Pieces of Us (Confessions of the Heart 3)

I glanced in the rearview mirror again, squinting when I saw the flash of bright lights that swung around Maxon.

A car sped around him, passing him like a maniac.

I tightened my hold on the steering wheel, hatin’ it that people drove like fools on these country roads. They could hurt someone.

At least Maxon was there to get the license plate. Maybe call for backup and pull him over.

A skitter of worry slicked across my skin when I saw the car swerve fast. That worry jumped into a choked horror when I realized they cut right in front of Maxon.

“Oh my God.”

Maxon’s headlights shifted in a severe lurch to the right.

“Oh God, Maxon.”

A gasp ripped out with my cry, and I was gettin’ struck with a bolt of terror. My whole body taken hostage to this nightmare.

I guessed that’s what they were made up of—the people you loved in danger and nothing in the world you could do to stop it.

My heart stalled out when Maxon’s headlights fully disappeared, nothing but the blinding high-beams closing in faster than I could process.

I jerked the steering wheel to the right to try to get out of the way and put pressure on the brakes, trying to see through the tears that were instantly clouding my sight.

Panic squeezed from my lungs when my wheels skidded on the pavement. I almost righted it when the car came at me, forcing me to the left so it could pass me on the right.

A scream ripped up my throat when it cut in front of me and slammed on its brakes.

Cutting me off.

No place for me to go.

A purposed attack.

I tried to stop it.

The way my tires skidded and the backend fishtailed to one side, and I was jerking the steering wheel the other direction, trying to correct it as the car blazed right on by.

But they’d already enacted their damage.

The intention clear and unavoidable.

My car careened off the left side of the road. Jumping and bouncing through the dirt at high speed.

A big tree came into sharp, distinct view.

I rammed on the brakes a half a second before I slammed into the massive trunk.

Glass shattered and metal twisted, and I was screamin’.

Screamin’ and screamin’.

Pain splintered across my chest and my shoulder, across my face, and I felt wetness dripping down the side of my head.

Silence hovered in the air, or maybe it was the buzzing clouding out all sound that hissed in my ear, the airbag suffocating where it was pressed against my body.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins, my heart beating so hard I could feel it in my head.

Fear and horror slashed.

Hands shaking, I managed to free my seatbelt, and I felt around the door, touch fumbling, finding the latch.

Maxon.

Oh, God, my Maxon. I wouldn’t lose him again.

No.

Never.

That panic blazed as I struggled to get free, and I yelped out in relief when the door opened to creaking metal.

I stumbled out into the night.

Disoriented.

Only one person on my mind.

My heart. My heart.

Then he was shouting. “Izzy. Oh God, Izzy.”

A shadow of the man fumbled into the overgrown brush, running beneath the faint wisps of the moon.

Towering so big.

So powerful.

My dragon.

I swayed to the side, struck by a rush of dizziness, overwhelming relief and searing pain.

Strong arms wrapped around me.

“Izzy,” he shouted.

And everything went black.

Thirty

Mack

I knew it. I fucking knew this was going to happen.

A doctor hovered over her, talking low and with a calming, practiced voice as she asked Izzy questions.

Where she was experiencing pain and how severe it was, if she were lightheaded, or if she felt weak.

While I paced the small space like a caged animal.

Rabid.

Ready to attack.

Couldn’t believe I let that go down right in front of my eyes. I’d been right there to protect her, and still, I’d failed. Failed fucking miserably.

Rage and disgust clamored through my body, and I struggled to breathe through it. Struggled to see through the haze of red that crowded at the corners of my eyes and threatened to take over all sight.

All reason.

Violence slinked right in to take its place.

“I feel very positive about your exam, but I think we’ll send you for a CT scan to make sure you don’t have any intracranial swelling since you did have loss of consciousness at the scene. I’m also going to order an x-ray of your shoulder to make sure there is no break, just to be safe.”

Safe.

What bullshit. No one was safe. Not when they got involved with me.

My hands curled into fists and sweat beaded on my nape as a cold, clammy dread crawled beneath the surface of my skin.

What the fuck was I going to do?

“Thank you, Dr. Chen.” Izzy’s voice was subdued. Quiet and tremoring with the fear I could tell she was trying to hide.

Killed me a little more each time that she released it.