“Calla!”
The crash that came through the phone rang through my ears as I pushed the junk car to the limit. I’d never longed for the Maserati more than I did at that moment.
Matteo and the others were behind me, catching up quickly in the vehicles that could outperform mine. I didn’t even care if they passed me. I just wanted Calla and the kids to be safe.
“Calla!” I roared again as the other end of the line went silent for a moment in the aftermath of what had to be an accident. Pain thumped through my body while I waited. The thought I might lose them so soon, in an accident no less, making my body tremble with the flashbacks of all that I’d lost once before. In the same way.
She didn’t speak, but I heard a door open.
And then, miraculously, I heard her voice as she spoke to the kids.
She was alive.
They were alive.
And that was all that mattered. I’d get to her soon enough, and we’d go home. I’d spank her fucking ass for letting Jason pull this shit. But they were okay.
A loud bang reverberated over the line, and then I heard her scream.
Fifty-Two
Calla
The impact of the black SUV that came barreling through the intersection to hit the driver's side sent my head crashing into the passenger window and both the kids screamed in the back seat. I prayed that the car seats were as reliable as they seemed, and as soon as the car settled in the middle of the intersection, I unbuckled my seat belt in a daze and threw open my door. Smoke drifted up from the front tires of Jason's car, and I had Axel's door open when a bang sounded and glass shattered.
"Fuck!" Jason groaned. I snapped my head to the front, shocked to see him cradling his bleeding shoulder. "Calla, run!" he yelled, but I couldn't get Axel's seat undone. My hands shook too much in my terror, and a scream tore from my throat as arms wrapped around my waist.
"Mommy!" Axel yelled, his arms reaching for me as whoever had grabbed me dragged me away from the car while I kicked and screamed.
"Let her fucking go!" Jason yelled, and he finally shoved his door open despite the massive dent from the impact. The only thing that reassured me Ines was okay was the sound of her sharp cries through the air. It killed me I hadn’t even been able to check on her before being ripped away.
When Jason moved to step toward me, I yelled at the top of my lungs. "The kids!" He hesitated in his steps, glancing back at the car in confliction. I saw the moment he realized he couldn't leave them, that he couldn't be in two places at once.
He couldn't save all three of us.
"Relax. We're under orders not to hurt you, sweet thing. Tiernan just wants to talk to your husband," the man behind me rasped in my ear. I rewarded him with a stomp of my foot on his as hard as I could. He grunted, but continued moving us backward. As we got closer and closer to a second black SUV, I glanced over his shoulder at the woman holding the door open.
Betrayal stung in a weightless feeling. A denial so instant it shocked even me. I couldn’t have been so blind.
We hadn't been the best of friends, but I could never have suspected her to be capable of this.
"Ness?" I asked. My eyes landed on the woman standing next to her, immediately recognizing her as the woman from the photos in the garage the day after Ryker and I had been married. The blond mark he'd said he would stop stalking because it made me uncomfortable.
"Not her name," the blond sneered cruelly. Ness stayed silent, bowing her head and refusing to look me in the eye as the lackey tried to shove me into the SUV.
I caught a foot on either side of the frame and pushed back in my desperation to get away. I knew I couldn’t get into that car.
I’d never come back.
We went tumbling to the ground: me landing on his chest with all my weight so that the man groaned, but another hand caught me by the hair and yanked me to my feet.
"Get in the fuckin' car," the second man rasped, dragging me over as the blond watched in fascination. I couldn't see his face, but I recognized the voice as the man who went to my yoga classes with her. Ness’s eyes finally met mine, and I clawed at his hand gripping my hair, trying to get him to release me. But he held on tight, making my eyes water in pain as Ness turned away again
.
“No!” I screamed.
"Shit!" the blond screamed suddenly, and she and Ness dove into the car, closing the door behind her as the driver took off.