“Maybe we can keep her from leaving, Dad. Here’s my plan…” Mandy talked a mile a minute and was almostdrunkwith happiness. She kept glancing back to reassure poor Maximus that everything was okay. He didn’t seem to enjoy rides at all.
They were almost through the downtown area when Nate noticed an old Ford pickup coming up fast on his side. As it passed him, he recognized his ex-wife behind the wheel.
Mandy murmured, “Was thatJessica…?”
“Yeah. What…?”
Zoe went through the yellow a block ahead of them and Nate slowed as it turned red. The old Ford blew through the light and quickly picked up speed.
“Dad?Dad!What is shedoing?”
They watched in horror as the bigger vehicle pulled alongside Zoe’s car and swervedhard. It slammed into the side and sent it careening off the road into a concrete light post.
The Ford sped away as Zoe’s destroyed car rocked to a jarring stop.
Chapter Sixteen
Everything happened in less than three seconds.
At second four, Nate blew his horn and swerved through the occupied intersection. He skidded to a stop in the middle of the lane to block traffic from getting too close to Zoe’s destroyed vehicle.
“Call 911!” he screamed at Mandy as he jumped from the SUV and ran to the driver’s side door of the woman he loved. “Zoe!”
The front of the car was demolished from the post and there was blood splattered over the interior surfaces and glass.
Zoe wasn’t moving.
Nate tried to open the door but it was stuck tight. Using his elbow, he busted out the glass behind the driver’s door and reached in to shield Zoe’s face with his hand as he put his fist through the window beside her. He unlocked her door and tried to pull it open again.
In desperation unlike anything in his lifetime, he gripped the frame, put his foot on the side of the car, and pulled with all his strength. The door grated loudly away from the car and hung crookedly.
He got as close as he could without moving her and put his fingers on her neck. She had a steady pulse and he started whispering a prayer.
Mandy stood three feet away, hugging herself with one arm. He could tell she fought a breakdown as she spoke to the 911 operator.
Nateknewhis daughter was stronger than most kids her age. She could handle the call. He focused on Zoe.
“Please open your eyes. Please, Zoe.” She couldn’t hear him but he said the words anyway. “I need you to be alright. Open your eyes, sweetheart. I love you, I love you. Please be okay.”
He held her hand and fought the urge to pull her out of the car. He silently begged emergency personnel to hurry and distantly registered the sound of sirens after a couple of minutes that felt like hours.
The paramedics moved him out of the way, which only worked because he let them.
One of the emergency personnel asked, “Sir, is that your blood?”
“Worry about Zoe!” He yelled. “Fucking worry about her!”
The man held up one hand in an attempt to calm him down. “Only two medics can fit in that space. Let me look at the blood gushing down your arm.”
Nate allowed himself to be pulled a few feet away, his eyes on his woman, and held his arm out.
Zoe moaned and her eyes fluttered open. Then she startedscreaming. “I can’t see. I can’t see!”
Nate shouldered his way back to her car. “She’s deaf! If she can’t see, she doesn’t know what’s happening. Let me touch her.Goddammit, let me put a hand on her to let her know I’m here.”
Running around to the passenger side, the window was already shattered. Reaching inside, he punched out the loose windshield with the left hand that was already damaged. He climbed on the crumpled hood and pulled it away, throwing it to the sidewalk beside the streetlight.
Laying across the top edge of the car, he put both hands inside to touch Zoe’s face. He held her hand, her arm laying limply on the console. His palms were slick with blood.