The back window shattered, and I screamed, throwing myself into the seat. Someone was coming after me.
Someone wanted me dead.
The car started to swerve, and I wished I had taken the gun from Lucas.
I should have pushed back at him, refusing to leave. I should have stayed where I was at least a little safe. A thousand regrets ran through my mind related to my life, to Lucas, to my family. I should have fought harder to stay at Lucas’s side, to force him to confront his feelings.
Now all he would remember was the way I had left, how I hadn’t even acknowledged that I cared for him.
And my brother, and my nephews. They would never know how much I loved them, how much I wanted to watch him grow up and become something special.
I had never told my brother how proud I was of him and Rory and the little family they had created.
The car swerved violently, and through the crack in the seat, I saw that Vincent was slumped over the wheel. My heart crammed into my throat as I realized there was no one driving, but before I could react, an explosion rocked the right side of the car and I felt us start to roll.
Glass shattered, metal crunched, and I screamed in a world of noise as the car flipped around me, the seat belt pinning me to the seat. I didn’t know how many times we flipped, but when it finally came to a stop, an eerie silence filled the air. For a moment the rash sound of my breathing was all that I could hear, waiting with bated breath for someone to put a final bullet in me and end my life.
Luckily the car had landed upright, the roof now caved in and nearly touching the driver’s seat. Vincent’s body was nowhere to be found, but the smear of blood told me that he was gone.
I would have to mourn him later. Right now, I had to get out of this car. My fingers trembling, I tried to loosen the belt on my stomach, the pain in my body starting to raise its ugly head. My fingers slipped, and I groaned, coming across something wet and sticky as a result.
Wait.
Pulling my hand up to my eyes, I found it covered in blood. “No,” I whispered, frantic to find the source. Not like this. Not like this!
Lucas. I had to warn Lucas. I had to tell Nico.
Black started to creep into my eyesight, and I rapidly blinked it away, finally succeeding in getting my belt off. I had to stay awake. I didn’t know who was out there or when they would approach the car to ensure I was dead.
But I didn’t plan on them finding me.
Fighting with the seat belt, I reached the door and sobbed when it didn’t open at my fumbling attempt to do so.
I was going to die here.
Chapter 47
Lucas
I watched as the car disappeared around the bend of the trees, and slumped down against the wall as it did so.
Leda was gone. She was truly gone.
Our last words kept playing in my head, how broken she had sounded and how I couldn’t give her enough to make her realize that I loved her.
She had asked me how I felt about her, if I ever cared about her, and the problem was, I cared too much. I had tried to hold onto the one thing that had kept me from totally becoming the monster I was, but in the end, it hadn’t been enough.
I wasn’t good enough for her. Leda couldn’t even start to comprehend how inadequate I felt whenever she was around; every trick in the book hadn’t worked with her. I had tried to shut myself off from her, tried to stay away and keep my fucking soul intact, but she had destroyed me.
Without Leda, I felt nothing.
Pushing away from the wall, I walked back inside, ignoring the curious stare of Emil as I passed. He knew what I was going through. Though I hadn’t said the words aloud to him, he knew what Leda meant to me.
Probably thought I was a dumbass for letting her walk out of my fucking life.
Well, I was. There was nothing smart about what I had done, and I was going to suffer for it. Pain was a friend I knew all too well, but this pain wasn’t something I was used to.
It was the sort of pain only Leda could cause. Every fucking word she had said to me was going to be imprinted on my soul for a long, long time.