, every memory created can be snatched away by something as ordinary as a tree.
As sound bleeds into the muted chaos, a hazy white gas clouds the interior of the SUV. Past the deployed airbags and cracked windshield, the crushed hood makes the crash a reality.
I blink hard through the wave of dizziness, only giving myself a second to recover before I yank off my seatbelt and lunge toward Halen in the passenger seat.
She’s disoriented but conscious. I roll her face toward me, and her unfocused eyes close and open slowly as I unstrap her from the belt.
“Halen.” Her name feels muffled in my ears, the ringing grows louder as I search her body for injuries. “Come back to me, sweetness.” When she gives me no response, I groan and push past a frantic Dr. Keller and kick the door open.
The vehicle is right-side up but perched on a steep embankment, creaking as though it’s ready to give up its weak grip on the ground. If not for the thick willow, the SUV would be at the bottom of the ridge. The tree wasn’t the culprit for this much damage, however. The blame goes to the testosterone-injected truck that slammed into the backend at full fucking speed.
I wrench the passenger-side door open and pull Halen into my arms, catching sight of Hernandez on the cusp of my periphery. “Get out.Now,” I say to him as he rubs a trail of blood from a cut on his forehead.
The urgency lies not in any fear of engine combustion, but in that same truck currently reversing behind us, gearing up to deliver another hit to send the SUV careening down the embankment.
As the agent attempts to free himself, his struggle becomes futile when the latch jams. He glances back once to gauge the truck’s distance as the engine revs, then the truck lurches forward.
I look at Dr. Keller. “Run.Go.”
Her shrill scream proceeds her sloppy scramble from the vehicle. She stumbles and quickly rights herself, not stopping even when she’s made it safely across the street as she bolts into the dense thicket.
I curl Halen tighter to me, then spare a glance at Hernandez.
“Get out of here,” he says, his wide gaze on Halen cradled against my chest.
With the fraction of a second I have to weigh my options, I predict Halen’s grief at the loss of the agent. Muttering a curse, I reach across the front seat and grab hold of the belt, releasing a furious grunt as both Hernandez and I fight to muscle the latch free.
Giving the belt one final yank, I break the buckle. Our eyes connect briefly before Hernandez escapes his seat.
I wrap my arm around Halen. Now more cognizant, she reaches for her bag. “Wait?—”
“Leave it.”
The storm in her hazel eyes traps me, imploring. “It has the evidence.”
“Fuck.” I sacrifice my hold on her just long enough to snag the strap and then have her rocked against me, falling backward out of the SUV seconds before the truck smashes into the backend.
The screech of metal on metal rends the air upon collision. The SUV is dislodged from the trunk of the tree and sent barreling down the embankment.
