Pushing You Away - Noah & Katie (Ex-Con Duet 3)

“Stay with me. I’m calling 911.”

I immediately wonder about the other vehicle and who’s inside.

“I think his legs are stuck. The whole door is bent in.” I hear her say. Oddly enough, I can’t feel below my waist. The only pain is the throbbing in my head.

“Noah, can you hear me?”

I don’t have much energy, but I try to squeeze her hand. “Katie,” I murmur.

“Yes, it’s me.”

I hear the tears in her voice and hate how worried she sounds.

“You’re gonna be okay, baby. The ambulance is on the way,” she reassures me.

“Katie…” I repeat, squeezing her hand with a little more strength. Though I feel my mind losing focus and I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be able to stay awake, I try to open my eyes to look at her. “I love you.”

“Noah. I love you, too. I always have.”

I smile for a beat before everything fades away.

I don’t know how long it takes before I become alert. When I try to open my eyes, my head throbs, so I don’t attempt it anymore. Whispers around me grow louder as I try to move my body.

“You were supposed to kill him! I paid you for a job, and you didn’t do that job,” a woman snarls.

“I T-boned him with an F-250! That should’ve taken him out or at least put him in a coma,” a man grits.

“If you’d listened and been going faster…”

“I would’ve risked missing him completely if I was going any faster, Brittany,” the man hisses. “I nearly killed myself trying to do this job.”

Brittany? What the fuck? No, that can’t be right.

Why would Brittany want me dead? I only just met her.

“You did not. I was right there waiting for you with the car and watched the whole fuckin’ thing. Plus, I didn’t pay you twenty grand to play it safe. Now look. He’ll probably make a full recovery, and this will have been for nothing.” The anger in her voice sends a chill down my spine, though it’s nice to hear I’m not in a life-threatening condition.

I keep my eyes closed so they don’t know I can hear them, but I’m tempted to knock the shit out of whoever this guy is.

“Stop worrying. I never fail at a mission, and I won’t fail at this one. Just because it didn’t work doesn’t mean we can’t try something else next time,” he reassures her.

“Next time?” She barks out a laugh. “This is your final chance. The brick and bomb didn’t send a clear message, so the next time better be a success or else,” Brittany orders.

“You have my word.”