It feels like Kyla all over again.
And I swore I’d never fail like that again.
The wind tears at my face as I push the bike harder, faster—engine screaming beneath me like it knows what’s at stake. The van’s taillights are a faint blur in the distance, but I lock onto them like a predator. I’m gaining. Not fast enough.
My mind is a storm—Talia’s voice echoing, Nell’s scream that never came, the sound of tires skidding like a countdown I didn’t hear in time.
I weave through traffic like it’s not even there, barely missing a side mirror, a horn blaring behind me. I don’t care. I can’t care. Every second counts.
The van takes a hard left down a side road. It’s narrow and industrial, half-lit by flickering street lamps. I follow, tires screeching as I lean into the turn, gravel spitting out from under me.
They know I’m behind them now.
Good.
Let them know I’m coming.
The van swerves, trying to lose me, but I’m locked in. I reach for the Glock strapped beneath my jacket—no time to aim, just a warning shot. I fire once, the bullet sparking off the rear bumper, and the van jerks violently to the side.
They’re panicking.
Good.
I close the gap, heart pounding, every instinct screaming to act, but I need to be smart. If they hurt her, if they even touch her—
A second van screeches up alongside me, its engine snarling like a beast. Through the window, a man in a balaclava locks eyes with me—cold, calculated, like I’m nothing more than a speed bump in his way.
I raise my gun, aiming for the tire—
Too late.
They swerve hard.
Metal slams into my leg, and the world explodes into chaos. The bike jerks violently beneath me, spinning out in a blur of screeching rubber and shattered control.
I hit the ground hard—bone, asphalt, pain. All I can do is curl in, arms over my head as the impact rattles through me like a bomb going off inside my chest.
Everything goes white.
I don’t know which way is up. Don’t know if I’m bleeding or broken or both. The only thing I know for sure is the sound of tires peeling away and the second van vanishing into the night.
And Nell—
Gone with it.
I lie there, a wreck of limbs and fury, the taste of blood in my mouth and failure burning in my lungs.
I can’t breathe.
Can’t see.
Can’t move.
All I can do is lie here in a broken tangle of limbs and wait for the darkness to take me. To pull me under and silence everything. The pain, the failure, the sound of her name echoing in my skull.
Let it all drown, and me with it.
Captured
