“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I said and tapped the wheel as I drove. I was so tense now that my shoulders and neck hurt. I craved the hands of my guys on me, rubbing the tension out of my muscles and drawing my pleasure to the surface.
“Point it home and let’s get there,” Kingston said. “We can work out how to bite back once we’ve had dinner.”
“My mom and Nat are going to be there soon,” I said. “Somebody should call Amara and let her know what happened.”
“Is that smart? We should let her and Ivan know in person. Otherwise they’re going to send out the troops to lead us back,” Archer said. “We’re only a few blocks from your neighborhood now.”
“Good point, but they’ll be wondering where were are,” I said. “I guarantee it.”
As if on cue, my phone rang from my purse. “I’ll get it,” Valen said. “I’ll tell them we’re almost home.”
“Thanks, babe,” I replied, smiling at him as he picked it up and answered.
He smiled back at me, and a bright light illuminated Kingston’s handsome face in the back seat smiling at me, too.
Love filled my heart then, my love for all of them and the love they were sending me. It filled my sight with a bright aura that flooded the night and turned it into fire.
And then my mind exploded in fear and shock as realization caught up to the present moment.
They were lights from a truck. Heading straight for us.
I screamed and yanked at the steering wheel, but it was too late. The Mercedes wobbled and the tires screeched, but the truck slammed into us at top speed.
Everything exploded at once. Glass spiraled around me in a cascading swirl of brilliant sparkling jewels, metal groaned as it was torn apart, and the sound of my own screams filled my ears until I felt as if they were going to burst from the pressure inside my skull.
It seemed to last a lifetime, that moment of horror, as all around me destruction and the faces of the men I loved spun and flashed until I couldn’t tell which one was beside me and who was hanging from his seatbelt and who was groaning my name.
My head was still spinning recklessly when everything stopped.
The Mercedes was on its side, I was pressed into black pavement with shards of glass grinding into every exposed inch of skin along my body.
Valen hung from his seatbelt, groaning and shaking his head. His blood dripped down onto me, and his airbag kept him pinned into place. He would have taken the brunt of the truck’s force if I hadn’t sped ahead and turned us away seconds before impact.
I somehow pushed my body around enough to see Kingston in his seatbelt, and Ryker in the middle with Archer behind me. They were all conscious and all okay, if being covered in blood and broken glass was okay.
I looked up at Valen again and his eyelids fluttered. He was alive, and at last he looked down at me.
“Fuck,” he moaned. “What happened?”
“We’re all alive,” I exhaled and reached around to click my seatbelt so I could free myself. “We’re alive, oh god, we’re alive.”
“Are you okay, princess?” Ryker asked from the middle seat. He took off his seatbelt and fell against Archer, who had his hands up to brace Ryker’s fall.
Archer grunted in pain, and Ryker immediately got him free.
“I’m okay,” I said, and watched as they helped Kingston down. The three of them crawled through broken glass to help Valen. My head was spinning still when I wiggled upwards to exit through the sunroof. I heard a tinny voice coming from my phone and glanced down to see it on the pavement where my window had been. Valen had dropped it in the impact.
“They’re gone,” Ryker said, sticking his head out to look. “Those fuckers, they’re gone.”
“Are we all okay?” I asked and let them help me through the sunroof. They followed and the five of us stood on trembling legs, swaying on the street in absolute disbelief. “Is anyone injured?”
“Just this,” Valen said and lifted his arm. He had blood streaming down his flesh like the rest of us. We all looked like watercolor paintings in the rain, with red streaks covering every inch of us.
“Who’s on the phone?” Ryker asked, pointing at my hand.
Again, the tinny voice came from the one I was holding so I lifted it to my ear and asked, “Who is this?”
My mom’s voice came from the other end, hysterical and nearly unintelligible.