The red light flashed to green. Her breath rushed out and her car flew through the intersection. But she had to stop soon. She had to find a place to stop.
Another red light loomed ahead.
Change.
Change.
“Sydney!” Slade’s frantic voice.
The light wasn’t changing.
Another car was going through the intersection.
She spun the wheel hard to the right. The passenger side of her vehicle hit the other car, scraping up against the side, and that crash sent her vehicle careening back, back—
Toward Gunner’s truck.
She turned her head. Saw him coming right toward her. Bright lights.
She braced for the impact.
* * *
“SYDNEY!” SLADE YELLED FRANTICALLY.
She wasn’t talking to him now, but he could hear the scream of metal.
He spun around. Cale was running toward him.
“What’s happening?” Cale demanded.
They were in the lobby of the EOD building. Mercer had finally finished grilling him. “I wanted to catch her before she left,” he whispered. “I had to warn her—”
Cale grabbed his arms. “What’s happening?”
“Sydney.” The phone was still clutched in his fingers. “Her brakes stopped working. I could hear...I could hear her screaming.”
Cale’s eyes widened, and he whirled away. He started shouting orders, calling for a track on Sydney.
But it was too late.
Slade glanced down at his phone. The line had gone dead.
* * *
GUNNER SLAMMED ON his brakes. The scent of burned rubber filled his nostrils as he jumped from his truck. The accident he’d just seen had his heart thundering in his chest.
“Sydney!” He ran toward her. Moments before, he’d seen her frightened face in the glow of his headlights.
Her car had raced forward—then smashed into a light pole.
His shaking fingers curled around the door handle, and he yanked the door open. A cloud of white greeted him. The air bag. He shoved it back. “Baby?”
A groan slipped from her.
He started to breathe again.
“Gunner?”