CHAPTER FIVE
Blair
SEVEN YEARS AGO
Gathering my strength, I drag myself up off the ground and run toward the scene in front of me, screaming for Zane. I’m steps away from his truck when strong arms wrap around me, pulling me back.
“No. It’s Zane. I’ve got to help him.”
“You need to let the emergency services do their thing,” a soft, unfamiliar voice whispers in my ear. “Your cries won’t save them.”
Them?Them?
“How many people are in there?” I glance over my shoulder to see a young officer frown sympathetically.
“Two.”
“Two?”Oh God, did he bring Cade?
“Yep, two.” His voice cracks. “And one in the other car.”
“The other car?”
My body shatters as I allow myself to finally see past Zane’s truck to the mess of a car on the road behind it. My legs give out again, and this time I’m thankful for the officer’s hold. I’m not sure my knees could handle another blow.
“Are they going to be okay?” I ask, my voice shaky.
“I can’t answer that yet, but I suggest you start praying. Come on, let’s move you back. Give them some room to work.”
“No, I can—”
He doesn’t let me finish, lifting me slightly and walking away from the scene, leaving my heart behind. When we reach the curb, he sits me down, settling beside me without letting go.
Not that I can feel his touch.
Time slows, but I’m not sure how long I’m waiting before someone calls my name. “Blair?”
With blurry, tear-soaked eyes, I glance up to find the one guy who shouldn’t be here, my brother’s rival, Nathan, fighting his way through the crowd, and I break down, crying hysterically when he reaches me. He can’t be here. He can’t.
“What’s going on? Are you okay? Is she okay?”
“I think she knows the people in the truck,” the officer answers when I don’t respond, and I fight to stay alert as darkness overwhelms me.
Nathan curses out loud, and without looking up, I guess he recognizes the truck, realizing it belongs to Zane. The guy he’s spent years hating along with my brother. “Is that—”
Crackling cuts him off as the officer’s radio blares to life. “We’ve got the first out, unconscious male, late teens to early twenties, we’re bringing him over now. Be ready.”
Bile rises in my throat and while my body shakes, I force myself to stand, needing to see who it is. Desperate to find out if it’s my brother or Zane.
I can barely see through the crowd of EMTs, but I have my answer when Nathan’s panicked voice seeps into my subconscious. “Fuck, it’s Fitzpatrick.”
Thrashing about, I try to break free, but the officer refuses to let go, even when Nathan says he’ll hold on to me.
I beg, cry, try to go floppy. Anything I can to get away, but it’s no use. “You need to stay here, miss. They’re doing all they can to save him.”
“What about the other guy?” Nathan asks, seemingly making the same assumption I did, knowing that Zane and my brother are never far apart. Unless Zane’s with me.
The officer doesn’t respond, but when his body shudders, I glance over my shoulder to see him shaking his head.
