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My tears stopped instantly, my mouth falling open as I slowly got up off the ground.
Something was wrong.
Something was very wrong.
“Ali,” I screamed when the woman pressed her hand to her chest and gripped her shirt. She was struggling to breathe, her chest still rising and falling but too quickly for her to be actually catching a breath. “Ali, I think she’s having a heart attack!” My voice shook, and the sick, twisting feeling I’d had in my stomach before we did this had moved to my throat, choking me.
This couldn’t be happening. We’d done this plenty of times. Sometimes it went wrong, and we got spotted and had to make a run for it.
But I’d scared this lady so badly, thinking she hit me with her damn car and yelling at her, blaming her for doing it on purpose, that it had sent her heart into cardiac arrest.
“I can’t… what’s…” the woman mumbled, falling to her knees just as Ali and Jason appeared beside me.
I rushed forward, my hands out, ready to help her, to hold her hand, to comfort her while someone called an ambulance, but Jason grabbed me, his arms wrapping around my waist. “What the hell are you doing?” I objected, kicking my feet and struggling against his hold, but he lifted my five-foot-four body off the ground and kept moving.
“Let’s go!” he screamed at my brother, who seemed to be stunned, just staring at the woman on the ground as she fought for her life. “Ali, we need to go!”
“Hey, you kids! What did you do?” A man appeared between the cars, dropping to his haunches beside the woman with a cell phone pressed to his ear. “Yeah, I need an ambulance and the police.” He looked up at us when he mentioned the police, and the word was like a hot poker in Ali’s ass.
He moved so quickly, sprinting toward us and yanking me out of Jason’s arms, almost sending me flying as he pulled me along behind him, his hand gripping my wrist so tightly I knew it would bruise, especially when I dug my heels in and jerked us to a hard stop.
He spun around, his eyes wide. “Shay! We’ve gotta get out of here!” he urged breathlessly.
“What if we killed her?” I croaked. “What if I killed her?”
“Oh Jesus,” Jason groaned, rolling his eyes. “You’re on your own with her. I’m getting the fuck out of here before the cops show up.”
I huffed out a sharp laugh. “Of course, you don’t give a fuck.” I stepped toward him, jabbing my finger in his face. “Screw everyone else as long as you get what you want, right, Jason? It’s not like you need to fucking be here. Go home to Mommy and Daddy!”
“Shay.” Ali scolded, knocking my hand out of the way as he stepped between us. “This is not the fucking time!”
“Yeah, Shay,” Jason mocked from behind my brother, his head tilted menacingly. “Now isn’t exactly the time to get a fucking conscience. You’ve been ripping people off since you started obsessing over those tiny little pills. But sure, blame me if it makes you feel better about being a fucking addict.”
He might as well have smacked me across the face, the word ‘addict’ ringing in my ears.
I wasn’t.
Was I?
Before I could comprehend the thoughts racing through my head, a whirl of sirens smothered them, and suddenly, Ali was shoving me, screaming at me to run. So I did.
The sound of the three of us pounding our feet hard against the pavement was the only thing I could hear, everything else fading into the distance. My heart raced, hammering hard, keeping me alive.
The woman lying on the ground behind me was not so lucky.
And I knew one day I would have to pay for that.
Chapter One
SHAY
Ten Years Later
“It’s fine. Just a little cut,” I insisted as Matt pulled on a fresh pair of latex gloves and eyed the open wound decorating my arm. “Honestly, I don’t even think it’s that deep.”
“It’s deep,” he argued sternly, squinting through his glasses as he sized up the damage. He reached out, but before he could even touch me, I sucked in a sharp breath, jerking back and narrowing my eyes into a dark glare. Matt scoffed, completely unphased by my injured-animal act. “You better pull your big girl pants on, Shay. I’m gonna have to touch it to see how bad it is.”
With my nose scrunched and lips pursed, I forced myself to sit still as he once again reached out to examine the injury. “Anyone ever tell you that your bedside manner sucks?” I grumbled under my breath.
